lightning fast animation in element 3d

Table of ContentsPreface 1 Welcome to the world of 3D animation using Element 3D 5 Summary 7 Software 10 Introduction to the interface 10 Setting up your first project in Element 3D 14 B

Lightning Fast Animation in

Lightning Fast Animation in Element 3D

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About the Author

Ty Audronis has a rather unique background in the media world He's often asked how he got into the field Well, it's a bit of a story, but he'll be as brief as

possible, narrating it in his own words

I had the great benefit of having a father in the semiconductor industry and an overachieving (to say the least) family So, my family was the first of all my friends

to have a computer in 1980 (well, maybe 1981, I'm not sure) When other kids were fooling around, I was out hooking up neighbors' computers and showing them how to use them I was only seven (or eight)

In the mid 80s, my father hired me to do some quality assurance (QA), and illustrations for his software This was my first paid graphics gig (laughable by today's standards)

I used "Dr Halo" on a monochrome computer, but still, that was a huge advantage over other kids

At the same time, I was learning music and programming, and doing anything

where I could mix art and technology Remember that Star Trek: The Next Generation

episode where that kid got hold of a cool laser thing that meant he could sculpt anything he liked? That was me, tech and art all the way

After some difficulties in the music world after high school, I joined the Navy I forgot all about art for the time but stayed with technology I was stationed in Japan and served aboard the USS Independence (CV-62) from 1992-1994 in a helicopter squadron

No, I wasn't a pilot or anything glamorous (just a lowly E-3) I got hurt in a typhoon off the coast of Guam and was retired

The Navy began to pay for my college fees, and I decided to be a lawyer I won many debates, and got a national bronze medal for informative speaking However, my mentor for the debates told me not to be a lawyer She said that I debate effectively but I couldn't stand people lying She said I'd have a heart attack before 35, so I went into marketing

as well learn about animation and production, because I'll need to tell them what I want in their language." So, I took a computer animation class This is really where

my career took shape

The class was taught by a man that was to become my mentor, Rick Vertolli He and his assistant (Randy Wall) shaped my animation skills, and resparked my desire to create After that class in Wavefront (yes, way back then, our workstations were Silicon Graphics "Indy" machines), I found myself interning for Rick over the summer and rewriting the text book to be used in Lightwave and later, Maya This was the first taste I had of writing how-tos Over the years, I became Rick's assistant, lectured several times, and was the full-time lab assistant I changed my major to a special major in Computer Generated Special Effects I also won my first award in animation during this time (a "Rosebud")

After working with Rick, Randy, and Chris Ficken as an intern and lab assistant for four years, I was recruited by frog Design as a design technologist My knowledge

of programming and graphics was unique and was in high demand during the coms Those were the days We had our desks in a circle with a model train and slot car track with every video game system on the market, coffee time at 4 PM, soccer

in South Park (in San Francisco) at 5 PM, and unreal tournaments across the intranet (against other frog offices world-wide) at 5:30 PM nearly every day Yes, we worked hard but we played hard too

Sorry, I digress At frog, I got to work with some of the world's best companies, had access to design, animation, web development, and just about every toy a geek artist could desire But then, com turned into bomb and layoffs came I still remember lunches on Bryant St in San Francisco and going up and down the street to auctions

in Web MD and Pets.com (to name a few) Cars were clogging San Jose International airport (techs on H-1 visas just abandoning their Mercedes and BMWs and flying back home to England, France, India, and so on) An auction car would be a steal back then; times were scary My first child was born; I was terrified

So, I returned to entertainment I went to a local TV station in Chico, CA and worked

on producing ads for a few months I moved on to an ad agency for a few years (worst job ever) Then, I met up with another mentor of mine, Robert (Bob) Condos.Bob gave me my first real production gig I came on a show called "So, You Want

to Be a Star" as the producer, with Bob as the EP Everything up to this point in

my career was a concept I used every bit of my art, tech, and personal knowledge, and we pulled off the impossible It was a 14-week show on a shoestring budget

In the end, I was the producer, director, and editor We had a lot of help from some great people but I learned a lot during that show It's still my favorite experience in entertainment; not the most prestigious, not the most recognizable, but the best This is when my second child was born

catered to MMO gamers in Matrix Online Machine radio was fun, amazing, and

a great experience I learned a lot about online community building, appealing to markets, and what appeals to people in general I couldn't devote enough time to machine radio (due to the TV show I was producing), so I let one of the partners take over—a decision I'll regret until the day I depart this sweet earth The station then died

After a few nondescript tech jobs, I was recruited to California Academy of Sciences

in San Francisco to help with the web redesign during their rebuild in 2007 Near the end of the web relaunch, the Planetarium Director heard that I had some TV experience So, I had lunch with him and gave him a few nuggets of advice on setting

up the Science Visualization studio (basically, a full production and effects department for the purpose of making visual representations of scientific principles, among which are planetarium shows) We built the (at that time) world's largest all-digital dome,

a 3D theater, and a full animation and editing department It was amazing We won many international awards and played with some of the entertainment industry's hottest technology

The next four years were spent as the senior/supervising editor of Science

Visualization there It depends on who you ask and what year it was as to whether

I was senior or supervising It was the same job and I'm not too hung up on titles so… meh I got to work with some great people, make some good friends, and work

on some mind-blowing projects (from going to NASA rocket launches to talks with Neil Tyson to programming interactive exhibits to making friends with Pierre the Penguin) This was truly a great time in my career However, nothing lasts forever and eventually, my position was removed from the department and I was laid off

I spent some time teaching, spent some time contracting (again, with frog, some movies, and so on), and eventually landed at a TV production company A year

of "murder-porn" (as South Park calls shows like I [Almost] Got Away With It) for

Investigation Discovery, some travel channel, and History shows I hate what cable television has become, but it's a living and it pays fairly well

Now, I've moved away from civilization, and my wife and I live in a small town off Interstate-5 in Northern California It's private, quiet, and I still get to have my fun Currently, I am strictly a contractor I work on anything from court cases (graphic simulations, recreations, audio/video cleanup, and so on) to feature movies I also write for Videomaker magazine occasionally Yes, I still do a lot of graphics However, what I'm enjoying the most right now is shooting with drones It's a mix of my media and Navy careers, and it's truly fun

business? Luck A series of coincidences and opportunities (that turned out just right) have led to my success Don't get me wrong; I've worked very hard However, I've truly been blessed Not just with opportunity, but with the people who have given me these opportunities I'd like to thank all of the people mentioned above (Rick Vertolli, Randy Wall, Chris Ficken, Bob Condos, the entire staff at "So, You Want to Be a Star", and the amazing folks I've worked with over the years).

I'd like to thank my family: my loving wife Jessica (whose love and devotion make life worth living) and my children, Aurielle and Asher (who will be the next great chapter in the Audronis family history)

Additionally, I'd like to thank my father and mother for exposing me to art and technology in my childhood and sparking my interest in science

I want to thank all those men and women who serve their respective countries world-wide in the effort to keep our world safe From the simple E-3s running chocks and chains on the deck of a carrier to the special forces that operate with

no glory nor press Without you all, our world would not have the opportunities afforded to people like me, my family, or the readers of this book

Finally, thank you for purchasing this book I truly hope it has been of benefit to you, and you have my gratitude for your patronage

About the Reviewers

Adam Geoffrey Anderson, a Telly Award winner and currently the Senior Video Editor with one of the top automotive advertising agencies in the United States, completed his undergraduate work in Pittsburgh and earned his MFA at the Miami International University of Art and Design While building a freelance business, Adam taught college level courses in Final Cut and Avid

Very passionate about education, he puts himself in situations that challenge his skills and require him to keep learning as well as providing tips and helping others hone their abilities

Jeff Lange is a web content specialist in the field of higher education In his free time, he works as a photographer, videographer, digital artist, and creator who likes to experiment with new technologies such as Element 3D

In 2009, Jeff gained international attention for designing an iPhone app, Battery Go!, which reached the top 100 paid apps list

At a young age, Jeff has become a successful web marketing and analytics

professional in the field of higher education

I would like to thank my fiancée, Lindsay, for always being

supportive of me I would also like to thank my family for giving

me access to a computer at a very young age and supporting me

throughout my life Finally, I would like to thank Andrew Kramer,

Ryan Connolly, Nick Campbell, Andrew Price, and Jonathan

Williamson for helping me become a better artist

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Table of Contents

Preface 1

Welcome to the world of 3D animation using Element 3D 5

Summary 7

Software 10

Introduction to the interface 10

Setting up your first project in Element 3D 14

Booleans (cutting and molding tools) 19

Object arrays (duplicating objects in a pattern) 23

Point modeling (the table and wine bottle) 25

Subdivs, metanurbs, and curved shapes 29

Freezing subdivs to polygons 32

Incorporating multiple methods (the completed lamp) 33 Summary 34

Exporting your objects to Element 3D 35

Fixing and texturing the lampshades 43

Specularity 48

Bump maps and using AEX layers for

Summary 56

Element scenes in After Effects 57

Adding the table and wine bottle 64

The shakers 67

Summary 70

Let's simulate an earthquake! 71

Summary 75

Making the background cooler 84

Having the background react to audio 85

Your system needs to run… fast! 89

Samples and how they affect render times 93

Appendix: Final Thoughts 111

Using the right tool for the right job 111

PrefaceThis book is a principle-based lesson plan to learn Element 3D (an Adobe After Effects plugin) This lesson also includes information on creating and preparing content for Element 3D using external 3D software Although Maya 2012 is used

in these examples, the same principles apply to any 3D modeling software that you wish to use This book follows tutorials designed to teach the reader the tools and thought processes necessary to create virtually any content and push Element 3D

to the limits of its capabilities

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction to the Element 3D Animation, gives you an overview of what

you can expect from this book

Chapter 2, Welcome to Element 3D, provides an orientation and overview of how

Element 3D works

Chapter 3, Your First Objects, covers the basics of 3D modeling for Element.

Chapter 4, Painting Your Geometry (Textures), teaches you how to export your objects

from the 3D modeling software, prepare textures, and apply surfaces to your objects

Chapter 5, Preparing Your Scene, uses Element 3D to set up complex 3D scenes for

animation in After Effects

Chapter 6, Animating Your Geometry, covers animating Element 3D objects using the

After Effects interface with null objects and keyframes

Chapter 7, Particle Replicator, teaches you how to use Element 3D to create arrays of

objects that might animate together, or in sequences

Chapter 8, Optimizing Performance, tells you what affects performance and render

times, and also covers techniques to efficiently squeeze out the best quality

Chapter 9, Some Other Techniques, covers advanced techniques with Element 3D,

such as integration with the live footage, 3D-aware masks, and using external animations (object sequences)

Appendix, Final Thoughts, is a brief summary of the lessons learned, some personal

tips for users, and hopeful predictions for the future versions of Element 3D

What you need for this book

You will need Adobe After Effects CS6 or Creative Cloud, Element 3D, a photo editing program (such as Photoshop), and a 3D modeling program Although Maya 2012 is used as the example for this book, any modeling software can be used If budget is an issue, it's recommended that you use Blender 3D (a free downloadable 3D animation/modeling tool) Additionally, there is downloadable content that is necessary for this book Please see the next section on acquiring the example project(s)

Who this book is for

Anyone with any skill level will find this book useful However, it is assumed that you have a working knowledge of Adobe After Effects at the least Additionally,

a working knowledge of your 3D modeling software's interface will be helpful

New terms and important words are shown in bold Words that you see on the

screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Right-click

on the new audio layer and select Keyframe Assistant and then select Convert Audio

to Keyframes."

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this

Tips and tricks appear like this

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Downloading the example project files and colored images

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Introduction to the Element

3D Animation

So, you want to learn how to animate in Element 3D? In this chapter, we will lay the groundwork for this book You'll need to know what 3D animation is as well as the prerequisites for this book This book is designed to help users of every skill level gain an intimate understanding of Element 3D, and this chapter is designed to

induct you into that world

Welcome to the world of 3D animation

using Element 3D

This book is designed to help you through the basics (which may be applied to any project) that can get you started with Element 3D Whether you're new to the world of animation or are an old hand at other software, this book will get you up and running

fast However, before we get started, let's cover some fundamentals of 3D animation.

Assumptions about the reader

As this is not a book on Adobe After Effects, but rather a plugin for that software

It is assumed that you have at least a working knowledge of After Effects and its interface You do not need to be an expert in After Effects; you just have be familiar with it

Element 3D does not have a proper modeler within it You must create models within another 3D package There are free modelers available (such as Blender) Some can

be quite expensive (Maya, Lightwave, 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, and so on) The

principals shown in the modeling section of this book (Chapter 3, Your First Objects, and Chapter 4, Painting Your Geometry (Textures)) can be applied to any 3D software

They all contain the tools used in this book; just the locations of the buttons might change Thus, it is assumed that you are familiar with the interface of the modeling software that you have chosen

What is 3D?

It should be said that we are not referring to stereoscopic imagery You do not need glasses or a lenticular screen to view 3D animation In the world of animation, 3D refers to simulating depth by creating a virtual world within your workspace (as opposed to drawing on a two-dimensional sheet of paper or cell)

What is Element 3D really?

Element 3D is far more than just another 3D plugin for After Effects It's truly a revolutionary change in the method of 3D animation that has traditionally been used For the first time, a user can bring to bear fully animated 3D models created

in virtually any modeling software from within their compositing software (After Effects) An entire book could be devoted to the principles of 3D animation Suffice

to say that from the first mainstream computer animation (Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

opening credit sequence), it's taken over 50 years and countless man-hours to get to the point of, Element 3D

Element 3D was originally developed as an object array animator Wow, sounds impressive, doesn't it? Well, it is Element handles 3D objects as if they were particles, and animates them in groups Sometimes, these are groups of one object (such as an airplane flying across the sky); sometimes, these are hundreds of objects (such as a group of dancing iPhones) What really makes Element unique is that it gives an After Effects user the ability to animate stunning 3D animations within After Effects itself!

Until recently, using 3D animation with motion graphics or live footage required compositing packages (such as After Effects, Nuke, and so on) Now, with the introduction of Element 3D, you can create animations while doing your color correction or working on motion graphics (all within After Effects) This can greatly decrease cost and increase speed It also brings with it the ability to create stunning 3D animations on the editor level Over 50 years of CGI evolution (combined with countless man-hours) brings us here

In the next chapter, we'll introduce you to the Element 3D interface and prepare our directory structure for your first Element 3D project

The machine specifications

Professional production is nothing short of a race If you can get your product out in

a way that it looks better and if you get it done faster than your competition, you're going to stay in business So, the faster and better machine you have, the better it is for your animation experience Unfortunately, not all of us have the budget of Pixar The machine specifications listed below will get you going pretty well Element 3D

is compatible with both Mac and PC However, Element 3D will run on far slower machines than those outlined in the coming section, and will run better on a much faster machine The following are the specifications that I am using:

• Wacom Intuos 4 tablet

• 10 TB RAID-5 eSATA array

• BlackMagic Decklink HDMI

We'll also be using the Jet Strike and Flight Kit for Element 3D later in this book These kits are among many that are available for Element 3D; they include many models and compositing elements to help you with your 3D animations If you don't have these expansion packs, don't worry; the principals are important,

not the specifics

Introduction to the interface

So, let's dive in! Start up After Effects and create a new HD 1080p30 (29.97)

composition (it only needs to be a couple of seconds long) Then add a black solid

layer and apply the Element plugin to that layer (Effect | Video Copilot | Element) Now you'll want to open your effect controls and hit the Scene Setup button This will

open the Element 3D interface The following screenshot shows you the location of the

Scene Setup button within the AEX interface:

Downloading the example project files and colored images

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have the files e-mailed directly to you

You're now presented with the Element 3D interface To give you a tour of the interface, let's load an object into it On the right side, toward the top, you'll see

a window labeled Model Browser Click on the Primitives heading within that

window and you'll see a bunch of objects appear in the lower-right window

Click on the capsule image Congratulations! You've just loaded your first

Element 3D object, and your window should look like the following screenshot:

The Element 3D interface

Tour of the interface

Since you already know where the Model Browser window is, let's start there and

move clockwise around the interface

The Model Browser window

The Model Browser window is where you'll locate your existing Element 3D models

to be used in your scene They are contained in folders (such as Primitives) Stock folders are grey, and add-on packs are blue (for example, in the preceding screenshot, you'll notice that the Jet_Strike folder is blue, therefore, an expansion pack set) This is important for portability If you're rendering on a render farm, it's important

to let them know that you are not only using Element 3D, but also using add-on assets.Directly below the hierarchy view (the tree of folders) is the model list Each model

is represented by a preview image in the perspective view with the model name directly below it

The Edit window

This window can be likened to the Effect Controls window in AEX This is

where all of the parameters can be edited for your object or any of its components (shaders, orientation, and so on) In the screenshot that shows you the Element 3D

screen, you can clearly see the Transform and Surface attributes for the capsule

model that we have loaded into the interface

The Material and Bevel Browser window

The Material and Bevel Browser window allows you to not only see all of the preset

materials and bevels that are available as a starting point, but it also gives you a

focused view of the materials and bevels within your scene (by clicking on the Scene tab at the top of this window) Similar to the Model Browser window, there is both

a hierarchical view (using folders along the left-hand side) and a Preview window

(using folders along the right-hand side) In the screenshot that shows you the Element 3D interface, we can look at all of the presets available for the materials

The Preview window

The Preview window is filled with a plethora of information Obviously, there is a

perspective view of your current model You can rotate the object by left-clicking on your mouse, move it by clicking on the middle button, zoom in/out using the mouse wheel, and rotate the environment/lights by right-clicking on your mouse

The statistics of your scene are in the upper-left section of the window These include the relative path of your model, number of models, number of vertices (points), faces (polygons), and size of your object The vertex and face statistics will be important

in terms of rendering More of these means slower rendering times, fewer means

less quality (We'll dive more into this in Chapter 8, Optimizing Performance.)

Along the bottom of the Preview window are controls With these controls (from left

to right), you can change the brightness of the preview, show the environment map, change the lighting scheme, edit the background color, change the quality of your textures, and show a grid The Element 3D interface's screenshot shows these

options as set by default

The Scene window

The Scene window allows the selection of objects and some property adjustments

(such as assigning objects to groups) Element 3D animates from within After Effects (AEX), and group assignments will be important when we actually move on to

animate our scenes Whatever is selected from within the Scene window will then alter the Edit window to show you that object/material's properties for editing Our capsule

is currently selected in the Element 3D interface's screenshot and assigned to group 1

Toolbar (top)

The toolbar covers most of the major operations of Element 3D The IMPORT button

is how you'll bring objects in from your 3D modeling software UNDO and REDO are self-explanatory, while RESET ALL resets all your edits to their default values

EXTRUDE is used mostly for bringing in logos and text to be animated in 3D (you'll

extrude and bevel these, and we'll be covering this functionality later in this book)

ENVIRONMENT changes the panoramic image assigned to your texturing maps

and reflections Your standard HELP button is also there.

Clicking on the 3D STORE button will open a web browser to the Video Copilot

add-on store for Element 3D (where you can buy more packages, such as Jet Strike)

Clicking on the X button will make you lose all the changes that were made in the interface This is a cancel button On the other hand, clicking on OK commits all

changes and pipes them into AEX

Modeling versus animating

Let's start by changing how you think about 3D animation It's not like motion

graphics, and it's not like cell animation (2D) If you were to draw an analogy between 3D animation and any other style, it's more like claymation or stop-motion animation than anything else This is because before you actually animate anything, you have to make it You literally have to make a 3D model of it

To be perfectly clear, Element 3D is an animation package and not a modeling package Before you can jump in and animate an object, that object must exist Therefore, you'll either need to make the objects yourself, have someone else make them, or buy them We'll show you how to make your own basic objects in this book using other software packages and prepare them for import into Element 3D

Setting up your first project in Element 3D

Now that we know what Element 3D is (and isn't)—and I'm sure you have a ton of ideas of how you're going to use it—let's cover our final step of groundwork before

we turn you into a 3D pro! It's extremely important to set up your projects from the ground level

Staying organized

As any professional knows, you never have enough time to make everything perfect This is precisely why it's important to take the time at the beginning of a project to set up everything in an ultra-organized manner This will make it much easier for you to distribute your renders across multiple machines, take your work to another machine, or ship everything out to a render farm

Directory structure

If you've ever had to pick up a project from another artist, you know well what

a nightmare a poor directory structure can be An extremely organized directory structure is the key Projects (especially when you start using 3D) can get very

complex very fast You can quickly set up a template directory structure of your own using the following three principals:

• K.I.S.S (Keep it simple, stupid): Sorry for the last word, but that's what

it really stands for Make your directories are simple so that someone with absolutely no idea about what he/she is looking at can figure it out This way, if you have to come back to a project months from creation, you don't have to relearn everything

• Everything within one root directory: I know you can get into a hurry and

use an image that you downloaded to your downloads directory Don't ever

do that! Take the extra second to copy that image to your project directory

You won't ever regret it With that in mind, at the end of the day, back up that root directory to another drive You won't regret this either

• Descriptive naming: Come up with a naming convention so you not only

know what you're working on, but also know what the version (and maybe even the date) is For instance, if I'm modeling a human head, I start with HumanHead.v1.010113.obj This means that it's a human head, Version one, and started on January 1, 2013

The following screenshot displays an extremely organized directory structure:

Directory structure

In the preceding screenshot, you can see how I have set up my directory's structure

At a glance, you can tell where assets are to go and later, where to find them A good directory structure is the foundation of a project that can meet deadlines For the upcoming project, set up your directory's structure mimicking the structure from the preceding screenshot You can exchange Avid for whatever editing software you use

Summary

You now know where all of the buttons are located in Element 3D as well as a

rudimentary understanding of what they do You've set up your directory's structure and understood the importance of organizing your assets Now, are you ready to get

down to the nuts and bolts? Continue to Chapter 3, Your First Objects, and learn the

basics of 3D modeling and how to prepare objects for Element 3D

Your First ObjectsWe've laid the groundwork for our project You have your directories set up, and you're itching to start animating Well, there's one more thing we need—something to animate! In this chapter, you're going to learn the basics of modeling in the 3D virtual space Any modeling software can be used The principles will be the same, but the buttons may be located in slightly different areas The bonus is, once you know how

to model, it doesn't matter what software you use; the process is the exact same For this chapter, we're going to use Maya 2012 Again, this is not a book on 3D modeling; however, to truly understand 3D animation, a good foundation in modeling is a must This chapter is a high-level overview of the principals and techniques on 3D modeling, not specific to a single 3D modeling software

Primitive modeling

Primitive modeling is exactly what it sounds like We're going to use primitive shapes (sphere, box, pyramid, torus, and cylinder) to make a more complex object.Let's start with a cylinder to create the body of our salt shaker In the following screenshot, you'll see that we're in the middle of creating our cylinder You'll also notice that it looks more like an octagon than a round cylinder That's what we're going for You can create a hexagon, a perfectly round cylinder, and so on,

by changing one parameter

On the left side of the following screenshot, under the Create setting, we've changed our Axis Divisions to 8 This is what has made our object octagonal If we had set it

to a higher number (such as 32 or 64), we would have ended up with a much more round object All 3D modelers have this feature; you may just have to look for it:

Making octagonal cylinder in MayaNow that we've made the shell for our salt shaker, let's make it hollow (to hold some salt) When performing 3D modeling, it's actually important to change your mindset

a bit Instead of thinking of an object as a picture to draw, think of it as a ball of clay

to mold If you wanted to turn the octagonal cylinder into a container, you could use

a tool to scoop sections of it out If it were an object that is easy to vaporize (such as foam), you could use another object (such as a metal cylinder), heat it up, and burn

it out This is very similar to what we're about to do

Booleans (cutting and molding tools)

If you're a programmer, you think of Booleans as either a true or false value This is

a completely different Boolean campared to an operation in 3D modeling Simply put, a Boolean is a relationship between one object and another There are four basic

Boolean operations that you will find in any 3D modeling software These are add,

subtract, union, and difference First, let's create another set of geometry to Boolean

with our salt shaker Duplicate your octagon (in Maya, simply use Ctrl + D) Scale the

octagon so it's smaller in its depth and width but taller than our original geometry, and move it up slightly, as shown in following screenshot:

Setting up for your first Boolean

Differences between Boolean operations

Although the results may look somewhat similar between some of the Boolean operations, notice what happens to the wireframes in the following screenshot They are vastly different Let's cover these one at a time:

The four basic Boolean types Top-left: add, Top-right: subtract, Bottom-left: union, Bottom-right: differenceBoolean add

Believe it or not, this feature does not exist in Maya There is a reason for this—using

a Boolean add is like using the group tool It simply adds all the geometry together

No actual changes are made; it simply makes one object created out of two objects The result looks like the top-left part of the preceding screenshot All points and polygons remain intact; they are all now just part of one object instead of two objects

Boolean subtract

A subtract operation is a lot like the vaporization tool that we mentioned previously

With this tool, you use one object to cut a shape out of another—a stencil, if you will

In some software, the original cutting tool disappears after the operation completes (as seen in Maya) The top right image of the preceding screenshot is the result of a subtract operation This is what you will use to make the body of your salt shaker

hollow (don't do this yet, we still need it whole to make our shaker top).

Boolean union

The union operation is similar to add with one major difference The resulting object

may look the same on the outside, but all of the unseen polygons and points have been removed Now, you are left with one object, which is the result of joining two objects perfectly In the preceding screenshot, the lower left image is the result of the union operation

Boolean difference

A difference operation is the complete inverse of subtract When performing the

difference operation, the resulting object is only the intersection between the two

objects On the lower-right section of the preceding screenshot, you can see the result

of the difference operation Instead of cutting out the center of our octagon, we're left with an object that would plug the hole perfectly from our subtract operation

The shaker top

Now that you're an expert on Boolean operations, let's use them some more to create our shaker top Create a spheroid that envelopes the top of the shaker The result should look something like the following screenshot:

The process to create the shaker top

Let's perform the following steps that are similar to our shaker body:

1 Create a slightly smaller sphere to hollow out our top

2 Duplicate this sphere

3 Scale it down slightly (as shown in top-right of the preceding screenshot)

4 Now, use this sphere to perform the subtract operation on the larger sphere (In Maya, select the larger sphere first, then the smaller sphere, and navigate

to Mesh | Booleans | Difference.)

5 Now you have a hollow sphere Next, duplicate the main shaker body shell, and use that to perform the subtract operation on the hollow sphere

In Maya, you must delete the history from the hollow sphere first or

you may have issues This can be done by navigating to Edit | Delete

by type | history, with the hollow sphere selected.

Now, let's finalize our main Boolean procedures Go ahead and select the main shaker shell and the smaller octagon, and perform another subtract operation

If you're using Maya as your modeler, make sure you delete all your history now

(by navigating to Edit | Delete all by type | history) The result should look like

the following screenshot:

The results of our major Boolean operations

Okay! Our shaker looks pretty basic but it's starting to take shape Let's put some holes on the top section using Booleans and another tool called array.

Making holes in the shaker top

So, it's pretty obvious that if we want to create holes, we're going to be using

Booleans However, how do we get a nice, even hole pattern? Well, we're going

to create a bunch of cylinders for our cutting pattern using a tool called array

Let's start with a basic cylinder for our first hole Create one that looks like the one in the top-left section of the following screenshot:

Creating the cutting tool for the holes in our shaker top

Object arrays (duplicating objects in

a pattern)

In the preceding screenshot, we showed you how to create an array of cylinders as our cutting tool for the top of the salt shaker The process is slightly different in every software package, but the principles are the same

Now that we've created our cylinder as a template, we have to set that object's pivot point to the center of the shaker (so we have a point of reference to revolve around)

In Maya, this can be done in the attribute editor (shown in preceding screenshot

at the top-right) Once we've set our revolving point, we just need to duplicate

the object in a round array In Maya, this is done by using the Duplicate Special tool (Edit | Duplicate Special) Then, we set the options shown in the bottom-left

section of the preceding screenshot We want an object every 36 degrees, and as 360 divided by 36 is 10, we want 9 objects (to make them into a complete circle without

duplicating the first one) We want them revolving around the y axis The result

should look like the bottom-right section of the preceding screenshot

Now, before we cut the top of our shaker, you'll need to combine these into one object

if you're using Maya (by selecting all of them and navigating to Mesh | combine), and

then delete their history Really, you should only perform a Boolean on two objects at

a time Combining all of the cylinders to one object will speed up this process Don't forget to delete the history Your result should look like following screenshot:

The salt shaker with holes cut in the top

Finalizing your salt shaker

We're almost there But our shaker still looks pretty funny Let's widen the base a bit

so that our shaker looks more like a real-world salt shaker Select the points (both inside and out) on our shaker, and scale them up until it looks decent There, now our shaker's geometry is complete Your finished shaker should look similar to the following screenshot Save your object (in your software's native format for now) and let's move on to the next modeling technique:

The finished salt shaker's geometry

Point modeling (the table and wine bottle)

There are several distinct styles of point modeling For our purposes, we're going to use points to create a stencil, and then create the virtual version of a lathe to create a round object from that stencil Let's get started…