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Surface and Nurbs Tutorial

This tutorial is intended clarify the different Surface Nodes in Flux Studio. Flux Studio supports a Simple Extrusion, a Swept Surface, a Sculpted Surface, and a Revolution Node. The Sculpted Surface node is derived from the Swept Surface Node, which is derived from the Extrusion Node. The Revolution Node is separate, so it won't be covered in depth here.

Extrusion Node: A single Cross Section. A Depth.

Swept Surface: A Single Cross Section. A series of Spine Transformations along which the surface is Swept.

Sculpted Surface: One Cross Section for each Spine Vertebra. A series of Spine Transformations along which the surface is Swept.

Revolution Node: A single Cross Section. A Starting Angle. A Sweep Angle.

We will start with an extrusion Node. So, please fire up Flux Studio, and create an Extrusion Node; Hit the Create Extrusion Node button. Now click the screen to place the extrusion. When you place the Extrusion Node, a 2-D Cross Section Editor Window will popup, allowing you to draw the cross section.

You can use the 2-D Toolbar to select you current mode; Add Point to End, Insert Point, Delete Point, or Move Point. By default, you start in Add Point, so add some points. We drew a flag. As you can see, you can use the Right Mouse in the 2-D window to provide additional options. You have a Grid that you can work with, and other tools. You can even Cut and Paste Cross Sections from one node to another.

The Mirror, Scale, Rotate option is fairly handy, but we wont go there now. Please draw a Cross Section of your choice. When you are happy with your work, hit the "Fingers OK "button in the ToolBar. The window will go away, and the shape will appear. Hit the Rotate World Button, and rotate the scene around to admire your work. Now, Edit the shape by double clicking on it. You will see this Property Page:

From here, you can edit the Depth. You can also change the depth by dragging the cursor on the screen when this property Page is active. You can create Sharp Edges with a low Crease Angle, or blended surfaces with a high Crease Angle. The Solid Toggle will not draw the back faces of the surface ( since if it is truely a solid, it would not need to ). The Begin, Middle, and End cap allows you to turn off these surfaces. If you dont need all the surfaces, its a good idea to just turn them off to speed up the rendering. We also have the ability to use Nurbs Surfaces!

Note, the NurbsSurface Node is not a VRML standard. It is currently only supported in Blaxxun Contact Version 4.2 +. NurbsSurfaces are fully supported in Flux Studio. The Extrusion with Flat Faces looks like this:

The Nurbs flavor looks like this:

While editing the surfaces, it does not matter which type of node you are working with, Nurbs, or Faceted. So, we wont worry about Nurbs any more in this tutorial. We are ready to graduate to the Swept Surface Node. But first, lets do this: In the Extrusion Property Page, hit the Edit Cross Section button ( or use the Right Mouse Button Popup Menu ) to popup the 2-D cross Section Editor. It should look pretty much like it did when you left it before. Now, hit the Copy Cross Section command in the Right Mouse Button Popup Menu when you right click on the 2-D window. Hit the "x" to kill the 2D window. We could have just hit the Copy Cross Section Button in the Property Page, but then we would have missed out on popping up the 2-D window. So, hit the Create Swept Surface Node button. Image:But2.jpg Instead of drawing the cross section, we will just Paste the Cross Section that we just copied. Again, you can use the Right Mouse Button Menu, or the buttons in the Property Page, which looks like this:

Most of these parameters are the same ( inherited ) from the Extrusion Node.... except for this Edit Spine Toggle, and some other stuff that is Greyed out. So, lets hit that Edit Spine Toggle. Wow, our solid Surfaces has been replaced by a green wire frame! When we are in Edit Spines Mode, the node is displayed as a wire frames, so you can see the cross sections as you edit them. Hit the Insert Vertebra Before several times to create a few more Vertebra to work with. You might have to use the dynamic rotate command to rotate the view around to get a better perspective on the wire frame. It should look something like this.

Note, when you are in Edit Spine Mode, the Trans, Rotation, and Scale property Pages correspond to the Current Spine Vertebra, not the entire node. You can identify the Current Vertebra because it is highlighted. Also, the Status bar displays the current Spine Number. You can traverse the Spine List by hitting the Up/Down arrows in the Property Page, the Next/Prev arrows in the Toolbar, and the Tab/Shft Tab keys. Or, you could just click on new Spine Vertebra. Lets select a Vertebra near the Middle of the Node. Drag it, and it will move, and the shape will deform. It may look like this:

Now select the Scale Property Page. Drag the mouse on the screen, and now we are scaling the cross section. If we Scale it down, it should look like this:

Keep Hitting the Undo Button until the shape is back to where it was before we messed with the Spine. Before you edit the spine again, hit the Forward Button in the Spine Propagation Section of the Swept Surface Property Page. Now, go ahead and drag the middle Vertebra. This time, half of the Node moved with us. All the vertebra that are Forward of the selected vertebra are moving along with us as we drag. It should look like this:

Lets try to rotate the Vertebra. Again, when we rotate the Vertebra, all the Vertebra downstream of the current Vertebra move along as if they were fused to the selected Vertebra.

We ended up with this.

If we had selected the Backward toggle, the rearward Vertebra would have been fused to the current Vertebra as we modified it. Now, hit the Undo button until it brings you back to the starting point. Then hit the Redo Button to redo everything we just undid.

Our last Node to explore is the Sculpted Surface. So, Create a Sculpted Surface Node as we did before. Paste the same Cross Section into the Node to expedite the process. Take a look at the Property Sheet. Hey, it looks pretty much the same as the Swept Surface Node's Property Page. It is the same! That is why the Graphic of the Sculpted Surface Property Page is omitted here. The only difference between a Swept Surface and a Sculpted Surface, is the Sculpted Surface allows you to have a different Cross Section at each Vertebra. So, lets Edit the Cross Section of the Sculpted Surface Node that we just created. While the Sculpted Surface Node is selected, hit the Edit Cross Section button in the Property Page, ( or use the Right Mouse Button Popup Menu ) The 2-D editor will popup. Drag the Middle point of the Flag like this:

Now, hit the Edit Spine Toggle in the Property Page. Hit the Next Spine Button. Wow, the Cross Section automatically changed to the original Cross Section. Hit the Next Spine Button again, and we get our new cross section again. The Cross Section shown in the 2-D window will always correspond to the Current Cross Section. Exit the Edit Spine Mode by hitting the Esc Key. Check out the Shape: