Polygon Paradise - Simple Pillar

This was created using Wings 3D version 1.4.1, so if you are using a different version some shortcut keys and menu items might be accessed slightly differently.

• Right-click, select "Torus" with left mouse button
• Select the inner faces. You will need to rotate the camera - use the middle mouse button/wheel to activate and move the mouse to rotate the camera as needed. (See step 1, below)

Step 1	Step 2

• Right-click, select "Scale Radial" and then "Radial Y"
• Scale to 0% using either the mouse, or press the Tab key, type 0 into the box and press Return/Enter button. (See step 2, above)

• Select the top 32 faces
• Right-click, select "Extrude", then "Normal" and press Tab and enter 0.3 for D (see step 3, below)

Step 3	Step 4

• Right-click, select "Extrude", then "Y" and enter 0.3 for D
• Right-click, select "Scale Radial", then "Radial Y" and enter 110% (see step 4, above)

• Right-click, select "Extrude", then "Normal" and enter 0.2 for D (see step 5, below)

Step 5	Step 6

• Right-click, select "Extrude", then "Y" and enter 0.2 for D
• Right-click, select "Scale Radial", then "Radial Y" and enter 80% (see step 6, above)

• Select the faces on the bottom (moving the camera so you can see the bottom of the object), right-click and select "Dissolve". (see step 7, below)

Step 7

• Move the camera so you can see the top of the object
• On the top of the object select the top 16 faces
• Right-click, select "Flatten" and then "Y" (see step 8, below)

Step 8

• Select the top 16 faces, right-click and select "Dissolve"
• Select whole object
• Deselect top and bottom faces by clicking on them (see step 9, below). If you don't do this we get unwanted smoothing of the top and bottom surfaces.

Step 9

• Right-click and select "Smooth"
• Press the space bar to clear the current selection
• Select the top face (see step 10, below)

Step 10

• Right-click, select "Mirror" and then select mirror and merge to object option by pressing the left mouse button (see step 11, below)

Step 11

• Press space bar to clear the current selection
• Carefully select the top-half, using the camera to carefully check that the faces are correctly selected (see step 12, below)

Step 12

• Right-click, select "Extrude", then "Y" and enter value of 5.0 for D (see step 13, below)

Step 13	Step 14

• Press space bar and then select just the middle part of the pillar (see step 14, above)

• Right-click and select "Smooth"
• The model is shown below (step 15). As you can see I have 2 light sources (reddish spotlight on the right and a white light source on the left)

Step 15

Step 16

The problem with the model (step 15, above) is that the main part of the pillar gives off some weird aspects, due to light sourcing and the model having soft edges. To fix this do the following: Select face mode Select faces of middle of pillar (step 16, left) Select edge mode (this will auto-select all the edges surrounding the selected faces and switch to edge mode) Click right mouse button and select "Hardness" Select "Hard" (this will get rid of any unwanted strange reflections) Press space bar to clear the selection and see the pillar as we want it... (step 17, right)

Step 17

Step 18

Hard edges can only do so much. Repeat step 16, but select "Soft" hardness instead. To make things easier to see, we will switch off the scene lights. From the drop-down menu at the top of the window, select "View" and then "Scene Lights" Select "Edge mode" Select middle of pillar (see step 18, left) Right-click and highlight "Flow Connect" Select "Flow connect and move edges into place" (right mouse button) Press the tab key, enter 0% and click "Ok" Selected edges will be subdivided into 2, forming new vertices. The new vertices will now be auto-connected forming new edges, and auto-selected (see step 18, left)

Step 19

Press space bar to clear selection Select the edges in the top half (see step 19, left) Highlight "Flow Connect" and select "Flow connect and move edges into place" (right mouse btton) Press the tab key, enter 0% and click "Ok" Selected edges will be subdivided as before (see step 19, left) Press space bar to clear selection Select the edges in the bottom half (see step 19, left) Highlight "Flow Connect" and select "Flow connect and move edges into place" (right mouse btton) Press the tab key, enter 0% and click "Ok" Selected edges will be subdivided as before (see step 19, left)

Step 20

Press space bar to clear selection Select "Smooth shading" mode (see step 20, left) As you can see, the pillar looks great except for some weird shading in places at the top and bottom of the pillar We can fix this by making pillar edges hard

Step 21

Press space bar to make sure nothing is selected Select "Edge mode" Select the edges at the top of the bottom base (see step 21, left) Right-click and select "Hardness" In the new menu that appears, select "Hard" Press space bar to clear selected edges They will now appear in a different colour - this shows they have hard edges (see step 21, left)

Step 22

Press space bar to make sure nothing is selected Select "Edge mode" Select the edges at the bottom of the top base (see step 22, left) Right-click and select "Hardness" In the new menu that appears, select "Hard" Press space bar to clear selected edges They will now appear in a different colour - this shows they have hard edges (see step 22, left)

Step 23

Select "Smooth Shading" mode The pillar should now be completely smooth (see step 23, left) If there are still weird shading in places, then some edges were accidentally missed from the hardening process. Repeat steps 21 and 22 as appropriate until everything is smooth

Step 24

Adding Texture Maps Select faces (see step 24, left) Right-click and highlight "More..." (if the normal menu doesn't appear you may have accidentally selected other objects such as a light source) Highlight "UV mapping" and select "Force to segmenting mode (delete old segments)" (right mouse button)

Step 25

A new window will appear containing the selected faces only (see step 25, above) In the new window select "Face Mode" and select all the faces (see step 25, above) Rotate the camera as needed (using same method as main window) Select "Edge Mode", this will auto-select all the edges surrounding the selected faces

Step 26

De-select all the edges on the inside of the object (see step 26, left) Right-click and select "Mark Edges for Cut" Right-click (again) and select "Continue" In the new menu that appears, select "Projection Normal"

Step 27

A new window will appear containing a dummy texture map with the selected faces mapped ontop of it (see step 27, left) Press the space bar to clear the selection If needed select a column of faces and bunch them up using the mouse button to drag each column together. You can use the cursor keys to move the texture map and the mouse wheel (if you have one as the middle button) to zoom in and out of the texture map However, on this occasion everything is as we want it

Step 28

The new texture will appear in "Outliner" window, starting with the letters "auv" A new material (signified by an 'M' icon next to the name) will also appear, with the new texture map associated with the material (see step 28, left)

Step 29

Right-click and select "Make external" The little icon next to the texture will change - this indicates that the texture is taken from an external source In the window that opens, select the preferred file type in the "Save as type:" drop-down box (I suggest .PNG, but your preferred image editor must be able to save as this file type) Enter a file name and click "Save" (see step 29, left)

Step 30

Take your texture of choice and replace, or add, to external file (see step 30, above), but do not rename the file and don't move it to a different location

Step 31

Select the texture in the "Outliner" window Right-click and select "Refresh" (this loads image data from the file) The texture map in the "Outliner" window will be updated, as will the faces on the pillar that we selected to use the texture (see step 31, left)

Step 32

Optional: Right-click on "Pillar_texture1" texture and select "Make Internal". The texture is copied into the wings3d file and the external file will no longer be used. The little icon next to the texture will change - this indicates that the texture is taken from an internal source Select the material "torus9_auv", right-click and rename to something else, for this tutorial I choose "Logo" Failing to rename the material blocks the creation of new materials (as the default name is already taken) Select the remaining faces on the bottom bit (see step 32, left)

Step 33

Right-click and highlight "More..." (if the normal menu doesn't appear you may have accidentally selected other objects such as a light source) "UV mapping", select "Force to segmenting mode (delete old segments)" (right mouse button) A new window will appear containing the selected faces only (see step 33, above) NB: Looking at the faces from "the wrong side" will make them invisible! In the new window select "Face Mode" and select all the faces (see image, above) rotating the camera as needed (using same method as main window).

Step 34

Select "Edge Mode", this will auto-select all the edges surrounding the selected faces. De-select all the edges on the inside of the object (see step 34, left) Right-click and select "Mark Edges for Cut" Right-click (again) and select "Continue" In the new menu that appears, select "Projection Normal"

Step 35

A new window will appear containing a dummy texture map with the selected faces mapped ontop of it (see step 35, left)

Step 36

The new texture will appear in "Outliner" window, starting with the letters "auv" A new material (signified by an 'M' next to the name) will also appear, with the new texture map associated with the material (see step 36, left) Right-click and select "Make external" The little icon next to the texture will change - this indicates that the texture is taken from an external source In the window that opens, select the preferred file type in the "Save as type:" drop-down box (I suggest .PNG, but your preferred image editor must be able to save as this file type) Enter a file name (e.g. "Pillar_texture2") and click "Save". The new texture will be renamed (see step 36, left)

Step 37

Take your texture of choice and replace, or add, to external file, but do not rename the file and don't move it to a different location Select the texture "Pillar_texture2" in "Outliner" window Right-click and select "Refresh" (import image data from file) The texture map in the "Outliner" window will be updated, as will the faces on the pillar that we selected to use the texture (see step 37, left)

Step 38

In "Outliner" window, select "Pillar_texture2", right-click and select "pick up" In "Outliner" window, select "torus9_auv" material, right-click and select "drop picked object" Another menu will appear. Select the texture type "Diffuse" Select the "torus9_auv" material, right-click and select "Rename". Select an appropriate name, for this tutorial I choose "Texture" (see step 38, left)

Step 39

Select the 2nd tier of faces in the middle (see step 39, left) In the "Outliner" window, select the material that was renamed to "Texture" Right-click and select "Assign to selection"

Step 40

The 1st and 2nd tiers of the pillar are now fully textured (see step 40, left) Add the texture "Texture" to tiers 3 and 4 in the same way we just did for tier 2 (in step 39, above) The main part of the pillar should now be fully textured (see step 41, right)

Step 41

Step 42

Select the top of the pillar (see step 42, left) De-select the very top face (see step 42, left) Select the "Texture" material Right-click and select "Assign to Selection"

Step 43

Press the space bar to clear the current selection (see step 43, left) Select the top-face and then select the "Texture" material Right-click and select "Assign to Selection" The top part of the pillar should now be fully textured (see step 43, left)

Step 44

Select the bottom of the pillar (see step 44, left) De-select the very bottom face (see step 44, left) Select the "Texture" material in the "Outliner" window Right-click and select "Assign to Selection" Press the space bar to clear the current selection (see step 44, left)

Step 45

Select the bottom-face and then select the "Texture" material in the "Outliner" window Right-click and select "Assign to Selection" The bottom part of the pillar should now be fully textured (see step 45, left)

Step 46

The pillar is fully textured (see step 46, left) Select "Smooth Shading" mode to see what it would look like rendered (see step 46, left) Finally we turn the light sources back on. Select "View" from the drop-down menu at the top of the page, and then click on "Scene Lights" (when switched on a little tick should appear next to the option) Now we see what the pillar looks like with light sourcing on (see step 46, left) If you want more detailed textures for closeup shots of the pillar, you have 2 options: Use a higher resolution (larger) texture map (e.g. 1024x1024 pixels) Select fewer faces when mapping the textures to the model

And finally... a little animation to show how it was built...