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TUTORIALS
sPatch Basics

5. Now we have the basic outline of the tent looking down from the top. Press A, then click and drag just to the right of the top left vertex, right on the line. This should add another point on your top line so it will have three vertexes. If it didn't, try zooming in by pressing the magnifying glass and dragging the mouse right. Move this new vertex to the centre of the top line by pressing T, then clicking and dragging it. Do the same for the bottom line and both sides so you have eight vertexes. Now repeat the above steps again so you create a new vertex between each existing vertex, giving you a total of 16 vertexes.

6. Using the techniques mentioned before, add points so that each of the opposite vertexes have a line running between them, and where ever a line crosses, there is also a point. This can be confusing to do at first, so just add a point to each of the vertexes except the corner ones, then create some more points in the centre of the shape so it looks like below. Now it's just a matter of joining all the points together by pressing T, then dragging them and right-clicking them to another point (Be sure not to joint points which are at right angles to each other, joint opposite points first, then the right angle points. If you don't you will end up with curves we don't want.). You should have a sort of grid object when you are finished.

7. Now select all of the corners. To do this, press G, then group all the points, then ungroup the unwanted points by simply re-selecting them. Now click the grey button which looks like a triangle with no base. This will sharpen the corners of our tent.

NEXT: sPatch Basics continued...

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Copyright Michael Balzer 2000
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