Datasheet

56
CHAPTER 3
PRIM
TORTURE
WORKING
WITH
TINY
PRIMS
BUILDING
BY
THE
NUMBERS
TUTORIAL:
BUILDING A
STAIRCASE
10. Leave the fi rst step alone (z-axis rotation of zero) and set the Z rotation for the second
step to 10.00 degrees. (The next one will be 20.00 degrees, then 30.00, then 40.00, so
on and so on.)
You should now see an attractive spiral staircase. The next step will be to remove the
pivot points.
11. Select all the steps and press Shift+Ctrl+L to unlink them all.
12. Delete all but the fi rst little pivot steps; the rest are no longer needed.
Now we’ll build a column that will fi nish off the look of our spiral staircase.
13. Edit the fi rst little pivot step.
14. Set the building-block type to Cylinder.
15. Stretch the cylinder along the z-axis until it becomes a mighty support pole, giving
apparent strength to our beautiful creation.
TIP
Why keep the fi rst pivot point? Well, when you get used to building by the numbers, certain
prims may become valuable simply because they hold position or size data that you may need
later. In this case, we’re going to place a cylinder down the center of the spiral staircase. You
could rez a new cylinder and then go through the mathematical process of fi nding the exact
center of the spiral, but why bother? The pivot prim contains that information already!
042-057 Chapter 03.indd 56042-057 Chapter 03.indd 56 9/5/07 1:27:54 AM9/5/07 1:27:54 AM