Datasheet

47
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
APPENDICES
INDEX
■ TAPER
Taper is fairly straightforward with
linearly extruded prims. It lets
you transform a cylinder into a
cone, and a box into pointy box.
This is handy, especially when you
want to create an obelisk or a
monument. But tapering a prism
is far more interesting. Let’s try
it. Rez a prism and set the begin
(B) and end (E) taper values to
0.00. Now slowly increase the B
taper value to 1.0 and watch the
sides of the shape. You will notice
that one side buckles outward
while another side buckles inward.
In fact, the inward-buckling side
buckles so far that when you
reach a taper of 1.0, part of the
prim becomes two-dimensional
(Figure 3.6). This is because all
prims are made up of triangular
polygons. Press Ctrl+Shift+R to
see the wireframe of the prim
so you can see how the prim
distortion works.
As always, Taper is a different animal when applied to radially extruded objects. For tori, tubes,
and rings, Taper works very much like the Hole Size option, except that the change in 2D base
object size happens only on one end rather than on both.
■ TOP SHEAR
For linearly extruded prims, Top
Shear offsets the 2D base shapes
along the x- and y-axis so they are
no longer located directly on top
of one another. This creates a
slanted or sheared appearance.
The maximum offset is 50 percent,
so there will always be at least a
50 percent overlap between the
top and bottom shapes.
For radially extruded prims,
Top Shear is more like “side shear.”
The two parallel shapes that are
moved in relation to each other
are located opposite each other
halfway along the circular route
around the z-axis. This makes the
prim slope from one side of the
loop to another (Figure 3.7). This
looks fairly natural and can be
useful for organic builds such as
statues of animals or people.
Figure 3.6: Tapering turns the prism into a mysterious shape
with a two-dimensional side.
Figure 3.7: Shear on a linearly extruded shape (left) versus a
radially extruded shape (right)
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