GIG reference manual

sculptor tutorials

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Section contents

Overview
This tutorial will guide your first steps into the world of Sculptor. Here you will become familiar with the family of S primitives and S operations. With these it is possible to create an unlimited number of possible shapes which are difficult or impossible to model with other techniques.

Working Instructions
To become familiar with the GIG Sculptor capabilities, first time GIG users should complete all the Exercises in the GIG Tutorial.

Some Basics
S primitives are used to create blended models together with S operations. These primitives have the same shape as the primitive forms already known to you from the solid construct menu:

These S primitives can be combined using S operations, resulting in a model with smooth transitions:

Exercise 1 - An introduction to Sculptor

In this exercise you will create a model of two blended cylinders.

  1. Go to general in the main menu. Click the reset all button, enter "y", press <enter> to reset GIG.
    Click the set project button, enter "tutor", press <enter> and click the confirm button.
  2. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Click the sculpt button. A different solid construct now becomes visible. This is where you can create your Sculptor models.

    The S primitives have now been replaced by S ball, S cone, S cylinder, S cube and S torus.
    The Boolean operations have been replaced by S union, S subtraction, and s intersection.

  3. Click the s cylinder button.
  4. Go to transform in main menu. Activate keyboard by clicking on the keyboard button.
  5. Click rotate button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter 90, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  6. Click x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 30, press <enter>
    y ? enter 5, press <enter>
    z ? enter 5, press <enter>
  7. Go to solid construct in main menu. Click the S union button to select 'blended' union.
  8. Click the copy button to blend a copy of the original s cylinder.

    S models can be combined with other GIG models using the normal Boolean operations.

  9. Go to transform in main menu.
    Click rotate button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? press <enter>
    z ? enter 90, press <enter>
  10. Go to solid construct in main menu. Click the new/fix solid button to complete the construction.
  11. Go to render in main menu
    Click the render options menu button, then go to the backcolor input box and type:
    "color(0.15,0.45,0.50)".
    Click the render window button to view the resulting model.

    As you can see, the two cylinders are now blended.

  12. Go to edit in main menu.
    Click the left button to select the left primitive.
  13. Go to attributes in main menu.
    Click the add diffuse button.
    Click the color status box to change the current color.
    On the prompt: enter "red", press <enter>.
  14. Go to render in main menu. Click the render window button to view the resulting model.

    As you can see, the colors of the two cylinders are present on the total model, according to which primitive contributes most to the resulting surface. To blend the colors, follow the steps below.

  15. Go to edit in main menu. Click the up button to select the total model. Click the edit sculpt button to edit the S primitives. The sculptor edit submenu will now be visible.
    Click the status box which says attributes not mixed,
    On the prompt:
    mix attributes down (sub)tree (y/n) ?
    Enter "y", press <enter>.
    The attributes of all the primitives in the model will now also be blended.
    Click the confirm button to leave the sculptor edit submenu.
  16. Go to render in main menu.
  17. Click the render window button to view the resulting model.

    As you can see, the colors of the two cylinders are blended according to their contribution to the resulting surface.
    In the next steps the range values (size of the density area) of the s primitives will be changed.
    range will determine the size of the density area around the s primitive. Ranges of primitives can be displayed by activating the show ranges button.
    The default range value for each individual S primitive is 1.7. The range can be changed for all the active S primitives by activating the range input box. When, for a group of active S primitives the individual S primitives do not have the same range value, the input box cannot display the range values and will be empty. In this case first activate the individual primitives to display the range value.

  18. Go to edit in main menu.
    Click the edit sculpt button to edit the S primitives.
    Click the show ranges button to show the ranges of the S primitives as yellow colored wire-frames. Click the range input box which is currently displaying '1.7182'.
    On the prompt: Enter "2.5", then press <enter>.

    The ranges of both primitives are now set to 2.5, as you can see from the wire-frame representations of the ranges. It is also possible to change the ranges of the individual primitives by first activating the individual primitives.

    Click the show ranges button to deactivate the wire-frame display of the ranges. Click the confirm button.
  19. Go to render in main menu.
    Click the render window button to view the resulting model.

    Because of a higher range for both S primitives, they will blend quickly as you can see in the rendered image. 
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Exercise 2

In this exercise a model of a hand is created. The hand will be built with normal primitives, which will then be converted to S primitives in order to blend the model. In the following steps one of the fingers will be built.

  1. Go to general in main menu. Click the reset all button and enter "y" press <enter> to reset GIG. Click the set project button. Enter "tutor", press <enter> and click confirm button.
  2. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Click the ball button.
  3. Go to transform in main menu.
    Activate keyboard by clicking on the keyboard button.
    Click x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 1.2, press <enter>
    y ? enter 4, press <enter>
    z ? enter 1.2, press <enter>
  4. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Click the group button.
    Click the ball button.
  5. Go to transform in main menu.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 1.2, press <enter>
    y ? enter 2.5, press <enter>
    z ? enter 1.2, press <enter>
    Click move button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter 5.5, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  6. Go to solid construct in main menu. Click the group button and then the ball button.
  7. Go to transform in main menu.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 1.2, press <enter>
    y ? enter 2, press <enter>
    z ? enter 1.2, press <enter>
    Click move button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter 9.5, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  8. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Click new/fix solid button.
    Click the tag status box and type "finger".
    One finger is now ready.

    In the next steps the finger will be multiplied to create the other three fingers. The thumb will be built separately.

  9. Go to the transform menu.
    Click the multiply button.
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 3, press <enter>
    y ? press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
    Click multiply. On the prompts:
    multiply factor?
    enter 4, press <enter>
    multiply in (y/n) ?
    enter 'n' press <enter>
  10. Click the get solid tag button and select finger1.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter 0.8, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter -2, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  11. Click the get solid tag button and select finger2.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter 0.95, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter -1, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  12. Click the get solid tag button and select finger4.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter 0.95, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter -1, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  13. Press the letter "u" 3 times on the computer keyboard to select all fingers.
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter -5, press <enter>
    y ? enter 8, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>

    Pressing the letter "u" on the keyboard has the same effect as pressing the up button in the edit menu. Also use "r" for right and "l" for left.
    Now the fingers are ready. Next the thumb is created.

  14. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Click the group button.
    Click the ball button.
  15. Go to transform in main menu.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 2, press <enter>
    y ? enter 6, press <enter>
    z ? enter 1.9, press <enter>
  16. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Click the new/fix solid button.
    Press the letter "r" on the computer keyboard to select the new ball.
    Click the group button.
    Click the ball button.
  17. Go to transform in main menu.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 1.5, press <enter>
    y ? enter 3.5, press <enter>
    z ? enter 1.2, press <enter>
    Click the rotate button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? press <enter>
    z ? enter 10, press <enter>
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter 6, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  18. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Click the new/fix solid button.
    Press the letter "r" on the computer keyboard to select the thumb.
    Go to the tag input box and type in "thumb".
  19. Go to transform in main menu.
    Click the rotate button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? press <enter>
    z ? enter -20, press <enter>
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 7, press <enter>
    y ? enter -2, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>

    In the next steps the hand will be completed.

  20. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Press "u" on the keyboard.
    Click the group button.
    Click the ball button.
  21. Go to transform in main menu.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 7, press <enter>
    y ? enter 7, press <enter>
    z ? enter 1.3, press <enter>
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter -1, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  22. Go to solid construct in main menu.
    Click the new/fix solid button.
    Press the letter "r" on the computer keyboard to select the new ball.
    Click the group button.
    Click the ball button.
  23. Go to transform in main menu.
    Click the x-y-z size button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter 2.5, press <enter>
    y ? enter 4.5, press <enter>
    z ? enter 1.6, press <enter>
    Click the rotate button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? press <enter>
    z ? enter 15, press <enter>
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? enter -3, press <enter>
    y ? enter -3, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  24. Press the "u" button 2 times to activate the complete hand.
    Click the move button. On the prompts:
    x ? press <enter>
    y ? enter -5, press <enter>
    z ? press <enter>
  25. Go to attributes in main menu.
    Click the add diffuse button.
    Click the color status box and type in "color(0.69, 0.65, 0.54)".
    Click the ambient status box and type in "color(0.3, 0.1, 0.1)".

    Now the model of the hand is finished, but it still consists of ordinary solids. To make the solids blend with each other, they have to be converted into S primitives and S operations. Before converting the hand, render it to see the difference between solid primitives and S primitives.

  26. Go to the render menu.
    Click the render detail button. Click the backcolor input box and type "color(0.15,0.45,0.50)". Select render window.

    In the following steps you will convert solid the hand to S primitives. (To clear the window containing the rendered hand, press the space bar on the keyboard.)
    Solid primitives and Boolean operations can be converted to S primitives and S operations using convert solid in the sculptor edit submenu. Use deconvert to convert solid S primitives and S operations back to solid primitives and normal Boolean operations.

  27. Go to the edit menu and select edit sculpt.
    Click the convert solid button.
    Now the solid consists of blended primitives, as you will see when it is rendered.
    Click the confirm button.
  28. Go to the render menu.
    Select render window to see the result.

    In the next steps the ranges of the S primitives will be raised.

  29. Go to the edit menu and select edit sculpt.
    Click the show ranges button to show the ranges of the primitives.
    Click the range input box and type in 2.0.
    Now all primitives have a range of 2.0.
    Click the confirm button. Go to the render menu and select render window to see the result.

    As you can see, the fingers are now blended with each other. To prevent this, the level (and sublevel) numbers must be changed.
    By assigning different levels to Sculptor primitives, the user can determine which primitive blends with others. S primitives will blend with other S primitives only when they are placed in the same level.
    An exception is level 0: S primitives in level 0 will blend with all other S primitives in other levels. By default all S primitives are in level 0. They will therefore blend with all other S primitives. For example: S primitives in level 3 will blend only with all S primitives in level 3 (and level 0).
    Within a level it is possible to assign sublevels.

  30. Go to the edit menu and select edit sculpt.
    Click the get solid tag button and select finger1.
    Click the level input box and type in 1.
    Click the get solid tag button and select finger2.
    Click the level input box and type in 2.
    Click the get solid tag button and select finger3.
    Click the level input box and type in 3.
    Click the get solid tag button and select finger4.
    Click the level input box and type in 4.
    Click the get solid tag button and select thumb.
    Click the level input box and type in 5.
  31. Click the confirm button.
    Go to the render menu and select render window to see the result.

    As you can, see the fingers are not now blended with each other because they have different level numbers assigned to their primitives. The hand itself is still placed in level 0 and will blend with all other S primitives in other levels. Therefore the hand will blend with all fingers.