MilkShape Basics
5) MilkShape Basics



AXIS EXPLANATION
This is just a brief exlpantion of the different AXISsses :) OK, X is across(horizontal) and Y is up (vertical) like on a graph, Z is into/out of the screen in the front view, its forward and backwards relative to your model. When you move things you can restrict which axis are affected, like I disable Y (vertical movement) so when I move stuff it doesn't move up/down.


HIDING STUFF
CTL H hides whatever is selected, CTRL U unhides all. When first using milkshape I found that when I selected vertices/faces I always selected the ones I wanted plus a load on the other side I didn't :) NOW I simply hide what I dont want affected, select the vertices that you dont want, CTRL H to hide em, now just work on the ones that are visible.


SELECTING THINGS
SHIFT LEFT CLICK adds to your selection, SHIFT RIGHT CLICK remove from your selection. OK when selecting stuff I also select too much, then remove the things I dont want by SHIFT RIGHTCLICKING and dragging a box around the stuff I dont want selected. In this example I select a load of verts, as you can see the front and back ones are selected. SHIFT RIGHTCLICK DRAG a box around the ones I dont want and that leaves the ones I do!


MOVING THINGS
Select whatever you want to move, in this example I wanted to move the verts horizontally and definately not vertically, so in the move options I de-click Y and Z, leaving X restricting movement to that axis, easy eh? Wanna move something vertical only, declick X and Z and click Y, now you can only move up an down, useful for keeping things in line accurately.

ROTATING
Select a load of verts, now Rotate but click USER POINT first, they will rotate around where you click and hold the mouse, extremely useful, otherwise you end rotating, then moving, rotating, then moving etc. In the example I created a cylinder, rotated the points, deselected some points rotate a bit more, deselect more points and rotate some more.


CREATING VERTICES AND FACES
One thing to remember when vertex modeling is to try and plan what your going to need, this is why its best to sketch your concept first and give it plenty of thought. OK now, in the example I have plotted a square with a circle within with the vertex tool, now I build the faces 1,2,3 clockwise or anticlockwise depending on which way you want the faces to face, check the 3d view to see your progress. Select the vertices on the circle and in the side view move them, giving the flat plane depth and as you can see you get a square changing to a circle.


EXTRUDING
Select some faces as I have coloured in the example, the click the extrude tool, now in the side view drag the faces out, each time you do a new extrusion is created, now you can scale as you go along or simply select the vertices later and scale,rotate or move them accordingly.

TURN EDGE
As you can see the selected TWO triangles are joined by a line from one vertex to the other as shown, if we use CTRL E or click Turn Edge they will be connected by the other two vertices as shown in the second pic, a practical example is shown in the next pic.


DIVIDE EDGE
Select two vertices and press CTRL P or click divide edge and it will create a new vertex inbetween them allowing you to add more detail where you need it. Also as you can see I drag the new verts upwards and we should have a house shape, but the faces are connected across the lower verts, select the two faces and CTRL E to turn edge now they are connected across the point of the roof.