MilkShape Basics
6) Basic MilkShape Definitions

The Selection tool

It is quite simple in principle. If you select the Tool, the different possibilities are listed below in the program, how you can select individual sections of the Models. They are:

- Vertex
- Face
- Group
- joint

VERTEX

A quite simple thing: Vertexe are the "buildingblocks" of Models. With this Tool you can select the individual Vertexe it to shift etc.. One can also mark under it " Ignore Backfaces ". That means in this case, only the foreground Vertex point is selected.

FACE

Faces are a bit more complex than vertexe are. 3 connected vertexe make up a face. You can use check ignore backfaces here, too. Ignore backfaces means that, say you have a sphere, and you are in the "front" view, if ignore backfaces is on, you can select the the whole sphere, and only the front will be selected, not the back. You can also click on "By Vertex" which means you can select your faces based on which vertexe you dragged your mouse over. If this option is unchecked, it selects faces based on what faces you have dragged your mouse over.

GROUP

In order to keep your models organized, MilkShape has a thing called "Groups", which can be changed at will. With this tool, select the faces that you want to belong to a group, then click on the "Groups" tab, then click on "Regroup".

JOINT

Joints are the "skeletons" of models. They are needed for, among other things, animation. With this tool, you can select joints.

The " Move" Tools

These include:

- move
- Rotate
- Scale

MOVE

This nearly explains itself. You can move selected faces/vertexe/models in any direction you like. Or, you can be more precise and enter the coordinates you would like your selection to move to at the bottom of the tool panel.

ROTATE

This is the same as with move, only, it turns ;) Normally, in the 2D-View, you can it by coordinates. There are parameters which can aid in rotating:

-" Center of Mass "- it is rotated around the center axis of the selected object

-" Origin" - rotated around the bottom axis of the selected object

-" user POINT "- it is turned around an axis that is set by you i.e the closer you click a drag the lower the arch, the farther away you click and drag, the higher the arch

SCALE

The same as rotate, only the parameters are for scaling.

VERTEX

Vertexe are the corner points of models. Use vertex to place vertexe on the grid and connect with the face tool. Gradually a model develops. It takes 3 verts to make a face. I will address important techniques in later tutorials.

FACE

Faces are the stuff that models are made from. You create at least 3 vertexe to build a face. With the verts in place, select the face tool and click on them in a row until they are joined. Always create triangular faces. You can quickly build faces this way.

SPHERE

This is the first creation tool which I will describe. To use it, select the button and click on one of the 2D-Views. Here are the parameters you can modify:

-" stacks "- this is the number of levels the sphere has, or, how many rows of vertices it has.

-" slices "- this is how many slices of polygons(or "faces) it has. Adding to this number makes it smoother, subtracting from this model makes it "chunkier".

GEOSPHERE

This is also a type of sphere, notice though, it clearly has fewer faces. It is developed from three corners, not from 4.

-" Depth "- Adding to this number will give you a smoother edge.

BOX

A quite simple box without special parameters. Here there are no special adjustment possibilities.

CYLINDER

Cylinders are simple round boxes, however they have many exiting possibilities ;)

-" stacks "- just like the sphere parameters

-" slices "- again, just like sphere

-" close cylinder "- when close cylinder is checked, the top and bottom of th cylinder will be closed. If it is un-checked, it will be an open cylinder at top and bottom, so that you can see through it.