Charlie (Yorksub) asked for help on creating a lathed object with Anim8or and I thought others might need something, so here goes.

there is a manual to download as a PDF file on the Anim8or site, but here's a jump start with some simple instructions for creating a simple lathed form.

Open Anim8or.

Under the "View" menu, choose Front.

Select the "Curved Path" icon in the toolbar, in the right column, a bit more than halfway down. When you mouse over the icons, their labels appear at the bottom of the window. I've highlighted the button in red below.

The vertical line in the window will be the center axis, so start a curved line from that. Click and hold the mouse while dragging the first line segment. Release the mouse at the end of the first segment, and start a new one on the red dot at the end of the line.

Draw a simple curve of 10 or so segments, in whatever shape you want.

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Then,while making sure the curve is selected, go to the "Build" menu and choose "Lathe...".

In the dialog window that appears, for "Lathe Parameters", under the "Axis" column on the left, choose "Y". That's the vertical axis in the drawing window. Then pick "Closed" for Start and End, and click OK.

You should see a lathed form around the center line, to the profile of your curve.

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If you need to edit a curve, delete the lathed form to go back to the curved line. Select the "Curved Path" icon, and click on the curved line to select it for editing. Click on any point to move it around.

You can change the curve's direction by moving the green handles on either side of a point. Editing of points and direction of curves even a tiny amount is usually necessary to even out a curve, and smooth out bumps. When you get the curve the way you like, just rebuild the lathed form. 

To add color to a form, create a Material by selecting the "Materials" button at the top, 7th from the left. Open the Material Editor by double-clicking on "New". Adjust the color values to your liking, and give the material a name.  Click OK then double-click on the form to open the Mesh Editor and select the material you just created.

Use the Arc Rotate tool at the top, to the right of the Materials tool, to tilt the form down a little and give some perspective to the view.

Multimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or

To export a jpg for web viewing, under the "Render" menu, choose "Render Image". Input your desired dimensions in the Frame Spec Editor, and adjust the background color if you want something besides the default gray. Then click the "Save" button, choose JPG, and browse to the desired location to save  the file to, with whatever file name you want.

Thanks a TON Ken.

I downloaded this a couple weeks ago and didn't have time to make sense of it.  You got me off to a great start now...Thanks, again.  8)

Hey!  I made a Cup   

But can't figure out how to    "Delete the Lathed Form"  to take
me back to the curved line.

Charlie

Chris, I was wonderin' what was up with that "B" 

Charlie, to delete a form, make sure the lower selector button is picked--that's the arrow that looks like a mouse cursor. And the top arrow has to be picked in order to see the bottom one. Then just click on the form to show the white bounding box, and hit the Delete key.

Hey Chris, I just noticed my new forum label. Cool, thanks!

Quote:


No need to start guessing.  krayon has a decoder ring for you .

Dan