A spline for a newbie please

len

Hello to all,,,,I would like some help on this please with me being a newbie and looking at some of these posts I am sure lots of you will think what I am asking is pretty easy to do.
I have tried the tuts that comes with gmax and some others too but none seem to help me in what I am trying to do. I have been using others objects but I thought I would like to do some of my own.
What I want is a car park 6m wide and 0.1 thick as a spline and then add a tga to it for the surface. I keep trying but get stuck after typing the dimensions and should it be in spline mode or rectangle or box or what?.
BTW it is for auran trainz but I think it would be best to ask on this forum.
Is there a tut for this or could someone please explain it to me dummy fashion.
Thanks for any help
Len

Mark Dygert

I'm having a little trouble understanding what you're trying to do.

Are you trying to animate a car going into a parking space?
OR are you trying to get an object to follow a spline?
Or is it that you are trying to model an object using splines?

len

Thanks for the reply,,,,,,,All I want to do is..Make a carpark 6m wide and 0.1m deep and add a texture e.g. asphault. to it then I want it to be a spline so that I can make it as long as I want in the game. but I cannot see any tutorials for doing this. Can you help me please.
Len

Mark Dygert

Ahh your from outside the US, sorry we call them parking spaces here so I thought you where trying to animate a car parking.

I'm going to assume you are using 3dsmax if you're using Maya these instructions might not make any sense.

- Click the create tab, then click shapes (second button)
- Click spline and click once in the top viewport then hold shift and drag out a point. Holding shift will keep the line straight. Click again to make a second point. Then right click to stop making points.
- With the spline selected click the modify tab, and under the rendering rollout check on, "Enable in Render" "Enable in Viewport" and "Generate Mapping Cords".
- Switch it to rectangle, set the angle if you need to rotate it.
- Apply your carpark texture and you should be on your way.

len

Thanks vig,,,,,,,I will let you know how I get on, it is a monster this thing isnt it if you dont know how to tame it.
Cheers
Len

len

Hi Vig,,,,,,,,sorry but the beast has me on the ropes in the first round.
Does it matter that I am using gmax because it says splines in a drop down box thats all and it is not selectable. so I try to draw lines and they just curl up. Hope you have an answer for this.
Cheers
Len

Mark Dygert

I remember your pain, actually I still feel quite often. For every great thing in 3dsmax there are a few real downers, but all in all once you get used to it, the frustration starts to disappear.

If you go to the modify tab and click the plus next to the spline it should spill out a few things under it, one should be vertex, click it and select the spline verts in any viewport. Then right click to bring up the quad menu in the upper left you should see something that says "corner" clicking it will set your spline verts to be corners not curves. It should give you a straight line.

len

Sorry Vig but I havent got a Plus next to the spline.
I am using gmax, are you using 3dmax because yours seems to be different to mine.
I havent seen rendering neither.
Cheers
Len

len

I believe guns are easy to get over there.
LOL
Len

Mark Dygert

On my way to work I bumped into a guy and all our guns spilled out all over the sidewalk it took a while to pick them all up and we had trouble telling who's was who's. I have so many I can hardly keep them all straight.

Anywho... If you're missing rendering then you're more then likely missing the rectangle parameter also, which means you can only make a box by reducing the sides to 4 and playing with the width... Which won't ever match the size you want... humm and I don't think G-Max has the loft or sweep modifiers... damn. Considering G-Max is Max Version 4 I'm sure there are a lot of things missing.

Is there some reason it must be made out of a spline? It looks like you might be stuck using a regular box, or switch to 3dsmax.

len

Ok Vig Here it is, I have a railway track and I want to put a ballast spline under it, you know be able to go where the track goes and have a nice ballast texture, but I dont know how to do it. I have been trying for ages and getting more and more frustrated, thats why I want the gun.LOL
Do you know how I feel.?
I was sure I would get the answer on this forum but everyone seems shy but you. What suprises me is that there is not a tutorial out there that will do what I want.
Ah well!,,,
Cheers to you Vig
Len

TorQue[MoD]

I think everyone's confusion is firstly coming from the fact that you're using Gmax instead of a regular modeling package. We're not all millionaire's on here if you get what I'm saying.
Also why is it that you're insisting on making the parking garage out of splines? You don't typically model with splines, you use the box mesh for most building.

I think what you really need to do is grab yourself a copy of Max, then hit up some video tutorials on basic modeling. Take a look at www.3dbuzz.com for some great tutorials.

Feel free to PM me if you need more help

len

Thanks for the reply,,,,,,,,GMAX is a free download if you want it http://files.turbosquid.com/Products/L567271/XFM83W83US/gmax12.exe
It is not a garage I want but a parking lot spline but I will look at the link you have suggested.
Cheers
Len

Valandar

I think part of the issue may be your use of the word "Spline".

A spline is a two dimensional line that has been curved. Keeping it as a spline will only allow you to either use it as a path, or make it "renderable" as a curved cyllinder.

Now, if you are trying to refer to the image of the object as a bunch of lines connected at points, that's not called a spline - that's called a "mesh" or "wireframe".

Mark Dygert

Ahh that makes sense, if he is using the word spline when he should be using mesh, geometry, or even object, then there is a whole hell of a lot more he can do inside of G-Max using just boxes and the edit poly modifier.

Basically you're looking for the tutorials that come with G-Max. I think they might be a separate download but it has a lot of great info to help get you using the right terms and get you used to the tools. For now I would put any projects you want to make on hold until you give the tutorials a run though, they will help a lot

Cody

[ QUOTE ]
On my way to work I bumped into a guy and all our guns spilled out all over the sidewalk it took a while to pick them all up and we had trouble telling who's was who's. I have so many I can hardly keep them all straight.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hahaha, Vig you are great.