Fountain Water Tutorial Hexagon
by Aine
as promised a tutorial on the fountain water.
As you can see from the picture above there are 4 tiers, working with two different patterns.(minus the
sculptured figures)
While the first and second tiers are pretty easy aside from the spout flows from the 2nd to the 1st.
The 3rd and 4th are more sculptured, and needed to be followed a bit more closely then just a part of a sphere with a cap.
You don't want light peeking under the edges anywhere or the textures just don't look right.
You have seen me refer to this method used as a cheat. Since it lifts a copy of the underlying area it must follow then builds from there.
It is also true you can just as easily create a sweep path following one of the tier's flow
fingers, then build from there. I find copy/paste (or lifting) on my own base objects, just as fast or easy as any other method.
=Creating lower water surface=
The first step
Turn off all objects except the 3rd tier
Picture1-Select all faces in the interior of the bowl just under the greatest height.
We want the water level to fall below the top of the fountain bowl.
Picture 2- Then select the lower 4 faces going out to the outer bottom edge
Select Copy then Paste.(which creates a new object)
Turn off the Tier so that all you see is the object you just pasted.
Select by edge, the outer ring excluding the the start of the water fingers.
Picture 3- Zero out the height (resize Z = 0), then lower it till it is the same height as the top of the water fingers.
=Creating the upper water surface=
Picture 4- Now select by face, the outer ring and center, lower faces of the water fingers.
Select Copy, then Paste.
Picture 5- Select by face, the ring and the first blocks of your water fingers.
I selected to here, due to this being the place where the upper water level peaks.
Zero out the Y, and move up on the Y till it is a little higher than your highest point on the lower level.
Select by object Select both upper and lower pieces and click on Weld.
(this will combine the two into one object but since there are no like in kind points, it will not weld the two.)
Picture 6-
=Welding halves=
Picture 7- Select by edge, Weld(W) the corresponding upper edges with the lower ones.
(picture only shows what you are welding, not how the software needs it selected)
(repeat for each scalped region.)
Picture 8- Select by edge, Select one side of one upper water finger, Fast Extrude, and Weld(W) to the lower
corresponding edge.
(repeat for each side and water finger)
Picture 9- shows completed steps so far.
=Finishing up=
Picture 10- Select by Edge and ring each of the water fingers, then Fast Extrude down.
You can at this point select and move the outer or back area of the water, but since I would be welding it later to a set place below, this step was bypassed.
Picture 11- Here it is with the 3rd tier turned back on.
Once you have gotten this far, you can see it only needs to be closed, and polys adjusted for 4-sided -- if you only wanted to use it for a single level.
Since I was working this as the base for two areas, I only needed to copy and paste the the water fingers, moved and resized it to fit the 4th tier; then Weld(W) the water fingers together where it would be hidden by the upper 4 tier.
Combined water objects and welded(W) the upper water fingers into the the open area of the lower. Closed off the upper water tier center, then welded the lower water fingers into the later created 2nd tier water table.
Hope you liked it (: