Making Straps and Belts and all that jazz
 

Am currently trying to make some straps and belts for the challenge character I am making this month.

Various people have dropped handy hints about making objects live, adding curves and then 'just lofting', however all this is like Greek to me I fear. Well not quite, as my Greek is better than my nurbs, which is not saying much:D When something is live it seems to stay that way and does not come back, even when asked politely, when I loft things I get rather a mess.

Might someone be able to post a quick explanation of how to do this with perhaps a screenie or two? Just to be clear I don't want to extrude polys but to make straps, webbing etc from additional pieces in nurbs or polys over an existing character.

Anyone want to offer an idiots guide to this particular idiot?

Here's an easy way for you. Using the CV Tool draw the path you would like the webbing to follow around your character in the front view. Next go to the side view and move the points so they conform to the character's profile. Now using that same tool create a curve that represents the cross-section of the final belt. Click on the loft icon and then tweak the surface you have created. Make sure that your cross-sectional shape is a closed curve or you will have holes in your belt on the sides ;)

Here's another way. Find an edge or Isoparm on your character that follows the direction you want the belt to go. Use that as your path and still create a cross-sectional shape for the form of the belt. Same process as above with lofting :)

Or you can always select the surface you want the belt on, click on the Live icon above, draw a CV or EP curve on it, select that curve and do a duplicate surface curve, loft that duplicated curve, then select the Live surface and hit the Live icon again to make it Un-Live.

There's more ways I'm sure, these are just the first three that popped into my head.

Good luck and post if you have any more trouble :)

Darkon

Excellent, thanks for that explanation! Managed to make a strap - will be remaking it but just to show it works :D

(used the draw a curve on the surface method)

Thanks :)

Cool, glad to see you got it!

Darkon