Section 2 - Shaping the Blocks

It is to your advantage to take some time now to learn more details about the “building blocks” and how they can be manipulated and textured. So far you’ve learned a few basics, but in this section you will learn additional skills for creating a finely tuned model. You will learn and practice these skills in a room called “Block Party”. Near the end of this section you will return to your model to put these new skills to the test. Find “Block Party” by using the SELECT ROOM button or click on the room in the upper right corner of the EDITOR WINDOW (the one that isn’t connected to anything!). Confirm that you have located the right room by checking the name in the text window above the SELECT ROOM button.

The White Arrows – what is their purpose?

You may have noticed if you click a square or wall section twice that white arrows appear. (One arrow per surface on floor or ceiling squares, one per texture panel on the wall sections. Arrows never appear on the sides of raised/lowered floor or ceiling blocks.)

These white arrows give you more control over modeling and texturing. You can add slope to floor and ceiling squares and you can make subtle but important adjustments to wall panels so that texture maps line up properly and/or are not distorted. You will learn more about these arrows throughout this section. To simplify matters, most of the instructions refer to the floor squares, but you are encouraged to try everything with the ceiling squares, too.

Manipulating Surfaces with Arrows

There are a few ways to create sloped surfaces. Here are the ways to create sloped surfaces using the white arrows.

A Single Square Slope

1. On the floor of “block party” (with FACE EDIT off) select a single square by left clicking once. Now left click on it again to see the arrow. (Notice that the arrow also appears on the highlighted ceiling square directly above) If you continue to click, the arrow will move clockwise 90 degrees. The arrow always points to the edge that will be raised or lowered. The arrow disappears after 4 clicks or you can
right click at any time to get rid of it.

2. With the arrow visible, left click the FLOOR + key once to raise by one click the side the arrow is pointing to (a right click raises it 4 clicks) then take a look at the slope you created. Now experiment a little using the + and – keys of both the FLOOR and CEILING buttons. Click more than once to create a steeper slope.

3. Click again on the sloped surface of your floor square to rotate the arrow by 90 degrees. Hit the + button a few times, rotate again, and so on. Don’t forget to right click the arrow “off” when/if you want to raise the entire block without changing the slope.

Multiple Square Slopes

1. Right click and drag to select a single row of floor squares (5 or 6).

2. Once selected, click on any of the selected squares. Arrows will appear on every square. If you right click, the arrows will disappear but you will also deselect all but the square you clicked. If you want to get rid of the arrows but retain your selection, it is better to click 4 times.

3. With the arrows visible and pointing perpendicular to the length of the row you selected (see illustration), click the FLOOR + button once to create a uniformly sloped row. Select another row on the up side of the slope. Raise the row by one click then left click to bring up the arrows. Rotate the arrows so they point the same direction the arrows in the previous row pointed. Now raise a one-click slope. You get the idea…

4. Now select an area 6x6 or so. Left click again to bring up the arrows. Click on the FLOOR + button. Deselect and grab the row next to the up side of the sloped row. Without the arrows on, raise it by one click. Raise the next row by two clicks and so on. As you can see, there are any number of ways you can get the same
results. By playing around with these features, you will find what works best for you.

Raising Corners – breaking the surface plane
(creating “triangles”)

1. Select another floor square and left click again to bring up the arrow. Now hold down the control key as you left click…notice that the arrow points to each corner on the surface of the square instead of each side. Each click moves the arrow 90 degrees. (To revert back to a side, release the control key and click once.)

2. With the arrow pointing at a corner of a single floor square, click once on the FLOOR + button to raise up the corner. You now have a diagonal line running through your square that has created two triangles. One triangle is sloped, the other is flush with the surface of the floor.

3. Select another square and raise it up several clicks. Now hold down the control key and point the arrow at one corner. Raise the corner one click. Rotate the arrow to the opposite corner and lower that corner by one click. Now you have a smooth slope, without the triangular segment.

Raising Planes – pulling up slopes by elevating surfaces

This is a fast way to get some results! Whenever you raise/lower a corner of a square or an entire square with the control key held down, the edges of the squares next to the selected square will remain attached and raise/lower along with the square you are manipulating. The edges of the adjacent squares that are not attached to the square you are manipulating will remain on their original plane.

1. Select a single square; click again holding down the control key in order to point the arrow at a corner. Continuing to hold down the control key, right click on the FLOOR + button. You just made a little pyramid 4 clicks high.

2. Now select nine squares and raise them up two clicks.

3. Deselect, then click once on the center square to highlight it.

4. Holding down the control key, click the FLOOR + button twice.

5. Now select one of the corner squares and left click again to bring up the arrow. Hold down the control key to left click until the arrow points to the outward corner.

6. Click the FLOOR – button twice. Now you have smoothed out the plane and changed the shape of the sides of the block.

7. Try making a lowered or depressed surface by following the directions above but doing the opposite each time (lower instead of raise, etc.)

8. Play, play, play! Using the control key to modify surfaces is a fun feature and a quick way to create undulating surfaces!

NOTE: In the PLAN VIEW grid the selected square will have a single red line on the side of the square where the arrow is pointed. When the arrow is pointing to a corner you will NOT see any red line.

Manipulating Surfaces without using Arrows

(Creating Random Surfaces such as caves, drifted sand, etc.) Under FEATURES in the Drop Down Menu are numerous options to facilitate creating random surfaces – they are especially useful when dealing with large areas! Below are the basics but please experiment with these features; this manual would be too long if every possibility were outlined!

One note of caution –when selecting these features from the Drop Down Menu it is easy (by slip of the mouse) to accidentally select a square on the PLAN VIEW grid outside the area of the room you are working in. If you have accidentally selected a square and use “Average Floor” or “Average Ceiling” it will cause the program to crash.

TIP: The UNDO and REDO buttons under EDIT in the Drop Down Menu work with all the FEATURE functions!

Random Floor Up/Down and Random Ceiling Up/Down

Select the entire floor of the “Block Party” room. (Control Z or “Select All” under EDIT in the Drop Down Menu). Find FEATURES in the Drop Down Menu bar and choose “Random Floor Up” (F1). Now look at the floor…the squares are a random mix of flat and sloped surfaces. With the floor selected if you alternately press F1 and F2 (Random Floor Down) several times, you can better see how this feature works.

Of course you’ve never seen a floor like this in any Tomb Raider level because Lara would get stuck where the angles are too acute, and besides, there are holes in the world. (All those white spaces are missing polygons. If you turn on FACE EDIT you won’t see textures covering these “holes”.) Here’s the fix….

Smooth Floor and Smooth Ceiling Select the entire floor again (if it isn’t still selected). Under FEATURES in the Drop Down Menu choose “Smooth Floor” (F9). An instant fix…well nearly! Notice that some of the ragged edges and steep slopes remain…Here’s a good test of your skills. (You will have to use the arrows for the fix.) Choose one of these ragged areas and using what you know about manipulating corners, see if you can make a smooth transition from one polygon to the next.

Create a random ceiling above your random floor; experiment with bringing the areas next to the walls down lower than the central areas. On the floors, bring the areas next to the wall up a little higher. Beginning to look a bit like a cave?

NOTE: FIND ILLEGAL SLOPE button. “Smooth Floor/Ceiling” can’t always fix all the slopes or angles that will cause problems for Lara. When two steep slopes create an acutely angled “valley”, Lara will get stuck and begin to dance an “Irish Jig”! To find out if you have created any such angles, click on the FIND ILLEGAL SLOPE button located below the EDITOR WINDOW. Each successive click of the button will locate a new slope until no more can be found. Of course, you should fix them as they are pointed out.

Average Floor and Average Ceiling You are already familiar with this feature since you used it to smooth out the ziggurat ceiling in the copy of the first room you constructed. When you use this feature, always check the elevation of your floor /ceiling afterwards…you may have to raise or lower it. Remember, these buttons average the height and depth of the polygons and you may end up with a different elevation than what you started with.

Go ahead and average your floor and ceiling so you can start with a smooth surface again. Remember, only highlighted areas will be affected by these commands.

Flatten Floor and Flatten Ceiling Select the entire floor and modify it using the F1 and F2 keys (Random Floor up and down). Choose the “Flatten Floor” function from FEATURES on the Drop Down Menu. Now look at the floor…Flat tops on all your polygons! You’ll see another use for this function in a minute…

TIP: Cut and Paste If you have created an area you are really happy with and would like to use it elsewhere or if you have a situation requiring repeated features such as a row of columns, follow these simple steps:

1. Select the area you want to copy, then under EDIT in the Drop Down Menu, choose Cut or Control C (don’t worry, it won’t “cut” anything out of your model).

2. Now select the area where you want to place the copied section, and choose Paste or Control V.

Try this feature by selecting the area with the column (try nine squares with the column in the center) and press Control C. Now go to a corner of the room and select 9 squares and press Control U. Nice time saver, huh? You can paste sections of your model into other rooms, too, if you wish. This function will copy the textures on the portion of the model you have selected, but not lights.

Understanding Arrows on Wall Texture Panels

You have more than likely seen the arrows on the wall panels by now. If not, left click twice and you will. You can get rid of them by right clicking or continuing to click as with the floor and ceiling squares. In addition to the arrows, you will see X’s on some of the panels. These X’s serve two purposes; one they behave like locks in that you cannot manipulate a panel containing an X. Two, they help orient you within the room.

1. North wall: all panels display X’s on the third click. (Click one highlights the panel in red, click 2 brings up the arrows, click three the X’s.)

2. East wall: the top one or two panels display X’s on the second click (and X’s on the bottom one or two panels on the 4th click).

3. South wall: all panels display X’s on the 5th click.

4. West wall: the bottom one or two panels display X’s on the 2nd click. (and X’s on the top one or two panels on the 4th click)

You only need to use the control key with the East and West walls to point the arrow to a corner. When the arrow is pointing to a corner, you can move that corner up or down using the FLOOR/CEILING + or – keys.

There are times when due to some tricky modeling it is necessary to go in and manipulate these panels in order to line up textures or to control distorted textures. If somehow your wall texture panels become distorted, you need to know how to fix them! Experiment with the following:

1. In Plan View, select the entire floor AND all the gray squares.

2. Now hit F1 a few times, then F2 and finally F9 to smooth things out a bit. Do the same with the ceiling. (F3, F4 the F10)

3. Look at your wall texture panels now! Pick out a texture with a distinct horizontal pattern and using the TEXTURE WALLS button, apply to all the walls. Turn on FACE EDIT to see how bad textures can look if these panels get distorted.

4. Turn off FACE EDIT and select a distorted wall panel. Try to adjust the lines by rotating the arrows and using the FLOOR/CEILING + or – keys. (Point the arrow at a downward corner of one of the distorted panels, then hit the FLOOR + button to lift it up. Sometimes it is trial and error.

5. Don’t panic! There is an easier way to at least get the panels horizontal again. Select those you wish to straighten out and click on F5 and F6 (Flatten Floor and Ceiling buttons) and they will snap into horizontal positions again. You will then have to adjust them vertically, but that’s a piece of cake.

Texturing Triangles (“Broken” Surfaces)

you know, a square surface is broken into two triangles when one of the four corners on the square is no longer on the same plane as the other corners. Notice when you click on a texture in the texture panel, the square divided diagonally by a green triangle within the red outline of the selected square. That green triangle represents the area on the texture that can now placed on the triangle shape of your “broken” surface. You can left click in each corner of the texture panel square to change the orientation of the triangle, until it corresponds with the diagonal division of the floor or ceiling square you are texturing. If you like puzzles, you’ll have fun texturing these triangular segments!

This quick exercise should help clarify the concept:

1. Select a flat floor square and click again to bring up the arrow. (The arrow should be pointing left if your model hasn’t been rotated. If the arrow isn’t pointing left, rotate your model now.)

2. Holding down the control key, click once to rotate the arrow to point in a Northwesterly direction (up and to the left). Raise the corner one click to break the surface.

3. Find the King Tut head on the TEXTURE PANEL (or any other texture with a distinctive pattern). Left click in the upper left corner of the texture.

4. Turn on the FACE EDIT button and go back to your square and click on the upper left triangle. You should see the top left portion of King Tut’s head.

5. Go back to the TEXTURE PANEL and left click on the bottom right corner the texture square.

6. Go back to your square and click on the bottom right triangle. They should match up perfectly.

7. Take a few minutes to rotate each texture triangle on your model so you can see how the textures distort when they aren’t placed in the correct direction, and how they kind of visually “snap” into place when they are.

8. Repeat the process above using a texture without such obvious markings.

Time to put your new skills to use…