Many 3D applications give you something called a Boolean Operation. Now what it allows you to do is to take two or more objects, as you see here I have a cone and I have a rectangle and it allows me to do certain things. Like I can combine these two pieces of geometry. I can use one to cut a hole out of another one and that kind of thing. So let's talk about how this works. Well first of all I'm going to select the object that's going to be left behind alright? So this is going to be my Cutting Tool and the goal is I'm going to have this shape intersect the other one in some fashion. Now that's important for this to work. It has to be some intersection so that one is passing through the other one in some way. It doesn't have to be perfect, it could be like this, it could be through the middle like so. It doesn't really matter. So I'm going to go ahead and just zoom in just a little bit more so we could see what's going to happen here. Once again I'll choose the object that will be the result of the operation which would be the rectangle. This once again will be our Cutting Tool. Then I'm going to go over here in our geometry section and I'm going to choose Compound Objects. Now just like in Adobe Illustrator, I'm not sure if you guys use that application but if you'd like to check it out definitely check out the course on the VTC website. And there's something called a compound path. So let's say you wanted to create your own letter R. Well you know that little hole in the R? Well in order for you to be able to see through that in Adobe Illustrator. You have to create a compound path. So it takes that hole and punches it out. The same thing applies here in so many words. So we have two types of Booleans. We have the regular Boolean and we have a Pro Boolean. The main difference is the Pro Boolean is a little easier to use. I'll go ahead and choose Boolean Operation and I can choose what type I want to perform. For example, if I scroll down I could choose a Union which will combine these shapes. An Intersection which will you know give us a result for these two together. So we can leave a hole for example or we can have one part remain and the other go away. Or a Subtraction. Let's choose Union and see what happens. So I'm going to choose Union and then what we have to do is choose this option under Pick Boolean, called Pick Operand B. Sounds like a secret agent. So it's saying choose the Cutting Tool in other words. I wish it would say that actually. I click on this guy here and now this turns pink because they are now one piece of geometry. So they're now literally joined at the hip. I'll undo that. This time I'm going to scroll and I'll choose a different operation. Let's go ahead and choose a Subtraction. Once again I'll scroll back up and I'm going to choose once again Pick Operand B, making sure that the object that's going to remain behind is selected. Click on the Cutting Tool and now it cuts through here as you see here, very cool. Let me go ahead and rotate that for you. Now I'll undo that and we'll talk about the other option which of course is the Pro Boolean. So I'm going to go to this option here Pro Boolean and like I say it's a little easier in the fact that you can choose the operation. In this case I'll leave it as Subtraction, but all I have to do is click Start Picking. So why is this easier? Because let's say for example I have several of these cones sticking through here. I can just click on whatever I want, as many as want to and they'll all eventually punch a hole through here. So I'll go ahead and click Start Picking, click on the rectangle or rather the cone and it goes away. So as you could see Boolean Operations can help you create very complicated shapes that'll be very difficult to model on your own. So depending on what you like to do, you could choose to use the regular Booleans or the Pro Booleans, it's really up to you.
| Course: | Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 |
| Author: | Dwayne Ferguson |
| SKU: | 34400 |
| ISBN: | 978-1-61866-084-8 |
| Release Date: | 2013-01-08 |
| Duration: | 7.5 hrs / 91 lessons |
| Work Files: |
Yes |
| Captions: | No |
| Compatibility: |
Vista/XP/2000, OS X, Linux QuickTime 7, Flash 8 |