ESCARGOT Visualwares | 3D Polygon Modeller
Make An Elephant | PREV|NEXT

| Legs |

1. Return back to the XZ plane viewpoint, so that the view is from the side of the elephant.
Select: (5) XZ plane:
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2. Left-drag the mouse to select the leg area. If you select too much, to remove vertices, hold the Control key and click individual vertices or left click and drag to remove them.
To add more vertices, hold the Shift key and click individual vertices or left click and drag to add them.
3. Set the work plane to the YZ plane and move the viewpoint so that the YZ plane is viewed from the side.
Using the work plane image above, select: (4) YZ plane:
4. Again, hit ESC or select the move Move(1) by clicking the move tool button, move the selection horizontally.
Since the selected area is small and difficult to drag with the mouse, to prevent accidental deselection, enable 'Keep selected state' via edit menu or hitting the B key, the mouse cursor should be blinking in the form of a padlock. You can now left click drag anywhere on the view to easily move the selected vertices. Hit the B key again to turn it off.

| Body |

To make the work easier later, create the outline of the cross section of the torso.
1. Staying in the YZ work plane, slightly rotate the view horizontally, so that the view is looking down the middle of the X and Y axis. &
2. Select the Poly line Polyline(5) tool, not the freehand tool.
Draw a suitable body cross-section, starting from the top of the body to the bottom, create rounded outline with the lines to give the body it's shape.
Remember to use the perspective grid to anticipate the plane the curved line will use. The trick is to tell MarbleClay the height (or depth) in the perspective workplane where the line will start and end, this is done by using the mouse over on existing vertices or lines and clicking to start or end the line, only create points in free space, do not click other objects (vertices, lines, faces), this will change the workplane height.
You can click on an object, then cancel (hit ESC once) to continue using the same workplane height, MarbleCLAY will always remember the last height, alternatively, you can right click on an object (it will use the closes point) and select move reference plane (Move WorkPlane to mouse pointer). It can be cleared (reset to zero height) by right clicking empty space.
This image is a bit confusing with all lines, see the ear part and try to ignore it, just focus on the curved line and how it joins from the top to the bottom, following the perspective work plane.
(1) This is where this line example of the body outline starts, click a vertex or any where inside a poly line, on the top of the elephant's body.
(2) Following the perspective work plane grid, slightly move the mouse across to the right, to create the body depth and down, to join it to the bottom.
(3) Repeat 2 again, but with a longer line going down, using about the same depth direction. (4) Now do a line straight down from the last line, this will flatten out the depth of the body.
(5) This is the last line and it's used to join the line segment to the bottom of the elephant, click on a vertex or part of a line.
This can be hard to see and understand, if it's too hard, start with a simple triangle line segment instead, ie: follow step (1), (2) clicking in the middle of the body, and then (5).
Extra vertices can be added and then easily manipulated separately, instead of trying to do both at the same time.
The line shape should look like this:

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