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Part II: Working with Objects

Figure 5.13 shows some sample toruses with a Smooth setting of None. The first three have Segments val-
ues of 24, 12, and 6. The last two have Twist values of 90 and 360. The higher the number of segments, the
rounder the torus looks when viewed from above. The default of 24 is sufficient to create a smooth torus.
The number of sides defines the circular smoothness of the cross section.

FIGURE 5.13
Using the Segments and Twist options on a torus

The Parameters rollout includes settings for four different Smooth options. The All option smoothes all
edges, and the None option displays all polygons as faceted. The Sides option smoothes edges between
sides, resulting in a torus with banded sides. The Segment option smoothes between segment edges, result-
ing in separate smooth sections around the torus.
The Slice options work with a torus the same way as they do with the sphere and cylinder objects; see the
“Sphere” section earlier in this chapter.
Teapot
Okay, let’s all sing together, “I’m a little teapot, short and stout. . . .” The teapot is another object that, like the
sphere, is easy to create. Within the Parameters rollout, you can specify the number of Segments, whether the
surface is smooth or faceted, and which parts to display, including Body, Handle, Spout, and Lid.

Note
You may recognize most of these primitives as standard shapes, with the exception of the teapot. The teapot has a
special place in computer graphics. In early computer graphics development labs, the teapot was chosen as the test
model for many early algorithms. It is still included as a valuable benchmark for computer graphics programmers. n

Cone
The Cone object, whether used to create ice cream cones or megaphones, is created exactly like the cylinder
object except that the second cap can have a radius different from that of the first. You create it by clicking
and dragging to specify the base circle, dragging to specify the cone’s height, and then dragging again for
the second cap to create a Cone.
In addition to the two cap radii and the Height, parameter options include the number of Height and Cap
Segments, the number of Sides, and the Smooth and Slice options.
GeoSphere
The GeoSphere object is a sphere created by using fewer polygon faces than the standard Sphere object.
This type of sphere spreads the polygon faces, which are all roughly equal in size, around the object,
instead of concentrating them on either end like the normal Sphere object. This makes the GeoSphere a bet-
ter choice for surface modeling because its polygon resolution is consistent. Geospheres also render more
quickly and have faster transformation times than normal spheres. One reason for this is that a GeoSphere
uses triangle faces instead of square faces.

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