Page 282 - Kitab3DsMax

Part II: Working with Objects

FIGURE 8.5
The Mirror dialog box can create an inverted clone of an object.

Tutorial: Mirroring a robot’s leg
Many characters have symmetry that you can use to your advantage, but to use symmetry, you can’t just
clone one half. Consider the position of a character’s right ear relative to its right eye. If you clone the ear,
then the position of each ear will be identical, with the ear to the right of the eye, which would make for a
strange-looking creature. What you need to use is the Mirror command, which clones the object and rotates
it about a selected axis.
In this example, you have a complex mechanical robot with one of its legs created. Using Mirror, you can
quickly clone and position its second leg.
To mirror a robot’s leg, follow these steps:
1. Open the Robot mech.max file from the Chap 08 directory on the DVD.
This file includes a robot with one of its legs deleted.
2. Select all objects that make up the robot’s leg in the Left viewport, and open the Mirror dialog box
with the Tools ➪ Mirror menu command.
3. In the Mirror dialog box, select X as the Mirror Axis and Instance as the Clone Selection. Change
the Offset value until the cloned leg is in position, which should be at around –2.55.

Note
The mirror axis depends on the viewport, so make sure that the Left viewport is selected. n
Any changes made to the dialog box are immediately shown in the viewports.
4. Click OK to close the dialog box.
Note
By making the clone selection an instance, you can ensure that any future modifications to the right half of the fig-
ure are automatically applied to the left half. n
Figure 8.6 shows the resulting robot—which won’t be falling over now.

234

6/30/10 4:15 PM
14_617779-ch08.indd 234 6/30/10 4:15 PM
14_617779-ch08.indd 234