Battle Tank

[simsmj]

This is just a very simple tutorial to supplement my last post in this thread. It is designed to illustrate the text-based roots of Xara3D, to show why things like carriage returns, line spacing and tracking are relevant in it.

The tutorial is based on the monogram that appears on JRR Tolkien's Lord of The Rings books. I have always liked it, and it occurred to me that it would serve the purpose of the tutorial very well.

The end result isn't exact, I don't have the right fonts, but that wasn't really the point of the exercise, and I also wanted to avoid using another app like Xara Xtreme to create more accurate shapes, but to do the whole thing entirely within Xara3D.

Mike

PS Oops, I forgot to mention that you need to pause the animation on frame 2 as soon as it is running.

[Egg Bramhill]

Mike,

I hope you don't mind but I've created a video tutorial to compliment and based on your tutorial above.

You can view it HERE

[simsmj]

Hi, Egg, be my guest, I'm glad it was suitable for presentation in video form. I'd heard of YouTube, but I hadn't seen it in operation. I'd be tongue-tied if I tried anything like that, I'd want a script!

Nicely done.

Mike

[Soquili]

Very clever Mike!!

Well done Egg! The video adds to the comprehension of the instructions.

[salaam]

I decided to complete the tank. I am having trouble with the rivets. They are too long and I can not seem to shorten them. They seem acceptable here but at different angles the look like spikes.

Anas

[salaam]

I was thinking...
This tank was constructed in 'Ripple aninmation' it would not be possible to create this object in this style using the tutorial above.
(Just in case anyone tried it and became confused.)

Anas

[simsmj]

The tank is really looking super, Anas, be proud of it, I would if it was mine.

The rivets might be toned down by a combination of bevel and Ripple percentage, and you might also need to make them out of smaller diameter circles, and not use a square bevel, but an angled one like a 45 degree bevel.

Of course, you might already have tried these, in which case I'll just sit quietly at the back and not say anything.

I often found myself wanting to specify some options to one or two decimal places, because the integer resolution was too big.

Mike

[BrianMorin]

Thanks simsmj and Egg. Wonderful stuff...

[dduran]

That tank is absolutely incredible.

Danny