ok, it seems all the tutorials here assume that EVERYONE wants to animate video games and dancing aliens...

im just wanting to generate some primitive shapes - boxes lines and arrows. but need to do it with some precision and elegance... can anyone point me to some tutorials for basic modeling and not dancing bunnies???

If you can be more specific we can whip you up a personalized tutorial.
So what we've got ordered thus far is:

- Boxes
- Lines
- Arrows

There are a lot of types of these objects so you may need to be a little more specific.

Perhaps you are mostly interested in the modeling aspect of this but depending on your needs you may find the Font Wizard creates the shapes you want without modeling.

There are quite a few Modeling tutorials in the Tutorials Forum:
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showforum=178

...and you are in luck.... not a single dancing bunny!

If interested in the Font Wizard Holmes Bryant has an excellent tutorial on that:
http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31432

Did you DO the modeling exercises in The Art of A:M? Don't skip them. They are there to teach fundamental modeling techniques.

#9 teaches lathing which is key to any primitive with a round cross section. #10 teaches extrude which covers the other shapes.

What shape are you not sure how to make?

You could start with These.

yeah, i went through many of the tutorials but everything i found seemed to be in the vein of creating organic shapes and modifying stock models...

if i could just generate a rectangle and equally round all the corners id be off to a good start : (

oh, and im very new here - just bught last night. just signed up today.
so thank you all for your replies. and i apologize if my first few questions are a bit rudimentary...

Those are not hard. You know how to lay down splines now, right? Turn on Snap to Grid and you can lay down something like this:

Click to view attachment


If the sides need to be super flat you can turn on "Show bias Handles" to tweak them.

There's a brief vid in the tutorial link in my signature called "think Ahead" that shows how to build bevels into your cross sections before you lathe or extrude.


Also there are quite few primitives in the data folder you can load to use or study.

Here is some help.

The arrow shows your snap to grid.
In tools/option/modeling where the yellow line is where you set your grid.
Holding the keys from front view 1=X side to side 2=Y up & down 3=Z front to back "From front view"
Click to view attachment

You can add a spline to a cp with out connecting to the other spline using the shift key.
There are some shapes in the library you can use.

thanks everyone - im on it!

BTW, is there any diff between the windows and mac version of AM?

not much. There are a few interface glitches to avoid.


Right mouse button isn't a mac thing but you can plug in a two button mouse and do it i believe. TAoA:M explains the mac equivalent for one button mouse.