 The
first step in this tutorial requires you to bring a simple NURBS sphere
into a new scene. You will have to make a few adjustments to the default
properties of the sphere in order to have it match the NURBS sphere
shown here. The NURBS sphere options panel allows us to adjust the
number of "Isocurves" which the sphere will contain.
Latitude value represents the horizontal isocurves, while Longitude
represents the vertical isocurves. The sphere we will use requires a
Latitude value of 10. The remaining values in the NURBS sphere options
panel remain at default values. You access the NURBS sphere options
panel by right-clicking on the NURBS sphere icon  .
Notice that we are using Direct 3D Solid Render Display  ,
while using Draw objects as transparent outline  .
Using DirectX to display our object while we work is very handy compared
to wireframe display. When we advance further into the tutorial, you
will no doubt see for yourself the benefits of using this display
option.
The next step in our tutorial involves using the Scissor Tool  .
In order to access the Scissor Tool, you simply right click on  the
NURBS sphere. This will bring up a context sensitive toolbar, which
houses the Scissor Tool, among others. Basically, we want to use this
tool on each of the Latitude Isocurves on our sphere. You can make the
process easier by following a simple process of first selecting the
Scissor Tool (activate it) and then mouse-over the top isocurve (the
isocurve highlights light blue in color) and clicking the isocurve when
it does highlight. This effectively slices the object along the
isocurve.
On the very top of your trueSpace5 interface is a row of tools. The
Hierarchy Tools (arrows) are located just to the right of this row. If
you have not found them yet, they are in a toolbar which is minimized by
default. You should be able to find them quite easily by clicking on the
small  icon,
which will expand the toolbar and reveal the Hierarchy Tools among
others. Your Hierarchy navigation tools indicate that the sphere now
has more than one sub-object.  .
Repeat this process of activating the Scissor Tool and then selecting
the next lower Latitude isocurve and clicking. You eventually reach the
last (bottom) isocurve and scissor it. At this point, we can begin to
"unglue" all the individual pieces of the object. So using the
Unglue Tool  the
first time will unglue the bottom section of the NURBS sphere. The
Unglue tool is still available for you to use on the next section, which
is the top section. Keep hitting the Unglue Tool until each section has
been unglued. You will know that you have unglued all the sections from
the NURBS sphere, when the Unglue Tool darkens to indicate it can no
longer be used on the NURBS sphere. The result is nine separate pieces,
which if you wanted to separate would look something like the image on
the right. We will not be using all the pieces, rather just a few of
them. It is good practice to scissor all the isocurves however, as the
exercise lets you know that this can be done.
Once we have unglued all the sections we can select one of the
sections which will become our main object in this tutorial. The section
we will use is the third section down from the top. The rest of the
sections should be moved out of the way for the time being.
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