Of Cylinders and Cones - Page 4
January 19, 2001
Cylinders are perhaps as easy to make as spheres. And no grid
lines! We'll be using the same tools, the Preset Shape tool with
the Gradient Active Style.
Activate the Preset Shape tool. In the Tool Options dialog box
make the following selections.
- Select the rectangle
- Retain style unchecked
- Antialias checked
- Line width: 1
- Create as vector
Set the foreground Active Style box to null. The background
Active Style Box should be set to Gradient. In the Gradient
dialog box select the "Foreground/Background" gradient, angle
should be set to 90, and the Linear gradient should be clicked.
Invert gradient should be unchecked.
Draw out a rectangle that is taller than it is wide. Ok, so
mine looks more like a square. If you want to make it square,
go ahead.
Back at the Preset Shape dialog box, change your shape from the
rectangle to the ellipse. Leave all other settings alone. Using
your rectangle (square) as a guide, draw an ellipse the same width.
Position your cursor over the center of the ellipse and when it
changes to the mover tool, drag the ellipse to the bottom of the
rectangle. Position it so that it forms the bottom edge of the
cylinder.
To form the top opening of the cylinder you'll need to make
a slight adjustment to your gradient. In the Gradient dialog box
put a check in Invert Gradient. Now draw another ellipse
and position it at the top of the cylinder, lining it up so that
it gives the appearance of an open end.
Click on the bottom ellipse using the Object Selector. Go into the
Layer Palette, expand Layer 1, and locate the sub-layer that represents
the bottom ellipse. Right click it and select "Create Raster
Selection" from the drop down menu. On the menu bar click on
Selections > Promote to Layer. Now you have a new raster
layer that you can add a dropshadow to.
On the menu bar go to Effects > 3D Effects > Dropshadow. Make
your horizontal and vertical offset 2, opacity 93, and blur 6.2.
Uh-oh. Now we've got a small line running through our cylinder.
Looks like the dropshadow isn't going to work out so well. Think
again. Back in the Layers Palette, drag the "promoted selection"
down beneath Layer 1. And there you have it. You're all set to
go out and fill the world with cylinders!
Cones
Cones are basically the same as cylinders, but with a closed top.
Start as you would for a cylinder. Add the ellipse to form the
bottom edge of the cone.
Here's where we deviate from the cylinder. Instead of adding a
second elllipse for the opening at the top, switch to the Object
Selector tool. Select the rectangle and while pressing in the
CTRL key, drag the top left handle towards the right. When the
left and right handles meet, stop. Deselect the selection.
A shadow can be added by following the steps for the cylinder
shadow.
Of course, you can also make a cone from a triangle shape. Let's
move on and find out how...
Cubes Are Challenging - Page 3
From Flat to 3D
re-Building of the Pyramids - Page 5
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