Creating a Lantern

Open up the Render Options Panel and set the “Render Display” to “Image Viewer FP”, leave the rest to the default values and close down the panel. Now press F9 to render a test frame, the result should look something like picture 145.


Okay, save all the objects now to make sure the Surface attributes stays, then save the scene as well.

Before we add the Lantern to this scene we are going to edit it a bit in the Modeler, so start up the Modeler now and load in the Lantern Object. Open up the Surface Editor and select the Metal Surface, for now we are going to give it a basic grey surface, so use the following basic settings.


Once you’re done, close down the Surface Editor. Switch to Layer 9 and also switch to Polygon Mode. Later on in Layout we are going to make the main steel wire (the one that is connected to the handles) rotate a bit, but to do this we need to put it in its own Layer.

In the Bottom Right Viewport, click somewhere on this steel wire to select a few of its polygons, like in picture 147.


We want to select all the connected polygons to this steel wire, and there’s a tool for this purpose. Switch to the Display Tab and click on the “Sel Connect” button which you will find in the Tools list to the left, like in picture 148.


This should select all the polygons of this steel wire, so press “x” now to cut them out of Layer 9, then switch to Layer 10 and paste it in there. That’s it, press “s” now to save the changes, then close down Modeler and switch back to Layout.

Load the Lantern into this scene now, once done it should look something like picture 149.


First of all we are going to group all the Layers of this Lantern together, so that we can rotate all the parts simultaneously yet move them all at the same time. Select “Add -> Objects -> Add Null” and name this null “Lantern_Null”. Open up the Scene Editor and select all the Lantern Layers like in picture 150.


Once you’ve selected all the Layers, simply click and hold down your mouse button on one of them, then drag them over the “Lantern_Null” object in the list to parent them to it. Picture 151 shows my Lantern Layers after they were parented.


The “Lantern_Null” should now be on top of all the Lantern Layers, and you should see a small white arrow in the beginning of the “Lantern_Null” object in the list. This white arrow indicates that objects are parented to it. If you click the white arrow all the Lantern Layers should disappear, or hide within the “Lantern_Null”. This is it for the Scene Editor; you can close it down now. Okay, lets rotate that steel wire a bit, so that it rests downwards sort of. Make Layer 10 as Selected Item now, then select “Pivot -> Move Pivot Point Tool” in the Tools list to the left of Layout. We want this steel wire to rotate around where it is connected on the handles of the Lantern. Change the View of the Layout to “Back” and fit the Lantern in the Viewport using the Zoom and Pan Tools, so that it looks something like picture 152.


So move the pivot point upwards now, and to make things a bit easier you can zoom in on the section where the steel wire connects to the handles. Picture 153 shows a close up of my Pivot Point after I moved it.


Okay, keep Layer 10 as selected Item and activate the Rotate Tool, then use the following settings for the rotation.


Create a keyframe after you’ve rotated it.

Open up the Render Options Panel and turn on “Ray Trace Shadows”, then make a test render by pressing F9, it should look something like picture 155.


Now lets rotate the whole Lantern a bit so that we see it more in-front sort of. Select the “Lantern_Null” as the Selected Item, then activate the Rotate Tool and use the following settings.


Create a keyframe after you’ve rotated it.

Okay, we’re done with the basic scene for our Lantern, so select “Save All Objects” now from the menu, and also save the scene file.