Creating a Lantern: Lathing

Glass Holder

Switch to Layer 3 now. Keep everything unselected and activate the Lathe Tool, then bring up the Numeric Panel. We’re going to use 48 sides for this one, so enter that and keep the rest of the settings to the default, then close down the Numeric Panel and hit Space on the keyboard to perform the operation. Now I want you to select every other polygon in the mid row on this mesh, both on the upper and under side, like in picture 33. You do this easiest by just clicking on the polygons you want to select in the Perspective view. Hold down Shift while you’re doing it, this lets you add as many polygons as you want to your selection.


48 polygons should be selected if you did this right. Keep them selected and activate the Smooth Shift Tool, then right click in one of the Viewports to duplicate the points. Once done, activate the Stretch Tool and bring up the Numeric Panel, then use the settings shown in picture 34.


So click Apply to perform the stretch operation. Close down the Numeric Panel, keep the polygons selected and bring up the Merge Points panel by pressing “m” on the keyboard. Select the Fixed operation and enter 1mm in the Distance field, then click OK. 96 points should be eliminated. Keep the polygons selected and press delete on the keyboard to delete these polygons, then press “a” to fit the mesh in the Viewports.

Activate Metanurbs/Subpatches now. Picture 35 shows a few angles of my Glass Holder.


We’re going to move this section in position as well. It should be placed on top of the Upper Base Section. I moved mine upwards 39mm on the Y-axis, and picture 36 shows it together with Layer 2.


Layer 3 should also have the Metal Surface, so bring up the Change Surface Panel and select the Metal surface there, then click OK.

Glass Section

Switch to Layer 4 and activate the Lathe Tool. Open up the Numeric Panel and use 24 Sides for this one, keep the rest to the defaults and close down the Numeric Panel. Hit Space to perform the operation and then hit “a” to fit the mesh in the Viewports.

Open up the Options Panel by pressing “o” on the keyboard, then set the Patch Divisions to 2 and click OK. Activate Metanurbs/Subpatches and then press “ctrl+d” to freeze them again. Press “c” to copy the Glass section, then switch to an empty layer and press “v” to paste it. Press “f” to flip the polygons, then bring up the Change Surface Panel by pressing “q”. Create a surface called “Glass_Solid” and click OK to apply it. Cut the flipped polygons out of this layer by pressing “x”, then switch back to Layer 4, but don’t paste it in yet.

Once back in Layer 4, bring up the Change Surface Panel again and create a new surface called “Glass”, then click OK. Now press “v” on the keyboard to paste the flipped polygons, then press “m” to bring up the Merge Points Panel, select the Automatic option and click OK. 4032 points was eliminated in my mesh, this depends on how many points you used in the original 2D shape.

What you have in Layer 4 should look something like picture 37.


Lets position this section now. Put Layer 3 in the background, then move the Glass Section upwards on the Y axis about 75mm, until it rests on the Glass Holder.

Top Section

Switch to Layer 5 now and activate the Lathe Tool. Bring up the Numeric Panel and enter 24 for Sides, keep the rest to the defaults and close down the Numeric Panel. Then hit Space to perform the operation.

We are going to make a few holes in this mesh, so select the polygons shown in picture 38. This is easiest done by just holding down Shift & clicking in the Perspective View.


24 polygons should be selected all together. With these polygons selected, activate the Bevel Tool by pressing “b” on the keyboard, then bring up the Numeric Panel. We’re only bevelling these inwards, so set the Shift Value to –0,8mm and press enter. The other settings should be set to 0, then close down the Numeric Panel and press Space to perform the operation. Keep the polygons selected and bring up the Merge Points panel by pressing “m” on the keyboard, select the Fixed option and set the Distance to 1mm, then click OK. 48 points should be eliminated.

Keep the polygons selected and press delete on the keyboard to delete them. This section should have the Metal surface, so bring up the Change Surface panel and set it to the Metal one, then click OK. Press Tab now to convert the mesh to Metanurbs/Subpatch. You can also change the amount of Patch Divisions to 4 in the Options Panel, this is just for the real-time preview but it gives you a bit more detail.

This section should be placed on top of the Glass Section, so activate the Move Tool and move this 143,5mm upwards on the Y-axis. Layer 1 to 5 should look something like picture 39 together now.



This is starting to look more and more like a Lantern, but we have 2 more shapes to Lathe, and then a few details to add.

Top Section Cover

Switch to Layer 6 and activate the Lathe Tool. Bring up the Numeric Panel and set the amount of Sides to 24, keep the rest to the defaults. Close down the Numeric Panel and press Space to perform the operation. Open up the Change Surface Panel and apply the Metal Surface to this part to. That’s pretty much it for this section; all we need to do is move it to the right position.

Activate the Move Tool and move this upwards 157mm on the Y-axis. Activate Metanurbs/Subpatches now and we’re done. Together with Layer 5 it should look something like picture 40.


Again, save your progress by pressing “s” on the keyboard.

Top Section Hat

Okay, switch to Layer 7 now so we can lathe the last 2D shape. Activate the Lathe Tool and bring up the Numeric Panel. Enter 24 for Sides and keep the rest of the setting so the defaults, then close down the Numeric Panel and hit Space to perform the operation. This section will have 4 big holes in it, so lets start by selecting the polygons where the holes should be. Picture 41 shows which ones to select.


With these polygons selected, activate the Smooth Shift tool and bring up the Numeric Panel by pressing “n” on the keyboard. Set the Offset to –1mm here, the Scale should be 100% and the Max Smoothing angle should be at the default – 89,5 degrees. Close down the Numeric Panel and press Space to perform the operation.

Keep the polygons selected and bring up the Merge Points panel by pressing “m” on the keyboard, select the Fixed option and enter 2mm for Distance, then click OK. 80 points should be eliminated. Keep the polygons selected and press delete on the keyboard to delete these polygons.

Open up the Change Surface panel and give this section the Metal Surface. Now lets move it in position. Put Layer 5 in the background, then move the Top Section Hat upwards 194,5mm on the Y-axis. The Top Section Hat should rest on the Top Section in Layer 5. Activate Metanurbs/Subpatches for the Hat now, and together with Layer 5 and 6 it should look something like picture 42.


We’re going to alter the surfaces a bit to see a somewhat preview of what it will look like later on, so open up the Surface Editor and select the Metal Surface. We are just changing the basic settings now; we will deal with textures later on in Layout.

Enter these settings for the Metal surface, the settings below are the only ones you need to change, leave the rest to the defaults:

Color: R: 120 G: 110 B: 100
Diffuse: 80%
Specularity: 75%
Glossiness: 20%
Reflection: 15%
Smoothing: ON

Once done, select the Glass surface and change the following:

Color: R: 190 G: 200 B: 210
Diffuse: 40%
Specularity: 50%
Glossiness: 40%
Reflection: 25%
Transparency: 75%
Refraction Index: 1.5
Smoothing: ON

Once done, select the Glass_Solid surface and use the following settings:

Color: R: 190 G: 200 B: 210
Diffuse: 40%
Specularity: 0%
Reflection: 0%
Transparency: 75%
Refraction Index: 1.0
Smoothing: ON

That’s it for the basic surfacing, close down the Surface Editor. All the Layers together should look something like picture 43 now:


We are now done with all the Basic sections of this Lantern, so lets get on with the details. Save the progress now by pressing “s” on the keyboard.