Chapter 15: Building Extruded Shapes

Understanding Extrusion

Cross Sections

Figure 15.1


A variety of cross sections, including a square, a circle, and a half circle.

Spines

Figure 15.2


A variety of spines, including a straight spine, a circle, and a spring helix.

Extruding a Cross Section along a Spine

Figure 15.3


Cross sections swept along spines to create a bar, a torus, and a helical playground slide.

Beginning and Ending Caps

Figure 15.4


A square tube created by extruding a square without building the beginning and ending caps.

Cross-Section Scaling

Figure 15.5


Scaling the cross section at each coordinate along a spine to create a bulging bar and a beaded helix.

Automatic Cross-Section Orientation

Cross-Section Orientation

Figure 15.6


Rotating the cross section at each coordinate along a spine to create a twisted bar and a lipstick shape.

The Extrusion Node Syntax

Experimenting with Extrusions

Building a Shape Using Extrusion

Figure 15.7


An extruded cylinder built using a circular cross section swept along a straight spine.

Using Open Cross Sections

Figure 15.8


An extruded half cylinder built using half of a circular cross section swept along a straight spine.

Turning off Extrusion Caps

Figure 15.9


An extruded half cylinder with its beginning and ending caps turned off.

Using Concave Cross Sections

Figure 15.10


An extruded room using a floor plan as the cross section.

Using Curved Spines

Figure 15.11


A playground slide built by extruding a half-circle cross section along a helical spine.

Using Closed Spines

Figure 15.12


A torus built using a circular cross section swept along a circular spine.

Scaling Cross Sections

Figure 15.13


A pyramid built by scaling a square cross section to 0.01 at the pyramid apex.

Figure 15.14


A vase built by scaling a circular cross section at each coordinate along a straight spine.

Rotating Cross Sections

Figure 15.15


A bar twisted using Y-axis, cross-section rotation at each spine coordinate.

Figure 15.16


A lipstick shape created by rotating a circular cross section about the X axis as it is extruded.

Animating Spines

Figure 15.17


A wiggling snake whose spine is animated using a CoordinateInterpolator node.

Summary