How to make odd shaped brushes?

I have a problem making a boumerang shaped brush that will be a replica
of the bar I have at home. After experimenting with the
curve/arch/vertex tools I was still unable to make it look right.
Please help. Thank you!

*Edit: This is a pic of what I have in mind (but a little straighter :biggrin: )

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• simply ...perfeKt

You should be using Vertex manipulation tool... that's basically all
you need... just make sure you do not make something that one side
would be able to overlap :biggrin:

That is... no angles can be more than 180 degrees on a single brush. Otherwise you'll get invalid brush errors...

Now, you select a side point (those yellow dots) - actually more like 2
of them and you press Ctrl-F, which gives you extra vertice on the side
of the plane.

Anyway, there's really nothing more to it... the inner curve you have there consists of many little brushes tho...

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HL2 tutorials 'n' stuff: http://madedog.pri.ee
217.159.236.34:27050 - CSS Server - Clean | koffer.ee

Thanks. You have helped me alot, but now my problem is how do I make it
look straight on both sides of the curve. Sorry if I am being a pain in
the a**.

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• simply ...perfeKt

Well, it's not that angles can't be more then 180? (They can't) it's that there can be no concave brushes. Which is a far more expansive restriction.

I'd suggest using the clip tool as well. Oh, also, since you're using HL2 you can use displacements too ... but that depends on some other things that you want.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Well, it's not that angles can't be more then 180? (They can't)
it's that there can be no concave brushes. Which is a far more
expansive restriction.

I'd suggest using the clip tool as well.
Oh, also, since you're using HL2 you can use displacements too ... but
that depends on some other things that you want.

I say, use displacements...will look far more smoother, but as crono
says, you need to use brushes if you want to tie it to an entity

I almost figured it out!

The whole bar will be made out of 3 different brushes. But the last brush I am making just doesnt wanna bear with me.

Basically what I need is to create a brush formed like this.



What tool do I do this with? I tried vertex tool but I cant make it work.

And is how would a pro do this? With brushes or a ready model?

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• simply ...perfeKt

You don't create a brush like that, you use multiple brushes for that.
Brushes can't be concave, and that shape is pretty much concave... :wink:

Divide it into two or more brushes that together make up that shape.

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Create-ivity - a game development blog

Displacements. Use the subdivide tool.

If you want a solid, vis blocking ... entity bearing brush, don't use displacements (otherwise: by all means).

The easiest way to do that is to split it up into triangles. Use a cylinder or arch as a clipping guide ... like this:



1. This is what you should start out with ... just a block.



2. Clip it at a 45? angle, making a triangle.



3. Create the guide, line it up to where you want to cut and make initial cuts (so you have lined up brushes that wont split each other). Cutting horizontally is a pretty easy way. Make sure you cut along the verticies of the guide.

4. Before this step, you want to go through and vertex manipulate the cylinder (or whatever guide) along the cut (in this case, left or right) to make sure the verticies are on the grid. I suggest using the unit 1 scale for this.

Once you do that, you can begin clipping off the sides using the guide ... which will end up like this:



5. Final shape. Made up of 8 brushes in this case. I used a 32-sided cylinder for this ... moved it and scaled it so two of the quads are lined up against the outer corners of the triangle ...

pretty easy over all. This really is the basis for most advanced brush architecture. Everything else (in conjunction with displacements and that skew tool) is derived from this ... using a guide to clip effecient complicated shapes.

(If the images aren't up, they'll be up soon.)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

WOW. thats all I can say to you. thank you

Sure.

Of course, you should realize what I did could be seen as a little sloppy. I whipped it up in about three minutes.

You don't have to have a guide, it just makes it easier. The cutting intervals could be more even with each other too. But, it still illustrates the entire idea.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.