Introduction:

This tutorial shows how to model a house with an apple tree. It acquaints you with the basic features of Artist3D. (Watch this video.)

Start the Artist3D app. A window with blue lines symbolizing the floor plane appears on the screen.

A single tool bar on the window bottom provides each function of Artist3D.

Use two fingers to move, rotate or scale the scene in each mode. Use three fingers to rotate the scene around the center of an object.

 

Part 1: Modeling the basic shape of the house (Steps 1 - 8 in the video)

Activate box mode by touching the box symbol on the tool bar.

Use box bode to generate new boxes or modify existing boxes.

Touch and hold in the right red area of the screen to create a new box. Drag the new box to the center of the screen.

Drag the bottom-center corner marked with the blue cylinder to move a box. Drag the bottom-left corner or the bottom-right corner to rotate a box around its y-axis and/or to resize it. Drag the upper-center corner to change the height of a box. Drag the remaining upper corners to resize a box.

Thus, modify the proportions, the alignment and the position of the box until it looks like in the figure. Use the undo button to undo each modification of the 3D scene (button with arrow to the left). Use the redo button to redo the modification (button with arrow to the right). Try both functions.

Part 2: Adding the roof (Steps 9 - 25 in the video)

Objects are placed on the floor or on polygons of other objects.

Use a distance constraint to control the position of the roof object. Activate distance mode (Touch the button with dividers). The button shows a zero distance. Touch the top vertex of the box. The small red sphere shows the reference point of the distance constraint. Vertices will snap to this point. The distance mode button is red as long as a distance constraint is active.

Choose the roof mode to generate roof shaped objects. Touch the button with the roof symbol. Touch and hold in the right red area of the screen to create a new roof. The roof object will be moved automatically to the reference point.

Activate distance mode and move the reference point by touching the top right vertex of the box. Activate roof mode. Move the bottom right vertex of the roof object. It snaps to the reference point. Adjust the bottom left vertex of the roof in the same manner.

Activate distance mode and click to the background to disable the distance constraint. The distance mode button becomes white.

Modify the roof object according to the figure. Use the top points to design the proportions of the roof object.

Part 3: Coloring the roof and painting shingles (Steps 26 - 44 in the video)

Use two fingers and three fingers to change the orientation of the house. Touch an object with three fingers to rotate the scene around the object’s center. Use two fingers to rotate and move the scene on the image plane. It is like manipulating an image of the 3D scene. It is important to be familiar with view control in the following steps. (Note: You can undo any modification of the view with the undo button.)

Touch the button showing an eye vertical over a polygon surface to activate the Look-perpendicular-onto-plane mode. Touch roof to look perpendicular onto it. Rotate the view with two fingers.

Activate the color-objects mode. The color-objects mode button shows a bowl and teapot above.

Choose a red color at the left side of the screen. (Note: You can move your finger away from there while touching the display to pick-up colors from the rest of the screen.)

Notice how the background color of the color-polygons button is changing while moving the finger over the screen. Lift your finger after you have chosen the favored red color. This red color is now the active painting color.

Color the roof red by touching it.

Activate paint-on-polygons mode. (The button shows a brush symbol.) Choose a black color.

Adjust the size of the brush stroke at the right side of the screen. Draw shingles with your finger.

Rotate the view to look perpendicular onto the other side of the roof. Draw shingles there.

Part 4: Painting windows and door (Steps 45 - 68 in the video)

Draw a door and further windows on the other sides of the house as shown in the figure. Align the camera by using the Look-perpendicular-onto-plane mode.

Rotate the view to look perpendicular onto the lateral face of the box.

Draw two windows onto this side of the house.

You can undo botched strokes or paint over parts with white color. Nevertheless, the quality of the drawing is not of importance at this stage. A simple sketch of a window as shown in the figure is sufficient.

Choose white color by moving your finger from the left side over the screen. Paint over black parts.

Rotate the view to look perpendicular onto the front face of the box. Sketch a door.

Part 5: Designing the shape of the tree (Steps 69- 99 in the video)

In naive drawings trees are usually rotation symmetric. The basic shape of a rotational solid is ideal for designing such a tree.

Move the house to the left with two fingers to clear a space for the tree.

Choose a brown color in color-objects mode. New objects become brown.

Touch the button looking like a cone with an additional ring. It symbolizes the rotational-solid mode. Touch and hold in the right red area of the screen to create a green cone. Drag the new cone to the desired position.

Design the tree's crone: Drag up the cone top to any height. The top becomes the center of the crone.

Activate distance mode. Select the top as reference point. Notice the small red sphere. Change the radius of the distance constraint by moving your finger at the right bar. The radius of the sphere changes. The radius is shown at the distance button simultaneously. Vertices will snap to the surface of the sphere.

As shown in the figure the tree consists of several rings of tetragons. First move the top of the cone upwards.

Create new rings by touching and dragging the middle of a vertical edge. Drag the new ring to define its radius and height. Since the distance constraint is active all rings remain on the sphere. Touch on any vertex or on a horizontal edge to adjust a ring.

Disable distance constraint by touching background in distance mode. Adjust the bottom ring by selecting a vertical edge near the bottom ring. Create a ring for the trunk. Try to create a similar tree as shown in the figure. Touch on a horizontal bottom edge to move the tree, if needed.

Part 6: Coloring and painting onto the tree (Steps 100 - 149 in the video)

As a next step the crone gets new color. Activate the color-polygons mode. The color-objects mode button shows a spatula. Choose green color at the left side of the screen. Move your finger over the polygons of the trunk to color them green. Rotate the scene with multiple fingers to view the back side of the crone. Paint the now visible polygons of the crone. Repeat this procedure until each polygon of the trunk gets colored in green.

Objects can hide each other. Here the house may hide the tree. In this case activate the change-visibilty mode. The icon shows a crossed eye. Touch the roof and the box to make it invisible. Change to color-polygons mode. Paint the hidden polygons of the crone.

Choose a red color to paint the apples. Change to Paint-on-polygons mode. Choose a thick brush stroke. Touch on the screen to speckle single polygons.

Rotate the scene to speckle the entire treetop with apples. Change to change-visibilty mode. Touch roof and box to make it visible again.

Congratulations, the Artist3D scene is complete! Save the scene with the save button. Saving Artist3d files requires no file extension. For exporting into the VRML97 or Wavefront OBJ format save the scene again with the extension „wrl“ or "obj", respectively .

We would welcome your feedback about our tutorial.