Re: Newbie question

I would make consecutive extrusions. Then scale the extrusion one by
one (or on each extrusion). Move the vertices around to where they
convey the shape you want. On the last extrusion, use the w-key merge
function, merge to center. There is also a button which turns on
proportional editing. The mouse wheel controls the size of the portion
to edit (in a spherical volume). You can select various falloffs as well.

Under the color choice area is a little [A] with a slider. This
controls the alpha value. Moving it left increases the amount of
opacity. Use Z-Buffer for quicker opacity, or ray transparency for ray
traced effects. The IOR changes the index of refraction. This latter
method can lead to drastically longer render times. Test render an
image at 25 percent with shadows turned off to test this.

Happy Blending! 


--- In [email protected], "val_bliss" <valrichardson@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> 
> I just started using Blender, just as you're talking about this group
> going away!
> 
> I'm a scientific illustrator, and I've worked for 20 years in
> Illustrator. 
> 
> Many of my illustrations involve irregularly shaped cells that are
> having interactions with each other or with molecular structures.
> 
> I've spent a happy few days going through the Blender basics in the
> manual, but I still have some questions.
> 
> I want to be able to pull in some of my line drawings from
> Illustrator. and then turn the cells three-dimensional with
> smoothly-curving surfaces. I've figured out the import part, and I've
> then also figured out that I can convert the shapes to mesh and
> extrude from there.
> 
> What I get is a shape that's like my old drawing but thicker and with
> vertical walls.
> 
> How can I make the whole shape poof up like a balloon and with no side
> edges at all. Is there a way to extrude to a curved surface?
> 
> As a bonus question, where is Z-trans? I'd like to do shapes inside
> translucent shapes. I figured out Ray trans, but I see mentioned here
> and there that z-trans is better.
> 
> Thanks for your help!
> 
> Don't go away!
> 
> Best, Valerie
>