Eggplant 2

A 3 minute animation of part 2 is available via the following table:

From school server (fast but only works at school) From internet server (slower but works anywhere that has ADSL)
SWF file web page Web page

 

Now we will extrude the five surrounding upper faces to make the plant's leaves.

Start by selecting the 5 surrounding upper faces. You may need to switch between the point-select and drag-select tools, and switch views to get the right faces selected.

Once you have then selected as shown on the right, extrude them a small amount, scale them up until they are close to touching, but not quite. Then use the face rotate  tool to tilt the faces so that they are facing a little bit more vertically. To do this, click and drag the left mouse button carefully in the vertical direction only. Moving it to the right or left will twist the faces in the wrong direction.

Next extrude them again, this time a bit more than the previous, and rotate the faces until they are facing even more vertically. One final extrude and you're finished with the basic shape for the eggplant!

Before you smooth your eggplant into its final form there is one more thing that you can do control the final form. It would be better if the bottom side of the base a little flatter than the top side. You can do this by setting how sharp the bottom edges should be.

First select all of the bottom most edges. Switch to the front view and to edge select  mode. Drag select the bottom row of the model as shown on the left. Then select Edit>Edge Properties from the menu. Select the Rounded button and enter 1 for the level. Click OK and you're ready to smooth your model. 
Switch back to edit mode in the object editor mode by clicking on the topmost arrow button on the toolbar. It is easier to see what's happening if you view your model in the faceted mode, so select the View>Preferences menu item and then select flat in the OpenGL area of the dialog that appears. Click OK.

Select your model. Then select the Build>Subdivide menu item. Leave the tension value at the default 0 in the dialog that appears, and click OK. Then do the same thing again. Your model should look like that shown below!
Notice the shape of the foot. The bottom edge is sharper than the top, but it isn't perfectly sharp. This gives the model a "bottom" side without going all the way to making a sharp crease, which wouldn't be very plant-like.
 
If you switch back to a smooth view, you might notice a few places near sharp curves where the model appears creased. You can smooth these places out by subdividing again but this would increase the number of faces in the model by a factor of 4!

A better way is to set the model's smooth angle. The smooth angle is the threshold Anim8or uses to determine if adjacent faces should appear smooth or creased. Switch to point-select  and double click on the model to bring up its properties dialog. Set the smooth angle to 75 and click OK, and it's all better.

Click HERE to see part 3 of this four-part tutorial.