The Loft tool is nothing new to users in the 3D field, however its performance is entirely different from one application to the next. We'll learn the basics in using the Loft tool in Pixels3D.

This tutorial requires:

Pixels3D | studio | v3.6 and above

Launch Pixels3D and get started with learning the loft tool. Basically the loft tool can "skin" the "ribs" of objects selected, one to the next depending on the order the objects are selected. The best example of the Loft Tool at work would be Dan Platt's image of Slimer from the movie series GhostBusters.

"Pinky model using 4 splines"

Like I mentioned earlier, the Loft Tool is a skinning tool, so let's make the ribs of our tutorial using only the Shapes>Spline tool. Create a simple spline and connect the ends.

Create another spline around the first spline. This time, use many more "anchors" than the previous spline.

Now that we have 2 splines, before we do any re-ordering or lofting, we need to make sure the splines are facing the same direction, otherwise we will get twisting in the loft's shape.

Observe the picture on the right, and notice that the CVs when hilited, have a purple line extending from them. This shows us the cv's order ( 1, 2, 3... ) or the spline's direction, clock-wise or counter-clock-wise. If they are not facing the same direction we need to select one of the splines, select Reshape>Invert to invert the direction of the spline.

Before we can loft our splines, we need to re-order and match the starting points of both splines.

To re-order, select both splines, and choose Reshape>ReOrder, and set the number of points to 100, this will match the number of cvs in both splines and is crucial in lofting objects ( you will crash if you don't follow that step ).

Next we need to match the starting points of one of the splines. Select the spline in the centre, and then hold shift-control-option and press the left/right arrow key on the keyboard. This will move the starting point around in the direction we used with the arrow keys. Align the CVs of the two splines as shown for best results.

Lets move the centre spline along the z-axis away from our outer spline. Select both splines then select Shapes>Loft and you should see a new shape attached to the splines like pictured on the right. Our "skin" has been acheived.