This is another way to model a twisted bar. This tutorial series grew from a discussion on the Strata cafe forums, where I recommended this method, which is very fast and direct. In order to achieve my desired result as quickly as possible, I move between the polygon mesh editor and the spline editing tools in the main modeling space. This is a slightly unusual approach you may not have tried yet.
You may wish to view this in conjunction with Chris Tyler’s slower, more methodical approach which is done entirely within the polygon mesh editor, in this post.
You may also wish to view another slightly more complex tutorial of mine in which I used this same basic approach to model a DNA molecule.
Some notes: I used 8 duplicated profiles rotated at 45° intervals at 4 inch offsets, which means I had a fast rotation rate. Had I wanted more control on my rate of rotation, I could have made 16 duplicates at 22.5° with a 2 inch offset. This doubling up of the density of profiles might render better under some circumstances, although the polygon count would have been doubled due to the extra detail, and I would have had to perform twice as many skin operations. In my tests, the twisted bar with only 8 profiles renders as slightly more slender than the bar with 16 profiles, but they both render very smoothly. This is another way to model a twisted bar. This tutorial series grew from a discussion on the Strata cafe forums, where I recommended this method, which is very fast and direct. In order to achieve my desired result as quickly as possible, I move between the polygon mesh editor and the spline editing tools in the main modeling space. This is a slightly unusual approach you may not have tried yet. This is another way to model a twisted bar. This tutorial series grew from a discussion on the Strata cafe forums, where I recommended this method, which is very fast and direct. In order to achieve my desired result as quickly as possible, I move between the polygon mesh editor and the spline editing tools in the main modeling space. This is a slightly unusual approach you may not have tried yet.
