Have you ever had trouble trying to cut a certain shape into your models? or you don’t have access to Boolean Operations? Well during this tutorial I am going to teach you how to use the “Cut Face” tool effectively. At the end of this lesson you will be able to create clean cuts with the “Cut Face” Tool.

First things first, start up Anim8or.

Now we need to be working in a view mode that will allow us to see everything, so change your view to view “All” (View -> All) or by pressing 4).

Now that you have done this, we need an object to work on, so let’s begin our progress on a Jack-O-Lantern. Now, create a sphere the size of 64 pixels in diameter, leave the rest of the setting alone. If you do not know how to change the setting of the object, just double click on it and it should bring up the objects setting window.

Now, you need to make the object an editable mesh. So, with the object still selected we will convert this into a mesh (Build -> Convert to Mesh).

Now with the object converted to a mesh, we will need to change into Object/Point Edit mode (Shift + P or Click on the button that has 3 pixels representing it). When we are in this mode, we will need to change into the sub-mode, “Face Select” (Press “g” or click on the button with a triangle pixel representing it).

Once you have done all the above, let’s begin by selecting the cut tool (Looks like a knife. For those who don’t know what a knife is, it is a sharp blade with a handle on one end of it. If you don’t know what that looks like, then open up a browser and type in on the address bar, yes the box with writing in it, type in, [url=http://www.google.com]www.google.com[/url] . Now let it load and then click on images, and type in on the box next to the search button, “knife” and it should show you pretty pictures of knives). Now with this tool selected we will go to the front view and look for a face to cut a pretty shape in. Because we are making a Jack-O-Lantern let’s start with the eyes (A simple note for everyone, when you draw faces whether 2D or 3D begin with the eyes however in 3D case, begin with the shape of the face and then do the eyes). So do what the next image shows.

See, you have created an edge and also 2 triangles within your mesh. Now your going to do the same thing to the other side. Also, if you find that you have also cut onto the other side, this can be fixed easy by selecting the two triangle faces that are on the other side and merging them (Shift + M).

Now that you have two eyes, you can make the mouth by yourself using the concepts taught during this tutorial.

Hope this was a help to you all.
The Job