Our final step is to add door steps, shrubbery, mushroom yard ornaments, a sidewalk and walkway lights. Each of these will be made in Shape Magic then imported into your 3D program (like Bryce, Vue or Poser) then duplicated, rotated and sized as needed.

You can download a copy of the Shape Magic .smg files here if you want to use them to follow the tutorial. Or feel free to make your own.

Step 5A - Steps to Door

To start, go to the Side View and create something like this. Note that I use only 5 bezier segments to keep the number of polygons in the model down (the more bezier segments, the larger the model and the more memory it uses).

Go to the Top View page and click on the Smooth Petals button (A). Click on the 3-dot cluster (B) until two dots are colored. Set the hollow, round and square dots as shown.

Go to Create File page. Set the Rough settings as shown. These settings mean that 25% of the polygons are offset by -5 to +5%. This makes the surface more rough, which is good for natural objects like rocks and bushes. Click on the Create button, then go to the Save File page. Enter the file name, and if not checked already, click on the three checkboxes: Group names, UV mapped and Front & Back polygons. (For Bryce, leave the Front & Back Polygons unchecked.)

Step 5B - Sidewalk

The sidewalk starts like this.

The Top View is a 4 -sided polygon (ignore the hollow red dots as only the blue dot affects Polygons).

Go to the Create File page and make two bends as shown. Click on the Create button, then go to the Save File page. Enter the file name, and if not checked already, click on the three checkboxes: Group names, UV mapped and Front & Back polygons. (For Bryce, leave the Front & Back Polygons unchecked.) When this is imported into your 3D program, it will be a very thick sidewalk. Decrease it's size in the Z-direction to make it almost flat.

Step 5C - Lamp

Next we'll make the lamps that go along the sidewalk. The Top View looks like this. Note that I use only 1 bezier segment in the straight sections (Top and Bottom) while I use many more in the curved section (Middle).

Go to the Top View and click on the Polygon button. Then drag the blue dot to 6 to make a hexagon cross section. Finally, go to the Create File page, click on the Create button, then go to the Save File page. Enter the file name, and if not checked already, click on the three checkboxes: Group names, UV mapped and Front & Back polygons. (For Bryce, leave the Front & Back Polygons unchecked.)

Step 5D - Mushroom

Let's add some mushroom lawn ornaments. The Side View looks like this.

Go to the Top View and click on the Round button. Finally, go to the Create File page, click on the Create button, then go to the Save File page. Enter the file name, and if not checked already, click on the three checkboxes: Group names, UV mapped and Front & Back polygons. (For Bryce, leave the Front & Back Polygons unchecked.)

Step 5E - Tall Shrub

Our last objects are shrubs to go around the house. The first one is tall and pointy. The Side View looks like this. NOt that there is only one section (Middle, all the other sections have 0 bezier segments which turns them off).

The Top View uses the Rough Petals setting (A). This adds random roughness at each bezier segment. Each time you click the Rough Petal button, you'll get a different random shape. To keep the size down, I only used 5 bezier segments (B).

These two settings make the shrub look like it has foliage. It has Twist (A) to break up the pattern as you move up the tree. And it has more roughness (B) than the steps.

Next click on the Create button, then go to the Save File page. Enter the file name, and if not checked already, click on the three checkboxes: Group names, UV mapped and Front & Back polygons. (For Bryce, leave the Front & Back Polygons unchecked.)

Step 5F - Short Shrub

The Side View looks like this.

The Top View is the same as the for the tall shrub. And Twist on the Special Effects page is only 180 (since it is not as tall as the other shrub).

Finally, go to the Create File page, click on the Create button, then go to the Save File page. Enter the file name, and if not checked already, click on the three checkboxes: Group names, UV mapped and Front & Back polygons. (For Bryce, leave the Front & Back Polygons unchecked.)

That's It!

All the parts are now made and ready to be imported into your 3D program. The parts have to be rotated, sized, positioned and textured as needed. Here is an exploded image from Bryce that shows the various parts ready to be assembled. The top story of the house is simply a copy of the base house rotated 90 degrees, made smaller, than having teardrop windows copied from the lower story.