CLICK ON BRUSH>ADD PRIMITIVE>CYLINDER. IN THE POP UP BOX YOU HAVE SOME CHOICES TO MAKE. FOR THIS EXAMPLE I GAVE THE BRUSH 12 SIDES, SET THE HEIGHT TO 112 UNITS AND THE RADIUS TO 4 UNITS. GIVE THE BRUSH A TEXTURE. CLICK ON THE TEXTURES TAB. SCROLL DOWN TO SFX>PARTICLE. CHOOSE THE "HEART" TEXTURE AND APPLY IT.

LET'S ROTATE THE BRUSH SO IT IS HORIZONTAL. WITH YOUR CURSOR IN THE LOWER LEFTHAND VIEWPORT, RIGHT-CLICK AND SELECT "ROTATE SELECTION". ENTER 90 DEGREES IN THE POP-UP BOX.

WE'RE GONNA MAKE THIS BRUSH TRANSLUCENT NOW. RIGHT-CLICK, SELECT "BIND TO OBJECT" AND THEN "TRANSLUCENTWORLDMODEL". GO INTO IT'S PROPERTIES AND ADJUST THEM AS SHOWN BELOW IN MIDDLE IMAGE. YOUR CAN MESS AROUND WITH THE ALPHA SETTING OF A "TWM" TO TWEAK THE OPACITY OF THE BRUSH BUT I'LL LEAVE MINE AT 1.000.

LET'S DELETE THE ENDS OF THE BRUSH THAT WON'T BE SEEN. GO INTO GEO-MODE AS SHOWN BELOW LEFT. POSITION YOUR CURSOR OVER AN END OF THE CYLINDER. IT WILL LIGHT UP IN RED. SIMPLY HIT THE “PAGE DOWN” KEY AND THAT WILL DELETE THE HIGHLIGHTED FACE (POLY). GO TO THE OPPOSITE SIDE AND DO THE SAME THING.

LET'S POSITION THIS BRUSH AT A GOOD HEIGHT. 32 UNITS ABOVE THE FLOOR SHOULD BE FINE BUT WE NEED TO CHANGE THE GRIDSIZE BEFORE WE CAN DO THAT. GO BACK INTO BRUSH EDITING MODE AND DESELECT EVERYTHING. WITH YOUR CURSOR POSITIONED OVER THE LOWER LEFTHAND VIEWPORT, HIT THE "MINUS" KEY ONCE AND THE GRID WILL SHRINK FROM 64 TO 32 UNITS. RESELECT THE TWM, HIT THE "DOWN" (ARROW) KEY THREE TIMES. THAT WILL PLACE IT WHERE WE WANT IT. WE WANT TWO MORE BEAMS EXACTLY LIKE THIS ONE. WHILE HOLDING DOWN THE "CONTROL" KEY, HIT THE "C" KEY. THEN HOLD DOWN BOTH THE "CONTROL" AND "ALT" KEYS AND HIT THE "V" KEY. THIS WILL COPY AND PASTE AN EXACT DUPLICATE IN THE SAME SPOT AS THE ORIGINAL. WITH YOUR CURSOR IN THE LOWER LEFTHAND VIEWPORT, PRESS THE "UP" (ARROW) KEY TWICE TO MOVE IT UP A TOTAL OF 64 UNITS. REPEAT THE PROCESS ONCE AGAIN SO YOU END UP WITH THREE LASERS SPACED 64 UNITS APART.

NEXT WE'LL CREATE AN ENCLOSURE FOR THEM...

 

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