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Modelling a Tennis Racket in Alias Surface 2010

In this tutorial we will be taking you through the steps to model a tennis racket in Alias.

Tutorial DetailsProgram: AliasVersion: Surface 2010Difficulty: MediumEstimated Completion Time: 2-4 Days

About the writerDrive design studio has established an enviable reputation for providing quality design development services to manufacturers and consultancies in the automotive, superyacht, motorcycle andproduct industries.

We develop exciting and innovative concepts from our studio or provide external resource to other design teams requiring specialist expertise throughout their design process.

With an experienced team of 15 full time employees, built up of designers, alias modellers and CGI visualisers, Drive is in a strong position to provide flexible packages tailored to our clientsneeds, where quality, experience, and value are of utmost importance.

Step 1This tutorial assumes that you have used Alias before. The beginning will explain where every button is and how to find it but as it goes on the pace will pick up and you should be able to findthings yourself.Before you start modelling its important to have as much detail as possible about the object being modelled. Gather reference images of the object you wish to model or if its a new designmake as many sketches of if explaining any detailed and complex areas. Make sure you have some good blueprints of the object and that all images are filed in a neat and logical file structure.

Step 2Create a new layer by going to Layer>New and rename it cnstr_crvs. Its good practice to start at coordinate 0,0,0. In this example the centre point of the base of the grip will be at 0,0,0.Createanother layer and name is blueprint. Window>Editor>Cameras make select "Top" in the Camera drop down list then scroll down to "Image Planes" and click on "Add" then navigate to theblueprint of the tennis racket. Once the image is visible scale it so that its extents match those of the lines you drew earlier. Palette:Pick>img then manipulating the blue squares.

Alias Tennis Racket Tutorial - Drive Design http://www.drivedesign.co.uk/tutorials/tennis_racket_tutorial/

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Step 3It's good practice to build the larger or main surfaces first.Create a circle then non-proportinally scale it and manipulate the cv's so it follows the centre of the main shape of the head of the racket.This will be a guide for the centre of the structure.Next create a cross section for the structure of the head.

Step 4Palette: Surfaces>Rail Surface select the cross-section curve (1) first followed by the shape curve (2) as shown.(Notice the grid is not visible. To toggle it on/off go to WindowDisplay>Toggles>Grid)

Step 5As your model evolves your modeling space will become cluttered with curves, patches and templated components.To make life easier I often isolate only the parts that I am currently working on. So throughout this tutorial things might disapear then reapear again. I often use temporary layers to store thesecomponents in.Create a new curve aligned to the shape curve and make it follow the centre of the tennis racket to the top of the handle. At the base create a circle then non-proportionally scale it as shown,this will be the cross section of the right side of the racket.

Step 6Unhide the rail surface from the previous step.Split the the rail surface into two seperate entities. (Palette: Object Edit>Detach) and select the U Isoparm (1) then drag and let go when you reach the first cv point of the new curve.


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Step 7Select surface (1) and hide it, leaving surface (2) visible.

Step 8(Palette: Surfaces>Rail Surface) Make sure Generation Curves is set to 2 and Rail Curves is set to 1 then select the objects in the order shown.

Step 9The new surface will not be continuous to the existing one but it does not matter, the existing surface will be rebuilt and continuity will be achieved then.

Step 10Detach the rail surface again but this time holding down Ctrl and snap to the two centre U Isoparms as shown, then delete the left hand side geometry.


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Step 11Turn symmetry on. If the symmetry is in the wrong direction go to Layer>Symmetry>Set Plane...

Step 12... an axis triad will appear. Click on the square to change the symmetry plane then click on 'Set Plane'.

Step 13Turn symmetry off. Hide what is left of the original rail surface and detach the lower part of the rail surface as shown.

Step 14Mirror the section across axis XZ by going to Edit>Duplicate>Mirror and make sure Mirror Across XZ is selected.


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Step 15Build a blend curve as shown and Make sure you get a nice curve comb like the one shown. Make the two ends of the blend curve tangent.

Step 16An interactive duplicate curve does not snap to a curve, it only snaps to a surface. So build a temporary draft surface from the blend curve then create the duplicate curve. Next project normalthe duplicate curve onto the surface and trim away the inner section.

Step 17Delete the surface which hasn't been trimmed.Select the trimmed surface and position its pivot point to be on the first cv of the 'centre guideline'. (this is just a precautionary step to make sure the mirrored object is mirrored to the correctposition)Select nothing then mirror the surface in axis YZ.Do the same for the blend curve.


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Step 18Create a five degree curve from the edges of the surfaces and tangent align it.Then position the new curve so its characteristics are similar to the two blend curves. Make sure the cv's are positioned

Step 19make sure that the curve is perfectly symmetrical. TO confirm this check the XYZ position of the mirror equivalent cv's. The coordinates should be identical apart from one which will be theminus version of the positive.

Step 20Create a rail surface. Use the new curve as the Generation Curve and the trimmed edges of the two surfaces as the Rails as shown.

Step 21Detach the new surface as shown and delete the top bit.


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Step 22Untrim the tubular surface as shown.

Step 23Using the the Duplicate Edge tool with interactive turned on duplicate the bottom edge and slide it up and snap it to the upper surface as shown.Project the new curve using Project Normal.

Step 24

Step 25Mirror the trimmed surface to the other side and delete the untrimmed one.

Step 26Unhide the original duplicate curve which was used to the trim the long tubular surface, then trim it back as shown.


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Step 27Create a new curve and align it as shown.(Make sure it is symmetrical)Project the larger curve onto the top surface in the top viewport.

Step 28The top surface was built to be tangent continuous to the side surfaces, this means that the the cv's highlighted in black and the ones highlighted in white must remain where they are tomaintain this continuity.If the surface was curvature then the the yellow ones would also have to remain where they are.The blue ones do not affect the continuity of the surface. Nudge the blue cv's down in z. Nudge the ones to the right of the image further down than the ones on the left to give slightacceleration of the surface in that directions.The blue ones

Step 29Trim back the top surface and create a square using the trimmed edge, the smaller 'u' shaped curve from step 26 and the edges of the tubular rail surfaces.


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Step 30The patch will have an undesired lip where it meets the upper surface.

Step 31Experiment with the Square Controls and in particular the boundary blend options. In this case the 2-4 Boundary Blend control should iron out the problem.

Step 32Although the surface may look better its still very heavy and contains lots of isoparms in both U and V directions. This is because the patch is having to do a lot of work. So to alleviate the workmake this area up in three sections.

Step 33Check the curvature comb to make sure the curve is flowing nicely.


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Step 34Build a new patch using the new curve. It is only one part of the area but it is a lot lighter than the previous patch.

Step 35Mirror the patch over and check the continuity. Mirroring it over as opose to building it will ensure that the area is prefectly symmetrical.

Step 36Then finally build the middle patch.It will take some time to perfect the curves in order for the patches to fit and flow nicely.

Step 37Unhide the surfaces as shown and mirror them in axis XY to get a feel for the model so far.


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Step 38Isolate the surfaces as shown. The smaller rail surface is curvature continuous to a rail which is hidden, make sure not to move the first two rows of cv's on the bottom to maintain that.

Step 39Detach the rail surface as shown and hide the wireframe surfaces.

Step 40Next step is to merge the two patches.

Step 41


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Step 42Create a curve from the edge of the green surface to the edge of the blue surface and align it at both ends.

Step 43Create a curve from the edge of the green surface to the edge of the blue surface and align it at both ends.

Step 44The next curves will be used to create some blend surfaces between the outer surfaces and the inner surfaces.

Step 45Trim the surfaces and isolate the surfaces and curve as shown.


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Step 46Create a curve from edges of the blue and yellow surfaces and position it in the top view so that it is in line with the joining edges of the surfaces.In the top viewport project the curve onto the grey surface as shown and template the curve.

Step 47Create a curve from the surface edges as before to the end of the projected surface and align it at both ends.

Step 48Build a square using the boundaries defined.Experiment with the square settings to get a light surface which flows nicely.

Step 49Build another surface which will complete the blend. The surface shown was a first hit and is very heavy.


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Step 50With some experimenting it became aparent that it was too much work for a single patch to fill this gap so two were built. Furthermore the whole object was sliced upwards so that the surfacescould be kept light...

Step 51...the surfaces were mirrored and patches were built between them to bridge the gaps.

Step 52Isolate the main surfaces as shown and put all other surfaces on a temporary layer. Put all curves on another layer and turn them off.

Step 53The strings are a network of interwoven tubular surfaces. Start by positioning a curve in the centre of where the longest string will be.


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Step 54Prepare by measuring the width the strings.

Step 55The circles indicate the cross sections of the strings. As they pass each other one goes underneath the other. So the position at the point of where they meet will be the radius distance away.So in this case .6mm.

Step 56Make some temporary surfaces using the the cross sections and path curves to get a feel of how the network of rail surfaces will eventually look.

Step 57Delete the temporary surfaces and copy and paste the path curves as shown. The cross section paths are no longer needed either so delete or hide those too. Notice the endings are slightlydifferent.


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Step 58Create a tube surfaces along the path curves by going to :Palette>Surfaces>Tube Surface enter the radius size and make sure Chain Select is selected for the tube to run the length of all the curves.

Step 59Every other string will be woven in the same direction so measure the distances and duplicate the tube surface.

Step 60Select the first tube surface again and copy it then move it half the distance of the duplicated surface.

Step 61Rotate this surface 180 degrees in Y axis.


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Step 62Duplicate this surface as before.

Step 63Do the same thing in the other direction.Add some detailing to the ends of the strings.

Step 64The racket handle is very simple.Build some surfaces for the main volume.

Step 65Fillet the edges by going to :Surfaces>surface Fillet, fillet the circumference edges first followed by the


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Step 66From hereon its all down to detail, its the little touches that make all the difference. Make sure all edges are radiused so that they catch the light.

ConclusionApply some materials to the racket and turn off model. If you have any questions dont hesitate to contact us at [email protected]


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alias tennis racket tutorial - drive design

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