Deforming primitives

My 3D Spin

Is there anyway of manipulating Primitives to form a shape? Like say i would like 
to make a lake as a liquid plane and i dont want the edges to be so straight or round.

BeeMKay

You can use the scale function in the parameter tab to turn a cube into a thick plane, if that is what you mean?

Other than that, you could use deformers, or simply take the primitive to Hexagon, Blender or another program that has modelling capacity.

l_stowe

Perhaps this video tutorial will help

Hylas

You can also use the "cutout opacity" function to give your plane a different shape.

I'm sure there are some clever resources out there... but in short:

- Apply the IRAY uber shader to a square plane. The "cutout opacity" setting becomes available under "surfaces".

- Create (in Photoshop, or whatever) a square image in which the intended shape for the lake is white, and the negative space around it is black.

- Load said image as the cutout opacity map. Only what's white on the image will remain visible of the plane. All the black parts disappear.