Sometimes it can be helpful (or at least somewhat entertaining) just to 
sit down with a simple object and a ruler and try making the shape.  For 
example, grab a soda can.  It's a cylinder, right?  You can easily 
measure the dimensions of the cylinder and render it.

But then you look at it again.  Well, actually, it's a lot more than 
just a cylinder.  There's a sort of stretched-up torus around the top, 
and that odd-shaped indentation under the pull tab--whoa, there's a pull 
tab!  And so on.  You just do one piece at a time--make that piece look 
right, and then move on to another piece.

When you're just working on the shape, it can be useful to use a shiny 
plastic texture (like the shiny red plastic in the Help file tutorials). 
  That will give you a good idea of the shape without any textural 
distractions.  Once you've got something that looks sort of right, 
though, you'll want to make a textured version (which is where Warp's 
tutorial about improving scenes becomes really useful; it's got some 
nice examples of textures and lighting that could help transform that 
red plastic soda can into something realistic).

A few years back, I sat down with a stand magnifier (you know, the 
Double-Barreled Roach Clip With Solar Lighter) and started measuring and 
coding.  About 1500 lines later, I actually had something I liked enough 
to put in an IRTC entry.  It didn't win or anything, but I was pretty 
happy with it.  ;)

Well, anyway, hope that helps a little.  I've had the flu for about a 
week and am feeling a little brain-damaged, so hope this isn't too 
incoherent.  ;)

--Sherry Shaw


-- 
#macro T(E,N)sphere{x,.4rotate z*E*60translate y*N pigment{wrinkles scale
.3}finish{ambient 1}}#end#local I=0;#while(I<5)T(I,1)T(1-I,-1)#local I=I+
1;#end camera{location-5*z}plane{z,37 pigment{granite color_map{[.7rgb 0]
[1rgb 1]}}finish{ambient 2}}//                                   TenMoons

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