Create a plane from the standard primitives menu, and place it near the center of the stage.




Drag the image of the two chess pieces to the desktop, then drag it to the plane to automatically apply it as a diffuse map. Note that the size of the image is 846x772. In order to avoid distortion, we go back to the plane and, in the modifier tab, set its dimensions to something that preserves the width-height ratio, like 56 x 51.




Go to the front view and press f3 to show faces. Go to the create tab, then click the 'shapes' icon. Set the drop-down menu to splines.




Click the line tool, and set 'Drag Type' to Bezier. Use this tool to trace half of the outline of the pawn. Left clicking creates a point,and holding down the left mouse button allows you to give the point a curve. End the shape either by left clicking on your initial point or right clicking anywhere. Being able to do smooth curves in this is one major difference between working with splines and working with vertex tools (which is what we have been doing).




What you have is most likely not a perfect outline. To tweak it, right click on the line you have drawn and select 'Convert to -> Convert to Editable Spline'. Here you have a set of tools for editing splines. You can also right click on a point and change its type. You can ply aroundwith the types of points, but the main distinction is between corners, which do not have any smoothness, and Beziers, which have two green handles that allow you to define a curve for the spline around this point.




Go to the modifier list and apply a Lathe modifier to the spline. At first it will probably look like a cylinder. What you need to do is expandthe modifier by clicking the plus next to its name, select 'Axis' and move the resulting selecion in the x plane until you have an objectthat makes sense. Since we applied Lathe as a modifier, you can still go back to the Line level in the stack and edit the underlying points.




At this point you may want to further tweak the geometry or add non-symmetrical features such as the notch in the bishop. Add an editable polymodifier on top of the Lathe modifier in the stack. At this point you can use the existing tools we know how to use, such as slice, to add features. At any time you can return to the Lathe or Line levels and edit their properties. After finishing up the pawn, model two more chess piece using these procedures, in addition to the chessboard, which can be modeled as a box with the provided texture applied and UV mapped (see last week's lesson.)