How about a jigsaw puzzle?

Hey, thats pretty cool...is it actually still a square on the bottom or is it just a texture trick? explain yourself! :)

Hee hee. I was hoping some one would ask (couldn't get any nibbles in the Modeling forum). Short answer, they are actually separate pieces. They could actually be used to make a poseable prop, and it would be relatively straightforward to change the picture. First step, was I created a 12 square grid shown above in the vertex modeller.

Then, I added vertices, and pushed and pulled them to make a jigsaw shape.

After I created all the pieces, I then used the detach polygon command to separate each piece.

Then, I selected every thing and did an Add Thickness command. After that, it was a matter of giving each group of polygons a name, and then also selecting the top set and calling it "top". Then Save As --> Obj, and use UV mapper to map the top separately from the rest. I used the result to make a bump map (so you can see the lines in the assembled picture), and then made a color map by pasting my dog's picture in the appropriate area. Changing the picture is then just a matter of pasting whatever you want in the "top" part of the texture map. Finally, Save the model and import it into Carrara as a single Vertex Object. Then use the Vertex modeller to crease all the edges (otherwise the result looks more like breakfast rolls than jigsaw pieces). You also can rearrange the pieces in the vertex modeller (by selecting the polygon group names). The polygons stay mapped. Kind of fun, I thought.

Sounds like a good tutorial submission for the "free" cd.

Very ingenuous, Terri ! :)

If you want to provide it on the CD, I probably ought to clean it up a bit, and provide some proper example files. I used a similar technique do create one of those rotating billboards. I was going to put it in free stuff as a poseable Poser prop, but wanted to polish it up a bit. I could probably write that one up for the CD if you guys think it would be worthwhile. Perhaps that folding paper airplane trick would be useful as well. None of these are examples of great art, but perhaps someone more artistic than I could put these tricks to use. Hmm, come to think of it, perhaps I should get off my lazy butt add a few of these to my web site.

Can't you just feel the love! Seriously, I think what you're interested in adding to the CD for tutorials is awesome. -Kix