How to: Corner edit around a scoreboard
Corner editing around objects, particularly scoreboards, can be quite tricky until you get the hang of it. A lot of creators seem to have trouble with this one, so I thought I'd put together a quick guide on how to do it properly. I'm sure my method is not the only way to do it, but it works well and is easy to do. (Apologies for the mediocre picture quality - I don't have proper video capture set up on my PSP just yet.)
The first thing you need to understand is the basic shape of a scoreboard. Although it appears fairly rounded, it can be broken down into a series of what I call "high points". These are simply the points at which the small, flat vertices of the scoreboard's shape meet each other. Each corner of the scoreboard has three high points:
Each of the four flat sides of the scoreboard has two high points:
Select your material of choice and adjust the cursor to draw a thin layer in the rear, which is the same layer as the scoreboard's screen. You can use a single piece of material to get the job done, but I prefer to use two. Draw two large brackets around the scoreboard:
Pull back the material a bit to give yourself some space to work:
Create a sharp triangle in the material and touch it to the scoreboard on the center high point of one of the corners. The sharper the triangle you create the better. Press it very firmly against the scoreboard:
Create two more triangles and touch them to the remaining two high points of the scoreboard's corner:
Continue working your way around the top half of the scoreboard, touching all the high points. You don't need to be ultra-precise, but get as close as you can. Your material should look like this:
Here's the trick that makes this method work. Delete the corners in your material that are not touching the scoreboard. This will cause the material to "snap" to the edge of the scoreboard, making a perfect border:
When you are done with the top half, it should look nice and clean like this:
Repeat this process for the bottom half of your material. Notice the "hooks" I made to get around the base of the scoreboard:
Delete the excess points in your material as before. It's a good idea to glue everything together at this point to make sure nothing slides apart:
So, how do you cleanly merge the edges of the two pieces of material together? Make a "V" shape in the bottom piece and drag the outer point so that it overlaps the top piece:
Delete the bottom of the "V" to merge the materials together, making an invisible seam:
Some materials have highly visible edges, such as the one I used above, and that spoils the clean look. Experiment with material changing your background until you no longer see any edges:
That's it! Your scoreboard is now framed and ready for your level. If it doesn't turn out the way you want, just be patient and try again. Give it a bit of time and you'll be corner editing like a pro before you know it.
:)
