creating a cylinder

[sarahippo]

Hi,
It looks like I need your help again!
well, I am trying to create a virtual clay model in a cylinder shape, which will be eventually deformed by some input forces.
I don't think I can just use gluCylinder since I need to be able to modify the side surface of the cylinder. I was also thinking about using NURBS, but I am not sure if it is the best choice. Do you think it is possible?
Any other ideas?
Thanks!

[Deiussum]

I'm assuming this is for some form of "virtual pottery wheel?"

The first idea that comes to mind is at a pre-determined interval, store a list of radiuses. Then just use the formula for a circle to determine the outer vertices at that point. You'll probably want to use lighting for the best results, so you'll also need to calculate normals.

You could store all the initial vertex/normal data into arrays. Then have a way to know that when radius a changes, you need to change the vertices/normals in a certain range of the arrays...

That doesn't take into account the inside portion for making "bowls" and stuff. But, you could do something similar using an "inner" and an "outer" radius.

Anyway, just an idea for how you could do it off the top of my head.