Introduction to Texturing

I am now learning how to apply textures within 3ds Max. To apply textures you open Material Editor which is located on the Main Toolbar, This window displays shapes that show the texture when applied, a single scene can only use 24 materials. Here is what the Material Editor looks like:


The basic texture settings are within the Blinn Basic Parameters section. This section holds settings such as Ambient, Diffuse and Specular (colour), Opacity, Self-Illumination and Specular Highlights. Here I have demonstrated what they do:

Colour (Ambient and Diffuse)

 Self-Illumination. Two options - Colour which blends model into an overall colour decreasing shading amount or brightens model by changing the number amount)

 Specular Highlights increases brightness of light, glossiness and softness

 Opacity (transparency)

There is another section called Shader Basic Parameters which has a drop down menu to change Blinn to other options such as Metal, which changes the below section into Metal Basic Parameters that changes the result when applied. Also you can choose to wire which changes your 3d model into wireframe and 2 sided can help with planes as it applies the texture to both sides. Here I have changed the Shader into Metal creating a more reflective surface:

Next is applying Diffuse and Bump Maps. To apply a Map, you need to extend the Maps section and click ‘None’ next to the desired Map option, then a drop down menu will appear showing the various Maps you can choose. I have chosen Bitmap as I can apply a metal texture that I downloaded from Google Images. Keep in mind that I have not applied UVW Maps therefore the texture is not wrapping around the object but does take on the colour of the texture:

Now I am going to apply UVW Maps in the modifier list. This now shows a plane cage around my object but I changed this to cylindrical cage as I want the texture to wrap around my cylindrical model. When applying the UVW Maps it wraps the texture around the model from what I have assigned in the Material Editor and as you can see the texture is visible. You can now change the length, height, width and position of the texture by changing the numbers in the UVW Map modifier settings.
 

 










Here I have applied a texture to the surrounding planes by using Maps > Bitmap and choosing the initial texture.

Subdivision Modeling Method

Here is a hand made using Subdivision Modeling Methods in 3ds Max, also used other tools such as Soft Selection.

3d Project Completed

The objects are now finished. Here are the renders:

Half way point in 3d project.

I am half way through my first 3d modelling project.
I believe i am on track in terms of doing this work at home rather than in college. Although i have only started one of my objects which i am duplicating and using the noise to change them slightly (sandbags), but i have been focusing on the environment (trench) which the objects will be placed in, so that had taken more time than i hoped.
Once the sandbags are complete i will move onto the rifle which is another process that will take long, but when these objects are complete the other objects are rather easy.

3D Object Proposal

My first task in the 3d unit is to design 6 different objects surrounding a theme i have chosen.

To decide on a theme, i drawn several spider diagrams trying to think different environments and what objects would i see in these environments, i wrote down four different ideas, Living Room, WW1 Trench, Harry Potter Classroom and a Bar. In the end i chosen WW1 Trench as it seemed a unique and interesting idea and would show more of my skill in 3d.

These will be designed on 3ds Max showing various skills including box modelling, spline modelling and compound objects.

I intend to create objects surrounding a WW1 theme, these objects include a Lantern, crate, gun, bullet shells, trench/netting and sandbags. I intend to use skills such as extrude, bevel, chamfer, MeshSmooth, loft, lathe, boolean and pro boolean to find different ways of creating each object and add various detail.

Megacity

I was trying to create Megacity from Judge Dredd using black and white paintings in Photoshop to build up each part of the city.
At the bottom of the rendered image, it shows the buildings and eagle in Photoshop which then are transferred into 3d models using displace tool.
Also on the main building i used Soft Selection to make it look more unique, creating a curved dome top and curved sides to make it look like an eagle.

Mountains

This next tool called Displace allows you to take a grayscale painting from Photoshop into a 3ds Max plane and increasing the strength of displace makes it 3d. Simple yet effective tool useful for creating environment terrain.

Tap Model

Here is a tap model. The levers and the inner section at the top were created using extrude, then i used soft selection to make some parts look more interesting, for example used this tool to make the bottom lever go inwards at the top and create a curved bottom.
Also used bevel at the sides of the levers to yet again make it look interesting.
Chamfer is a useful tool to make sharp edges become straight angles then you can keep adjusting to create the illusion of curved edges, but this tool was helpful when applying MeshSmooth as it made edges and angles appear smoother.
Lastly MeshSmooth was applied to make the overall tap smooth, this tool allows you to adjust the smoothness rather than just applying it.

Boolean Shapes

This render was created mainly using Boolean and Pro Boolean.
I created standard primitive shapes and experimented with them to create various objects.
Then used the options on Boolean for the first object, Pizza Planet, like on the previous posts to subtract and join shapes together.
The other two objects, cheese and switch, were created using Pro Boolean which basically is an improved version of Boolean as it does not mess up the geometry and allows you to select several objects to quickly join and subtract.

Spline shapes

Very similar to the post before this, the basic room renders, these shapes are all made up of splines and using various options in the Editable Spline modifier panel.
I see using splines as building up shapes and combining these shapes to create an object.
The options union, intercet and subtract (which i described in the previous post) help with quickly creating the shape you want.

The key was just a single spline circle for the top, then using the line tool to create the other part, then extruding it out without capping the top of the 3d object.

Keyhole was just a circle and a rectangle union together and used subtract to cut it out of the main circle.

Wrench i used the vertex option to create the smooth edges by right clicking and choosing smooth, using a rectangle and subtracting it from a circle to create the part at the top where it goes inwards.

The rectangle necklace was very simple, just smoothed out another rectangle and subtracted it out of the main rectangle. The wire was created using a spline line and circle and using loft.

The odd looking dog collar is just 5 circles and a rectangle, unioned together.

Basic Rooms

This is a fast and easy way of creating a layout shape for a room.
I created these only using splines.

I drawn some spline shapes then right click > convert to editable spline, then in the editable spline drop down menu in the modifier list panel, i chose spline and selected the shapes then chose attatch.
Attatch needs to be applied as it groups all of the shapes together.

Then on Compound Shapes i chose Boolean.
Union - joins the shapes together
Subtract - removes a shape from another
Intercet - cuts the inside of two shapes together.

Then extruded to make them 3D.

Screwdriver

This complex design of a screwdriver was created with the loft tool which is located in Compound Objects.
The loft tool allows you to create objects using 2D shapes. This design was created using a star shape, 2 circles and rectangle. Then by clicking Shape by Object and choosing each object in the correct order and adjusting the values it creates the shape step by step.

Object designs using splines and lathe.

These objects were created using splines and lathe.
I used Shapes > Splines > Line to draw half of an object.
Then by choosing lathe in the modifier list it will make a full object, by choosing different direction and align with change the shape of the object.
Then using the vertex option in Line i cleaned up each shape by correcting certain vertices and adding in more vertices.

House Design

Here is a basic house design which i created using several tools.
To start off i created a box then went onto Edit Poly connected a edge line at the top of the box and used extrude to create the roof shape.
I then used the edge tool to connect a shape of a chimmney and used extrude to pull out the shape, then adjusted it so it was straight on the roof.
Then used a useful tool called Slice Plane which allowed you to cut into the face of a polygon, this helped me map out the shape of each window and doors and used bevel.
For the garage i used the Slice Plane and used extrude to pull out the shape.

Here is a table and chair design that has been rendered. I used various tools using the modifier list - Edit Poly and selecting options such as Edge and Polygon to adjust and create areas. I also used bevel, bridge and extrude to make the job faster and add detail.

                             
(click to enlarge)

In class we were introduced to 3ds Max and here is my first quick model. This was just to get used to the layout and using geometry standard primitives and choosing from the object types to create basic shapes. Then i fiddled around with resizing and rotating.

(click to enlarge)

I'm a student at Manchester College and doing a Games Development course. We have just moved onto 3D and it is an essential part of the course.

 

This blog is to show my development in 3ds Max.