BOX MODELING FOR BEGINNERS 3ds MAX

i friends,

Today we are going to try our hands on that incredible Modeling Technique in 3ds Max, “The Box Modeling” we’ll be creating a simple SUV model from a Box

Before that I assume that you are having that basic idea in Max.

• We’ll start our things by placing a box in the viewport with these dimensions 90,50,50 and for the segments, we’ll go for 6,6,6

• After that we’ll convert our Box into an Editable Polygon(Right click>convert to>Editable poly)

• Then select the polygon sublevel and select the Polygons shown in the picture, we are going to make the front area of our SUV

• We will use the Extrude Option and use the default value for Extruding the selected polygons thrice for the Bonnet.

• Select the Vertex sub level and adjust the vertices in all viewports for getting the shape shown in the picture.

• Now select the Polygons shown in the picture for creating the front glass and then inset them with a small value, I used 1.0

• For the same Polygons we are going to apply a Bevel with both height and inset are -.5

• Use the same method for window glasses also.

• Select the polygons shown in the picture for creating a bumper and Extrude them using “local normal” to 1.5 units

Now is the time for Creating wheel arches, back dickey. We will use the Boolean Compound Object here. For that we will create 4 cylinders for wheel arches and a box modified using Editable Polygon method, as the dickey which I shown in the picture.

• For Boolean we will use a trick. We will attach four cylinders and the dickey object together from “Edit Geometry>attach” because after this Max will consider it as a single object and we can use the Boolean operation only once

• I used some Tubes and splines to modify the SUV like this..its upto to you.

• Its almost finished, we are going to make a Tyre. From a Chamfer Cylinder and an Extruded NGon, we can make it very easily like this

• Now for the front grill. First we will create new edges in the front using Connect option.

• And then Extrude the Edges with a small value like in the pic

Creating Grass Land Using Pflow in 3dsmax

First of all, let's start by creating a cone of sides: 6 radius1: .6 radius2: 0 and height: 40. A bend modifier should be applied to the cones. You can even go lesser on the sides if it gives the result you want. you can also create another cone bend in a different angle. Now we have a Cone01, Cone02 and a Plane01. You may name these to Grass1, Grass2,Terrain respectively since I strongly would advise you all to use naming conventions whenever possible, which can save you a lot of time. Using a cone gives you a three-dimensionality to the grass, instead of using a plane. Also create a plane with length: 200 Width: 300, Segments 12*12 and apply a noise modifier with the settings as shown below. Also apply a turbosmooth modifier to it.




2. Create a particle flow source. In the Main menubar - Create>Particle>particle flow source (Particle flow is an event driven particle system and it gives us more control over the particles than the ordinary particle systems in max which are non-event driven) Press 6 or select the pflow icon and go to the modify panel and click on the particle view button. You will get a window as shown below:



3. These are the default operators that you get in particle flow. We shall replace some of those with operators from the operators depot to get our desired result. I have marked in the image below where all operators have to be replaced with new ones. For example, the Position Icon operator will be replaced with the Position Object operator by left clicking and dragging the Position Object operator from the operators depot onto the Position Icon operator in event 01. You will see that a red line appears on top of the Position Icon operator, release your left mouse button then. Similarly, change the Shape Operator with Shape Instance operator.



4. First click on the Birth operator and change the emit stop to 0. Now all 200 particles will be emitted at once rather than one by one. Also give a particle amount of 1000 ( Depends on how much you need and how much area you need to cover).



5. Click on the Position Object operator, on the right side you can see its properties in the Emitter objects rollout. Click add and select the terrain. You will see that the name of the plane (Terrain) appears in the dialogue box there. See to it that the Lock On Emitter option is also ticked or else the particle will fly off when you play with the animation slider.



6. Change the Shape operator to Shape Instance operator, after that Click on the Shape Instance operator in the event and in the properties on the right side, click on the none button under particle geometry and select grass1. You can see that lots of ticks get scattered all over the plane. Click on the Display operator and in the type select Geometry which will reveal the grass mesh. You can also change the color to green or apply a material by adding a material dynamic operator





You can see that all of the grass blades are bent in different directions and some even go under the terrain. To rectify this problem, click on the Rotation operator and in its properties change the orientation matrix to world space. This aligns the particle according to the world axis and makes it stay perpendicular to the terrain.



7. This seems a bit unrealistic cause all grass are standing upright and steady like an army of soldiers smile so to break the monotony you can first click on event 01 and right click, select copy and paste it anywhere in the open space nearby - this will create another event 02. Delete the birth operator of event 02.



8. Add a Split Amount operator to the event 01 below the birth operator. Create a connection from the Split Amount to the event02. In Event02 select the shape instance and select grass2. Now you can see how much the scene has changed. Cool isn't it? You can even copy the Event 02 and create another Event 03 and add split amount to Event 02 and connect the Split Amount to Event03 and select another grass3 as object instance.




9. In the shape rollout of both Events, you can play with the size and variation to create your own realistic grass scatter.


10 . There are also some specialties about position object operator, select the position object operator and change the location from surface to vertices or edges... try it out and see the difference. There is another option below location called density by material, tick on it. It will be grayscale by default. Apply a checkered texture to the terrain and see what happens (you will have to move the animation slider a bit to see the result).


11. Drag a material dynamic operator into Event 01 open the material editor by pressing M and create a material for the grass select the material dynamic operator, which will reveal the operator properties on the right side. From the material editor, click on the material slot you created and drag it on top of the none button in the material dynamic property. A command will pop up which says instance or copy select instance and click OK cause whatever change you make in the material editor will be in sync with that of the material dynamic in the particle view. For the other events do the same. Variate the color of the grass material a bit, which will give you a more realistic look.

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This tutorial needs you to understand basic use of 3dsmax.

This simple tutorial is for 3dsmax beginner user. This tutorial will show you how to use Lathe modifier, and couple of Editable Poly features like Connect, Hinge From Edge, and Inset to model a mug. You will be able to model a mug in couple minutes.

1. First, create a new 3dsmax document. Go to Customize>Grid And Snap Settings and make sure Grid Points is checked. Now, in Create tab, click Shapes and click Line button. In Creation Method rollout, choose Corner for Initial and Drag Type. Before you draw a line, activate Snap first. Now, in Front viewport a line like image below.

2. In Command Panel, click Modify tab. Activate Vertex selection in rollout Selection. Select one vertex in the corner and raise Fillet value up. Fillet is located in rollout Geometry. Its corner will be rounded. Use same technique to other corner. When finished, de-activate all sub-object selection.

3. Make sure your line object is selected. Choose Lathe modifier from drop-down Modifier List. In rollout Parameters, check Weld Core, and Flip Normals. Weld core used to weld all vertices around Lathe axis. Flip normal used to backflip normal, and make the surface visible in viewport. Use Min for Align. Your mug will look like image below.

4. Next step, we will create a handle. Right click object and choose Convert to Editable Poly. Activate Edge selection. Using region selection, select all vertical edges in Front viewport. In Edit Edges rollout, click Settings button right next to Connect. In Connect Edges dialog box, enter Segments=5 and click OK. As result, vertical polygon now divided into 5 segments.

5. You may follow this step if you want mug's handle thinner. If not, go directly to next step. Change selection to Polygon. Choose 2 polygons like image below. You need to change Perspective viewport into Edged Faces view (press F4 in keyboard) to select polygons easily. In Edit Polygons rollout, click Inset button. Click and drag in viewport to make an inset (smaller size polygon) to those polygons.

6. Select a polygon in upper part of mug. In Edit Polygons rollout, click Settings button right next to Hinge from Edge. A dialog box will appear. Click Pick Hinge button, click an edge in the middle part of mug (look at image below). Use spinner to change Segments to 8 and Angle to 160 degrees. When you change these values, an arched handle created. Click OK when finished.

7. Next, we need to fix lower part of handle. Select polygon in the farthermost part of handle and polygon facing it in mug body. In Edit Polygons rollout click Bridge button to connect handle to mug.

8. De-activate all sub-object selection. Now, finish this tutorial by adding a TurboSmooth or MeshSmooth modifier to your mug model. Image below shows finished and rendered model.

Modeling A Dolphin Part 1

Convert plance into Editable Poly. Go to Modify tab. Activate Edge selection.Then, select one edge like image below.

2. Activate Select And Move tool. While holding Shift, drag edge to the right to create copy of polygon. Do it 4 times until you get polygons like image below. Next, repeat the same process with the left side. This time, Shift+drag 6 times. You can look at image below for reference.

3. Change selection to Vertex. Move vertices to shape dolphin's body.

4.When finished, change selection back to Edge. Select all vertical edges ( For easy selection, just select one edge and click Ring in Selection rollout). Then in Edit Edges rollout, click Settings button right next to Connect. Fill Segments=2. Click OK.

5. Then, select all vertical edges in upper body. Use Connect Settings again. This time use Segments=1 and Slide=-54. You will get connecting edges close to upper edges.

6. Repeat above process to create connecting edges at the bottom of body.

7. Change selection to Vertex. Move vertices located at the middle of body. Move them along X axis. Your dolphin's body will get volume. This process here is a tedious, long, and need patience. A lot of tweaking is required here. Use image below for reference. Tips: Begins with middle vertices, the outer vertices.

8. Dolphin's basic body is finished. We will continue in the Part 2 tutorial to add fin and tail. If you find it hard to create this basic body you can download 3dsmax file here.

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1. Continue with previous lesson or you can download 3dsmax file here. This time, we are going to create pectoral flipper. In Left viewport, select a polygon like image below.

2. In Edit Polygons rollout, use Bevel three times to create pectoral flipper. Everytime you add Bevel, you need to adjust its polygon position and size.

3. Next, let's move to dorsal fin, a small fin at the back of dolphin. Change selection to Edge. Select one edge like image below. Shift+drag three times to create more polygons. Everytime you shif drag, scale the edge, and move to its position to match the background image.

4. Next step, we will add depth to dorsal fin. Select all horizontal edges in dorsal fin. Use Connect Settings to add edges. Use parameters like image below.

5. Now, change selection to Vertex. Move vertices in the middle to give dorsal fin a depth.

6. Next step is to create a tail. Change selection to Polygon. In Left viewport, select 6 polygons at the tail part of dolphin.Use Extrude three times. Everytime you add extrusion, adjust vertices to shape a tail. Use image below for reference. Next in Part 3 tutorial, we are going to adjust dolphin's head. Finished file of this part 2 tutorial can be downloaded here.

You may want to download previous exercise file here (3dsmax 8 format, zipped). If you have followed previous tutorial, then use your own model. Now, look at dolphin's head area. In Left viewport, select all horizontal edges like image below. Then, use Connect Settings with parameters Segments=2, and Pinch=65.

2. After that, change selection into Vertex. Adjust vertices to create nose volume. Also, move vertices a little bit in areas shown with arrows. For dolphin's nose I add more length, different from blueprint image..

3. We will adjust dolphin's head more. Select all horizontal edges like image below. Use Connect with Segments=1. Then, move vertices to shape head a little bit more rounded.

4. Next step, let's give an eye. Use Vertex as selection tool. Select one vertex in the eye area. Use Chamfer to create a square shape. Then, select all edges in that square shape. Use Extrude with negative value to give an engraved look. Your dolphin has an eye now. Part 3 finished file can be downloaded here.

Continue your previous tutorial lesson or download exercise file here (3dsmax 8 format, zipped). De-activate all sub-object selection. In Modify tab, select Mirror modifier from Modifier List. Use Mirror Axis=Z and activate Copy option. You will get another half of dolphin's body. Then, add another modifier, Turbosmooth.

2. After you applied Turbosmooth, do a test render, you may notice a seam between right and left body. It is usual thing to happens, whenever you model any objects using a half side method.

3. Now, we are going to remove the seam. First, in Modifier Stack delete Turbosmooth modifier. Then, in viewport, right click on dolphin object, and choose Convert to>Convert to Editable Poly. Now, we are ready to remove the seam. In Modifier Stack, activate Editable Poly row. Activate Vertex selection. In Front viewport, select all vertices in the middle of dolphin's body. In Edit Vertices rollout, click Settings button right next to Weld. This tool is use to combine 2 or more vertices into 1. Use your own Weld Threshold value or use value like image below. Notice Number of Vertices before and after welding. Click OK.

4. De-activate all sub-object selection. Apply Turbosmooth modifier. Do a test render. Now, all seams have gone away.

4. Dolphin model is finished. Finished dolphin model can be downloaded here.