JEFF STUDIO: 3D MAX

AUTODESK 3DS MAX

3DS MAX, A 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software. 3D modeling software provides a comprehensive modeling, animation, simulation, and rendering solution for games, film, and motion graphics artists or interior designer.

Game character modeling

Motion graphic

Interior design

We have learn some basic of 3Ds max from our lecturer Mr. Kenneth in 7 weeks as a short semester. There are many features in 3Ds max and it is very interesting.

1. ALT + W

In 3ds max, there are many view u can adjust when you modeling an object. This one is perspective view and you can turn 360 degree using the box at the top of right hand side.

For more easier to view the top, front and side, press the keyboard ( ALT + W ). Then it will pop out 3 more view and make us more easier to check our object.

2. BASIC GEOMETRY

There some basic geomtry in 3ds max and we can find it at CREATE - GEOMETRY - then choose the geometry you want at the list.

There are some button we often use, as the figure show- we use the 1st button to draw a square and select the part we want, 2nd button is move the object ( W ), 3rd button is rotate the object ( R ), and the 4th button is change the size of object ( E )
Those button are always use when create something.

3. CONVERT TO EDITABLE POLY

Convert to editable poly is let your geometry or object going to next level and we can adjust it, change its shape, and also the 1st way before you model your object.

Right click your object- go convert to - CONVERT TO EDITABLE POLY

After that, you can see your modify list have increase a editable poly, and at the below there are some button use to reshape the object.

These button are very useful to us before model. The 1st is（vertex）, 2nd is （edge) 3rd is ( border ), to me i less to use border, 4th is ( polygon ), 5th is ( element )

Vertex - select the point at every intersection,

Edge - select the edge of an object

Polygon - select one of face area of object

Element - select whole the object

After understand the selection, go below and find the edit polygons, there are some button that are very useful in modeling- extrude, outline, bevel, inset, bridge and etc

EXTRUDE

1st one - EXTRUDE, extrude is extend/ shorten the area that selected, we use polygon selection as example, then use extrude and extend/shorten the area we want.

OUTLINE

2nd - OUTLINE, outline is bigger/ smaller the radius of the area that selected, we can see the effect at the figure above.

INSET

3rd - INSET, inset is just inset you selection area become small like figure above.

BEVEL

4th - BEVEL, bevel is like the combined of EXTRUDE and OUTLINE, its can extend/shorten and after that it can change the radius bigger/smaller.

My 1st 3ds max Model

After understand the convert to poly ( selection and edit polygon ), lecturer want us to build anything using the ( selection and edit polygon ). I use vertex edit my ground and use bevel, extrude, inset for the tower and the circle ship. This is m 1st try in 3ds max.

4. EDGE

After the basic of selection and edit polygon, lecturer teach us how to use the edge as well as good. There some details in using edge like ring, loop, chamfer and connect.

RING

After use edge selection, click the ring at the list below then it become like the figure above.

LOOP

After use edge selection, click loop and we get this.

CONNECT

Connect is build one or more line in object, so we can adjust the object more details.

We can use edge and ring and connect then we get a line like the figure above.

We also can combined ring and loop to more easier to connect and more details to our modeling.

CHAMFER

The Chamfer modifier lets you add edges procedurally to specific parts of an object with an option for generating quadrilateral output. It can be applied at all sub-object levels and is typically used for rounding off sharp corners, but can be applied in other situations where additional mesh resolution is required.

TURBO SMOOTH

The TurboSmooth modifier, like Mesh Smooth, smoothes geometry in your scene

Make a selection. > Modifiers menu > TurboSmooth

TurboSmooth lets you subdivide the geometry while interpolating the angles of new faces at corners and edges, and apply a single smoothing group to all faces in the object. The effect of TurboSmooth is to round over corners and edges as if they had been filed or planed smooth.

CAN

A can i try to model used connect, chamfer and turbo smooth.

TIRE

After understood the geometry, editable poly, connect, chamfer, turbo smooth and etc, i try to go www.youtube.com and find the tire tutorial and completely it smoothly.

5. LOFT

Loft objects are two-dimensional shapes extruded along a third axis. You create loft objects from two or more existing spline objects. One of these splines serves as the path. The remaining splines serve as cross sections, or shapes, of the loft object. As you arrange shapes along the path, 3ds Max generates a surface between the shapes.

1st, go create - shape - spline and use button line and draw a random line. After that, draw others shape like rectangle and star.

After that, go geometry - select compoud object

After select compound object than select the line and click LOFT then click GET SHAPE.

After click the get shape then click the rectangle, the line will auto become like this.
the width, dimension same with the rectangle we draw.

The path i show in figure will affect the loft, if change the path to 100 then get shape to the star shape, the button of the object change to star shape but the top still remain the rectangle shape.

6. AUTOKEY

To start creating animation, first turn on the Auto Key button, use the time slider to go to a particular frame, and then change something in your scene. You can animate the position, rotation, and scale of an object, and almost all other settings and parameters.

To begin animating an object:

Click (Auto Key) to turn it on.
Drag the time slider to a different time.
Do one of the following:
- Transform an object.
- Change an animatable parameter.

7. BLUEPRINT

Blueprint is a technique to help us more easily and accurate to model an object like car, gun, GUNDAM and etc. It basically has TOP, FRONT, BOTTOM, SIDE to support us for model.

1st, go online search the blueprint that we want then go photoshop separate them and crop it as accurate as good.

Set the plane like figure above and follow the size of the car view.

Open the Materials window (Shortcut M). Click the small box
next to diffuse (right) this will open a new window (below). Double
click on “Bitmap” to take you to an “Open file” window. Navigate
through your file and find you blueprints then double click on one of
them.

Now you have your blueprints in 3ds Max change the name of the material (for the front image call the material and change the Self Illumination to 100 (see left). Repeat this for each of the views.

After material the plane, if the view seem like wrong or rotated, go maps and click the long bar beside the diffuse colour.

After that change the W angle to 90 degree, so we can see the blueprint

return to the view that we want.

Repeat the step for every view, then we get this.

( online sample ) After that, use the skill that we learned before,

step by step model out the car.

( online sample )

FINAL PROJECT :

MODELING CHARACTER

After we learned the basic, we have to model our own character as final assignment. Lecturer also show us some modeling that create by some artist, different type of character. Besides, we can model character from online blueprint such as iron man, car, gun or plane, and we also can design our own character and model it depend on our idea.

So, i choose the 2nd type that design the character myself, so i start to research some character and thinking what type of character i want to design and finally i was going to model a cute robot. this is because people are nowadays more interest to a cute thing or humor thing like BIG HERO, MINIONS, THE PENGUIN. And build a humor character is my 1st concept also.

There are many type of robot and i was going to design a cute robot CLEANER. So, i start to gather the information/structure of a robot and sketch them out before i start to model.

Reference

robot concept

robot concept 2

robot spare tire

broom

tissue

rocket as the robot turbo

febreze

wings big hero

eye robot

Sketch Out

FInal sketch and concept

PROCESS

Robot Structure

I start model my robot character from its body Structure 1st.

1st, i build a sphere and use bridge to create 2 hole for the eye

After that, i start to model its eye using chamfer. Lecturer was teach me use BEND and make the robot's eyes depend on the sphere.

I change the colour of object to make it more easy to different. Then, i model the robot ear.

Next, is the body part of robot, i model it use vertex and soft selection.

Shoulder

Hand

Lower part

Legs

The Cleaning Tools

After model the robot body structure, i start to model some cleaning tools for him.

Beg

Broom

Febreze

Cloth

Toilet Paper

Accessories

After model the cleaning tools, i have model some accessories for this small robot.

Turbo

Speed Tire

Spare Tire

Overall Arrangement

After model out all the thing, i have adjust and arrange the tools or accessories at the suitable place.

Materials Editor

The Compact Material Editor is a material editor interface that uses a smaller dialog.

Choose the type of materials you want and select the colour, then put to the object you want, then you will get the effect of materials, reflection, glossy and colour that you setting in materials editor.

There are some materials i have set for my robot.

After materials all the part you want, then RENDER it ( shift + Q ) to see the result after you materials, because we havent put the light, so it look not so good.

BUMP

The Normal Bump map lets you use a texture-baked Normals map.Typically you assign it to a material's Bump component, Displacement component, or both. Using the map for Displacement can correct edges that otherwise look unrealistically smooth