Making of Glasses with 3ds Max

Summer is here, so it's time to model some glasses!!! These are actually regular ones but with some material adaptation you can use the same tutorial to create some sunglasses too.

So...


1. On a top view create a box measured 8-140-50 with 2 Width segments.






2. Right click the object to convert it to Editable Poly. Go to a modifier panel and choose Vertex sub-object and delete a left part of the box.



3. Now if you look at the Perspective view you’ll notice that deleted Vertexes created a hole in our box. To fix it we should choose an open Border and Cap it.




4. Mirror – Instance this box and Move it aside. This way, while working on one part only, we’ll be seeing a progress on both parts. We will connect them later.









5. Connect opposite splines 3 times and other opposites twice.


6. Choose the shown polygon and extrude it outside. It will be the bridge holder (the nose part).


7. Start moving the vertexes on a Front view to give it a basic glasses frame shape. Use reference image or your own sunglasses for that matter. When finished, go to a Modifier panel - Subdivision Surface and check Use NURBs with Iterations 2 and uncheck afterwards.


8. Choose central Polygons and Bevel them inside twice – first for the (0;-4) and second for the lens (-3;3). Do the same with the back side of the glasses. Check and uncheck NURMS sbdv for a quick check. If you wish to make some changes – to make a lens thicker or thinner, or to change the shape of your glasses – just keep moving the Vertexes. Just do it now, while we’re at the beginning.

9. To create nose part choose one half and convert it to Editable poly again.


10. Before creating an Earpiece take another look at it. You’ll notice that it is not totally straight, but a bit curved. Choose an upper side polygon and Extrude it a bit - twice. If it goes up or down – fix it by moving Vertexes.


Now from the back of the second part – One long extrude and two small ones. Move and Rotate it Vertexes to give it a curved shape Connect central Edges, if needed. Check and uncheck NURMS subdvs again.

11. Time to connect the two parts together.
12. Choose both parts and convert them to Editable Poly again (right-click). Choose one part and Attach it another part. Now the two glasses halves are chosen.


13. Remember the nose bridge? Choose both polygons as shown (Choose – Ctrl - choose) and press Bridge.





Now we have one solid pair of glasses. Make adjustments if needed – by connecting Edges and moving Vertexes.

14. Since glasses are usually concaved, move and rotate your vertexes so it fits the shape of the head.
15. Now we'll start adding materials. Since its one single object we'll obviously use a multi/sub-object color.


16. Press M for material editor. Change Standard to Multi/Sub-object and Set the material number to 2. Name them Frame and Lens. For a frame I used Black for Ambient color with a Specular level of 107 and Glossiness of 26 – ID 1.

17. For a lens I used White for Ambient, 96 for Specular level and 32 for Glossiness – ID 2.

18. Choose your object and Assign materials it and make them Visible in Viewports.

19. While glasses are still chosen, press Element in a modifier panel and choose glasses again. You will see that all polygons have been chosen.


20. Scroll down to Polygon Properties and set ID color to 1. That will color our glasses to black.

21. Choose lens polygons – front and back – and set their ID to 2.

22. If you haven’t done it yet, check NURMS Subdvs to make the glasses smooth.


23. Hit 8 to change the background to white and F9 to render.

24. That’s it. The glasses are ready.

25. If you have any questions regarding this tutorial - don’t hesitate to ask me.

Making of a Chess board

This time i will shou you how to model a Chess Board.

The two things you must remember when creating a chess board is that it is square and that it divided to 8x8 colorful inside squares.

So …

1. The first thing you want to do is to create a 100x100x6 box. Right-click any view and choose Editable poly. Go to Modifier list and choose Edge sub-object.







2. While standing on a Top view choose two opposite sides and Connect them (press the little square.





See image for parameters. Repeat this step with other opposite sides.

3. Press M and choose an empty slot. In a Material/Map browser choose a Multi/Sub-objects. This will allow us to use several colors on the same object. Choose Discard Old materials.


4. Since we will use only 2 colors, set the color number on 2. The first color will be a basic bright brown. I chose 254, 228, 171 for that matter.


5. The other will represent a chess board itself with two colors – bright and dark one. Click the Material # button. Now click the Diffuse color button to choose a Checker material. Use 254, 228, 171 for bright and 40, 23, 0 for dark. Make it visible. Notice that each color has its ID number. Remember that so we could work with it later.

6. Apply the materials to our board.
Whatever happened with your colors it might not look the way it should be. But we'll fix it in aminute.


7. Choose the box, go to the Modifier list and choose Element sub-object. After it chooses the entire box go to polygon properties. Remember the Material ID's? It was 1 for bright and 2 for Checkers. Set the ID's to 1.









8. Now choose the upper polygon only and set ID's to 2. Now you see your materials how they should be. Almost.





9. Go back to the Checker material and set the Tiling number to 12. You will see the changes immediately.










10. Change the background to white (8) and hit F9 to render.

That’s it.

If you have any question regarding this tutorial, don’t hesitate to ask me.

Making of a Chess Pawn

This tutorial is one of a chess set tutorials explaining how to create a pawn, a rook, a knight and a chessboard itself.


In this tutorial you will learn how to create a chess Pawn.

As usual, you will need a reference image before you start creating anything. You can upload this one or find/create another one.







1. On a front view create a 150 x 100 (Generic units) plane. Then right-click the Front View and check Smooth and Highlight. This will allow you to create your pawn easily.



2. Press M and choose an empty slot. Go to Diffuse color, hit the grey square near it and choose a Bitmap to import the reference image. Apply the image to the Plane.





3. On a front view outline only a half of the reference pawn using a Line tool. Close spline when you finish outlining. If the outline is not as accurate as it supposed to choose Vertexes (Modifier menu) and right click your mouse. Click Bezier Corners. Now u can adjust each corner handle separately.







When finished outlining go to interpolation and change to 20 steps to make the line smoother. If you need to add some vertexes, press Refine and hit the line when little white cross appears above it.









4. When you are pleased with the outline, go to the Modifier menu and choose a Lathe modifier. You will see that your outline became 3 dimensional.


In Parameters press Min button to set the pawn right. Change Segments to 40. Keep smoothing the corners, if needed.

5. Basically, the pawn is ready. Apply an ochre color to it (177,148,26) and that's it.

Notice: Another way to create a Chess pawn is to use a Loft Deformation .

If you have any questions regarding this tutorial, do not hesitate to ask me.

Enjoy,
Dalia

Making of a Cowboy Hat with 3ds Max

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a cool brown cowboy hat.

1. Create a simple sphere: Radius-40, Segments - 40. It will represent a head for our Cowboy Hat. Make it White.

2. Then create a circle to match the upper third of the sphere.








3. In modifier menu change the parameters of the circle to: Rendering sides - 20, Interpolation Steps – 20 to make the hat smooth and its Radius - 30. Make it Brown.













4. While Circle still chosen go to Modifier list – Edit Spline. Choose Spline sub-object. Scroll down to Geometry menu and choose Outline to create another, bigger outer circle. To do so, choose outline, go to the Top View and hover over a circle. When the cross appears drag it inside the smaller circle. You should get this result.


5. Now – the most important part: Go to front view. Choose the bigger circle and via Modify panel pick its left and right vertexes and pull them up a little bit.




6. Go to modifier list – choose Extrude and increase its Amount to 1.5.






Well, the difficult part is over.







7. Create a ChamferCyl: Radius 30, height – 50, fillet 4, Height segs 5, Fillet sides 14, Sides – 36, Cap segs 2 and make it Brown.
















8. Convert to Edit Poly and Delete the bottom vertexes (8). Place it above the bottom place of the hat.

Now we'll start deforming the top of this hat.


9. Choose all but last row of vertexes on the front view. Hold the CLTR key and choose Top View.






Keep scaling the vertexes lines until you like what you see. Use cowboy hat pictures to get close to the desired model. Mine looks like this.










10. Now in the Top View choose the upper vertexes and on the front view push it down.














11. Repeat with the Top Central vertex.

12. For the last touch – squeeze everything a little beat and put everything on its place.







13. Don’t forget to color one stripe different color than the hat. To do so choose bottom polygons of the top part of the hat. Extrude :0.5.


14. Now press M on your keyboard, choose an empty slot and change the parameters as shown on the image.
15. Now choose the top of the hat and apply materials to it.


16. If the colors are not applied as you wished, go to polygon properties and change the Material set IDs. (19)





17. Press F8 if you want to change the Background color. For final render press F9.



Well, that’s it. The hat is ready. If you have any additional question regarding this tutorial, don't hesitate to ask.

3ds Max – a Modifiers war: Loft VS Lathe!!

A couple of days ago I was browsing through Tutorialized and and found this amazing Umbrella tutorial for 3ds Max. Very simple yet very informative, it offers another – and I'd dare say – more creative way of modeling.

I actually did model an umbrella, but on the way I realized that a second part of this tutorial is a perfect way to model many other things.


So I've made this Wooden Candle Stick.

It took me about 15 minutes to make it (sounds like a part of a 5 min cake recipe) – no prior sketches, just playing with dots.
I could, of course, use Spline + Lathe Modifier, but this way was more fun.

To model a Candle itself I highly recommend to used this Candle Video tutorial – but you must register before you download the video.