Introducing 3ds Max 9 3D for beginners apr 2007 - part 4 pptx

3. Until now, when you selected a polygon, it turned solid red in the viewport. You can change it to display as outline when a polygon is selected, and not as solid red. You will need to do this so you can see the new edges you are creating. To turn off Shaded Edge mode, press F2. Your selected polygons will now show red only around the edges. 4. With the Slice Plane tool still active, right-click in the viewport to bring up the Quad menu. Go to the Transform menu and select Rotate. Figure 4.56 shows this shortcut for the Transform tools. Figure 4.56 Rotate the Slice Plane gizmo Figure 4.55 The Slice Plane gizmo 148 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 148 5. You need to rotate the Slice Plane gizmo 90-degrees along the Y-axis. Center the cur- sor over the Transform gizmo’s Y-axis (green wire), and click/drag until the Trans- form Type-in box at the bottom of the interface reads 90 in the Y-box, or you can enter the rotation amount for Y and press Enter. As you rotate, you will see the slice interactively displayed as a red line on the selected polygons. 6. Use the Move tool (W) to position the Slice Plane gizmo, where you want the first slice. The movement will be along the X-axis or horizontal along the box. When the Slice Plane gizmo is positioned as shown in Figure 4.57, go to the Edit Geometry roll- out and click Slice. Don’t click Slice Plane because that will deactivate only the Slice Plane tool. You must click the Slice button because it is like clicking an Apply button for the Slice Plane tool. Once you click Slice, the polygon will have a new segment at that location. The Slice Plane tool should still be active. 7. You need four slices at each end of the dresser bottom, as shown in Figure 4.58. Keep in mind that the polygons are selected on the front and back so that the Slice Plane tool will slice only polygons that are selected within the gizmo. Click the Slice Plane button to deactivate the tool when you have placed four vertical slices in all four corners of the front and back bottom lips of the dresser, as shown in Figure 4.58. Figure 4.57 Place a slice in the corner for the foot of the dresser. modeling a chest of drawers ■ 149 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 149 8. Press the spacebar to unlock your selection. You are going to use a combination of mov- ing edges and polygons to create the detail on the bottom of the dresser. Simply select the relevant polygons, and use the Move tool to place them as shown in Figure 4.59. Don’t worry if your adjustments don’t have a perfectly smooth curve. Unless the cam- era is right on top of the detail, it will look good from a distance. A perfect curve is not necessary, especially for our purposes. You can use the same techniques in the Steps 1 through 8 to create detail in the side bottom lip of the dresser, as shown in Figure 4.60. Make sure you save your work. Figure 4.58 Place four vertical slices at each corner. 150 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 150 Figure 4.60 Use the same steps to create the details on the sides of the bottom. Figure 4.59 Move polygons to create detail in the dresser feet. modeling a chest of drawers ■ 151 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 151 Making the Drawers In the beginning of this exercise, you created a box with six segments on its height. You can use those segments to create the drawers. This is an example of thinking ahead and planning your model before you start an object. This was by far the easiest way to go; using the Slice Plane tool to add segments for the drawers after the box was made would have been more laborious. For simplicity’s sake, you will not create drawers that can open and shut in this exer- cise. If this dresser were to be used in an animation in which the drawers would be opened, you would make them differently. First, take a look at the drawers and see where you have to go. Figure 4.61 shows the drawers and an important detail we need to consider. Luckily, you needn’t worry about the junk on top of the dresser. Gap Between Drawers and Dresser Figure 4.61 Checking out the real dresser drawers 152 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 152 To model the drawers, begin with these steps: 1. Create a small gap around the edge of the box. This gap will represent the space between the drawer and the main body of the dresser (Figure 4.61). Go to Polygon mode (press 4), and select the six polygons on the front of the box that represent the drawers. Remember to hold the Ctrl key while selecting the additional polygons; this will allow you to make multiple polygon selections. 2. Go to the Edit Polygons rollout in the Modify panel, and click the Inset Settings button. Set the Inset Amount to 0.6 and keep the Inset Type to Group, as shown here. Click OK. Figure 4.62 shows the result of the Inset operation. You can load the Dresser02.max scene file from the Scenes folder in the Dresser project on the companion CD to check your work or to begin the next series of steps. modeling a chest of drawers ■ 153 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 153 3. Keep those newly inset polygons selected, and go back to the Edit Polygons rollout to select the Extrude Settings button. Change the Extrusion Height to –0.5, keep Extrusion Type set to Group, and press OK. The faces will now extrude inward a little bit, as shown here. Figure 4.62 The Inset creates the detail needed to make the drawers. 154 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 154 4. In the original reference picture (Figure 4.42), the top drawer of the dresser is split into two, so you need to slice that top drawer polygon vertically to create two drawers. Make sure the selected polygons are displayed with the red outlines instead of the solid red color (toggle with F2). Switch your viewport to a Front view. 5. Select the polygon that represents the top drawer, as shown in Figure 4.63. Select the Slice Plane button in the Edit Geometry rollout. Rotate and move the Slice Plane gizmo so that it is vertical and centered on the polygon as shown here, and click Slice. Click the Slice Plane button to release the tool. 6. The polygons are still selected after the Slice operation, so go back to the Edit Poly- gons rollout and click the Inset Settings button. Set the Inset Amount to 0.25. This time we are going to change the Inset Type from Group to By Polygon, as shown below. This setting insets each polygon individually, instead of it taking place across multiple, contiguous polygons as does the Group option. Click OK to run the Inset operation. Your polygons should resemble the ones in Figure 4.64. modeling a chest of drawers ■ 155 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 155 Figure 4.64 The drawers are inset separately. Figure 4.63 Select the top drawer polygon. 156 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 156 7. Perform the same inset operation on the remaining drawer polygons on the front of the box (as shown): Set the Inset Amount to .25, set the Inset Type to By Polygon. This will inset the five lower wide drawers. 8. Select all of the “drawer” polygons. Go to the Edit Polygons rollout and click the Extrude Settings button. Set the Extrude Amount to 0.7. You don’t need it to extrude very much; you just want the drawers to extrude a bit more than the body of the dresser. modeling a chest of drawers ■ 157 97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 157 [...]... finger ■ 1 69 97612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 170 170 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I Figure 4. 78 Figure 4. 79 The index finger is extruded into place Fingers! 4 Using the same techniques and the following settings for the Extrusion Amounts, extrude the rest of the fingers FINGER FIRST EXTRUDE SECOND EXTRUDE THIRD EXTRUDE Middle Finger 70 60 50 Ring Finger 60 50 40 Pinky 50 40 30 Figure 4. 79 shows... faces Also, if you simply double-click on the first edge, 3ds Max will divide that edge at the point where you clicked by adding a vertex there You need not click on a second edge if you double-click Right-click to exit the tool Figure 4. 85 You can mold the hand by moving polygons 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 1 74 1 74 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I Figure 4. 86 Add new edges where shown... compare your work to the scene file Dresser05 .max from the Scenes folder of the Dresser project on the companion CD Figure 4. 73 Using an instance to copy the knob Figure 4. 74 The dresser, knobs, and all 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 1 64 1 64 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I Modeling a Hand Now that you’ve had some experience modeling in 3ds Max, you can tackle modeling a simple hand The... curvature ■ 161 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 162 162 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I Figure 4. 70 Eeek! That isn’t a knob at all To catch up to this point, you can load the Dresser 04 .max file from the Scenes folder of the Dresser project on the companion CD 7 The profile line is ready to turn into a 3D object This is where the modifiers are used Get out of Sub-Object mode for your line Choose... laid down your first vertex, continue to click and drag more vertices for the line clockwise until you create the half-profile knob shape shown in Figure 4. 68 Figure 4. 69 shows the profile line with the vertices numbered according to their creation order ■ 1 59 97612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 160 160 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I To create a straight line segment between two vertices, press... your models Becoming a good modeler takes time and patience, so stick with it Figure 4 .92 Raise the knuckles Figure 4 .93 Check the smoothing to make sure the knuckles look good 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 178 97 612c05.qxd 2/26/07 2:52 PM Page 1 79 CHAPTER 5 Modeling in 3ds Max: Part II Building models in any 3D package comes down to creating and arranging vertices so that the appropriate polygonal... will turn yellow, indicating it is in use 9 Use the keyboard shortcut W to enable the Move tool Move the edge along the X-axis You might find it easier to use the Top viewport for the move Use the Transform gizmo—center the cursor so that the X and the tail of the X-axis arrow are yellow 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 166 166 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I Yellow indicates that the axis is... bring up the Extrude Settings dialog box See the sidebar titled “Extrusion Options” for more about the parameters and options for the Extrude function ■ 167 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 168 168 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I EXTRUDE OPTIONS Using the palm model of the hand for reference, the options for an extrude operation will behave as indicated here All of the polygons on the front... computer has to work to process the information You can leave Iterations set to 1 for the hand 4 Uncheck Isoline Display in the Subdivision Surface rollout When Isoline Display is off, Max displays all the faces added by the smoothing, as shown on the right in Figure 4. 84 The default of on shows only the objects original edges, as shown on the left in Figure 4. 84 Figure 4. 84 When Isoline Display is turned.. .97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 158 158 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I Go grab yourself a frosty beverage! The dresser is finished Go ahead and name the dresser You can even change the color of the dresser if you’d like Go to the Name and Color Type-In (shown in Figure 4. 65), and change the name of the object to Object Name Type-In Object Default Color Dresser . 4. 62 The Inset creates the detail needed to make the drawers. 1 54 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:51 PM Page 1 54 4. In the original reference picture (Figure 4. 42),. Transform tools. Figure 4. 56 Rotate the Slice Plane gizmo Figure 4. 55 The Slice Plane gizmo 148 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 148 5. You need to rotate. Figure 4. 60. Make sure you save your work. Figure 4. 58 Place four vertical slices at each corner. 150 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I 97 612c 04. qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 150 Figure 4. 60 Use