Table Of ContentCHAPTER 1
C reating a Box Using
3ds Max
Introduction to Modeling
This first tutorial is designed to get complete beginners up to speed on
the basics of modeling using primitive objects and applying textures in
the simplest way. In the games industry we lay out the textures in a slightly
different way than in this tutorial. You’ll learn that technique in Chapter 2,
which covers more complex mapping techniques, but to get any complete
beginners through their first complete object build, I have explained the most
straightforward method first. This chapter also introduces you to some of the
preferences, settings and shortcuts that will speed up your modeling and give
you better results.
Setting Up 3ds Max
To begin with, we’ll start with some basic settings for 3ds Max. Go to
Customize (cid:3) Preferences (cid:3) Files. Enable Auto Backup, set number of Auto
Backup files to 9, and set Backup Interval (minutes) to 10, then click OK.
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Next we’ll set up the units we’ll be modeling in; these vary from studio to
studio, but in this tutorial, one unit equals 1 cm. Go to Customize, Units
setup… and select Metric, then click OK.
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Creating a Box Using 3ds Max
We will now begin to model a simple object. First, we’ll create a primitive
object and scale it to approximately the correct dimensions. We will then
apply texture maps to the object, UVW map it and then do some quick
renders of it using 3ds Max’s built in scan-line renderer.
If you don’t understand what I mean by “ UVW map,” search for the term using
the new InfoCenter, or press F1 for help and search for the term “ Unwrap UVW
Modifier” —it explains everything you need to know about this. This goes for
anything you don’t understand, or aren’t sure of—just search through the
help feature, and it will all be explained to you. Feel free to browse the help,
too. You’ll find lots of cool things that would otherwise take you many years to
find out on your own.
Creating a Cardboard Box
First, we’re going to create the box (Create (cid:3) Standard Primitives (cid:3) Box)
and set the dimensions to 45 (cid:4) 45 (cid:4) 50. If your box is being displayed in
wireframe in any of your viewports, just right-click in the viewport and press
the F3 key.
With the box selected, right-click it and select “Convert to editable mesh” from
the Quad menu.
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Now you need to save your progress. Always name your files with a relevant name
to make it easier to find your assets later. As this is the first save file, we’ll create a
few folders to store all the files that you’ll be working on while using this book. Go
to save the file (File (cid:3) Save as… ), create a folder called Game Art Complete, and
then create another folder inside the one you’ve just created, called Chapter 1.
Now save your file as Cardboard box1.max or Chapter1_001.max.
We have completed the modeling part of this tutorial. Now we have to apply
the texture maps to the faces of the box and our first asset will be complete.
3ds Max Shortcuts
There are a few viewport configurations to help you to speed up the mapping
of the box. Go to Modify, click the Confi gure Modifier Sets button, and select
Show Buttons from the menu.
This action displays a set of buttons beneath the Modifier List rollout menu
that can be configured to include all your most often used modifiers. Set the
Total Buttons value to 10 and add Edit Mesh, UVW Map, and Unwrap UVW to
the buttons, as we will use these modifiers the most in the first few chapters
of the book. Do this by finding the modifier on the alphabetized list and drag
it onto the button. To find a modifier on the list easily, just keep typing the
first letter from it on the keyboard, and you will cycle through all the modifi ers
with that letter (for example, press E for Edit Mesh). Then click OK to close the
Confi gure Modifier Sets window.
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Creating a Box Using 3ds Max
Texture Mapping Your Box
With your box still selected, go to Selection, click Element, and select the
box. This should highlight all the faces (press F2 to toggle the highlighted
selection).
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Now click UVW Map from your newly created modifier set and check Box
Mapping from the Parameters menu.
Next, right-click UVW Map in the Modifier stack and select Collapse All from
the pop-up menu, then click Yes—you want to continue at the prompt, as we
don’t need to preserve the stack in this instance.
With your box still selected, click on the Material Editor (on the top tool bar)
and change the standard material to a multi-sub object material as shown,
clicking OK to discard the old material. If you keep the old material by
accident, don’t worry—it doesn’t matter either way in this instance, as we are
creating new ones.
To keep this first tutorial simple, I have already prepared the texture maps
that you’ll be using from photographs. In Chapter 3, we will cover this process
in a lot of detail, showing how to take photographs, how to modify them in
Photoshop, and how to apply them to models.
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Creating a Box Using 3ds Max
To add the textures into the material editor, select the material ID from the
vertical list and load in the texture map for each side of the box. Although
there are ten materials displayed in the editor, we’ll just use the first six listed
Material #2 through to Material #7 in my case. Yours could have diff erent
names, depending on how you have used 3ds Max previously. Don’t worry if
your names don’t match mine at this point, as they can be renamed.
Click on the first material in the list, next to ID 1 (Material #2 in my case) and
assign a Bitmap material to it. To do this, click the small square button on the
right of “ diffuse” in Blinn Basic Parameters, select Bitmap from the top of the
pop-up menu, and click OK.
Now load Box1_top.jpg from \Chapter 1\Textures\, which you should have
downloaded from the Web site. If you haven’t downloaded the source fi les
already, go to www.GameArtComplete.com and follow the instructions for
downloading the files you’ll need.
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There are two ways to assign the next material to ID 2. The first way is to click
on the Go To Parent button, then click the Go Forward To Sibling button (as
shown here).
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Creating a Box Using 3ds Max
The second method is to click the Go To Parent button twice, then select the
second material in the list (as shown in the fi gure).
Then repeat the process of clicking the small square button to the right of
“ diffuse” in Blinn Basic Parameters, selecting Bitmap from the top of the pop-up
menu, and clicking OK.
As you assign each material a texture map, click the Show Standard Map
in Viewport button , so that when you Assign Material to Selection the
textures are visible on the object.
Repeat this process for ID 2 through ID 6, loading the remaining fi ve texture
maps into the material editor and ending with Box1_base.jpg being assigned
to ID 6.
Here’s how they should be assigned:
ID 1—Material #2—Box1_top.jpg
ID 2—Material #3—Box1_sid1.jpg
ID 3—Material #4—Box1_ sid2.jpg
ID 4—Material #5—Box1_ sid3.jpg
ID 5—Material #6—Box1_ sid4.jpg
ID 6—Material #7—Box1_base.jpg
Remember that your Material number may differ from the numbers I have.
As long as you match the ID (number)—for example, ID 1 goes with the
corresponding texture map, in this case Box1_top.jpg—then you’ll be okay. Also
make sure that you remember to select Show Standard Map in Viewport .
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Now that we have assigned texture maps to all of the materials, we will apply
the material set to the box and apply the material IDs to the faces of the box,
allowing us to see the texture maps.
With the box still selected as an editable mesh, click the Assign Material to
Selection button to assign the material set that you’ve just set up to the
box you’re mapping. At this point, you should see that a lot of the box’s faces
now have texture maps on them. These currently correspond to the default
face IDs, which are not necessarily the ones we want, so let’s go through and
check each face of the cube individually to make sure that the correct texture
map is applied to the correct face on the box.
For this model, we must do this carefully, as some of the packaging tape on
the box wraps around onto the adjacent faces. Look out for mistakes when
you complete the model.
To get the correct map onto the correct face, first select the face of the box
that is on the top of the box in the perspective viewport. Go to Selection
and select Polygon. Scroll down from selection until you get to the Surface
Properties rollout box and in Material, make sure that Set ID: is set to 1.
In the perspective view, select the polygon on the left-hand side and assign
the ID to 4. Depending on how the box mapping oriented each of the
box faces when we mapped it, the texture map may not be oriented the
correct way round. If this is the case, we’ll need to modify the UVW Mapping
coordinates to correct it.
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