4th Lecture

3rd Lecture - Material editor & Material selection ID

In this lecture I learnt how to add materials to objects by using the material editor.I spent time playing around with the different options that I can create and use within this editor. I then used Adobe Photoshop to create my own bitmap image to use as a material in 3ds max.


Once I had saved the image I then selected ‘get material’ from the material editor(found in the ‘rendering’ tab) and this allowed me to import the bitmap that I had just created.


I also learnt how to break up one object into different sections so that I could create different effects with different parts of an object, for example on side could be one colour and the other side could have a material effect on it. I done this by using the material ID.


For this I chose a teapot to select sections of, the four sections I wanted to select from the teapot were; the lid, the body, the spout and the handle.
To do this I had to create my teapot from the shapes menu, I then converted it to editable poly by right clicking on it and selecting ‘convert to editable poly.’

Then using the right hand side tool bar of 3ds max I used the element selection, then scrolled down to polygon material ID’s, and labelled the selections of the teapot different numbers from 1 to 4.


I then selected the ‘rendering’ tab at the top of the page then I selected material editor.
Once the material editor window had opened I then selected ‘get material’ from the material tab then from the material/map browser I selected mulit/sub-object.



I could then select the material ID and chose which colour, material or map I wanted to use on this object. I chose a different colour for each of my 4 sections of the teapot.


Here is my multi-coloured teapot.

2nd Lecture

Today I learnt how to do spline modelling.
Firstly I started with a 2d shape by drawing a shape with the line tool, then I changed it to an editable poly and used the extrude tool to create a 3d shape from my 2d shape, I adjusted the size by clicking and dragging the shape with the mouse. Then finally when it was the shape I wanted I went to the edit borders options and selected ‘cap’ to seal the object up.

I could also pull out separate parts of the shape by using the cut command and editing the geometry, so that I could add spikes and spines to my shape. (My spline model, below)


In addition I learnt how to create text using 3ds max. I selected the ‘shape’ tab then selected ‘text’ then on the parameters menu I selected the style, size and font I wanted the text t be (I typed my name ‘James’) then I extruded it to make it deeper so it looked powerful, I then played about with the separate letters making them wider or smaller and adding points to them to create different effects to see what I could do. (See above)

I also learnt how to lathe objects to create a fruit bowl. To do this I created a curved box shape with the line tool,

I then highlighted it then used the lathe modifier to create this,

I also added lights to this so that all of the angles of the bowl can be seen in this screenshot.

Another tutorial was to create holes within a 3d rectangle using the Boolean tool. For this exercise I created a 3d rectangle, and then I created a 3d tube shape.

I then moved the tube within the rectangle so that the tube ran straight through the middle of the rectangle.

Then I selected compound objects within the geometry options then selected Boolean then I picked the object I wanted to Boolean which was the tube shape, then I clicked on it and this then deleted the tube and created a tube cut out within my rectangle as shown.

I also changed the background colour for when I rendered the object so that it could be clearly visible against the background colour, to do this I selected the ‘rendering’ tab then clicked environment then changed the background colour to pink so that the objects would stand out.