Post by Anthony on Apr 29, 2015 16:59:01 GMT
11 amazing modeling tips for 3ds Max
1) Always use real-world scale when possible – It doesn’t matter if the units are in inches or meters as long as your scale is real world. You can always change these by going to Customize>Units Setup. What I do is to set my character size to around 180cm and just take it from there. The easiest way to check the size of your character is to just create a box that has the desired height or by using the Tape tool, which can be found in the Helpers tab.
2. Working Pivot – Sometimes while modeling, you have to do local and precise transformations, but the centre of the volume or the original pivot point won’t be where you need it to be. You can make a temporary pivot point without losing the original one. Go to the Hierarchy menu, choose Edit Working Pivot, place it and align it. Then enable Use Working Pivot. After making the transformations, disable Use Working Pivot to go back to the original pivot.
3. Instances and references – When an object has got a position that is not aligned to any Viewport it can be hard to edit. However, if you make an instanced copy of that object aligned to the Viewports, you can edit it and the changes will be replicated on the non-aligned object. If you make a reference copy you can even add Modifiers to the non-aligned object and edit the simpler Viewport-aligned base model
4) Instance and Greeble for distant cities – Whenever I work with large-scale cityscapes I try to instance as much geometry as I can and use the Greeble plug-in for instant city block generation. Instancing uses far fewer resources than simply cloning/copying each mesh. If you want to download a simple, yet handy version of this plug-in, head online to www.max.klanky.com/plugins.htm
5. Realistic Random effect with Noise Modify – A smart tip is to use the Noise Modify tool to give some randomness to your elements. As you can see in the image below, this canopy was simply modeled with a spline and then I turned on the visibility on the Viewport. Afterwards we just needed to select the vertices and apply Noise to them. The final result is a really soft variance between all the ropes, which makes it look credible and realistic.
6) Edit Poly geometry – To avoid problems in the renders, such as wrong shadows or different tones, all the geometry needs to be converted to Edit Poly. Editable Poly is optimized for advanced modeling, creates fewer errors than editable mesh and has many more settings.
7. Press 7 to display Viewport statistics – To get an idea of the scene polygon and vertice count, press 7 on your keyboard. To select which details are being displayed, you can right-click the plus symbol at the top-left of your Viewport>Configure Viewports>Statistics. Here you can choose poly or tri count, frames per second and so on
8) Distribute objects with ease along a spline using the Spacing tool (Shift+I) – This is a lifesaver for me when I’m detailing my models. Just create a spline manually or by using the Create Shape From Selection button in Editable Poly. Select the object that you want to distribute and open the Spacing tool. Hit Pick Path and now all you have to do is adjust the object count and play with some of the other settings, depending on your needs
9. Start from kitbash – Making a good kitbash collection of various elements – either mechanical parts or natural models, such as different rocks, grasses, trees and so on for organic environments – is a good way to start building sets because a lot of objects in 3D environments get repeated and reused. After building a few base objects in your environment, these kitbash collections can be used to add complexity to the scene.
10. Use World Machine for natural environments – World Machine is one of the best choices for generating natural-looking mountains; I’ve used it in my workflow for years. It has options such as the ability to export Erosion maps, which can then be used as masks to build complex materials in 3D software. Sometimes I tend to bring generated meshes from World Machine into ZBrush and sculpt on them even more to add additional details that fit better with my scene. World Machine gives you the option to export mountains either as a mesh or map that can be used as Displacement.
11. ProBooleans – Booleans are known to be problematic; however the ProBoolean has reliable results and is highly flexible. Under Compound Objects in the Geometry menu choose ProBoolean. Then you can pick several operands and define the Boolean operation for each of them (union, subtraction, intersection and so on). The great part is that the process is non-destructive, so you can always go back to any operand in the list and move, edit or animate it, getting the result in real time. This is a great solution for very complex, non-organic models.
1) Always use real-world scale when possible – It doesn’t matter if the units are in inches or meters as long as your scale is real world. You can always change these by going to Customize>Units Setup. What I do is to set my character size to around 180cm and just take it from there. The easiest way to check the size of your character is to just create a box that has the desired height or by using the Tape tool, which can be found in the Helpers tab.
2. Working Pivot – Sometimes while modeling, you have to do local and precise transformations, but the centre of the volume or the original pivot point won’t be where you need it to be. You can make a temporary pivot point without losing the original one. Go to the Hierarchy menu, choose Edit Working Pivot, place it and align it. Then enable Use Working Pivot. After making the transformations, disable Use Working Pivot to go back to the original pivot.
3. Instances and references – When an object has got a position that is not aligned to any Viewport it can be hard to edit. However, if you make an instanced copy of that object aligned to the Viewports, you can edit it and the changes will be replicated on the non-aligned object. If you make a reference copy you can even add Modifiers to the non-aligned object and edit the simpler Viewport-aligned base model
4) Instance and Greeble for distant cities – Whenever I work with large-scale cityscapes I try to instance as much geometry as I can and use the Greeble plug-in for instant city block generation. Instancing uses far fewer resources than simply cloning/copying each mesh. If you want to download a simple, yet handy version of this plug-in, head online to www.max.klanky.com/plugins.htm
5. Realistic Random effect with Noise Modify – A smart tip is to use the Noise Modify tool to give some randomness to your elements. As you can see in the image below, this canopy was simply modeled with a spline and then I turned on the visibility on the Viewport. Afterwards we just needed to select the vertices and apply Noise to them. The final result is a really soft variance between all the ropes, which makes it look credible and realistic.
6) Edit Poly geometry – To avoid problems in the renders, such as wrong shadows or different tones, all the geometry needs to be converted to Edit Poly. Editable Poly is optimized for advanced modeling, creates fewer errors than editable mesh and has many more settings.
7. Press 7 to display Viewport statistics – To get an idea of the scene polygon and vertice count, press 7 on your keyboard. To select which details are being displayed, you can right-click the plus symbol at the top-left of your Viewport>Configure Viewports>Statistics. Here you can choose poly or tri count, frames per second and so on
8) Distribute objects with ease along a spline using the Spacing tool (Shift+I) – This is a lifesaver for me when I’m detailing my models. Just create a spline manually or by using the Create Shape From Selection button in Editable Poly. Select the object that you want to distribute and open the Spacing tool. Hit Pick Path and now all you have to do is adjust the object count and play with some of the other settings, depending on your needs
9. Start from kitbash – Making a good kitbash collection of various elements – either mechanical parts or natural models, such as different rocks, grasses, trees and so on for organic environments – is a good way to start building sets because a lot of objects in 3D environments get repeated and reused. After building a few base objects in your environment, these kitbash collections can be used to add complexity to the scene.
10. Use World Machine for natural environments – World Machine is one of the best choices for generating natural-looking mountains; I’ve used it in my workflow for years. It has options such as the ability to export Erosion maps, which can then be used as masks to build complex materials in 3D software. Sometimes I tend to bring generated meshes from World Machine into ZBrush and sculpt on them even more to add additional details that fit better with my scene. World Machine gives you the option to export mountains either as a mesh or map that can be used as Displacement.
11. ProBooleans – Booleans are known to be problematic; however the ProBoolean has reliable results and is highly flexible. Under Compound Objects in the Geometry menu choose ProBoolean. Then you can pick several operands and define the Boolean operation for each of them (union, subtraction, intersection and so on). The great part is that the process is non-destructive, so you can always go back to any operand in the list and move, edit or animate it, getting the result in real time. This is a great solution for very complex, non-organic models.