Thinking
Outside the Box:
3DS Tutorial #1: CyberGuy
|
Vol.
2, Issue 13
February 23, 2000
|
Organization
Before
we load up Max however, let’s go over some basic file management
ideas. This tutorial is what you’d call a project. Thinking
of your modeling and animation endeavors as projects helps put
you onto the path of organization. Being organized, developing
a system and sticking with it from project to project prevents
you from losing track of files when you need them. So go to whatever
drive you want the project stored and make a directory called
3DSTUTS. Go into that directory and create the following
directories: MESHES, MAPS and IMAGES. Now fire up Max.
Go up
to FILE/CONFIGURE PATHS and click on it…
Click
on the ‘Images’ line…
…click
on ‘Modify’ and browse until you find the 3dstuts\images directory
then click on the ‘Use Path’ button. Do this for the ‘Scenes’
line as well, mapping that to the 3dstuts\meshes directory. Thusly,
your Configure Paths panel under ‘General’ should now look like
this:
Next click
on the ‘Bitmaps’ tab in the Configure Paths panel…
…and ‘Add’
3dstuts\maps to your bitmap paths. If you have other entries
under bitmaps don’t worry about it. Just be aware were you to
render something in Max or try to see you textured model in-view,
too many paths under Bitmaps increases your render time.
Cool!
So now we have our project set up correctly and know that each
time we start Max and load a mesh, save a mesh, render an image
or make a material using a bitmap we know what directories will
be used. Of course if you’ve developed your own system for naming
conventions and project management use what works for you. The
key is to always be consistent.
Let's
Get Started
Make sure
you’ve downloaded cyberguy03.jpg and move him to your 3dstuts\maps
directory. Now keep in mind I’m not too concerned with how you
work in Max and will always instruct you to do things the way
I do them. However, feel free to deviate from the ways I tell
you if you’re more experienced or it makes more sense to you.
There’s always more than one way to skin a cat ;]
So, now
that you’re in Max click in Front viewport and hit ‘w’ to re-size
the window to fill your view. I almost exclusively work in one
window bouncing back and forth between the [P]erspective view
and all the orthographic viewports: [T]op, [B]ottom, [F]ront,
bac[K], [L]eft and [R]ight. This is just the way I prefer to
work using ‘z’ for zooming in and out and (ctrl) ‘r’ for rotating
the view.
Go to
the Create command panel, click the Shapes tab and click on Rectangle.
Click drag a rectangle approximately 100 x 100 units. Don’t worry
if it’s not exact. After the rectangle is made then go over to
the Length and Width values and simply enter 100 x 100. Name
it cyberguybuild.
Making
the 'Guide' Material
Move the
rectangle so it’s centered with the bottom edge aligned with the
construction plane. Next bring up your materials editor so we
can create the material that will be mapped onto the rectangle
serving as a guide to build cyberguy. Pick a material slot and
rename it to ‘cyberguybuild’. Knock Shininess and Shininess Strength
down to 0 and increase Self-illumination to 100.
