LAB 3

Posted by MAX WELL at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments

Cloning and the Xform Modifier (Daisy)
We will be making a couple of flowers which blow in the wind.
1. Open 3D Studio MAX, or select File Reset. Maximize the Perspective viewport and create a sphere at approximate coordinates (0,0,0). Give it a radius of about 20 units.
2. Select the sphere and go to the Modify panel. Click the Edit Stack button and select Convert to Editable Mesh. (Alternately, you may right-click the sphere and select Convert to Editable Mesh.)
3. With the sphere still selected, go to the Modifiers rollout of the Modify panel. Click the More button. Scroll down and select Xform. Click OK to add the Xform modifier to the sphere.
4. Minimize the Perspective viewport. Then click Zoom Extents All in the viewport control toolbox. All viewports zoom in to the sphere. Make sure the sphere's Sub-object button is turned on (yellow) and the selection level in the drop-down list is set to Gizmo.
5. In the Main Toolbar, click and drag on the Scale button. From the flyout, select Non-Uniform Scale. Right-click an empty area of the Top viewport to select it. With the Reference Coordinate System set to View, click the Y axis of the sphere's Transform Gizmo. Drag to scale the sphere along the Y axis of the viewport. As you drag the mouse, watch the Status Bar as it interactively updates the scale percentages. Scale the sphere to about 20% of its original depth. Your screen should look like this:


6. Select Edit Clone from the Menu Bar, and create a copy of the modified sphere. With the second sphere automatically selected, go to the Hierarchy panel and click Affect Object Only so the button turns blue.
7. Click Select and Move from the Main Toolbar. In the Perspective viewport, drag the second sphere's Transform Gizmo in the Z axis of the View (or World) coordinate system. Move the second sphere up about 35 units. Notice that the Pivot Point of the second sphere remains at coordinates (0,0,0). Click Zoom Extents All again to zoom out.
8. Deselect Affect Object Only. Go back to the Modify panel and turn Sub-object on for the sphere's existing Xform modifier. In the Main Toolbar, click Select and Non-uniform Scale, then go to the Top viewport and scale down the flower petal in the X axis in the View coordinate system. You should now have the center of the flower and one petal, like this:

9. Turn off Sub-object mode. Right-click on the Perspective viewport to select it. With the flower petal still selected, click Array from the Main Toolbar. The top of the dialog box should read "Array Transformation: World Coordinates (Use Pivot Point Center)."
10. In the Array dialog box, look in the Incremental section. Under the Y column, and in the row labeled Rotate, enter the number 30 and hit the Tab key. This assigns an axis of rotation, and an angle of rotation for each successive copy relative to the last, in degrees.
11. You will see that entering 30 degrees under Incremental causes an update in the Totals section. With the default Count of 10 objects in the Array, multiplied by an angle of 30 degrees, the total rotation is 300 degrees. Enter 12 in the box marked Array Dimensions, 1D, Count. Hit the Tab key to enter the number without closing the dialog box. The Totals section reflects the change: 12 copies multiplied by 30 degrees = 360 degrees total. Click OK.


12. From the Menu Bar, click Edit Select All. With the entire flower highlighted, right-click it and select Collapse Selected to Mesh. This erases the Xform modifiers and all Sphere parameters, leaving you with all objects of the type Editable Mesh.
13. Select the center of the flower. In the Modify Panel, verify that Editable Mesh is the current object type, listed under Modifier Stack. Scroll down to the Edit Geometry rollout. Click Attach List. When the dialog box comes up, select All objects in the list. Click Attach to close the Attach List dialog. You now have a single mesh object for the flower and its petals.
14. Add a new Xform modifier to the flower. Under the Modifier rollout, click the More button and select Xform from the bottom of the list. Make sure that you are in Sub-Object: Gizmo mode; it should be turned on automatically when you add the Xform modifier. Tilt the flower back a bit by rotating it in its local X axis. Right click the flower and Convert to Editable Mesh again. Go to the top of the Modify panel and rename your object "Flower."
15. In the Top viewport, create a cylinder at the center of the world to be used for the flower stem. Give it a height value of _200 so it is below the flower. Change the number of Height Segments for the cylinder to 12. If the cylinder sticks out of the front of the flower, reduce its radius or move it back so the stem doesn't come through the front of the flower head. After clicking Zoom Extents All in the viewport control toolbox, your screen looks like this:

16. Select the flower head. Under the Edit Geometry rollout of Editable Mesh, click Attach. Move your cursor to the stem cylinder; the cursor turns to a plus sign. Click the cylinder to attach it to the flower. Right-click an empty viewport area to finish the Attach command; its green button turns grey again. The Cylinder is automatically collapsed to an Editable Mesh and attached to the flower.
17. Add a Bend modifier to the flower. Turn on Sub-object, and select Center from the drop-down list. In the Front viewport, move the Transform Gizmo down in the Y axis, in the View Coordinate System. Move the Center of the Bend modifier's effect to the bottom of the flower stem. Change the Bend Angle to about 45 degrees. Bend Axis should be "Z".


18. Turn off Sub-object. Select the flower in the Front viewport. With the Select and Move transform on and the View coordinate system active, hold down the Shift key while dragging the flower's Transform Gizmo in the X axis. In the Clone Options dialog, select Instance. Now when you alter the Bend parameters of either flower, they both sway in the breeze.

19. Try creating reference objects instead. You can add more modifiers to referenced objects without affecting the master object or any of the other references. Any changes to the master object will be seen in the references, but additional modifiers in the references will not affect the master object.

Posted by MAX WELL at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments

Elabora DOS esquemas conceptuales en el 3DStudio, como el ejemplo de arriba, nomás no te lo fusiles;

Puedes complementar tus esquemas en una presentación de Power point u otro programa que conozcas.

Laminas tamaño doble carta.... Como las de Ale.

El ejemplo es un proyecto de UN STUDIO, arquitectos holandeses bien locos.... como Sergio, Van Berkel y Boss (marido y mujer.... como Emilio y Ale) para un museo de la Marca Mercedez Benz..... (como el mio)

Posted by MAX WELL at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments

Changing the Units Setup does not affect MAX's internal calculations; it merely changes how units are displayed onscreen. Checking Inches under Default Units means that when you type a number, MAX interprets that value in inches. 3. Maximize the Front viewport, then click the 3D Snaps button to activate Snaps



Right-click the 3D Snaps button to open the Grid and Snap Settings dialog. In the Snaps tab, make sure that Grid Points is the only option checked. Then go to the Home Grid tab and make sure Inhibit Grid Subdivision is unchecked (turned off). See the illustrations below.

When you're done, close the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box.
4. Using the Region Zoom tool, zoom in to the Front viewport until the height of the viewport is about 6 inches in MAX units.


To help you do this, look at the cursor position readout in the Status Line at the bottom of the screen.

You know you have zoomed into the scene correctly when your cursor reads approximately 6 inches in the Z dimension while placed at the top of the viewport. When you place the cursor at the bottom of the viewport, the Status Line should read approximately zero inches. Refer to the illustration below.


5. Now you are prepared to create a martini glass which is about five inches tall. In the Create panel, select Shapes, Splines. Then click on the Line creation button.


In default Line creation mode, you click to create Corner points and click-drag to create Bezier points. Here, we'll create Corner points at first, then convert them later.
Starting at the origin, with Snaps still on, click to create a point, then move the cursor to create a second point at 0'-2", 0, 0. Continue clicking to create points until you have something resembling the following:



After you create the last point (where the inside of the glass meets the stem), right-click to end Line creation mode.
6. Chances are, your first attempt does not look much like the illustration above. To edit your line, go to the Modify panel. With the line selected, enter Vertex Sub-object mode by clicking on the Vertex icon, or by clicking the Sub-object button and selecting Vertex from the drop-down list.

Now you can Select and Move points within the line until it takes on the rough shape of a half-profile of a martini glass.
7. A real martini glass has some curves, so we need to further refine this line. Begin by zooming in on the base of the glass. Turn off 3D Snaps.
Select both vertices on the outer edge of the glass by dragging a window around them. Then right-click either vertex. The context-sensitive right-click menu appears. Look for the list of vertex types, and select Bezier Corner to convert both vertices from Corner to Bezier Corner.


8. Turn off the display of the Transform Gizmo, because it will only get in the way when editing Bezier curves. Go to the Views menu and deselect Show Transform Gizmo. Verify that you are in the View coordinate system, and axis constraints are set to the XY plane



9. Select one of the outer vertices. Then select one of the green boxes, which are called tangent handles. Adjust the tangent handle so that the line segment between the two outer vertices is curved. The base of the glass should remain flat.

Then adjust the other point until you get a natural-looking curve for the rim of the base. It might end up looking something like this:


10. Now we'll create a curve where the base meets the stem. Scroll the Modify panel until you come to the Geometry rollout. Then click the button which is labeled Fillet.


While Fillet mode is active, position the cursor over the vertex located at the bottom of the stem. The cursor changes to a Fillet icon. Click-drag upward, and the selected point is converted into an arc with a vertex at either end. When you have a curve that looks correctly proportioned for the martini glass, release the mouse button. If you don't like what you did, use the Undo command. Refer to the following illustration.


11. Use the same Fillet technique to create a curve between the stem and the chamber.


12. Convert the two vertices at the top rim of the glass to Bezier Corner vertices. Edit the positions of the vertices and their tangent handles to produce a natural looking rim.


You may notice that the curve at the rim is not as smooth as in other places on the line. You can fix this by using adaptive spline curvature. In the Modify panel, open the General rollout and select Adaptive. The curve of the rim is automatically made smoother.


13. Create a curve at the bottom of the glass by refining the spline. In the Modify panel, Geometry rollout, click the button labeled Refine. Then, as you hover the cursor over the line, the cursor changes to a Refine icon. Click near the bottom of the inner edge of the glass to create a new vertex. Then right-click to exit Refine mode.


14. Refining the curve by adding a new vertex does not change the shape of the spline. It allows us to create a curve at the bottom of the glass without disturbing the straight line nearby. Turn the Transform Gizmo back on from the Views menu. Select the vertex at the bottom of the chamber. Convert it to a Bezier Corner vertex. Then move the vertex up in the Y axis by selecting the Y axis of the Transform Gizmo.


Finally, adjust the tangent handle to produce the correct concave curve.


15. Use Zoom Extents All to see the entire line. Turn off Sub-object mode. Add a Lathe modifier to produce a surface of revolution.

Under Align, select Max. Under Output, select Patch. You should see this result:


16. The martini glass model is finished. Minimize the Front viewport and look at the model in the Perspective view. If you don't see anything, it's because the model is very small relative to the world, and you need to adjust the Viewport Clipping Planes.
Right-click on the Perspective viewport label, then select Viewport Clipping from the pop-up menu. Two red rectangles appear on the right side of the Perspective view. Move the bottom triangle down to the bottom of the viewport. This prevents objects which are very close to the picture plane from being clipped.


17. If the glass appears strangely inside-out as in the picture above, select the Flip Normals option in the Parameters rollout. The model now looks correct.


18. If you look at the bottom of the glass, you'll see a strange puckering of the geometry. This is a minor bug in 3DS MAX. The workaround is to close the original spline, and use polygonal mesh output instead of Bezier patch output. Go to the Modifier Stack and descend down to the level of the Line object. Activate Sub-object Vertex mode, and click the Connect button. Then click-drag from one of the end vertices to the other.


When the curve is closed, click the Connect button again to turn the Connect tool off.
19. Exit Sub-object mode, and return to the level of the Lathe modifer in the stack. If necessary, turn off the Flip Normals option. Change the Output to Mesh, and increase the number of Segments.

Posted by MAX WELL at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

3. Under the Object Type rollout, click the Text button. It highlights in green to indicate that you are in text creation mode. Several rollouts appear in the Create panel. Look at the Parameters section _ at the bottom is a box labeled Text. The default text is already entered: "MAX Text." Select this with the mouse, then type in your own name.


4. Right-click the Front viewport to activate it. Then left-click near the world origin to create the text object.

5. Select the Modify panel. Here you can change the name of your text object, which is called Text01 by default.

6. In the Parameters rollout, you can change the font of your text object by selecting an installed TrueType font from the drop-down list. (The default font is Arial.) You can also change other parameters, such as the size of the letters and their kerning (space between letters). Adjust these parameters until you are happy with the appearance of your name. You can even edit the text after the object has been created.

It helps to click the Zoom Extents All button in the Viewport Controls Toolbox, located in the lower right of your screen. Now you can see the complete text object in all viewports.

7. At the top of the Modify panel is the list of Modifier buttons. Click the one labeled Extrude. Immediately, the 2D text is converted into a 3D solid. The text appears solid in any shaded viewports -- those which are not displaying wireframes. The Perspective viewport is shaded by default.

8. Look at the Parameters rollout for the Extrude modifier. The first parameter is the Amount of extrusion. This is the depth of the 3D object. Increase the Amount by dragging the spinner. Note that you can define a negative value for the amount.

9. If you wish to make further changes to the logo, simply click on the Modifier Stack drop-down list and select the Text object.

Now you can edit the text once again. If the Show End Result button is pushed in, you can see the object after all modifiers have been applied -- in this case, after the Extrude modifer.

Extra credit:

The Extrude modifier works with any closed spline shape, not just text objects. For extra credit, you can create a personal signature from an extruded spline. The thing to keep in mind is that all splines must be part of the same object, and these splines must not intersect with each other. Use the Attach button in the Editable Spline (Line) Modify panel to attach several splines together into one object.

LEGAL for extrusion ILLEGAL for extrusion

MAX3 also supports paths imported from Adobe Illustrator. You can bring .AI files directly into max using the File Import command. However, MAX3 doesn't understand anything newer than Illustrator 7. I have had better results using Illustrator's ability to save to an AutoCAD .DWG file. That way, you can specify how MAX parameterizes the spline on import.

Posted by MAX WELL at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

8. Click Select and Rotate in the Main Toolbar. Select the Transform Gizmo of the teapot in the Perspective viewport. Attempt to rotate the teapot as if you were to pour tea into the cylinder. Using the default View coordinate system (which, in the Perspective viewport, is actually the World coordinate system), it is impossible to rotate the teapot to get the desired effect. The teapot's spout always misses the target. You might be able to get it into a static position by making several rotations in various axes, but you can't simulate a pouring motion. This means that you will have problems trying to animate a pouring movement by rotating the teapot in the world axes. Undo the rotations to restore the teapot to the upright position seen in step 7.

9. With the teapot still selected, choose Local from the Reference Coordinate System drop-down list in the Main Toolbar. Observe how the Transform Gizmo changes to indicate a different orientation of the teapot's XYZ axes. Position your cursor over the Y axis of the Transform Gizmo so it turns yellow. Click and drag to rotate the teapot around its local Y axis. Pouring into the cylinder is easily accomplished. See the illustration on the following page.

10. As you interactively rotate the teapot, notice how unnatural the movement seems. This is because the Pivot Point is at the bottom of the teapot. In the real world, the point of rotation might be near the object's center of gravity, or at a joint or connection. For the teapot, the handle is an appropriate point of rotation.

11. With the teapot still selected, and hovering in the pouring position, go to the Hierarchy panel. Select Affect Pivot Only _ it turns blue to indicate that it is active. The Pivot Point tripod instantly appears, superimposed over the Transform Gizmo.

12. Click Select and Move, and choose the Local coordinate system from the drop-down list in the Main Toolbar. In the Perspective viewport, select the ZX plane of the Transform Gizmo by hovering your cursor over the blue and red corner icon. The Z and X axes of the Gizmo turn yellow. Click on the corner icon and drag the Transform Gizmo until it is located in the loop of the teapot's handle. Observe the movement of the Gizmo and Pivot Point in the other viewports. Click Min/Max Toggle to maximize the Perspective viewport. Your screen now looks like this:

13. In the Hierarchy panel, click Affect Pivot Only again to turn off Pivot Point Transforms. The Pivot Point icon disappears, leaving only the Transform Gizmo. Click Select and Rotate, select the local Y axis of the teapot once more, and rotate. With the Pivot Point in its new position, the teapot now spins around its handle for a more convincing tea party.
If you wish, you can make a short animation, but it is not required. The point of this exercise is to illustrate the local coordinate system and placement of pivot points.

14. Experiment with coordinate systems and Pivot Points. Try moving the Pivot Point of the teapot outside the object. Find out what happens when you rotate an object's Pivot Point, then move and rotate the object in its local axes.…

Posted by MAX WELL at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by MAX WELL at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments