Modeling a Gabion Wall in 3ds Max

Just like you will be able to see in the video once you start watching it, i got the idea about making this video from a tutorial request from the Evermotion Forums. Namely one of the guys there was curious as to how you would go around and model a gabion wall (basically a bunch of rocks inside a wire mesh) without using maps. The reason why i liked the idea of making this video about this theme in particular is the fact that it can be a good example that can help me showcase the use of the Bloob compound object, as well as some modeling techniques that can help you get a generic rock without having to go outside of 3ds Max. And to top that we even get to see some use of the MassFX tools that come prepacked with 3ds Max.

So in the start of the video you will see how to start from a few primitives, and from there extrapolate a starting mesh for our rocks. Now opposed to what i would do for a project like this and take it to Zbrush for sculpting, here we will see how we can get some interesting looking results by sticking with 3ds Max only. After that we will also see how we can use MassFX to simulate the rocks and help them form the shape of our wall. In any case that was the short explanation, but if you are curious as to how you would model something like that then go ahead and watch the video for yourself.

If you watched the video and for some reason you weren’t able to find the texture that i used for the rocks, but you want to follow along feel free and pick it up here. Note though i did NOT make this texture and all the rights to it belong to whoever made it, i simply got it from Google and i am sharing it here with you guys. (Don’t want to get sued for something)

Seamless_Rock

So i hope you liked this video and you managed to learn something new, and like always if you liked what you saw you can help spread the word by liking on YouTube and Facebook, share and comment so it could reach more people and hopefully help someone else the same way it helped you out.

Generating Terrain Geometry in 3ds Max

So we’ve all had the chance of seen hundreds if not thousands of cases of those awe inspiring renders that look amazing showing off mountains, rivers and nature. Well the moment you realize that you are looking at a CG image is the moment that you realize that someone had to do the terrain for that render. And if that doesn’t sound like something that you would ever need just think about the fact that if you happen to work on a architectural project you are bound to end up with the need to model the terrain surrounding your base model.

Modeling terrain in 3ds Max is not a very complicated thing, but if you have never done it before it might pose a bit of a challenge. In the following video you will see how to take an image and from it extrapolate the isohypse lines that define the contours of the terrain. From there we will see how to generate terrain from those lines in 3ds Max, and then how to better control the geometry and making it all quads.

Oh and one more thing, this is for those of you who are still reading this and haven’t simply jumped off to the video to see what’s going on there. Even if you know how the terrain compound object works, make sure you check out the last 3 or so minutes of the video you can see how to generate terrain by using a plugin called Splineland. This plugin is amazing for someone that is doing this on a daily basis, and can afford to spend the cash to buy it. I only scratched the surface with this tutorial about it but i might make a more detailed one in the future covering more about it.

So without making this any longer then it should be, check out the video so you can see what i was talking about.

In case you would want to follow along with the same image that i used feel free and get it from here, or you can get one from Google.
Generating Terrain

Having said all that i hope you guys learned something in the the process of watching this and you also enjoyed it. If that is the case then subscribe to the YouTube channel, share it around, like and help spread the word around.

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