Hey everyone and welcome back after a small posting break. The subscribers to the YouTube channel, or the FB page have seen my last post. If you are not subscribed (shame on you) then keep reading. In today’s post we are going to cover how to model a PVC window in 3ds Max. So let us jump right in.

Why Model This ?

Now this is not a stupid question but rather a good one. The reason for modeling this is so that you can get an extra level of detail in your scenes. I’ve actually seen many people when it comes down to making windows and doors, they simply put in a box. The issue with using a simple box, is that you are pretty much confined. That means that you can’t open the door or window as it will look fake. On top of that since it’s a box there is no extra details on the edges from the AO map. So as you might have figured it out it can be very beneficial to have proper model for this.

Preparing for the modeling of the actual window

First of all, when approaching any model that you want to make, you need to have proper reference image. When modeling a PVC window what you need to know is that the frame has a profile. What this means is that we can google search for PVC profiles and get a better idea. Now once you find a window or door profile, you need to have the shape of the window. You can choose any profile you want, or you can choose the one that i used.

Modeling of the Window

If we have the profile, and the shape of the window we can start with the modeling phase. This might look a bit complicated, but it really is quite simple to model. In the video below you will see how to trace the profile. How to get it to the right size for your window, and reuse the wall frame for the window frame. After we have that we will see how and why we need to chamfer the edges. After all that we will have the PVC model of our window. As they say a picture is worth 1000 words, and a video 20 minutes. So if you want to see how i went ahead to model this then check out the video below.

Final Thoughts

After watching the video you probably have seen that this is quite easy to model. And even as such i hope you guys had fun, and learned something in the process. If you did then help spread the word, and like comment and share this on social media. That would be all for today, and i will see you all in the next post.

In today’s post we are still sticking to modeling techniques, but this time around i went ahead and made the post about a certain something instead of a general terminology. Namely i made it about how to model intersecting welded geometry. This is something that you can see in many, many models out there that are made out of pipes of some sort, and even though the welding is an integral part of the model a lot of modelers skip it. Now i will say it right off the start that it’s not rocket science, but if you have never done it then it’s a good thing to see how it’s done.

So in the video below we will see two different types of modeling and welding. In the first case we will see how to take two circular pipes, mash them together and make the welding where they touch. After that is made we are going to continue with the second example in which we will have a rectangular bar come into a circular pipe and meld into it’s shape, and again we will apply the same welding mark as we used in the first case. So if that is something that might interest you then check out the video below.

After the video about the welding, and pretty much the rest of the videos i did in the Modeling Techniques category you could have noticed that i used the Turbosmooth modifier to get the smooth geometry and support edges to control the sharpness of the edges. Well there is another option, or another way that you can model and that is by using the OpenSubDiv modifier. The main difference between Turbosmooth and OpenSubDiv is that by taking the second choice we don’t have to add additional geometry to our model but instead control the edge flow with creasing. The major advantage of this method is that it won’t screw up your UVW unwrap. Now It does sound a bit weird and complicated when you hear about it, but in all honesty it’s a pretty easy and straight forward process that is really not that hard to understand. So check out the second video to see how to use the OpenSubDiv modifier.

With that we are putting a cap on our post and calling it done. I hope you guys enjoyed the video, had fun and most importantly learned something new down the line. So don’t forget to subscribe, like and share and come back for more.

Following last week’s post 3ds Max Basic Modeling and the very positive feedback i got about that video, naturally i got plenty of messages asking me to make more videos like it. Today’s post is all about that request, but right at the start i have to say that i was not really expecting the video (in this case it ended up being two videos) to be so on the long side. My initial idea was that i can make a general modeling tutorial, squish a bunch of information in another 20-30 min video and call it a day … boy was i wrong.

As soon as i started recording the video i actually came to the realization that trying to put all sorts of modeling tricks and tips in a single video would be impossible, unless that video is hours and hours long. Well since i highly doubt that anyone would like to sit and watch a video that long, i decided to split it into two videos and cover a certain area of modeling.

I will not stop making videos like these though, on the contrary. In the future i will continue making more geometry modeling tutorials, but i will pair them with another video in which i will show you an example of where you would use those techniques, as a sort of a filler explanation video. But enough with the intro chit chat and lets jump down to the actual videos.

In the first video i decided to take the road less traveled, and actually give a bit of an explanation on how to work with Boolean Operations. Now i am well aware that most of the 3d modelers out there will tell you that you should avoid working with Boolean Operations as they are like a plague and they can leave you with a nasty looking model. Generally that is what happens if you don’t know how the Boolean operations work, but if you do then you actually end up with a rather powerful tool at your disposal. So check out this first video and see how the Boolean Operations work.

In the second video we go over some of the more common issues you will encounter when modeling, and that is controlling edge flows, inserting new geometry on elevated (non-flat) surface, transitioning edge sharpness and intersecting geometry. All in all in this video you will see quite a bit on how to deal with these issues, and i have to add that it was actually fun making this video. As an added bonus at the end of the video i decided to go ahead and import the model that we ended up with in the first video, and use the things that we showed in this video and get to a state where it will have clean flowing geometry. If what you read here is something that you might want to see, then go ahead and check out the video.

So that would be it for now, I really hope you guys liked the videos and you managed to learn something new from it. If you enjoyed it then subscribe, like and share.

Today’s post is a tad bit different from the posts that i have done previously, and it’s different in the manner that instead of covering how to make a certain something, in this post i focused on explaining the fundamentals of modeling in Max. And this is where we come to one of my secrets and mainly why i chose to do what i do, and that is simply that i love modeling. Once you know how the basics of geometry flow works, from there on it’s always a game trying to get the geometry as clean as possible and it always feels like a mini game that you want to win so it ends up being mainly fun (in some cases can be frustrating).

So in the video below i started from the most basic thing, and that is explaining how interpolation or subdivision works for splines. From there we will see the difference between NURMS smoothing and Turbosmooth. Then we will go over using Turbosmooth to smooth out the model by using smoothing groups, after which we will also cover the geometry support edges way. After that we will see how adding Turbosmooth can affect the volume of our model, and how we can adjust the model to compensate for the loss. So if this is something that might interest you, go ahead and check out the video below.

Now the original idea for this is that it will end up as the first post in a series of posts that i will do where i will try to cover different scenarios, and try and explain how you would go about and deal with an issue that might arise from that situation. I didn’t want to gather multiple videos and release them all in one post due to the fact that i was a bit busy this week so didn’t have the free time to record as much, and the second reason being that posts with multiple posts end up being posts that people skip as they see them as something that is too long.

So that would be it for this first part. I really hope you guys liked the video and you managed to learn something from it. If you enjoyed it then subscribe, like and share and if there is interest about these kinds of videos i will make more.