3ds Max Quick Tips (Displacement and Texturing)

Here we go !

Well here we are with the first post for the year, and ironically almost at the end of January. Initially i was going to make this post split into two different posts. Due to having very little free time though we ended up with a quick tips type of post. Actually this ended up working better then expected. From now on i can gather different types of videos that are for different things and bundle them together. So as far as i’m concerned it actually works out in the end. The first video was posted last week. If you are not subscribed to the YouTube channel, you can see it here now.

Using Displacement in 3ds Max and V-Ray

In this video i go over a very simple issue that can come up when using displacement in Vray. In the video i go over the main difference between bump and displacement. After this we will take a look at how to use displacement to make a brick wall. The main problem with displacement at corners is that black holes appear in the mesh. So we will see how to fix those black holes with the use of Vray Displacement modifier. After that issue, we will take a look at another common issue when using displacement for floors. Namely we will see how to stop the displacement going through our models in the scene.  So if this is something you are interested check out the video below.

 

Texturing a Floor with 3ds Max and Floor Generator

Here we will see how we can add a custom texture to geometry created with the Floor Generator script. In one of my earliest posts i actually covered Floor Generator so feel free and check it out. At first glance this looks like a very simple thing, but it does come with some issues. Here we will see how to deal with these issues, and how to quickly map and texture the floor. Anything more about explaining here is really not needed as you can see it all done in the video below.

Final Thoughts

 

I actually had fun making these videos. The fact that they are both different topics bundled together makes it easier for me. In the future i can make mixed videos for things that are too small for their own topic. So for this post that would be all. If you liked what you saw here, then help spread the word and share it around.

BONUS FOR THE ONES STILL READING

This week i decided to make a Discord server. If you have never used Discord it’s really easy. Just click the link below and it will take you to the site. There you can choose to use it in the browser to download the application. Once in the server come on in and say hi or whatever is on your mind. The main idea here is to have a place where you can come in and ask anything. And also a place where you can directly ask for a tutorial topic (make it easy on me).

DISCORD SERVER LINK 

So click on the link here and come in for a chat.

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.

Working with Loft Part 3

Alright this is the final installment of this three part tutorial into the ways that the Loft modifier works in 3DS Max. In the first part we had the chance to see the basic parameters of the modifier, then we followed with the second part where we took what we learned from the first part and used it to make a road, and in this last part we are going to continue building on that knowledge.

In the following video we can see how to effectively use Loft to make a road that is going up an inclination, while at the same time it incorporates the natural curving and bending that we might expect to see in a realistic road.

So as we saw in the video, by using the Loft modifier we can do more then simply choose lines and extract geometry from it, we can further refine that geometry and the way it bends, twists and deforms by simply controlling the tangent handles of the bezier corners.

So with this i am putting the Loft modifier series to bed, and i’m really hoping that you guys learned something from this and if you really did then share the post around, subscribe to the YouTube channel and keep on learning.

Working with Loft Part 2

And here we are back again with the second part of our Loft trilogy. This part is not directly linked to the Working with Loft, but it’s rather building on the foundation that we learned from it. In this second part we are going to start off with a single line that is representing our road, then we are going to see how we can fix some of the issues that can arise from dense geometry and even go into texturing the road and fixing the texture issues without having to go deeper into UVW Unwrap.

So just like in the previous part we started off with a simple line and with the help of a few profiles we ended up with a nice looking road that even has street crossings incorporated into the model. With this i would end the second part here, and in the third part we are going to see a few more uses for the Loft modifier.

And last but not least the call to action, if you liked this post or the video then share it around, subscribe to the YouTube channel and keep on learning.

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