| Frequently
Asked questions:
|
| Q:Where
can I find the blueprints for "xyz" car ? |
| A:A
very good resource page for blueprints is the page of Thomas Suurland:
www.suurland.com . If you
don't find there what you are looking for then try http://smcars.racerplanet.com/index.php?page=blueprints
and http://www.onnovanbraam.com/ |
| Q:I'm
a beginner. Can you make a complete tutorial or a easy one that I
can fallow ? |
| A:
I'm sorry. When I created the car tutorials I clearly said they
aren't intended for beginners in max. They can learn some things
from them but I suggest they should start using surface tools or
mesh edit and subdivisions with other easier tutorials (the web
is full of them and 3d studio help files and tutorial cds are very
good in the learning process).
If you think
you know a little modeling and want to learn more fast, I can teach
one or maybe 2 students a month how to model car (or any other model),
to texture it, to render it. For more information please go to lessons. |
| Q:Why
do you use this technique for modeling (surface tools->edit mesh/poly->meshsmooth)
?? |
| A:I
think making the initial shape of the objects is very fast and easy
when using splines than by starting with a plane or a box. Remember,
I'm using splines only to draw the initial shape ,creating a low poly
version of the car, but the main task is to edit the initial object
using edit mesh. |
| Q:Why
don't you use edit poly in the tutorials ? |
| A:These
tutorials were made a long time ago when editable poly wasn't available
in 3dsmax. Now of course I use editable poly. |
| Q:how
I put the blueprints on the boxes ? |
| A:First,
I edit the blueprint in Photoshop and separate it into 2-3 bmp-s
(front, top and left or right). I don't modify the proportions of
each part because on their original blueprint the drawings of the
car are all the same in size and proportions. After that I create
3 boxes in max. One for each bmp, and the boxes must have the same
Proportion as the bmp-s (let's say I have a 400x300 bmp, then the
box must have 30x40 or 300 x 400, etc.). |
| Q:But
how I import the blueprints in 3d studio ? And how I display them
in the viewport ? |
A:
To "import" a blueprint(jpg) in 3d studio:
Go to material editor, chose a empty material, go and click on "diffuse"
and then you select the "bitmap" from that long list. Then
you can search for your bmp, jpg,whatever image do you have. After
that if you want to see this image in the viewport, you must press
"the little checker button" that is located in the toolbar
of the material editor(also don't forget to assign the material to
the object). You also must be in "smooth shaded mode" to
view the images onto the boxes in viewport. |
| Q:
What 3D software should I start learning? |
| A:
It depends of you. 3DStudio, Softimage, Maya, Lightwave,Rhino3D,etc.
they all are good. But in the end it comes to what interface do you
like most and what do you think you are heading to (3DStudio is used
more in game industry, Maya and Renderman in movies, etc...). |
| Q:After
I create the spline cage of the car, I apply the surface modifier
and the mesh(or parts from it) disappears!!! What I'm doing wrong
? |
| A:You
probably didn't create correctly the spline cage. In get a lot of
mails from people that send me max scenes where they created only
just the basic contour of the car with lines, and they expect the
mesh to show up after applying the surface modifier. But this is
wrong. You not only have to create the basic contours of the car,
but also the connecting lines between them. You must keep in mind
that you will need 3 or 4 sided polygons, so you'll have to create
lines that are connecting vertices and forming 3 or 4 sided polys
otherwise the surface modifier will not work!!!.
Also a common mistake is to create separate lines. You will need
this lines to be part of a spline so that surface modifier can work.
Why sometimes the mesh disappears after surface modifier although
you created the lines correctly? Well it's because you probably
didn't had the vertices on top of each other or too close one to
another. You can also solve this thing by using a higher threshold
in the surface modifier. Also sometimes the faces can be inverted,
so you will need to "flip normals".
Other thing: you don't need to create curves lines. If you look
in my second tutorial (the Lotus Elise) you can see I started with
straight lines, and used a "0 step" in surface mod.
I strongly suggest that you look in 3dstudio max help about the
"surface tools" and practice a little.
|
| Q:
How do you make those renderings ? Why don't you make a tutorial for
the renderings ? |
A:
Most of the time I use vray for
renderings since in my opinion is the fastest global illumination
plugin and also can be tweaked to get great results. Also they offer
a free version that works excellent.
I'm not making a tutorial about vray because there are plenty on the
internet and on their website. |
