what aproach would you use to model this?

[sygboe]

Hi,

I'm new to modeling in max. Previously/currently all my modeling was done in SketchUp. I really want to just do all modeling in Max. But i've found it's taken me about 9 times as long to 'not' recreate this window i modeled in Sketchup.

 

I tried importing it straight in,but when i went to bevel some edges it proved that the model was a bit of a mess. (though it was clean in sketchup).

 

so i thought i'd model from scratch in Max, but i'm struggling to work out a good way to aproach it. with accurate dims of course.

 

could anyone give any hints please?

[Spooner04]

I'm sure there has to be a tutorial out on the web somewhere to help you short term. You could use insets for the window frames and such and you could connect the edges on the side and extrude the faces to make the bricks. Put a symmetry modifier on it so you don't have to model all the sides.

 

3dtotal.com has some really good tutorials to help you learn modeling fundamentals and other basics.

 

To help your modeling skills longterm I highly recommend:

 

http://3dats.com/products.asp?ok=1

 

http://www.amazon.com/Poly-Modeling-3ds-Max-Thinking-Outside/dp/0240810929/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249427336&sr=8-1

Edited August 4, 2009 by Spooner04

[Peter M. Gruhn]

Related Starting Point

...Start with a plane. 5x7.

 

Convert to editable poly.

...Because that's what we always do ;-)

 

Change the hori spacing to better accomodate the glass.

...Use Selection Center (button up top there)

...Edge select some vertical edges next to the openings.

..."Loop" to get the whole vertical run.

...Scale horizontally to push them out to the edges.

...Do this again for the stone borders.

...(A clever person might have started with a 1x1 plane and

...... used edge connect with some pinch instead of all this scaling)

 

Change the vert spacing to better accomodate the glass.

...Edge select. scale.

...This is one step I don't quite like as I don't like the way it

......pinches there. I might rather use edge connect to create

......extra loops there and make each glass pane 3 polys not 2.

 

Start to create the opening

...Polygon select. inset by group.

 

Move it away from the front to create the bevel

...move

...(this could also be accomplished with bevel, extrude, scale...)

 

Make the last inside edge of the stone

...extrude

 

Make the front face of the frame

...inset

 

Make the inside face of the frame and leave the glass in place.

...extrude

 

Give the front some thickness out from the wall

...border select - the whole outside perimater of the model is

......a "border". You can select it and then...

...shift-move it backward to pull some faces out behind it

......making that thickness.

 

Differentiate the bits

...I decided to keep the model as one mesh and used poly

......selections and set different material IDs and assigned

......a multi/sub object material with three materials - stone,

......frame, glass.material ids

...A handy way for this model was :

......use ctrl-a to select all faces. Set them to ID 1

......select the glass panes then hit "grow" twice to grab

.........the thin frames. Set all that to ID 2.

......hit "shrink" twice to back off from the frames leaving

.........us back at the glass. Set that to ID 3.

 

For whatever your purposes, you may want to select faces and use detach to make different things different objects.

Edited August 5, 2009 by Peter M. Gruhn
HTML eats white space

[amer abidi]

you just gotta love this forum!

[WAcky]

wow.

[chutti]

2 thumbs up......

[sygboe]

wow thanks Peter.

I couldnt have hoped for more.

All those little different methods will help loads.

i'm going to start again using your guide.

 

I kept trying to 'draw' like in autocad. Or have lots of shapes joined together.

 

this single object modeling has to be good.

[sygboe]

i just did the tutorial, and have a much cleaner model now.

 

i have just one more question.

 

To make the stonework more real and less sharp I want to 'round off' the edges.

i've been selecting edges and chamfering (as a modifier). this seems very long winded and fiddley, manually selecting many lines and then doing a chamfer which you cant adjust again.

is there a way of just selecting the edges and giving them a fake amount of smoothing set to a radius that would be adjustable at a later date?

[Dave Buckley]

do it in the material, make sure you are using A&D materials though and in the special effects rollout, you will see a 'rounded edges' where you can specify a radius. its a rendering effect. you won't see anything in the viewport.

 

also there was a way of enabling rounded edges for everything not just a&d materials, when i remember i'll let you know

[JonRashid]

Had to post a quicker way. You can use the original plane idea or if you have exact dimensions import 2d spline from sketchup. Extrude with segments set to 2.

Grab front verts only at points marked in 2nd thumbnail and hide them. This then allows you to move the next 2 layers of verts into position as in thumb 3. Pic the faces that are sloping in and ensure you use alternate smoothing groups that are not already in use and voila! This provides and optimized mesh too.

 

You can use the material bevel or replace the extrude with bevel and use all 3 levels.

[Peter M. Gruhn]

If the material effect isn't working for the chamfer, I'm having success with adding a poly select to select the edges, then a new edit poly above that and when you put that to edge select mode the edges are already selected and you can chamfer. Can turn it off and add another edit poly to try a different amount. Can delete the edit polys if you don't like them and retain the original.

[sygboe]

Hi Thanks for your help.

This is what i produced in the end.

It's a full scale colour hoarding to hide the building site.

 

annoyingly the print came out a lot lighter than the actual artwork

[SandmanNinja]

It's a shame that a gamma problem at the printing end ruined such a good Team Effort.

It's also a shame the printer didn't think, "Man, this sure is faint. I wonder if I should call my client..."