building new skills

[threed_modeler]

Greetings all.

 

I've been building low-poly models for Parsons, an AEC, for about 3 years now. All industrial and commercial stuff.

 

I'm starting to build models that require more complex skins such as highrises with lots of surface details, exterior framing, etc.

 

Is there an elegant way to start modeling these directly in Max with boolean operations or using complex spline extrusion, or should I start with Architectural Desktop or a similar package and then export to Max? I have referenced an excellent image created by CGArchitect member Ryan Gallinera of RBGallinera Design as an example.

 

I appreciate the help.

 

[Brian Cassil]

You ask a pretty vague question there. If you're question is CAN you build detailed architectural models straight out of Max then the answer of course is yes, you can. However it could be difficult without at least some sort of reference material to begin with. I suppose this could be just images of buildings that you flatten, import into Max and then trace with splines and extrude, loft, etc. I've done that before when I've needed models of surrounding structures to compose with the central design elements. I don't suppose that would be how many of us work though. You will find that it varies quite drammatically here. Some of us use a model based cad program like Architectural Desktop or revit and then import that into Max or another program to texture, illuminate, and add surrounding details. Others, like myself, only use autocad plans as templates to draw shapes on and then do all the 3D stuff in Max/Viz. It really depends on what you are comfortable with. If you are going to be doing much architectural work at all then I think you will need some form of cad program to work with. However if architecture is not something you do a lot of, you could get by without it.

[nisus]

hi threed-modeler,

 

In our firm we model everything in max (3.1).

As your question is a bit vague indeed, I don't know what kind of information you are really looking for.

Anyway, from what I picked up I can give you one tip allready: NEVER use boolean on meshes in max... but DO boolean in sub-object spline level for the greatest control.

 

rgds

 

nisus

[garethace]

but DO boolean in sub-object spline level for the greatest control.

Then you simple move the individual faces as you please?

[nisus]

boolean on sub-object level will not make an additional face. Next, just extrude the spline

 

nisus

[mzagorski]

For building hi-rise's.... I would create one floor using poly modelling (AKA box modelling..) and extrude + and - faces to get what you need... then do a copy instance of 1 floor for many copies. For hi-rise.. no need to go into huge amounts of details as a lot of it wont be visible in the final render.. maybe only on floors closest to the camera.

 

Mike