Quick Start 3 continues where the end of Quick Start 2 left off. In this tutorial, you’ll begin applying premade materials to some objects, and you’ll create other materials from scratch to be applied to the remaining objects. You’ll quickly see how materials can breathe life into a scene and help you begin to achieve realism. As mentioned in the previous tutorial, this scene is simplistic in nature—but nonetheless, it requires use of the same tools a veteran user would use to create a very large and intricate scene.
1. Open the file that you saved at the end of Quick Start 2, or open the file 3dsMax8\scenes\Friends_of_Ed\QuickStart03.max.
Let’s start by applying the grass material to the scene.
2. Press H to open the Select Objectsdialog box.
3. Select the Site-Grassobject and click Select.
4. Press M to open the Material Editor. This is the main interface with which materials are applied to a scene.
5. Click the top-left sample slot with the green grass material, if not already selected. When a sample slot is selected, a white border appears around it.
Approximate completion time: 45 minutes
7. Click the Show Map in Viewporticon. This allows the image of the grass, also known as a map, to be seen in a shaded viewport. The quality of the viewport display depends heavily on the quality of your graphics card.
8. Press F9 to render the scene (close the render window when you’ve finished viewing). The map on the grass is stretched too far over too much area. Let’s reduce it in size. To do so, you need to add the UVW Mapmodifier.
9. In the Command panel, click the Modifytab.
10. Click the UVW Mapmodifier (or add the modifier from the drop-down list).
11. In the Parametersrollout, type 20'in the Lengthand Widthfields. This tells 3ds Max that you want the map (grass image) to be 20' ✕20', so that when placed on an object, it covers 20 feet in the X direction and 20 feet in the Y direction.
Now that the map is placed on the grass object correctly, let’s do the same with the street object, but this time taking a shortcut.
12. Select the Site-Streetobject.
13. In the Material Editor, click the top-middle sample slot. The slot changes to show the white border around it, indicating that it’s the active slot.
14. Change the name of the material from 02 – Defaultto Site-Street. Each sample slot represents a different material, and each material is given a generic name. For simplicity and ease of use, most of the materials in your scene match the names of the objects in the scene. The only exception is when a material is applied to multiple objects.
15. Click the Assign Material to Selectionicon. You’ve now just applied the Site-Street material to the Site-Street object.
16. Click the Show Map in Viewporticon. You can not see the map of the street in the viewport as you did with the grass because there were no mapping coordinates created automatically when the street object was created. Certain object types allow for automatic mapping coordinates, but this was not one of them.
17. In the Command panel, click the Modifytab, if it’s not already open.
18. Click the UVW Mapmodifier.
19. Scroll to the bottom of the Parametersrollout and click the Acquirebutton.
20. Click the Site-Grass object in the viewport (or select Site-Grassfrom the Select Objectsdialog box). Notice that when you move your cursor over various objects in the viewport, the cursor symbol changes only when placed over objects that you can borrow UVW mapping coordi- nates from (i.e., objects with the UVW Mapmodifier applied).
21. When the Acquire UVW Mappingdialog box appears, click OKto accept the default option. You have just told 3ds Max to acquire the same UVW Mapmodifier set- tings as the Site-Grass object—therefore, the map applied to the street also represents an area of 20 feet by 20 feet.
22. Let’s see how your scene looks so far. Press F9 to render the scene (close the render window when you’ve finished viewing). It should look similar to the following image:
Now let’s apply a material to the mulch in your scene.
23. Select the Site-Mulch and Site-Grass objects, and isolate them by pressing Alt+Q.
24. Deselect both objects and reselect only the Site-Mulch object.
25. In the Material Editor, click the top-right sample slot.
26. Click the Assign Material to Selectionicon. You’ve now just applied the Site-Mulch material to the Site-Mulch object.
27. Click the Show Map in Viewporticon. Just like the previous material you applied, you can’t see the map of the mulch in the viewport. The reason for this is that the mulch object was created as an editable mesh. If you had extruded the lines representing the mulch, generic mapping coordinates would have been created automatically. Instead, you simply collapsed the lines to an editable mesh, and mapping coordinates were not created. Since the object has no mapping coordinates, you can’t see the map.
28. In the Command panel, click the Modifytab.
29. Click the UVW Mapmodifier.
30. Scroll to the bottom of the Parametersrollout and click the Acquirebutton.
31. Click the Site-Grass object in the viewport (or select Site-Grass from the Select Objects dialog box).
32. When the Acquire UVW Mappingdialog box appears, click OKto accept the default option.
You have just borrowed the mapping coordinates from the grass object and applied them to the mulch object.
33. Press F9 to render the scene. The mulch material is clearly visible, but the map appears slightly large. Let’s reduce it in size.
34. In the Parametersrollout of the UVW Mappingmodifier you just applied, change the Length and Widthvalues to 10'. This changes the map size from the acquired 20-by-20-foot area to the new 10-by-10-foot area.
35. Press F9 to render the scene again (close the render window when you’ve finished viewing).
Now the map of the mulch appears to be a reasonable size.
36. Click the Exit Isolation Modebutton.
37. Select the Bldg-Walls object.
38. In the Material Editor, click the Bldg-Walls material (the bottom-left sample slot). Notice that this material contains three separate sub-materials. Let’s see what happens when you apply it to the walls.
39. Click the Apply Material to Selectionicon to apply the material. You just applied a multi/sub- object to the walls in your scene; however, the object only displays one color. The reason for this is that you haven’t told 3ds Max which faces get which sub-materials.
40. Activate the Front view by right-clicking in it. The view should be in wireframe (if it’s not, press F3).
41. Isolate the walls by pressing Alt+Q.
42. Right-click inside the viewport, select Convert To:from the quad menu, and select Convert to Editable Mesh.
43. Right-click inside the viewport again and select Facefrom the quad menu.
44. Click the Window/Crossingicon (if necessary) so that the toggle is set to the Windowselec- tion, as shown in the following image:
To perform the next step, you may need to move the Material Editor off to the side of your view so that it does not block your view of the walls, as shown below.
45. In the Front view, use a Windowselection to select the top of the Bldg-Walls object that rep- resents the soffit and fascia, as shown in the following image:
46. In the Command panel, scroll down to the Surface Propertiesrollout, type 1in the Set IDfield, and press Enter. The selected faces have just been assigned material ID 1. When you deselect the faces, you’ll be able to see in a shaded view that they now display the same white sub- material listed in material ID 1 of the applied material (in the Material Editor).
47. In the Front view, use a window selection to select the trim that runs along the bottom of the wall, as shown in the following image. Be sure not to select the bottom of the window openings.
48. In the Command panel, type 2in the Set IDfield and press Enter. You have just changed the selected faces to material ID 2, and you will be able to see in a shaded view that the faces dis- play the sub-material in material ID 2 of the applied material. You don’t need to assign mate- rial ID 3 because all the faces were assigned that ID by default.
49. In the Command panel, click the yellow Editable Mesh in the modifier stack. This closes the modifier stack.
50. Activate the Camera view.
51. Click the Exit Isolation Modebutton and press F9 to render the scene again. The Missing Map Coordinateserror message appears because the material you just applied has a map within it, and the objects don’t contain mapping coordinates (the UVW Mapmodifier).
52. Click Cancel to close the error message, and then close the render window.
53. In the Command panel, click the UVW Mapmodifier to add this modifier to the walls.
54. In the Parametersrollout of the UVW Mapmodifier, select the Boxoption, and type 10'in each of the Length, Width, and Heightfields. You’ve now applied the UVW Mapmodifier and told 3ds Max that the map represents an area of 10 feet by 10 feet. Also, by using the box method and a Heightvalue of 10', you’ve told 3ds Max to apply the map to vertical sides of the object in 10-foot increments.
55. Press F9 to render the scene again. The scene is starting to come together. Notice that the walls now have a textured appearance, which is due to a bump map applied to the material and the UVW Mapmodifier applied to the object.
56. Select the Site-ParkingLines object.
57. Click the bottom-middle sample slot, which represents a material named Scene-White. This will be the material you apply to the parking lines in your scene.
58. Click the Assign Material to Selectionicon. Notice the parking lines are now bright blue. This is obviously not going to work, so let’s change the color.
59. In the Blinn Basic Parameters rollout, click the Diffuse color swatch. This opens the color selector.
60. Drag the Whitenessslider downward so that the color changes to white. You can also change the color to white by typing a value of 255into the Red, Green, and Bluefields. Now your parking lines should appear white in the viewport.
Since this material is white, and several other objects in your scene can use this same color, let’s apply it to a few more objects.
61. Press H and select the following objects from the Select Objectsdialog box: Bldg-Door, Bldg- Floor, Bldg-Frames, Site-Curbs, Site-Fountain, and Site-Sidewalks. Click Select when finished (remember to hold down Ctrl to select multiple objects).
62. In the Material Editor, click the Assign Material to Selectionicon. Now the material used for the parking lines has been applied to six other objects in the scene.
63. Select the Bldg-Glass object.
64. Click the bottom-right sample slot, which represents the material named Bldg-Glass.
65. Click the Assign Material to Selectionicon and render the scene. Notice that the glass in the building is now a gray color, but it’s lacking reflection and transparency. Let’s add these two characteristics.
66. Click the Mapsrollout to open it.
67. Click the Reflection map channel.
68. Select Raytracefrom the Material/Map Browserand click OK. This step adds a Raytrace map to the Reflection map channel and will cause the glass to reflect.
69. Render the scene (close the render window when you’re finished viewing). Notice that the rendering took much longer to complete. This is because of the extra work 3ds Max has to perform to calculate the reflections. The reflections are a little too strong, so let’s reduce them slightly.
70. In the Material Editor, click the Go to Parenticon. This takes you out of the Reflection channel and back into the Parent (the base material).
71. In the Reflection Amountfield, type 50. This reduces the reflection strength to 50%.
72. Scroll up to the Blinn Basic Parametersrollout, change the Opacityfrom 100(representing 100%) to 70. Opacity is the opposite of transparency, so by making this material 70% opaque, you’re making it 30% transparent.
73. Render the scene again. Unfortunately, there are not many objects for the glass to reflect, and since there are no objects inside the building, the effect of transparency is not as clear as it could be. Regardless, as you add objects to your scenes, these two characteristics will enhance the appearance of your glass.
74. Right-click the active material slot and select 5 X 3 Sample Windows from the menu that appears. This changes the array of sample slots so that you can see more than the default six.
75. Click any new sample slot (i.e., with a gray sphere).
76. Click the Pick Material from Objecticon. Notice that when you move your cursor into the viewport area, the cursor symbol changes to an eyedropper, like the icon you just selected.
Notice also that when your cursor is over an object in your scene, the symbol changes slightly to an eyedropper that’s filled with fluid. This means that your cursor is over an object with a material applied.
77. Place your cursor over either of the two trees in your scene and click the mouse. Notice that the sample slot changes to show you the multi/sub-object material that was applied to the tree. This is the default material applied to the 3ds Max tree you created in the previous tuto- rial; however, the leaves are not green, so let’s change their color.
78. In the Material Editor, click the fourth sub-material ID color swatch. This is the sub-material color that is applied to the leaves.
79. Change the color to a dark green and render the scene again. Notice that the trees are now green.
80. Select the Site-Terrain object.
81. Click the sample slot for the material named Site-Terrain (the fourth material on the top row).
82. Click the Assign Material to Selectionicon.
If you render the scene now, you will get an error message saying The following objects require map coordinates and may not render correctly. As the message states, the Site-Terrainobject needs map- ping coordinates. Let’s see if you can apply mapping coordinates with minimal help.
83. In the Modifypanel, add the UVW Mapmodifier to Site-Terrain, and apply box mapping with a length, width, and height of 15 feet.
Since the colored roof is still the unnatural-looking default orange color that 3ds Max gave it upon creation, you should try giving it a new color.
84. Create a new material in one of the empty sample slots, call it Bldg-Roof, and give it a blue- green color.
85. Select the Bldg-Roof object and apply the material you just created.
86. Render the completed scene. Your image should look similar to the following:
87. Save your file as MyQuickStart03.maxfor use in the next Quick Start tutorial.
This concludes Quick Start 3. You have just sampled some of the powerful tools that will be explained in detail in the following chapters on materials. During the next tutorial, you will see how adding just a few lights can, in just a few minutes, transform your scene into a truly realistic work of art.
Chapter 6