Creating Furniture in 3dsmax - A Modeling Tutorial

DO NOT DUPLICATE DO NOT DISTRIBUTE

Introduction

Want to learn how to furnish your environments quickly. This tutorial demonstrates easy ways to create furniture. You master many of the most commonly used modeling tools and methods, and become familiar with the effect of advanced lighting and exposure control on your images.

You learn how to:

• Use the Edit Spline and Extrude modifiers to Create a Comfortable Couch.
• Create Table Tops with Bevel
• Model Lamp Shades and Lamp Stands with Taper
• Group Objects
• Change How Images Render with Radiosity and Exposure Control

By the time you complete this project you will have mastered several modifiers you can use to model very attractive objects.

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Modeling with Extruded Shapes

In this lesson you learn how to convert a simple single line profile into a couch that looks comfortable enough to sit on. You also learn how to turn this object into furniture you can use in your own scenes.

Prior to proceeding with this lesson, extract the source files from the

m0701a.exe self-extracting executable. To do this, save the .exe file to a folder on your local hard disk. From the Windows Start menu, choose Run. Select the .exe file. Choose OK, then specify where the source files should be placed.

1. Open the 0701a.max.
2. Select the L-shaped curve in the scene. This was drawn using a Line shape.

   

3. Choose the Select and Move icon from the Main Toolbar.
4. Select the Modify tab.
5. Select the Vertex icon.

   

6. Select two points to put a window around the three vertices indicated in the following image. The vertices will turn red.

   

7. Right-click on one of the vertices, then choose Bezier. This will make the lines that pass through these vertices curve.

   

8. Select the middle vertex. You will see that a green line with "handles" on either end passes through it.

   

9. Select the Zoom in the lower right corner of the screen.
10. Click and drag to zoom in on the object.

    

11. Click and drag on the green boxes to shape the curve as shown below. Note that if you click too close to the red arrow associated with the X axis of the tripod that passes through the curve, you will find you can't moved the green handle up or down. If this happens, move the other green handle up or down.

    

12. Drag on the green arrow to move the vertex up.

    

13. Use the techniques just demonstrated to make your shape match the one shown.

    

14. Select the Vertex icon in the Modify command panel to turn it off.
15. From the Modifier list, choose Extrude.

    

16. Type 6' in the amount spinner.
17. Type 8 in the Segments spinner.
18. Select Arc Rotate icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
19. Click and drag to display a 3D view of your object.
20. Select the Zoom Extents All icon

    

21. From the Edit menu, choose Clone to create a copy of the object. You will modify the copy to create an arm for the couch.
22. Choose Copy from the list of options.

    

23. Choose OK.
24. In the Modify panel, in the Amount spinner, type -8". This will extrude the couch 8" in the opposite direction from the 6' extrusion.
25. Type 3 in the Segments spinner. This makes the object you are working on have viewer faces, which means it will render a little faster.

    

26. Right-click on the User label in the upper left corner of the screen, then choose Views, then choose Right. This displays a right view of the scene.

    

27. Select the Zoom Extents All icon located in the lower right corner of the screen.

    

28. Select the Modify tab.
29. Select the Line entry in the modifier stack.
30. Select the Vertex icon.
31. Select two points to put a window around the vertices shown in the following image. Note that you will only be able to select vertices on the current object, so don't worry about selecting vertices on the object you were working with originally.

    

32. Move the vertices up.

    

33. Select the Vertex icon to turn it off.
34. Select the Extrude entry at the top of the modifier list.

    

35. Type T to display a Top view of the model.
36. Choose the Zoom Extents All icon.

    

37. From the Edit menu, choose Clone.
38. Select Instance then choose OK. Selecting Instance means that changes you make to one arm of the couch will be reflected in the other arm.

    

39. Move the duplicate to the opposite end of the couch.

    

40. Select two points to put a window around the model.
41. From the Group menu choose Group.

    

42. Type Couch to name the collection of objects.
43. Choose OK.
44. Type M to display the Material library.
45. Select the Upholstery Beige material.

    

46. Drag and drop this onto the Couch.
47. Choose OK to accept the default material assignment option.
48. Close the Material Editor.
49. Type C to display a camera view of the model.
50. Render the scene.

    

You will find our version of the scene to this point in 0701b.max unpacked from the m0701a.exe self-extracting executable.

Tip:

From time to time, when you edit shapes, you may find that the axis tripod that appears on selected vertices makes it hard for you to move the green handles associated with Bezier curves. You can turn the tripod off if you like. From the Customize menu choose Preferences then the Gizmos tab and then in the Transform Gizmo group choose the On check box to turn it off. Remember to turn the gizmo back on later. Its a handy tool for moving objects straight up and down.

Tip:

When you want to edit objects that are part of a group, just select the group. From the Group menu choose Open. You can then select and edit objects in the group. From the Group menu, choose Close when you are done.

Tip:

You can extract grouped objects from a scene to their own independent file. This makes it easy to find them when you want to use them in other scenes. Just select the group, then from the File menu, choose Save Selected. Provide a name for the object. To insert the object into any other scene, From the File menu, choose Merge. Select the file that contains the object. Choose Open. Select the objects you want to merge, then choose OK. You may have to change the names of objects in the group in order not to replace objects in the current scene.

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