Poly modeling methods

(1) Vertex displacement with Soft Selection

This is a very easy and simple method. However it is very difficult to make the terrain realistic using this method. The quality of the terrain is directly depending on the 3d artist’s performance.
Several poly modeling methods can be used to make the terrain. The first step of all these methods is to create a plane with higher amount of Length and Width Segments. (eg. 50X50, 100X100 or even higher). Convert the plain to Editable Poly object. Go to sub-object levels such as polygon, vertex and edge and displace them (especially through the Z axis) by using Soft Selection option. The main tools which will be used to displace will be Select and Move toggle and the few parameters listed under Soft Selection rollout. However, Select and Rotate toggle and Select and Scale toggle may also be used according to your need.
The best procedure to follow when using this method is to start with higher value of Falloff (under Soft Selection rollout) and then go to smaller and smaller Falloff values step-by-step. This will help you to make the basic shape of the terrain and add more and more details later.

However it is mode time consuming task to add more detail to the terrain.

(2) Vertex displacement by Paint Deformation

This method is little bit easier to use and bit faster than the early method. Create a plane with higher number of segments as early. Convert the Plane into Editable Poly. Turn on the Push/Pull button in the Paint Deformation rollout, and draw the terrain on the plane as you like. In this method also you can start with basic shape of the terrain using bigger Brush Sizes, and then go to further details by reducing the brush size little by little.
Keep in mind not to click and drag the brush on the plane. It will make your terrain unrealistic. Add detail by clicking at every point you want.

This method is also take some time when go in to further details.

Using Displace modifier

This is very simple, quick and more realistic method. Create a square plane with higher amount of segments (we can increase it later). Open Material Editor (press M), Click the small button in front of the diffuse colour in the Blinn Basic Parameters rollout and select Smoke from Material/Map Browser.
Select the plane and add Displace modifier to it. Click the None button under Map: in the Parameters rollout and select early created Smoke material from the Material/Map Browser (Select “Mtl Editor” from Browse From group on the left side of the Material/Map Browser). You may not see any difference. Don’t worry; increase the Strength value in the Parameters rollout until the mountains are well build.
Go to Smoke material you have created, and adjust its parameters. You can get different shapes of terrain in a flash. Surely it will be more realistic than what you have created early. There is another advantage when using this method. That is you can be back to plane you created and poly density of the plane can be change as you want.

But there is a one disadvantage. Were you able to find it? It is you can’t model the terrain in a way that you want using this method. But you can use several methods to overcome this problem. One such way is to use the Bitmap option instead of Map option we have selected early. If you are using this method you can make the displacement map using Photoshop as a grayscale image. In this case you can use Photoshop and 3d max simultaneously. 3d max automatically updates the terrain when you edit and save the image using Photoshop.

Better ways of modeling terrain

By understanding advantages and disadvantages of each and every method which can be used to model terrain, I have come out with my own novel method with all the positive points.
Create a plane with a desired size and increase the number of side segments in to a moderate value (don’t worry you can increase the number of segments as you need later). Apply a Displace modifier to it. Create the basic shape of the terrain using Photoshop (don’t add details to it).

Apply the created bitmap as the Displacement map. Increase the Strength of the Displace modifier until it looks like what you wanted. Sometimes you may not get a smooth surface, don’t worry about that.

Switch off the Displace modifier and apply another Displace modifier (on top of the existing modifier). Create a smoke material and apply it as the Displace map to new modifier. Increase the Strength of the modifier as you like, and then adjust the parameters of Smoke until you get a good looking rough surface. (It is not possible to tell the values, better to use trial and error procedure. However keep the # Iterations as 20)

Then turn on the Displace modifier you have turned off earlier. You will get a nice looking terrain with the basic shape you wanted. If the basic shape of your terrain is changed much from the second Displace modifier, decrease the strength of the second Displace modifier.

Stones walls can be divided into 2 main types as, plastered and un-plastered. Here I am going to tell you how to model an un-plastered stone wall. Later I will tell you how to model plastered wall in another tutorial.

For stone walls, different styles of stones are used in different patterns. No matter, all these styles can be achieved through the same method. Therefore, I going to start this tutorial for a general style and at the latter part of this tutorial I will tell how to apply it for other styles.

The method I am introducing can be applied to any scale. However some parameters may change according to your scale. You don’t have to worry about that. You can correct it if the final product is not looks good. However I will mention the parameters I have used within brackets in necessary places as a reference to you. However you can use your own values. But I recommend to use parameters I have used if you are a beginner (later you can go for your own).

Go to Front viewport and draw a plane (100×200 cm) increase the number of segments in a way you get square polygons (4, 7). Keep in mind that the size of the polygon you are selecting will be the average size of a stone in the wall. If you need larger stones use fewer segments, and if need smaller stones use more segments. Convert the plane to Editable Poly.

Now go to vertex sub-object level and change the positions of vertices (no need to change the vertex positions normal to plane). If you are going to use this as a repeating object to model long or tall walls, you must be careful when moving the border vertices. Otherwise it will not be well match with the neighbour objects.

(This part is only if you going to use the wall repeatable – select the two vertices which will be touching each other when repeating, and change the position of these vertices at the same time. These touching vertices will be in the same place on opposite borders. Eg. 3rd vertex of top edge will touch 3rd vertex of the bottom edge. After completing this step take few copies and look whether they are well fixed)

Now it is not directly visible as a grid. But it is better to make it more unique by insert and remove few edges. You may use tools such as Cut, Target Weld and Remove.

I am going to use 3 different textures for stones to make it more realistic. For that, go to Material Editor and change the material type to Multi/Sub- Object. Press first 3 material muttons and set 3 different colours as their diffuse colours (if you like – use more). Up to now it will be enough. Later we can change the 3 colours into maps. Apply the material to the object.

Go to polygon level of the object, randomly select some polygons and change the material ID to number 2. (Polygon Properties rollout > Material: group > Set ID). Change the ID to 3 for some other polygons. Now the different faces can be seen in different colours through the viewport.

Apply UVW Mapping modifier and change the mapping type to plane. Press Fit button under Alignment group to make the UVW map fit object. Go to polygon level and select all the polygons and apply Bevel with following properties.

No different may seen. Don’t worry; drag the selected faces normal to faces a bit (looks like extrude a bit). Repeat bevelling and dragging steps again for selected faces with the same parameters. Apply Bevel again for selected faces, but this time with little outline (negative) amount. Drag the selected faces again. (You may wonder why I am not using Height at once rather than dragging. Try and see, sometimes you may succeeded. But most of the time faces are going in wrong ways). If you have done it the correct way it should like the following.

Apply Subdivide modifier to the object and adjust the size to suitable amount (i have used 7 cm). Don’t worry about the size too much you can change it even after finishing.

Apply TurboSmooth modifier with 1 or 2 Iterations on top of all the remaining modifiers. Render and see. I hope you get a good smooth surface.

You may see that the rendered image is quite looks like a stone wall. However you may increase the number of TurboSmooth Iterations when rendering. Now I am going to make the model more realistic.

Go to Material editor, select empty slot and add Smoke as Diffuse colour map. You may change the parameters of the Smoke as you like (I have used Size – 20, Phase – 0, # Iterations – 20 and Exponent – 0.5). Select the object we have created and apply Displace modifier on top of the all modifiers. (Don’t apply prepared material to the object; we have already applied a Multi/Sub-Object type material for that) Select the prepared Smoke map as the Displacement map and increase the Displacement Strength (10.0 cm).

Render the object and see the different. Hope you like the way it is.

Now the modelling part is completed. But there is a small thing to do. Go to Material editor and add different maps (images of rock surfaces) for each Diffuse colour maps of the Multi/Sub-Object.

You may use Ambient, Specular and Bump maps to in addition to the Diffuse colour map to make it more realistic. So I leave it to you.

Now I am moving to last part, “how to model different patterns”. It is also quite easy; you only need to change the face pattern you are making at the first stage. See the following examples you will easily understand how to do it.

Please send me your feedback. I would like to help you as well as to know your ideas.

Also all dimensions of the object will not be given in the tutorial. The dimensions which are given are in accordance with my reference model. You may use the same value, take values from a reference object or any value you like.

I am using 3d max 7 for this tutorial, however you may able to use older versions as well. If your 3d max version does not having TurboSmooth Modifier, Use MeshSmooth modifier instead of that.

Start new 3d max scene, go to left viewport and create a box with following settings at (0, 0, 0).

Convert the box into Editable Poly and go to Vertex sub-object level. Move the vertices as follows using any appropriate method.

Select left 3 columns of vertices and move 120 units downwards.

Go to Edge sub-object level; select the 4 longest vertices and add 2 more rings to the selection using Connect option in the Edit Edges rollout. Scale the selection until new edge rings closer to existing edges (select Use Selection Center as the Transform Center when you scaling).

Add some more rings to the object as below using the same procedure.

Go to front viewport and select all the edge rings add more edges using Connect option and scale them near to existing edges as did early.

Add edges to the side using the same procedure.

Exit from the sub-object level and apply TurboSmooth modifier and increase the Iterations up to 2. Now you will get a nice smooth object.

Switch off the TurboSmooth modifier, and add more edge rings to neck of the brush. Adjust the vertices using Move Toggle and Scale Toggle until you get a perfect head and a neck. (You may turn on TurboSmooth modifier time to time to see the result.)

Edit the handle of the brush as well, by moving the bottom vertices bit forward and narrowing the thickness of the handle through its centre axis (This will give more realistic appearance to the handle by making top and bottom surfaces slightly curve.)

To edit the middle part of the brush, go to Top viewport, and draw a rectangle using Cut tool just inside the existing lines (see figure below), select the 2 polygons within the created rectangle and extrude downward a bit.

Attach the 4 corners to the vertices nearby using Cut tool, select the 4 corner edges of the extrude, and Chamfer them until two of the edges going through the vertex nearby. Go to Vertex sub-object level, select all the vertices in the mid section and press Weld button in the Edit Vertices rollout (make sure you are only reducing number of selected vertices by 4). Add more edges to the 4 corners as below.

Turn on TurboSmooth modifier. You will get a nice smooth result. You may fine tune the result by scaling down the 2 larger polygons inside the created rectangle a bit.  Repeat same steps to bottom faces as well. You may get something like this.

Now its time to add Fibers. Go to left or Front viewport, and create a vertical line which is around 100 units and change the parameters as following.

Make a bundle of 15-20 such lines within a circle with the radius of 8 units. Attach them together. Increase the height of fibres in the middle of the bundle a bit. Now you are having nice bundle of fibres.

Place them on the head of the brush in a pattern whatever you like.

Render the scene; you will get a nice looking tooth brush.

1. Create a plane and draw some stuff on it.

2. Go to the Material Editor and select a Standard Material.

3. Change the Diffuse Color to an extreamly dark brown. I have used here R = 40, G = 30, B = 10

4. Change the Specular Color to a pale orange. Eg:R = 255, G = 213, B = 100

5. Set Specular Level = 145 and Glossiness = 25

6. Open the Maps rollout, click the Reflection map button and select Falloff.

7. Set Falloff Type to Fresnel.

8. Assign Raytrace maps to both map slots. Set first (black) slot value to 25 and second (white slot} to 80.

9. Now the material should look something like this.

10. Apply the gold material to the objects you earlier created.

11. Use an Environment Map and Render.

That doesn’t seems too bad. Ah?
Now you are going to need some lighting tricks.

12. Just create a sky light with Multiplier = 0.8 and Omini with Multiplier = 0.5.

13. Use Light Tracer as Advance Lighting option.