Introducing 3ds Max 9 3D for beginners apr 2007 - part 4 pptx

3. Until now, when you selected a polygon, it turned solid red in the viewport. You can

change it to display as outline when a polygon is selected, and not as solid red. You will

need to do this so you can see the new edges you are creating. To turn off Shaded Edge

mode, press F2. Your selected polygons will now show red only around the edges.

4. With the Slice Plane tool still active, right-click in the viewport to bring up the Quad

menu. Go to the Transform menu and select Rotate. Figure 4.56 shows this shortcut

for the Transform tools.

Figure 4.56

Rotate the Slice

Plane gizmo

Figure 4.55

The Slice Plane

gizmo

148 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I

97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 148

5. You need to rotate the Slice Plane gizmo 90-degrees along the Y-axis. Center the cur￾sor over the Transform gizmo’s Y-axis (green wire), and click/drag until the Trans￾form Type-in box at the bottom of the interface reads 90 in the Y-box, or you can

enter the rotation amount for Y and press Enter. As you rotate, you will see the slice

interactively displayed as a red line on the selected polygons.

6. Use the Move tool (W) to position the Slice Plane gizmo, where you want the first

slice. The movement will be along the X-axis or horizontal along the box. When the

Slice Plane gizmo is positioned as shown in Figure 4.57, go to the Edit Geometry roll￾out and click Slice. Don’t click Slice Plane because that will deactivate only the Slice

Plane tool. You must click the Slice button because it is like clicking an Apply button

for the Slice Plane tool. Once you click Slice, the polygon will have a new segment at

that location. The Slice Plane tool should still be active.

7. You need four slices at each end of the dresser bottom, as shown in Figure 4.58.

Keep in mind that the polygons are selected on the front and back so that the Slice

Plane tool will slice only polygons that are selected within the gizmo. Click the

Slice Plane button to deactivate the tool when you have placed four vertical slices

in all four corners of the front and back bottom lips of the dresser, as shown in

Figure 4.58.

Figure 4.57

Place a slice in the

corner for the foot of

the dresser.

modeling a chest of drawers ■ 149

97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 149

8. Press the spacebar to unlock your selection. You are going to use a combination of mov￾ing edges and polygons to create the detail on the bottom of the dresser. Simply select

the relevant polygons, and use the Move tool to place them as shown in Figure 4.59.

Don’t worry if your adjustments don’t have a perfectly smooth curve. Unless the cam￾era is right on top of the detail, it will look good from a distance. A perfect curve is not

necessary, especially for our purposes.

You can use the same techniques in the Steps 1 through 8 to create detail in the side

bottom lip of the dresser, as shown in Figure 4.60. Make sure you save your work.

Figure 4.58

Place four vertical

slices at each corner.

150 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I

97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 150

Figure 4.60

Use the same steps

to create the details

on the sides of the

bottom.

Figure 4.59

Move polygons to

create detail in the

dresser feet.

modeling a chest of drawers ■ 151

97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 151

Making the Drawers

In the beginning of this exercise, you created a box with six segments on its height. You

can use those segments to create the drawers. This is an example of thinking ahead and

planning your model before you start an object. This was by far the easiest way to go;

using the Slice Plane tool to add segments for the drawers after the box was made would

have been more laborious.

For simplicity’s sake, you will not create drawers that can open and shut in this exer￾cise. If this dresser were to be used in an animation in which the drawers would be

opened, you would make them differently.

First, take a look at the drawers and see where you have to go. Figure 4.61 shows the

drawers and an important detail we need to consider. Luckily, you needn’t worry about

the junk on top of the dresser.

Gap Between Drawers and Dresser

Figure 4.61

Checking out the

real dresser drawers

152 ■ chapter 4: Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I

97612c04.qxd 2/26/07 2:50 PM Page 152