Modeling a Space Scene

In this tutorial, you will create a planet and its moons, and an asteroid.

Skill Level: Beginner

Time to complete: 45 minutes

Features Covered in This Tutorial

• Creating primitive objects
• Moving objects in the scene
• Using a modifier to alter an object's shape

Tutorial Files

All the files necessary for this tutorial are provided on the program disc in the \tutorials\intro_to_modeling directory. Before starting the tutorials, copy the \tutorials folder from the disc to your local program installation.

In This Tutorial

• Modeling the Planets
• Creating an Asteroid

Modeling the Planets

In this lesson, you will create the planet Mars and its moons. You will also make changes to the objects in the Create panel.

If at any point the object parameters disappear, choose the Select Object tool from the main toolbar and reselect the object. Then open the Modify panel and make your changes there.

Create the planet:

1. Choose File > Reset. Click Yes in the dialog to reset.
2. Open the Create panel. Make sure the Geometry button is on, and click Sphere in the Object Type rollout.
3. In the center of the Perspective viewport, drag to create a sphere of any size.
4. In the Name And Color rollout, change the name of the object from Sphere01 to Mars.
5. In the Parameters rollout, change the Radius to 100 and set the Segments to 64.
   Increasing the number of segments makes the planet look smoother. This is especially important for close-up shots, where every detail is revealed.
6. Click Zoom Extents Selected from the Zoom Extents flyout.
   The sphere moves back and to the center of the viewport.
   Note: The grid is no longer visible because the size of the grid is fixed and is too small to be displayed after the zoom was performed.

Create the moons:

Mars has two moons named Deimos and Phobos. Instead of making additional spheres, you can create the objects by cloning.

1. Right-click in the Top viewport and click Zoom. Place the zoom cursor on the X axis, just to the right of the sphere.
2. Drag downward to zoom out. Stop when Mars looks half its previous size.
   Tip: If necessary, click Pan to move the scene so that you can see Mars in its entirety.
3. Click Select and Move from the toolbar.
   The Transform gizmo appears in the viewport.
   Note: If the transform gizmo does not appear, press the keyboard shortcut, X, to make it appear.
4. Hold down Shift on the keyboard and drag the gizmo’s X axis to the left and then release the mouse button.
5. In the Clone Options dialog, leave Copy selected and change the name of the new object from Mars01 to Deimos. Click OK.
6. Open the Modify panel and change the Radius parameter of Deimos to 22. Since this object is smaller than Mars, reduce its segments to 24.
7. Shift-clone the second moon from the Deimos moon using the same process, only this time position the clone closer to Mars. When the Clone Options dialog appears, name this second moon Phobos.
8. Set the radius of Phobos to 11 so that it is half the size of Deimos.
9. Right-click in the Front viewport and pick Select and Rotate from the toolbar.
10. Click Mars and rotate it around the Z axis by moving the mouse over the blue transform gizmo ring until it turns yellow. Drag down the left side of Mars until it's rotated about 15 degrees.
    Tip: Watch the shaded rotation indicator in the gizmo as you rotate or watch the Z axis field in the coordinate readout below the time bar.
    
    

    Mars tilted in a shaded viewport
11. Click Zoom Extents All so each viewport displays the planet Mars and its moons, Deimos and Phobos.
12. Save the file as my_mars.max.

To see Mars and the planets with texture maps, open mars_texturemapped.max in the \tutorials\intro_to_modeling folder.

To learn more about materials and mapping, refer to Introduction to Materials and Mapping.

Map the planet Mars:

To create the illusion of physical texture, you'll build a new material, assign an image as a diffuse map, and then use the same image as a bump map.

1. Continue from the previous lesson.
   If you opened mars_texturemapped.max from the \tutorials\intro_to_modeling folder, click File > Open and reload your scene, my_mars.max.
2. Press M on the keyboard to open the Material Editor.
3. Select the upper left sample sphere. In the name field, highlight the text then change the name of the material to Mars.
   
   

   The selected sample sphere and new material name.
4. In the Shader Basic Parameters rollout, change the shader from Blinn to Oren-Nayar-Blinn.
   This gives the sphere a softer look.
5. In the Oren-Nayar-Blinn Basic Parameters rollout, click the blank square button next to the Diffuse color swatch to select a map for the diffuse component. In the Material/Map Browser, choose Bitmap and click OK.
   The Select Bitmap Image File dialog opens.
6. Select the map mars.jpg from the tutorials\intro_to_modeling folder and click Open.
   The map appears on the sample sphere.
7. Drag the Mars material to the planet Mars.
8. Right-click the Front viewport label and choose Smooth + Highlights, if it's not already set.
   The planet turns gray. In the Material Editor, the corners of the material sample slot turn white, indicating that the material is being used in the scene.
9. Click the Show Map In Viewport button in the Material Editor.
   The Mars map appears on the surface of the planet in the scene.
10. Highlight the text in the name field and rename the new map in the drop down list to Mars-Bitmap.
11. Click Go To Parent.
    The Material Editor navigates up the material hierarchy from the map level to the material level.
12. Close the Oren-Nayer-Blinn Basic Parameters rollout by clicking its title bar. Then click the Maps rollout to expand it. The button next to Diffuse bears the label "Mars-Bitmap (mars.jpg)."
13. Drag the map button from the Diffuse component to the Bump component. When the Copy/Instance Map dialog appears, choose Instance and click OK.
    By choosing Instance, any change you make to the bitmap parameters of one map, will automatically be reflected in the other.
14. Set the Bump amount to −50.
15. Render the scene.
    The surface of Mars appears bumpy.

Map the moons:

1. Click and drag the Mars material sample in the Material Editor to an unused sample slot. Rename the new material to Deimos.
2. In the Maps rollout, click the button labeled "Mars-Bitmap (mars.jpg)" to navigate to the maps hierarchy.
3. Rename the Mars-Bitmap in the list to Deimos-Bitmap.
4. In the Bitmap Parameters rollout, click the Bitmap button to replace the mars.jpg image with a new one. In the Select Bitmap Image File dialog, find and select deimos.jpg , then click Open.
5. Click the Go to Parent button, or select Deimos in the List drop-down, to navigate back up the maps hierarchy.
   In the Maps rollout, notice that the Bump map uses the deimos.jpg file. This is due to the Instance you made when building the Mars material.
6. Click and drag the Deimos material to the Deimos object in the scene.
   Tip: If you're not sure which sphere is Deimos, watch for the object label to appear when you drag your cursor over an object.
   
   

   The object label confirms you're about to apply the material to Deimos.
7. Repeat these steps for the moon, Phobos. Use the phobos.jpg file as the new diffuse map.
8. Right-click the Perspective viewport and use the view navigation tools to arrange your scene.
9. Render the scene.
10. Save your scene as my_mars_and_moons.max.

Next

• Creating an Asteroid

Creating an Asteroid

Modifiers can be used to alter the shape of a primitive object. In this lesson, you will use a modifier to distort a sphere into an irregular shape to form an asteroid.

Set up the lesson:

1. Open asteroid1.max from the \tutorials\intro_to_modeling folder.
   In a single viewport, you see two spheres, one large and one small.
2. Click the Min/Max Toggle in the viewport controls to show four viewports.
   Tip: You can also toggle the Min/Max view with the keyboard shortcut: Alt+W.

Create an asteroid using the Noise modifier:

1. Select the larger sphere.
2. In the Name And Color rollout, change the name from Sphere01 to Moon.
3. Select the smaller sphere and rename it Asteroid. Press Enter.
4. Press P to switch the Camera viewport to a Perspective viewport.
5. Make sure the Asteroid object is still selected. On the Zoom Extents flyout, choose Zoom Extents Selected.
   The asteroid is zoomed in to fill the Perspective viewport.
6. Open the Modify panel. In the Modifier List, choose Noise from the Modifier List.
   The Noise modifier creates random distortion on an object's surface.
7. In the Noise Parameters rollout, turn on Fractal and set the Scale to 30. Then set these values for Strength: X to 25, Y to 10, and Z to 20.
   The object deforms to look like an asteroid.

Experiment with the asteroid:

1. Change the Seed value.
   This changes the random displacement of the surface, giving you a totally different shape.
   
   

   Changing the Seed yields different shapes.
2. Try applying some other modifiers to the object, such as Bend, Taper, Twist, and Stretch. Experiment with the parameters to see the variety of shapes you can make.
3. Save your file as my_asteroid.max.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned how to model a scene using primitives and modifiers. You also learned how to add materials to the objects. These tools are the building blocks for any scene in 3ds Max.