3DSM - Texturing Method 3
| This tutorial is broken up into 3 parts,
to show 3 different methods of texturing a
beach ball, all of which will acheive the
same result. Hopefully, in these tutorials,
you will learn some major concepts of texturing
to use on future projects. |
| 1) |
We want to model a beach ball, but in such
a way where we can easily select the polygons
within the model. If we create a SPHERE in
3dsm, the polygons are subdivided in such
a way that selecting the polygons will not
give us clear cut transitions. Therefore,
we need to take an alternate route to modeling
the ball. |
| |
Instead of creating a sphere, create a CONE.
Make sure you have the point of the cone infinately
small and pointy, not somewhat flat. |
| |
Go to modify tab - and under segments -
we will actually REDUCE the number of segments
for texturing sake. Reduce the number of "sides"
to 10 - for this ball will have 10 colors
on it. You can now see you model looks less
round - and is actually a 10 sided polygon
base. |
| 2) |
We will now make the cone into 1/2 of a
beach ball. Under modify tab, click on "edit
mesh" and in the sub selection, click
VERTEX |
| 3) |
Now, we will adjust the cone to look more
round and ball like. Do this by RESIZING
the vertices and moving them.
i.e. choose the top most vertex in the
left or front viewport ( by dragging a box
around it ), and choose the move icon, and
move that vertex closer to the line of vertices
under it. This will reduce the "pointy"
look of the ball.
Select the entire row second vertices and
using resize tool, uniformly enlarge the
selection. Then move the row of vertices
down. Keep adjusting and moving each row
of vertices till you get a shape that looks
like this:
|
Click to enlarge
That was the trickiest part of the tutorial.
| 4) |
Now, we only have 1/2 of the ball - we
need to duplicate the ball symmetrically.
One method would be to use the mirror selection
and attaching the objects, but there is
a more efficient way of doing this.
Exit the sub-vertex selection by clicking
on it again. Then go to modify tab and add
SYMMETRY modifier.
Now, depending on which viewport you created
your cone in, some of these next parameters
might be different. If you created the cone
in the top viewport, you should be able
to follow along exactly, but if not - play
around with the mirror
axis selection ( x, y or z ) till it works
for you.
Choose the z axis. Make sure weld seams
is selected. Then on the modifier list -
click the plus sign next to symmetry to
open up the mirror gizmo. Select mirror,
then using the move tool in either the front
or left viewport, move the symmetric part
of the ball till it touches the first half
making one solid ball.
|
Click to enlarge
| 5) |
As you can see, the ball looks kinda silly
and short on one axis.. That is because
the 1/2 of the ball we made wasn't tall
enough. This is easily fixed by clicking
on edit mesh on the modifier list once again
and reshaping it. Don't forget to turn on
the sub vertex selection when shaping, but
to turn it off before you leave the edit
mesh mode. It is better to make a taller
1/2 than a shorter half, because with the
symettry gizmo, you can shrink down and
remove unwanted parts, but you cannot add.
Don't forget to adjust the symmettry mirror
axis as well after adjusting the mesh of
the ball.
When you're ball is perfectly shaped, it
should look like this
|
The modeling is now done. Now to add the textures.
| 6) |
Open up material editor, and choose one
of the gray spheres. Click on the gray color
next to diffuse and give it a color you
want ( red in this case ) While we are here,
adjust the specular and glossiness levels
to desired effect - in this case 55 and
20 respectfully.
Now to make the next color, we do the same
on another empty sphere. However, if we
want to keep the specular lewvel and glossiness
the same for each color, you can simply
DRAG the red sphere ONTO an empty gray sphere,
and it COPIES all settings. Then simply
click on the diffuse color to change it
to white in this case. Repeat for yellow,
green, and blue.
|
| 7) |
Now that we have our textures, it is time
to apply them - and you we see why we modeled
the ball the way we did.
Select the model, and in the modifier tab,
create another edit mesh ontop of the existing
modifier. Yes, you CAN do that.In the sub
selection, select POLYGON, not vertex.
Now ( easiest in the perspective window
) start selecting a row of polygons that
you will add a single color to. Simply click
on the ball in one spot, and then HOLD the
CONTROL button and keep clicking on polygons
above and below till
you selected an entire row of polygon faces.
You will have to move the perspective veiw
around to get the polygons at the top an
bottom as well, just dont forget to hold
control before clicking.The should be highlighted
in red ( red is default highlight color
- NOT color of texture - the highlight color
can be adjusted in the customize menu at
the top if you confuse the reds )
|
Click to enlarge
| 8) |
Apply youre first color to this selction
by clicking on the apply material button
in material editor
|
Repeat this process all around the ball.
|
** NOTE: because you used the DRAG option
to copy the material - max will say "a
material with the same name already exists
- do you want to: CHOSE RENAME material
and give it an appropriate name - like WHITE
or BLUE, or whatever, as long as each material
has a different name. If we didnt use the
drag method of copying the material, we
wouldnt have to do this, but then each material
would have to be adjusted for specularity
and glossiness and any other additions you
made to the first color **
You should have a result that looks like
this:
|
|
before we finish - our ball is still blocky.
Now that the textures are applied - we can
smooth out the ball to make it round.
Make sure you exit the subselection POLYGON
fromm edit mesh, and then add the modifier
MESH SMOOTH ontop of all the other modifier.
Adjust iterations to 1 or 2.
And you're model is now complete. That
concludes 3 methods of texturing a beach
ball.
|
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** Note - most likely after you've used
meshsmooth, you will see odd results where
the symmetry modifier joined the two halfs
of the ball. That is because you model (
and mine ) weren't perfectly shaped. As
I mentioned at the beginning of this tutorial
- this is NOT an efficient way of creating
the beach ball with texture. Rather, it
was to introduce you to the idea of symettry
modifer, edit mesh, selecting and texturing
SPECIFIC polygons, and other modeling creativity.
So don;t feel bad if it didnt come out perfect
- just be glad you learned a few new techniques.
**
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