Modeling Tutorials

Bones / Spider Walk Video Tutorial

This video is primarily a Rigging / Animation tutorial, but is included here because it covers some Loft and Boolean ops to create the spider body and legs quickly. See HTML tutorial link below. Click here to see the HTML tutorial

Introduction to 3ds Max

This video tutorial walks you through some of the basics to 3ds Max - the interface, menus, viewports, and how to create primitives.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 1

This3ds Max modeling tutorial takes a model donated by a beginning 3ds Max artist and discusses how to improve models so that they can be more efficient and useful for rigging and animation.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 2

This 3ds Max modeling tutorial takes the same concept a little further with some modeling of the main body of the vehicle, using box modeling techniques.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 3

This 3ds Max modeling tutorial applies the Symetry modifier to the main body model developed in the last video. Symetry is a great solution to any symetrical shape, greatly enhancing accuracy and speed over conventional methods.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 4

This 3ds Max modeling tutorial demonstrates one way to approach modeling the upper leg of the vehicle. This same approach can help you model a wide range of geometry.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 5

This 3ds Max modeling tutorial demonsrates another approach for the upper leg which looks a little closer to the original design. Also shows a useful tool to straighten out vertices.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 6

This 3ds Max tutorial demonstrates how to model the lower portion of the foot of the walker using a cylinder.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 7

This 3ds Max tutorial demonstrates how to model the upper portion of the foot of the walker with a Tube primitive, and then how to Attach and Weld the new geometry into place on the previously constructed model. Attach and Weld makes all things possible.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 8

This 3ds Max tutorial begins by spotting and correcting some flaws with an existing model - T-Junctions, stray vertices, and unnecessary details are dealt with. Also we use the Copy Edge technique to build faces where we need them.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 9

This 3ds Max tutorial begins correcting further flaws on the head model and showing how to create a neck for the model quickly using a cylinder.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 10

This 3ds Max tutorial shows how to create the cam geometry shown at right, by starting with two cylinders and using the Bridge feature.

Imperial Walker Modeling Tutorial # 11

This 3ds Max tutorial finishes the cam stepped area, uses extrude and some welding.

Animation Tutorials

Bones / Spider Walk Video Tutorial

This video tutorial demonstrates the basics of how to create bones, inverse kinematic links, and how to animate those links - also goes over how to create a basic organic model, and how to "Skin" the model so that mesh vertices can recognize bones. Click here to see the HTML tutorial. Scroll down further to see tutorials for a spider rig with more legs.

Car Animation Video and HTML Tutorial

Video and HTML tutorial. Demonstrates how to build the hierarchy for a car using wheels, a chassis, a body, how to get the wheels to turn with an equation, how to make the car follow a spline path, and how to make the car exhibit body lean while cornering.Click here for the HTML tutorial.

Book CD Excerpts Part 1

Though this video is really more about the Torque game engine, and consists of a series of CD excerpts from the Creating Game Art for 3D Engines book CD, we include it here because it has some animation information that may be useful to you.

Book CD Excerpts Part 2

Though this video is really more about the Torque game engine, and consists of a series of CD excerpts from the Creating Game Art for 3D Engines book CD, we include it here because it has some rigging and animation information that may be useful to you.

Bones Book Video Tutorial

This video tutorial covers how to create bones and skin them to a book model so that you can animate a book opening or pages turning.

Chaos Truck Animation Video Tutorial

This video tutorial takes you through the process of keyframing a vehicle as it bumps into an object, and adjusting those keyframes for a realistic impact on the object and the vehicle.

Bones + Skin Serenity Lander Video & HTML Tutorial

This video tutorial walks you though setting up meshes and bones linkages to get the same effect as seen when the Serenity lander lands and the biomechanical legs flex to absorb the shock. Includes skin modifer discussion as keyframing.

Serenity Struts Video Tutorial # 2

This is the second video that pretty much takes off where the first video ended. In this one we demonstrate a bit of how to keep bones from twisting when you don't want them to, and how to set up controllers.

Chaos Truck Animation Video Tutorial # 2

Demonstrates creating a Link Constraint to a box so it is linked to the truck body, and then to the ground, so it follows the truck until if falls off and bounces on the ground, and how to make a camera follow a moving vehicle by copying and modifying a path.

Chaos Truck Animation Video Tutorial # 3

This segment of Chaos Truck describes how to build the truck tailgate, link it to the truck so it moves with the truck, and how to adjust the pivot of the tailgate so it rotates properly when you keyframe it flying open later in the animation.

Fix the Rig Video Tutorial # 1

Demonstrates how to directly assign vertices to bones, bypassing the envelop settings. Sometimes envelopes are too unwieldy and the direct approach, setting weights for each set of selected verts, works better. This tutorial is continued in Fix the Rig #2.

Fix the Rig Video Tutorial # 2

This video tutorial goes a little further, working with the rig in it's animated state to reassign weights to key sets of vertices. This is a continuation of Fix the Rig #1.

Spider Rigging Bonus Tut Excerpt #1

This tutorial goes into the process of rigging a Spider using 3ds Max. This is excerpt #1 of a longer bonus tutorial.Click here to read about the bonus tutorial.

Spider Rigging Bonus Tut Excerpt #2

This tutorial picks up where excerpt #1 left off. Both of these excerpts are taken from a 90-minute hi-res bonus tutorial. Click here to read about the bonus tutorial.

Materials and Lighting Tutorials

Character Texturing Tutorial

This video tutorial demonstrates some aspects of how to preview character textures, and how to modify those using 3ds Max and Photoshop. The 3ds Max Edit UVs interface is discussed somewhat.

Reflective and Refractive Surfaces Tutorial

This video tutorial covers how to create a reflective and refractive material using Raytrace.

Lighting 1 Tutorial

This video tutorial covers how to adjust lights and how to generate a shadow in your render, as well as some discussion about the Light Lister.

Multiple Materials Tutorial

This video tutorial demonstrates two ways to create multiple materials - the Detach method and the Multi/Sub-Object method.

Effects Tutorials

Exploding Teapot HTML Tutorial

This HTML tutorial shows you how to use particles, bomb objects, and deflectors in order to create an explosion that not only creates fragments from the original model, but allows those fragments to bounce off of faces you choose.

3ds Max Camera "Pull Focus" Technique

This camera technique, described in our Theory pages under Animation > Camera Techiques, gives you a technique to draw the attention of the audience to the foreground or the background, making for more dynamic and interesting camera work.