Making Textures In Max

[Renzatic]

I've spent today reading up on shaders and normalmaps in a quest to improve the quality of my work. So far everything I've done has been okay, but they've been simple surfaces...sooner or later I'm gonna have to work with more complicated textures.

 

I figured the best way to do this would be to work in Max and base my normals off of what I render there. Now the question is..how complicated is this to do and are there any good tutorials out there that could help me get the hang of doing this fairly quickly?

 

I can do basic shapes in max already, but detailing, which is what I need to worry about the most, is still a bit above me. DeepO, Oddity, anyone...if you have a few hints and tips to share with me I'm all ears. Anything you can impart on my behalf will be greatly appreciated.

[DeepOmega]

Ok. Here's the scoop.

 

Working on flat(ish) surfaces in Max is not too big a deal, especially if you have a good reference. I highly recommend you learn to use the Editable Poly, as it is elegant and powerful. Find a few good basic poly modelling tutorials, as they'll go a long way. Then you'll need to learn to use the Cut tool (which is arguably your greatest friend and ally when detailing.) UV Mapping is a non-issue - this will be a planar texture. Normal mapping is not a big deal, either.

 

My best advice is play around as much as possible. Find a simple texture, and try it out. Bring it here if you want advice, or go to maxforums.org - a great resource for new modellers.

 

Best of luck!

[Renzatic]

Thanks, I'll try some of that out.

 

I'll probably start out with a fairly basic brick texture, set it to 30x30 lines on the width and height and edit the vertices and do extrudes to get the depth and shape right. I'll post it when I have something interesting to show.

 

Oh yeah, I tried the cut tool right fast and it seems fairly chaotic..I might have to track down a good tut for it.

[DeepOmega]

Make sure you are NOT using editable mesh. It'll throw you way off. Use poly. Also, keep in mind that you can cut multiple times - making a segmented cut, basically. For better results, try cutting in the non-perspective views - you'll be able to see better.