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'3D Studio Max' |
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"Modeling a Plant" by Thomas
Rinsch |
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A
lot of people have problems modeling plants.
I found my own way and because it’s
an easy and fast one which gives a pretty
good result, I want to share this method with
you. I am not
going to make very photorealistic
plants here, if you are going to do
this, you should use references from
a biology book,
or elsewhere.
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First
of all, we need to draw the
leaf's shape in a 2d programme.
There is no need to have a
mega powerfull programme,
it could also be possible
to use MS Paint. Well, I will
use the freeware programme
“GIMP”, because
it’s very powerful,
and easy to use. |
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Make
a new file. I use the size
256 in the width, and 400
in the height. |
Now
simply draw a leaf. Use very
thin lines for the outer shape,
and a bit thicker
for
the mid-line. |
It's
important that you take your
time, we will not only use
it as a reference, it will
still be used after modelling. |
Now
you we will make it a bit
smoother. If your painting
programme supports smoothing,
smooth it twice, if not, simply
download the picture. |
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Now
let’s get to the interesting
part. |
Open
your 3D programme
(I’m using 3DSMAX 5.1
here), and use your leaf as
a background picture in the
front view. |
Under
“Views”; “Viewport
Background” make sure
you have selected the options
like here (red marked). |
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Now
place a plane with one lenght
segment, and 2 width
segments on the reference,
and right click on it, and
under properties select “See-Through”,
you also need to make the
viewport
show “Smooth+Highlights”
and “Edged Faces”.
Convert it to “Editable
Poly” and make it fit
to the reference, the mid-line
has to be on the references
mid-line, of course: |
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<
Now extrude the two lower
edged downwards, and make
them fit, again. |
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Keep
doing it,
until the whole leaf is finished.
> |
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Now
open the Material Editor and
create a new material, call
it “Leaf_01”. |
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the “Shader Basic Parameters”
select “2-Sided”,
and “Blinn”. |
In
the “Blinn Basic Parameters”
unlink the “Ambient”
from the “Diffuse”
color, and make the ambient
color black. Also make the
“Opacity” Value
“90”. |
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Now
go to the “Maps”
dialog,
and chose “Bump”,
use the same picture for the
bump,
as you used for
reference, and in the
“Output” dialog
choose “Invert”.
That’s important, or
the bump
map
will work in the wrong direction! |
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Now
apply the material
to the plant,
and give it a “UVW Map”
modifier. |
Now
select the “UVW Map’s”
gizmo,
press F-12 and set all values
to “0”: |
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<
Now resize the gizmo,
that it fits to the reference
pic. |
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| Make a testrender,
it should look similar to this.
> |
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Not
really good, yet, but that will
change later. |
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can now remove the background. |
Convert
it to editable poly
again, and add a “FFD
4x4x4” Modifier,
and move the very left, and
right points backwards. |
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Now
select the lower points, and
move them backwards, as well. |
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Only
add a “Mesh Smooth”
modifier
with Iterations “1”
in the render values,
and the modeling part is done. |
It
only needs some color, and
the leaf will
be finished.
Open
the material
editor,
and in the “Diffuse”
slot
choose the “Mix”
map.
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In
the “Color #1”
slot
use a “Noise Map”,
with similar options
to these. |
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Get
back to the “Mix Map”
dialog,
and copy the noise map
into the “Color #2”
channel: |
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Go
to the
second
noise map,
and make small changes to
the color. |
Now
add the same map
you
used as the bump
in the “Mix Amount”
channel. |
Get
back to the “Maps”
Dialog, and lower the “Bump
Amount” to something
around 10. |
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