3D Studio Max Locomotive Tutorial

1. Create, rename and resize two boxes.

The first thing you need to do is create two boxes for the cab and the roof of the locomotive and name them Cabin and Roof and resize them to the following dimensions.

2. Relocate the boxes

Once you have created the boxes we need to move them into location. Select the cabin and type in the following co-ordinates.

Figure 1 Results after resizing and moving boxes

3. Beveling the edge of the cab

Select the Roof and convert it to editable mesh. Then click on the "Edge" select icon and select the right upper edge and chamfer the edge 0.05m. Do the same for the left upper edge and you should end up with a result similar to figure 2.

Figure 2 Edge to be chamfered

Once you have both edges chamfered we need to move the edges into location. There are two methods you can use to move the outer edges into location. The first is to use object snap and drag the edges into location but you will still need to type in the co-ordinates for the upper edges and the second is to type in the co-ordinates for all four edges. Select each edge in turn and type in the following co-ordinates

Figure 3 Selecting outer edge with osnap

Figure 4 Moving into position

Figure 5 End results after moving the edges

If you notice in figure 5 that the front face of the roof has a darker shade towards the base. This is because the polygons are now squashed up into a smaller space. To fix this we need to weld the vertices together. Change to the "Vertice" sub-object and select an outer corner and in the "Weld" section of the "Edit Geometry" click on the "Selected" button. This will weld the two vertices that are located at the corner into one and will rearrange and remove some polygons.

4. Polygon removal

As there are unseen polygons on the Roof we need to remove them. Use the "Arc Rotate" to move the viewport so that you can see the underside of the Roof and use the "Polygon" sub-object to select the bottom polygon and delete it. Do not remove any polygons from the Cabin yet.

5. Cabin windows and interior

Now we need to cut some holes in the Cabin for the windows. To do this we need to create some boxes to use with the Boolean tool. Create the following boxes

Now move them to the following locations

After you have resized and moved them select the roof and hide it. Now select the Cabin and go to the "Compound Objects" in the "Geometry" sub tab under the "Create" tab. Click on "Boolean" and then "Pick Operand B" and select the Interior box. Now convert the cabin to editable mesh and repeat the procedure for all the six window boxes. After you have finished the boolean's convert to editable mesh and remove the top and bottom polygons.

Figure 9 Result after resizing and moving boxes

Figure 10 Result after Boolean's

6. Interior

Now that we have created a cabin with an interior and windows we need to texture the interior with two different textures. There are two ways we can do this. Firstly we can select the interior polygons and detach them from the exterior or we can add an "Edit Mesh" to the stack. For my locomotives I prefer to detach the interior from the exterior mesh. To do this select the Cabin and then select the "Polygon" sub-object and select all the interior polygons as shown in figure 11 you will need to scroll around the view port with the "Arc Rotate" tool and then select "Detach" from the "Edit Geometry" rollout. In the message box that appears type in the name Interior and make sure the "Detach as Element" and "Detach as Clone" are unchecked and click on OK.

7. Texturing

Open up the material editor and add the Main_01 texture to the Cabin. Create a new texture in slot 3 using the Interior_01.tga texture and apply it to the Interior.
Now we can start the mapping of the textures to the cabin. Firstly unhide the Main Body so that we can align the Cabin textures with it then select the Cabin and add an "Unwrap UVW" modifier to the stack. Click on the "Select Face" sub-object and then select the rear wall of the Cabin. Click on "Planar Map" and then "Edit" to open the "Edit UVW's" window. Click on "Select Face" again to deselect it and then click on the "Filter Selected Faces" button to hide the other maps or move them out of the way.

Align the rear cab wall with the textures on the Main Body as shown in figure 14. Continue with this procedure until the entire cabin is textures similar to figure 14 and 15

As you can see in figure 15 we still have all the window surrounds to deal with. As most window surrounds are the same color we can move them all to one small portion of the Main_01 texture. Select all of the window surrounds and move them to the small white box that is second form the left at the bottom of the Main_01 texture Do not put them on the same box that we used for the underside of the Main Base.

7. Kickboards

Now that the cabin and window surrounds are textured correctly we can finish off the Kickboards that were left untextured in chapter 3. Unhide the four Kickboards and add the Main_01 texture to each Kickboard. Select the front right Kickboard and add an "Unwrap UVW" to the stack. Click on the "Select Face" sub-object and then select the entire Kickboard. Change the "Sub Object Params" to "X" and then click "Planar Map". Align the textures as shown in figure 18 and 19. You may need to flip the texture map horizontally to get in the correct orientation. To do this go to "Tools" in the "Edit UVW's" window and select "Flip Horizontally"

As the inside of the Kickboard is difficult to see and partially hidden by both the steps and the front hood there is no need to separate each face and texture it separately.

8. Roof

Now that everything else has been mapped correctly we can now add a texture to the Roof and remap it to the correct location. Open the "Material Editor" and add the Main_01 texture to the Roof. Select the Roof and add an "Unwrap UVW" to the stack and click on the "Select Face" sub-object and select the top of the Roof and click on "Planer Map". Click on "Edit" to bring up the "Edit UVS's" window and rearrange the map until it matches the lines on the Main Body's roof and on one side of the Cabin preferably a side whereby the text does not appear to be stretched at all. The aligned textures are shown in figure 20 and 21. You will notice that it will not align with both sides of the Cabin. This is because when we textured the Cabin we did not have anything to align the textures with in that direction. Once you have the roof texture aligned with one side of the Cabin and the Main Body's roof we can then select the front of the roof and align it with the top.

11. Window textures

Before duplicating the three planes for the other windows we need to create a new material and apply it to the three planes. Open the "Material Editor" and create a new texture with the Opacity.tga in the "Diffuse Color" of the fourth globe. Then click on the "Go to Parent" button to return to the material list and add the Opacity.bmp to the "Opacity" map. Now apply the texture to the three planes.

12. Relocating and adding windows

To create more windows for the left side we need to duplicate Plane1. We can do this in a number of ways however the easiest method is to select the Plane1 and while holding down the shift key move the plane. In the message box that appears select the "Copy" option and change the number of copies to 2. Now we can move the two extra windows into location. Make sure the "Snap Toggle" is on and select one of the new planes with the "Endpoint" selection box. Move the plane into location on one of the right side windows. Repeat the procedure for the other window. Now we need to change the rotation on the original plane to 90 degrees in the"Y" co-ordinate and move it into location on one of the left windows. Once in place hold down the "Shift" key again and create another copy of the plane and move it into location in the other left side window. Repeat the procedure for the front windows. Once completed we now need to create the rear windows. Select an outside front window and using the shift key again create a copy. Rotate the copy to -90 in the "X" co-ordinate and move it into location at one of the rear window openings. Create a copy of the rear window and move it into location in the opposite side. Most windows do not sit flush with the wall so you can move them in a small amount if you like.

You have now successfully created the Cabin with an interior and textured the cab and the kick plates for the locomotive.

Chapter 5

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