Design Tutorial Blog

Photoshop Aircraft Gun Animation Tutorial

2010-04-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

[1]-First of all Open any image of Gun as I did take following image

[2]-NOw make duplicate Layer with the help of Ctrl+J & then go to Blending Options with click on ‘f’ which is indicating by Hand sign

[3]-Now select Inner Shadow & use the following settings
Photoshop Technique-How to use the Inner Shadow feature

[4]-Now your image should look as shown below

[5]-Now Open New Layer & then create the following selection with the help of Polygonal Lasso Tool

[6]-Now fill the selection with fff200 color & then go to Select>Modify>Contract & use the following settings

[7]-Now your image should look as shown below

[8]-Now fill the selection with # f7941d color & then go to Filter>Blur>Gussian Blur & use the following settings

[9]-Now your image should look as shown below

[10]-Now press Ctrl+J & create the following Transformation with the help of Ctrl+T & then ENTER

[11]-Now your image should look as shown below

[12]-Now go to Image Ready with the help of Ctrl+Shift+M & then go to WINDOW>ANIMTION & make 2 Duplicate Frame with the help
of 2 Times click on following sign which is indicating by Hand sign

[13]-Now select Frame-1 & hide the following Layers

[14]-Now your image should look ash shown below

[15]-Now select Frame-2 & hide the following Layers with the help of Remove EYE sign which is indicating by Hand sign

[16]-Now your image should look as shown below

[17]-Now select Frame-3 & then Hide the following Layers

[18]-Now your image should look as shown below

[19]-Now Play the Animation with the help of click on following Button which is indicating by Hand sign

[20]-Now go to FILE>SAVE OPTAMIZED AS.. & use the following settings

[21]-Thanks for read this Photoshop Tutorial.I hope U have enjoyed & the Final Output of this tutorial is shown below

Flying Bird

2010-04-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

First of all you have create sky so adjust the foreground and background color then take a new layer and fill foreground color by the Paint bucket tool (G key).

Now you have a colorful file, follow this path to apply clouds (Filter menu > Render < Clouds). Your colorful picture would be covert to the sky scene then apply RGB channel by following this path (Image menu > Adjustment > Curve).

You should have this type of picture.

Take a new layer and paste your copied bird and another object picture as you want to fly. I have a bird here, set you object one side to fly another side.

Let's give animation to the bird picture, in the first frame you have by default bird layer position. Take a new frame and change the bird position bottom right corner to top left corner to make complete flying right to left as done here.

Now click on "Tweens animation frames" option a window would come on the screen then adjust settings and press "OK" button.

This is the final result.

Animated Signature

2010-04-24T08:45:00.001-07:00

Take a new document with appropriate size as your project and signature required, select Horizontal Type tool (T key) and make formatting as you like to type your signature then take a new layer and type first alphabet of the text.

Take a new layer and type second alphabet of the signature text then adjust the position of the text like a unique word as I have done here.

Use same step to write rest alphabet of the signature word but make sure every alphabet of the word should have separate layer to make animation easily.

It is time to give animation to the whole word, in the first frame unhide only first alphabet layer of the word and adjust the time of the frame in the animation window as done below.

Apply same step on the another frame until complete whole word.

This is your final animated signature.

Animated Blast Effect

2010-04-24T08:44:00.001-07:00

Start with a new document and set size as you required then inset any object to make this effect, I have taken a time bomb picture.

Choose Elliptical marquee tool (M key) and draw a circle selection then take a new layer and fill "#f88102" color by the Paint bucket tool (G key) in the selection.

Now change foreground and background color then apply noise effect two times by following this path "Filter menu > Noise > Add Noise" as given below.

After done noise effect, apply ripple effect to modify the circle shape by following this path "Filter menu > Distort > Ripple" as given below.

Now I am going to make radial blur effect to make like explosion, follow this path "Filter menu > Blur > Radial Blur" and make setting as here.

This type of picture will come out.

Make duplicate layer of the explosion effect and press Ctrl + F key to apply again ripple effect, use same step again on new layer.

It is time to make animation so you have to go to Window menu and choose Animation, a frame window come on. Adjust all the layer on the frame as given below.

This is the explosion effect.

Illustrator Tools

2010-04-24T08:42:00.001-07:00

Adobe Illustrator tool pallet has many numerous tools which are used to draw a stunning graphics. You have noticed that there is a tiny arrow situated in the right bottom of the tool that indicates some more tool are also available under the tool. You can see hidden tool by the help of mouse, click and hold down mouse on the button the hidden tool will appear.

See all the illustrator tools and description

Selection Tool: The selection tool used to select a graphic among many graphic to move anywhere and modify the size of the graphic.

Direct Selection tool: There are two tools "Direct selection" and "Group Selection" there works are different.

The Direct selection tool used to select individual anchor point and select more anchor point with shift key to modify the shape as you want to do.

The group selection tool is used to make selection on the many object with shift key and anchor point also.

Magic Wand: This tool is used to make selection of the same color in the object.

Lasso Tool: This is a freehand selection tool and used to make selection of the object and anchor point of the graphic as you want to make change by the anchor point.

Pen Tool: We use this tool to draw any type of shape and path, It is also used to edit, delete, and modify the anchor point as made by the pen tool.

Text tool: We used text tool to write text on different ways in the document like horizontal text in the figure, text on the path, vertical text, vertical text in the figure and vertical text on the path.

Line Tool: This tool used to different type of line art to make attractive graphics like straight line, Arc line, spiral line, grid line and polar grid line.

Shapes Tool: It has many shapes tool that helps us to draw different type of shape on the document as the shapes tool are in the tool.

Paint Tool: This is a free hand tool and used to make any type of path and graphic with the selected color, you can change the color and draw a line art also.

Pencil Tool: This tool is used just like a pencil to draw a figure, character and line art on the document, It can also used to make a line path.

Smooth Tool: This tool is used to modify the path selection. If you have drawn a path by pencil tool and that is not as you want, apply this tool on the path to make smoothness.

Eraser Tool: This tool is used to delete that are where you apply on the figure, picture and line. First select line and drag on that to delete the path and line as you want.

Rotate Tool: First click on the object and choose the rotate tool then specify the center point and drag anywhere of the object. you can rotate your object at specify degree. Right click on the object-> Transform->choose the rotate then a rotation dialog box will appear on the screen then specify the degree to move as you need.

Reflect Tool: This tool is used to make reflection of the object. Double click on the reflect tool, a dialog box will appear on the screen and specify the angle to make reflection.

Scale Tool: This tool is used to make scaling of figure with a specify values. Select the object and choose the scale tool then click around the object to scaling.

Shear Tool: Select the object, click on the object and shear that.

Reshape Tool: Makes point on the object which you want to modify and give the shape as you want.

Warp Tool: Click on the object and pull anywhere to give different look.

Twirl Tool: To make twirls shape of any object and picture just click on the object, it applied automatically.

Pucker Tool: Click anywhere on the picture and object to make shrike effect close one corner to another corner.

Bloat Tool: We can spread the object in blobs with the help of this tool.

Scallop Tool: To make scalloped shapes.

Crystallize Tool: Just click on the object and see what effect is appearing.

Wrinkle Tool: This tool is used to make wrinkle effect on the object and picture.

Free Transform Tool: We can transform the object of several ways with the help of free transform tool

Symbol Sprayer Tool: This tool is used to spray any symbol as you selected form the symbol pellet on the document. Take this tool and select symbol from the symbol pellet and move mouse with this tool on the wanted area to appear symbol.

Symbol Shifter Tool: This tool is used to move symbol anywhere on the place as you drawn on the document.

Symbol Scruncher Tool: This tool used to pulls all the symbol instances together as you drawn on the document..

Symbol Sizer Tool: This tool is used to increase whole symbol size, take this tool and apply on the symbol to increase size as you need. To decrease the size of the symbol hold down the alt key and click over the symbol.

Symbol spinner Tool: This tool help to rotate the symbol to set on the different angle.

Symbol Stainer Tool: This tool is used to change symbol color, select first solid color fill as you need then apply on the symbol to give color effect on as you selected.

Symbol Screener Tool: This tool is used to make transparent effect on the symbol, select tool and apply on the symbol. It is also used to undo transparent effect, hold alt key and click on the symbol.

Symbol Styler Tool: This tool applies the selected style to the symbol.

Graph Tool: Graph tool has some more tool, all the tool used to draw different type of graph and chart.

Mesh Tool: This tool used to make some more point on the object like mesh shape to give different shape of the object. It is also used to make the grid over the object and fill the color on the selected position.

Gradient Tool: This tool mainly used to fill two and more color in the object and selected area, take this tool and change gradient color as you need and apply on. click on the gradient tool and Click over the object to define area where you want to add color. you can create gradient Objects -> Create Gradient Mesh->specify the row and columns.

Eyedropper Tool: This tool is used to take color on any place, select this tool and click on that place where you want to take color.

Paint Bucket Tool: This tool helps to fill selected color in the object and selected area.

Measure Tool: This tool measure that difference between two object and which angel they stand.

Blend Tool: This tools makes the specify step between two objects. We can define the steps of blend Objects-> blends-> blend options then specify the steps.

Scissors Tool: This tool is used to cut the part of the object, take this tool and apply on the object by the mouse to cut that part as you need.

Knife tool: We can cut the object into pieces, with the help of this tool.

Hand Tool: This tool is used to move page on the right direction to work properly, hold down Ctrl key with space bar and mouse click and on the page to move..

Page Tool: Adjust the printed area.

Zoom Tool: This tool is used to magnify the size object as you required size To see actual size of the object, double click on the zoom tool.

Draw Vaas

2010-04-24T08:41:00.001-07:00

First take pen tool in tool pellet or press (P key), the pen tool will be activate. Make a path like a vaas as I have done below.

Select the path and go to Effect->3d->Revolve then adjust same setting as given below. You can also see the preview of the settings by click on the preview option.

After that you will get the shape like here, you can add some more lighting effect on the vaas by use same effect again.

Now select any picture to stick on the vaas, I have selected a flower picture in symbol libraries. To take the symbol go to the window->symbols libraries and choose the symbol from the symbol pallate as you want to stick on the vaas. Now double click on 3D effect icon to continue your 3D setting which has laying down on Appearance pallate, when you double click on 3D icon. You will get your previous setting of 3D. Click on Map Art Option and arrange symbol and set in the wanted area.

You will get like below. Now, I want to decorate it more therefore I have chosen the Gaussian Blur for shinning on 3D Vaas .

Select the ellipse tool (L key) and make a circle and fill it with white color but make sure stroke color has none then go to the effect->Blur-> Gaussian Blur and set radius and decorate it where you want. I have copy and paste many place with deferent scale.

See the final VAAS. Have a nice day.

Kingfisher Beer

2010-04-24T08:40:00.001-07:00

Select the ellipse tool in tool pallet or press (L) to activate ellipse tool. Make a circle with the help of this tool like below and fill it any color as you want i have select yellow.

After that go to -> effect->3d->Extrude and Bevel and adjust the setting as below. But make sure your circle has selected.

After apply the above setting you will get the below shape. you can rotate the beer in any angle to change setting in X axis, Y axis and Z axis. you can reduce or increase the height of beer model to change value of Extrude Depth and also reduce or increase width of beer model to change the value of perspective.

Now, we need the below picture for map Art option to give beer look of my beer model.

Double click on 3D effect icon to continue your 3D setting, which has laying in Appearance pallate. when you double click on 3D icon. You will get your previous setting of 3D. Click on Map Art Option and arrange symbol like below. Then press OK.

After done the above setting you will get this below shape. Now time to make Lock part of the beer.

Make the below graphics with the help of pen tool and ellipse tool and make it symbol.

Again do the below setting in after click on map art option as you done above 5 step.

After done the below setting. you will get the final Image of Beer..

Flash Introduction

2010-04-24T08:39:00.001-07:00

Menu Bar: Menu bar has many menus to perform with

Tool Box: Tool box has many numerous tool those are helpful to draw graphics, fill colors, modify the object and see zoom view of object. In the flash, every tool has a separate properties to make change the setting to get a different type of effect according to necessary. Some tool has hidden tool those are indicated by the black triangle and situated right bottom of the tool.

Working Area: In the middle of the flash window that is our working area, when we take a new file that will appear in that area. If we draw any object and put picture out of the taken file that would be not apply on the document.

Property Bar: The property bar provide us a complete option to make changes to get different type of effect, It has three option to apply on the selected object in document, those work are different.

Properties: In the page properties we can change the size of the document, background color, internal settings by click setting button and frames per second(fps).

Filter: This option helps to apply different type of effect on the object but before applying the effect on the object we have to convert the object into movie Clip by press F8.

Parameters: Parameters are applicable on components, when we insert component after that parameter will show their properties.

Time Line: As you know the movie is the collection of the frame, the time line window is just like that. In the time line window we have to convert our movie into the frames and give different effect on any particularly frame to make a creative movie.

Layer: The layer specify the object place, the layer are mainly use particular effect on a separate object. We can put the objects on the layers that will help to easily modify of the content without effecting our second object.

Color Pallet: The color pallet is the color section in the flash to fill any color as appropriate in the document and the another option is the gradient color effect in the graphic and object and more.

Alignment: The alignment provides us to arrange the object, picture and text on the right position as we required in the document to make a unique animation without any disturbance of the object position.

Transform & Rotate: As it is clear by the name "Transform & Rotate", we can rotate any selected picture, graphic and object on any angle in between "0 to 360" degree and transform.

Modeling a low-poly LCD monitor

2010-04-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

This tutorial will show you how to model an LCD monitor in 3D Studio Max using basic of box modeling techniques. This tutorial is suitable for beginners and shows exactly how to perform each step.We won’t be using a background image/picture to model an existing monitor, instead we’ll create our own original LCD monitor. Once you learned to apply the techniques in this tutorial, it will be a piece of cake to adjust/extend the model to create your own unique monitor. With 3D modeling, there are many different ways to reach a similar result. Some of the tasks described in this tutorial are the things ‘I’ do, which doesn’t mean it is ‘the’ way to do it. Although this tutorial is written primarily for 3D Studio Max users, the same techniques apply to many other packages as well. You could even use the free modeler Wings 3D.

Phase 1. Create a new scene
Let’s start by creating a new empty scene and set some basic options:
- Select New from the File menu, choose New All, and click OK.
- Right-click Top and select Smooth + Highlights (see Picture-1a below).
- Right-click Top again and select Edged Faces (see Picture-1b below).
Picture 1a

Picture 1b

Phase 2. Create the initial box

Now we are going to create the initial box from which we will build the entire model. First select the Top view window by clicking on it. Next, click the Box button on the Create tab of the Command Panel as depicted in Picture-2a below.

Picture 2a

Now draw a box of any size on the Top view, we’ll give it the correct dimensions in a bit. Note that when you click and drag your mouse to create the box, you first create a plane. When you release the mouse button, you need to move your mouse upward and click again to complete the creation of the box. To see what you are doing, make sure you look at the front, left, or perspective view while you create the box. When you created the box, you should have something like in Picture-2b.

Picture 2b

Next, we are going to give this box the dimensions we want it to have and convert it to an Editable Mesh. To change the dimensions for the box, click the Modify tab on the Command Panel while the box is selected. See Picture-2C below. Enter 0.7 for length, 45 for width, and 35 for height, below Parameters.

Picture 2c

As you can see in the picture above, I use centimeters, but it doesn’t matter which metric system you use, you can scale the entire model when it is finished. If the box becomes so small you can hardly see it any longer, press the Zoom Extents All button at the bottom-right of the screen:

If your results are similar as depicted in Picture-2d below, you are ready to convert the box to an editable mesh.

Picture 2d

To convert the box to an editable mesh, right-click Box on the Modify tab of the Command Panel and select Convert To: Editable Mesh as depicted in Picture-2e below:

Picture 2e

Phase 3. Extruding the front of the monitor

Ok, now the fun part begins. By the way, did you save your work yet?

Now that we converted the box to an editable mesh, we can change and expand it by working on a sublevel. An editable mesh has 5 sublevels: Vertexes, Edges, Faces, Polygons, and Elements. In this tutorial, we will be focusing on Vertexes and Edges, and mostly on polygons. To select one of these sublevels, click the + sign in front of Editable Mesh on the Modify tab of the Command Panel and select the desired sublevel. When you select one of the sublevels, you will have a huge set of options on the scrollable bottom half of the Modify tab.

Picture 3a

We are going to start with the front side of the monitor by extruding and scaling some polygons. It may seem a lot of work at first, but once you get the hang of it you will be doing similar stuff in seconds. First, make sure you select the sublevel Polygon as depicted in Picture-3a above. Next, select the polygon on the front of the box. You can do this in the Front view, or in the Perspective view as displayed below in Picture-3b.

Picture 3b
At the bottom of the Modify tab, scroll down below and select Local and click the Extrude button as depicted in Picture-3c below.

Picture 3c

Now notice that the mouse pointer changes when you move it over the polygon. Click the selected polygon, hold down the mouse button, and move up to extrude the polygon. You should have something similar as depicted in Picture-3d below. It doesn’t matter how far you extrude, because we are going to move back the polygon that is now selected.

Picture 3d
Click the Select and Move button on the toolbar and move back the polygon as depicted in Picture-3e below, to get the results as in Picture 3f.

Picture 3e

Picture 3f It may look like we have the same box as we started with, but the additional polygons we created by extruding are still there, as you will see in our next step. Important: instead of manually moving the polygon back to the place we extruded it from, you can move it back while you extrude it. For example, in the above example you moved up to extrude the polygon, if you move down again (while still holding down the mouse button) you can move the extruded polygon back to its exact original place.

Click the Select and Uniform Scale button:

and scale the extruded polygon as depicted in Picture-3g below. You can do this in either the Perspective or Front view. How far you want to scale it depends on how big you want the screen and the frame to be, just keep it realistic.

Picture 3g

Click the Extrude button again (see Picture-3c), and extrude the polygon inwards as depicted in Picture-3h below by moving down while extruding.

Picture 3h

Now right-click the Top on the Top view and select Wireframe as depicted in Picture 3i below.

Picture 3i
Click the Select and Move button again, and move back the polygon we just extruded to almost its original place, as depicted in Picture 3-j below:

Picture 3j

Unless you have a big screen monitor, you probably need to switch to maximum view for the next step. You can do this by clicking the Min/Max Toggle button on the bottom right (see Picture-3k below). You should do this while the Front view is selected. Press the Min/Max Toggle button whenever you want to return to the 4 views.

Picture 3k
Click the Select and Uniform Scale button again and make the polygon just a little bit smaller by scaling it down as depicted in Picture-3l below.

Picture 3l

Now extrude it inwards just a little bit. You may need to change to the Top view and use the Min/Max Toggle button again to switch to maximum view, and/or zoom in on the Top view. You should end up with something very similar to Picture-3m below:

Picture 3m
Phase 4. Extruding the back of the monitor

Now we’ll start on the back of the monitor. Right-click Front on the Front View and select Back from Views as depicted in Picture-4a below.

Picture 4a

Select the polygon on the back of the monitor, extrude it, move it back to its original position, and use Uniform Scale to scale it down as depicted in Picture-4b below. If it seems like I’m going to fast here, take a look at Picture-3d, 3e, 3f, and 3g, as we are doing the same thing on the back as we did on the front, except for the scaling part. When you scale down the extruded polygon, scale it only a little (see Picture-4b), not as far as we did on the front.

Picture 4b

Now extrude the polygon again to make the model about three times as thick as it was (see Picture-4c below).

Picture 4c
Scale it down a little (on the Back view) to end up with something similar as depicted in Picture-4d below:

Picture 4d
Repeat the last step, but this time extrude it less far and scale it down only a little. You should end up with something very similar to Picture-4e below.

Picture 4e
Extrude it again, and move the extrude polygon back to its original place again, and scale it down as depicted in Picture-4f below.

Picture 4f
Extrude and scale down the polygon one last time to get something similar as depicted in Picture-4g below.

Picture 4g

Now we are going to create the polygon to which the monitor’s support/foot will be attached. Select the polygon on the bottom that is closest to the last polygon we scaled down in the previous step, as depicted in Picture-4h below.

Picture 4h

Extrude the polygon and move it back to its original position and use Uniform Scale to horizontally scale down the polygon as depicted in Picture-4i below.

Picture 4i
Now click on the Vertex sublevel of the Editable Mesh on the Modify tab of the Command Panel, as depicted in Picture-4j below.

Picture 4j

Select the lower two vertexes of the polygon we just created. Use Uniform Scale horizontally (on the axis which I indicated with a blue arrow in Picture-4k below) to move the vertexes closer together to make the polygon a decent rectangle. You may need to zoom in a little to make sure the edges are straight.

Picture 4k

Phase 5. Extruding the foot/support of the monitor

The foot of a monitor is one of the elements that allow you to give the monitor a unique design. We will be creating a rather simple one, but as you will probably notice, it is easy to create something original. Before we are going to start with the foot, we are going to rotate the monitor so it will lean back a little.
If you are still at the Vertex sublevel, click Editable Mesh on the Modify tab of the Command Panel to select the entire model. Next, switch to the Left or view in any of the view ports and rotate (Select and Rotate toolbar button) the monitor so it leans back a little, as depicted in Picture-5a below.

Picture 5a

Switch back to the Perspective or Back view (or the one you prefer modeling in) and select the polygon we created for the foot in Phase 4. Click the Extrude button and extrude the polygon as depicted in Picture-5b below.

Picture 5b
Now extrude it again but this time only a little, to get something similar as depicted in Picture-5c below.

Picture 5c

Now we need to set some things straight. You will notice some light blue lines in some of the following pictures to indicate which line should be straight.
Switch to Vertex sublevel. On the Left view select all the vertexes of the part we extruded in the previous step. Instead of holding the CTRL button to select the vertexes (which would require you to rotate the view to select all the vertexes), select the vertexes by dragging a selection rectangle around the vertexes you want to select, as depicted in Picture-5d below.

Picture 5d
When you successfully selected all those vertexes, move them to the right as depicted in Picture-5e below.

Picture 5e
Now Zoom in on the Left view to get a close-up of the vertexes you just moved by using the Zoom button on the bottom right of the screen:

Zoom in until your Left view looks similar to Picture-5f below:

Picture 5f

Now click the Select and Move button on the toolbar again and select only the 4 vertexes of the bottom polygon (again with dragging that selection rectangle to select also the 2 vertexes you can’t see on the left view) and move those to the right as depicted in Picture-5g below.

Picture 5g
Now select only the 4 vertexes on the left (with the selection rectangle again) and move them down until the bottom line becomes flat as depicted in Picture-5h below.

Picture 5h

You probably noticed that the bottom part of the ‘leg’ we are working on became a bit thinner when we moved those vertexes down so we need to move them a little to the left. You may need to zoom out and switch to maximum view to make sure you end up with similar results as depicted in Picture-5i below.

Picture 5i

Now switch to Polygon sublevel again, select the lowest polygon on the front of the foot, and extrude it so you get something similar as depicted in Picture-5j below.

Picture 5j

Now zoom in on the Left view again, to get a close-up of the area around the polygon we just extruded, switch to Vertex sublevel and select the 4 vertexes on the right as depicted in Picture-5k below.

Picture 5k
Now move up the vertexes so the bottom line becomes straight/flat as depicted in Picture-5l below.

Picture 5l
Next, select the 2 vertexes on the top-front of the foot and move them to the left, and if necessary a bit down to end up with something similar as depicted in Picture-5m below.

Picture 5m

Switch the Polygon sublevel again and the select the polygons on both the left and the right side of the bottom block. You can do this by selecting the polygons on one side, rotate the view, and hold the CTRL key when you click the polygons on the other side. Extrude them as depicted in Picture-5n below. You can do this in the Perspective view and look at the Front view to see how far you want to extrude (which just depends on how wide ‘you’ want the foot to be).

Picture 5n

You can leave the foot as it is, but if you learned anything from this tutorial it should be easy to improve the design of the foot. For example, you could scale down the side polygons using uniform scale on the Y-as to get something as depicted in Picture-5o below.

Picture 5o
Phase 6. Adding some details

During this phase we are going to make it just a bit more realistic by adding some buttons. If you want to use a model for a game or just want to keep it as small as possible, you could add such details by textures and bumps maps. There are endless possibilities to model such details but in this tutorial, we are going to create them mostly in the same way we created the monitor: by extruding and scaling polygons. For this reason, we are going to speed things up a little. Additionally, we are going to use the Chamfer option in the Edge sublevel.

On the Front view, select the polygon below the display, extrude it, move it back to its original position, and scale it down, as depicted in Picture-6a below.

Picture 6a

Switch to Vertex sublevel and select the 2 lower vertexes of the polygon we just created and use uniform scale on the X-as to make the polygon a straight rectangle again as depicted in Picture-6b below. You may need to toggle to maximum view to make sure you get the lines straight.

Picture 6b

Now switch the Edge sublevel mode and select the edges as depicted in Picture-6c below. (Again, hold the CTRL key to select more than one edge or polygon, vertex, mesh, etc, etc.)

Picture 6c

Click the Chamfer button, you can find it below the Extrude button if you are in Edge sublevel. Chamfering works similar as extruding, when you clicked the Chamfer button and you move the mouse pointer over one of the selected edges, the pointer will change. Click on one of the selected edges and drag to the right to chamfer the edges to end up with something similar as depicted in Picture-6d below.

Picture 6d
Switch to Polygon sublevel again and select only the polygons as depicted in Picture-6e below.

Picture 6e

Now to create the button (and to see if you learned anything from this tutorial ) follow the steps below.

- Extrude outwards so the button comes slightly out of the monitor. (Note that if you extrude one button while the other is also selected, they will both be extruded.)

- Extrude one more time just a very little, and scale down the polygons just a little.

You should now have something similar as depicted in Picture-6f below:

Picture 6f

Texturing the monitor is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but let’s use some basic materials to give the monitor some color. First, select the polygon that represents the actual display as depicted in Picture-6g below.

Picture 6g

Open the Material Editor by choosing it from the Rendering menu, or by pressing M. Click an available spot (i.e. the top-left ball). Set the Specular Level value to 30 and set the Diffuse color to nearly black as depicted in Picture-6h below.

Picture 6h

Drag the material we just created to the polygon to assign it. Now press CTRL+I (or choose Select Invert from the Edit menu) to select all the polygons except the one we had selected. In the Material Editor, create a new material with the color you want to use for the remaining part of the monitor and drag it to the selected polygons.

Instead of using simple colors, you can also make a screenshot of your own display (with your favorite program, website, or background for example) by pressing the PrintScreen button on your keyboard. Paste this screenshot in Paint, PhotoShop, MS Office Photo Editor, are any other software that allows you to save the screenshot to a .BMP file. Click the empty square button next to the Diffuse color, and select Bitmap, click OK, browse to the location where you stored the screenshot, select the .BMP file, and click OK. You will need to add a UVW Map and to fit the screenshot on the display.

Modeling a Car Rim

2010-04-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

In this detailed tutorial you will learn how to create rims for a sports car by using the Bridge feature for an Editable Poly. This new feature was introduced in 3D Studio MAX version 7 and can save a modeler a lot of work. Not only will you be able to create the wheel in shown in the screenshots on the left, by using the techniques in this tutorial it will be a piece of cake to create your own original wheels. Apart from that, many of the common modeling techniques (Extrude, Bevel, Chamfer, Bridge, Soft Selection) are used in this tutorial, so it can serve as an excellent way to learn some new selection methods and basic poly-modeling skills.
This tutorial is aimed at the beginner and every step is outlined and displayed in detail. If you are absolutely new to 3D Studio Max , you may want to start with our Chess Pawn modeling tutorial first.

Note: Click on the thumbnail in each step for a larger screenshot that includes the viewports and the relevant portion of the user interface. Some thumbnails lead to more detailed instructions on how to perform certain selections and other tasks.

Step 1

Create a Cylinder on the Top viewport with the following attributes:Radius: 40
Height: 30
Height Segments: 4
Cap Segments: 2
Sides: 30

Step 2

Left-click the Snaps Toggle button on the main toolbar and then right-click it to open the Grid and Snap Setting dialog box. Click the Clear All button and then enable the Pivot option. Close the dialog box.

Enabling the Snaps option will allow you to allign the following object correctly.

Step 3

Create a Tube on the Top viewport with the following attributes. Start creating the tube from the center (pivot) of the cylinder you created in step 1.

Radius 1: 90
Radius 2: 105
Height: 80
Height Segments: 5
Cap Segments: 2
Sides: 60

Step 4

Right-click the Snaps Toggle button to disable it. Move up the cylinder on the Front or Left viewport as shown in the screenshot.

Step 5

Select the Top viewport and click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button on the bottom right of the screen.

Select the tube and rotate it -3 degrees on the Z-axis so it lines up as show in the screenshot.

Step 6

Convert the tube to an editable poly by right-clicking Tube on the Modify tab and selecting Editable Poly below Convert To:.

Select the cylinder and use the same steps to convert the it also to an Editable Poly.

Step 7

While the cylinder is still selected, click the Attach button on the Modify tab in the Edit Geometry section and click the tube to attach it.

You should now have a single Editable Poly object called Cylinder01. Click the Attach button again to disable it.

Step 8

Press the F3 key (to see the shaded model), press the F4 key (to see the edges on the shaded model), and press the J key (to get rid of the selection bracket). Click the Arc Rotate SubObject button and rotate up a bit.

Go to Edge sub-object level and select an edge on the upper inner side of the tube and click the Loop button.

Step 9

Move down the row of edges half way the top row of the polygons and scale it up as shown in the screenshot. Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button on the bottom right of the screen again.

Step 10

Go to Polygon sub-object level and select the polygons as shown in the screenshots. Make sure you select them on all sides, meaning the inner side of the tube element and the outer side of the cylinder element. These will be the ends of the six spokes we will create for the rim in the next step.

Step 11

Click the small square button on the right of the Bridge button in the Edit Polygons section on the Modify tab to open the Bridge dialog box.Change the number of Segments to 7.
Change the Taper value to: -1.3(Play around a bit with the Taper and Bias setting to get an idea of how easy it is to create different spokes).

Click the OK button to close the Bridge dialog box.

Step 12

Select the Top viewport and click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button. Click the Select Object button and click the Circular Selection Region button:
Click the thumbnail on the right for detailed instructions on how to select the polygons displayed in the screenshot.

Step 13

Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button to show all the viewports again.

Enable the Use Soft Selection option in the Soft Selection section of the Modify tab and on the Front or Left viewport move the polygons a bit upwards.

Step 14

Disable the Use Soft Selection option. Click the Select Object button and change back to rectangular selection by clicking the Rectangular Selection Region button.
Select all the top polygons. Click the thumbnail on the right for detailed instructions on how to select them.

Step 15

Click the small square button on the right of the Bevel button in the Edit Polygons section on the Modify tab to open the Bevel Polygons dialog box.Change the Height setting to 0.4
Change the Outline Amount setting to -0.4

Click OK to close the dialog box.

Step 16

Click the thumbnail again for detailed instructions on how to select the following group of polygons.

After selecting the polygons, repeat step 15 for those polygons. In other words, bevel those polygons with Height setting 0.4 and Outline Amount setting -0.4.

Step 17

Press the F3 key and press the G key. Rotate the Front viewport down a bit.Go to Edge sub-object level and select the edges as shown in the screenshot. Click the thumbnail for more information.

After selecting the edges scale them down as shown in the screenshot.

Step 18

Press the F key on your keyboard to switch back to the Front viewport. Go to Polygon sub-object level and select the polygons as shown in the screenshot.Scale the selected polygons up on the Y-axis. Click the thumbnail for more information.

Step 19

Click the small square button on the right of the Extrude button in the Edit Polygons section on the Modify tab to open the Extrude Polygons dialog box.Select the Local Normal option and change the Extrusion Height setting to -3.0

Click Apply. And then click OK to extrude the polygons inwards again.

Step 21

Select the row of edges as shown in the screenshot (select one and press the Loop button).

Move it a bit towards the inside of the rim and scale it up. This is basically the same as step 9 in which you performed this task for the other side of the model.

Step 22

Before we continue with the final part of the rim, the center with its screw holes, let’s take a look at our progress so far and see how it looks ’smoothed’. Select the TurboSmooth modifier from the Modifier List on the Modify tab. Change the Iterations value to 2 and enable the Isoline option. As you can see, the side of the spokes are a bit too curved toward the inside, let’s change that in the next step.

Step 23

Go to Edge sub-object level and select the edges as shown in the screenshot. (Use the same selection method as you did in step 17 in which you performed this task for a row of edges one row lower than this one.)

When you selected the loop of edges on both sides of all of the spokes, scale the edges down just a bit so the side of the spokes are slight curved towards the outside.

Step 24

Go to Polygon sub-object level and select the polygons as shown in the screenshot. Enable Soft Selection and scale the selected polygons down on the X and Y axis. Click the thumbnail for more detailed information.

Step 25

Disable the Use Soft Selection option.Click the Select Object button on the main toolbar.

Go to Edge sub-object level and select the row of edges and chamfer them as detailed in the screenshots. Click the thumbnail for more detailed information.

Step 26

Go to Vertex sub-object level and align the vertexes as explained in the screenshots. Click the thumbnail for more detailed information.

Step 27

Go to Polygon sub-object level and select and bridge the polygons as shown in the screenshots. Click the thumbnail for more detailed information.

Step 28

Repeat the same step for the other holes. Click the thumbnail for their exact locations.

Step 29

Go to Edge sub-object level and select the rows of edges as displayed in the screenshot and move them up. Click the thumbnail for more detailed information.

Step 30

Go to Polygon sub-object level and select the polygons as shown in the screenshot. Enable Soft Selection and move down the polygons. Click the thumbnail for more detailed information.

This last step concludes this tutorial. While in Polygon sub-object level, press CTRL-A to select all polygons. In the Polygons Properties section of the Modify tab, click the Clear All button and than the 1 button.Click TurboSmooth on the Modify tab to see the results.Assign a shiny chrome metal material to your rim and render it.

For some variation, try using different Taper and Bias values when using the Bridge option to create the spokes, or start out with different segment values when creating the cylinder and tube. Using the techniques from this tutorial, you should be to create typical rim for almost any car brand. Using a reference photo of a real rim on the background will allow you to get the dimension and scale right.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that it contributed something to your 3D Studio Max modeling skills.