Poly Modeling

Picture 1. A rendering of a metallic spoon in 3D Studio MAX.

06.06.2008 Category: 3D (Modeling)
This tutorial is aimed for those who wish to learn to create 3D models of complicated objects. This is a tutorial for those who wish to practice a modeling technique before starting a more complicated project such as modeling of a human head.

In this tutorial we'll create a 3D model of a spoon like in picture 1. The spoon will be created by using a poly modeling and subdivision surface techniques. The modeling starts from a single polygon and the model is created by adding polygons to it with several different methods. The purpose of this tutorial is not to create the spoon as effectively as possible, but to familiarize you with poly modeling and the essential tools of Edit Poly modifier. This tutorial covers the use of the following tools:

• break vertex
• weld vertices
• weld edges
• copy edge
• chamfer edge
• create polygon
• cut polygon
• slice polygon
• extrude polygon

Edit Poly Sub-Object Modes

In this poly modeling tutorial we'll work in the following sub-object modes of Edit Poly modifier:

Vertex sub-object mode: selections and operations are applied to vertices.

Edge sub-object mode: selections and operations are applied to edges.

Border sub-object mode: you can select all edges on the edge of the object at once.

Polygon sub-object mode: selections and operations are applied to polygons.

When modeling with polygons, it's important to understand the meaning of different sub-object modes and to be able to switch between them when necessary. Keyboard shortcuts for the sub-object modes mentioned above are 1-4.

3DS Modifiers

As an addition to Edit Poly modifier this poly modeling tutorial covers the use of the following modifiers:

Symmetry - modifier can be used to mirror an object and therefore half of a symmetrical object can be created automatically.

Meshsmooth - modifier smoothens a 3D model. In practice it means that we can crate a coarse model and let the Meshmooth modifier to smoothen it by creating a subdivision surface out of it.

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts in 3D Studio MAX

While creating a 3D model it's often helpful to switch between wireframe rendering and shaded rendering (Smooth+Highlights) and to make edges of the objects visible. Keyboard shortcuts for these functions are:

F3 - Smooth+Highlights rendering / Wireframe rendering

F4 - Make edges visible (only applies to shaded rendering)

1. Begin Poly Modeling

Picture 2. The poly modeling starts with a single four-sided polygon.

The modeling starts from the handle of the spoon.

• Create a Plane object in the Left view according to picture 2.
• Set the width and length segments of the Plane to 1. Now you have created a single four sided polygon. This way the modeling starts from a single polygon.

2. Modeling With Edit Poly

Picture 3. New polygon is created by cloning an edge.

• Add Edit Poly modifier to the Plane object.
• Activate the edge sub-object mode in the Edit Poly modifier.
• Select the left-hand edge and create a new polygon by cloning it to the left according to picture 3. (An edge is cloned by moving it while pressing Shift in keyboard.)

When a polygon is created by cloning an edge it's always four-sided. A polygon can also have three sides or more than four sides. As a rule of thumb one could say that in poly modeling it's wise to aim to create the model with four-sided polygons. With four-sided polygons one can create a surface that is flawless and deforms nicely when animated. This is especially important when modeling a character.

3. New Polys by Cloning Edges

Picture 4. The 3D model is created poly by poly.

Select four edges and create new polygons by cloning them according to picture 4.

Meshsmooth & Symmetry Modifier

06.06.2008 Category: 3D (Modeling)
At this stage its a good idea to take advantage of the Symmetry modifier and the Meshsmooth modifier.

4. Clone the 3D Model

Let's clone the 3D model and add modifiers to it:

• Deactivate the edge sub-object mode and clone the whole 3D model by moving it while pressing Shift in keyboard.
• In Clone Options dialog set the object to be a Reference and click OK.

5. Add the Symmetry Modifier

Picture 1. The Symmetry modifier is added to the reference.

• Add the Symmetry modifier to the reference object.
• Select suitable mirror axis in the Symmetry modifier.
• Activate the Mirror mode in the Symmetry modifier and move the mirror plane to the edge of the model. The model should now look like in picture 1.

6. Add the Meshsmooth Modifier

Picture 2. The Meshsmooth modifier is added to the reference.

• Add the Meshsmooth modifier to the reference object.
• Set Iterations to 2. The model should now look like in picture 2.

7. Continue Polygon Modeling

Picture 3. Four new polygons are created by cloning edges.

Let's go on with the polygon modeling. The modeling work is still done with the original coarse model. Next to it we see in real time how the final mirrored and smoothed (subdivided) model builds up.

• Activate the edge sub-object mode and select an edge from the end of the model and create four new polygons by cloning edges according to picture 3.
• Place the new polygons according to picture 3.

8. Create New Polygons by Cloning Edges

Picture 4. Three new polygons are created.

• Select three edges from the lower part of the spoon and create three new polygons by cloning the selected edges.
• Place the new polygons according to picture 4.

9. Weld Vertices Together

Picture 5. Vertices are welded together with Target Weld.

Activate the vertex sub-object mode and use Target Weld function to weld vertices together according to picture 5. Target Weld works like this: Click one at a time on the two vertices you wish to weld. Finally deactivate Target Weld function by clicking the right mouse button.

10. Move Vertices

Picture 6. Vertices are moved to the center of the spoon.

Switch to the Top view and move two vertices to the center of the spoon according to picture 6. Apply sections 8-10 for the upper part of the spoon as well.

11. Shape the Spoon

Picture 7. The bowl of the spoon is shaped by moving vertices down.

Move four vertices according to picture 7. The 3D model starts to resemble a spoon but it looks flat. It doesn't have enough details. Details can be added by adding new polygons to it and by moving them.

Edit Poly - Adding Details

06.06.2008 Category: 3D (Modeling)

12. Add Details With Chamfer

Picture 1. Six edges selected.

Picture 2. Chamfer function creates new edges (Edit Poly).

The edge of the spoon is too round. Let's add some definition to it with the Chamfer function. Chamfer function can be used to chamfer an edge so that it divides into two edges:

• Activate the edge sub-object mode in Edit Poly and select six edges from the upper part of the spoon according to picture 1.
• Click on Chamfer button. Click and hold the mouse button on top of some of the selected edges and move the mouse. The result should look like in picture 2.

13. Break Vertices

Picture 3. Break function creates new vertices (Edit Poly).

The spoon still needs more details:

• Activate the vertex sub-object mode in Edit Poly and select two vertices according to picture 3.
• Click Break button in Edit Poly modifier. Break function divides the common vertex of the polygons. As a result there are as many vertices as there are corners of the polygons.

14. Move Vertices

Picture 4. Vertices are separated and moved with Edit Poly modifier.

Two vertices have become eight vertices. Place vertices according to picture 4.

15. Weld With Target Weld

Picture 5. Vertices are welded with Edit Poly's Target Weld function.

Weld vertices which are close to each other by using Target Weld function according to picture 5.

16. Cut Polygons

Picture 6. Cutting polys with Edit Poly modifier.

Activate the edge sub-object mode in Edit Poly and use the Cut function twice to divide a polygon into three parts according to picture 6. In this situation the Cut function works like this:

• Activate Cut function in Edit Poly
• Click on the edge of the polygon
• Click on the opposite edge of the polygon
• Right click to deactivate the Cut function

(Cut-function could also be used to Cut a polygon between a vertex and an edge.)

17. Move Vertices

Picture 7. Moving vertices with Edit Poly modifier.

Shape the spoon by activating the vertex sub-object mode in Edit Poly and by moving vertices according to picture 7.

18. Create New Polygons

Picture 8. New polygons with the Create function (Edit Poly).

Next the hole in the spoon will be filled. Activate the polygon sub-object mode in Edit Poly and create three new four-sided polygons according to picture 8. A new polygon is created like this:

• Click the Create button in Edit Poly
• Click on the vertex where the first corner of the polygon will be
• Click on the vertex where the second corner of the polygon will be
• Click on the vertex where the third corner of the polygon will be
• Click twice on the vertex where the fourth corner of the polygon will be

19. Shape the Spoon

Picture 9. Shaping the lower part of the spoon.

• Orbit the user view so that you can see the bottom of the spoon.
• Activate the vertex sub-object mode in Edit Poly and shape the lower part of the spoon by moving vertices according to picture 9.

20. Definition With Slice Plane

Picture 10. Adding definition with the Slice function (Edit Poly).

Next we'll add more definition to the handle of the spoon. We'll use the Slice function and slice polygons according to picture 10:

• Activate the polygon sub-object mode in Edit Poly and select four polygons according to picture 10.
• Activate the Slice Plane function. A yellow plane appears. If necessary move and rotate the yellow plane according to picture 10.
• Click the Slice button. The selected polygons are now sliced according to the slice plane. Finally click the Slice Plane button again to deactivate it.

21. Shape the Handle

Picture 11. A curved handle of the spoon.

Activate the vertex sub-object mode in Edit Poly and shape the handle of the spoon by moving vertices according to picture 11.

22. Polygons With Scale Function

Picture 12. The end of the spoon.

• Orbit the user view to match picture 12, activate the edge sub-object mode in Edit Poly and select four edges surrounding the hole in the end of the spoon.
• Activate Scale function in the top panel. Press Shift in keyboard and create new polygons by cloning the selected edges with the scale tool. The result should be similar to picture 12.

23. Clone Edges

Picture 13. Polygons by cloning edges.

Create two new polygons by cloning edges according to picture 13.

24. Edit Poly's Target Weld

Picture 14. Edges are joined with the Target Weld function (Edit Poly).

• Activate the edge sub-object mode and Target Weld function in Edit Poly.
• First click on the lower edge and then click on the upper edge. Edges are welded together according to picture 14. Finally click on Target Weld button again to deactivate it.

25. Fill the Hole

Picture 15. The hole is filled with the Create function (Edit Poly).

Fill the hole in the end by activating the polygon sub-object mode in Edit Poly and using the Create function to create a four-sided polygon according to picture 15.

26. Move Vertices to the Center

Picture 16. Vertices are moved to the center of the spoon.

• Switch to the Back view and activate the vertex sub-object mode in Edit Poly.
• Select three vertices in the end of the spoon and place them in to the center of the spoon according to picture 16.

27. Edit Poly's Extrude

Picture 17. Polygons in the end are selected.

Picture 18. The handle of the spoon is extended.

Let's extend the handle of the spoon.

• Activate the polygon sub-object mode in Edit Poly and select all seven polygons from the end of the spoon according to picture 17.
• Click on the Extrude button. Click and hold the mouse button on top of the polygons and move the mouse.
• Place the new polygons according to picture 18.

28. Remove Unnecessary Polys

Picture 19. Unnecessary polygons.

Because of the Extrude function there are four unnecessary polygons in the handle of the spoon. Select the unnecessary polygons according to picture 19 and erase them by pressing delete button in keyboard.

29. The 3D Model of a Spoon is Complete

Picture 20. The structure of the complete 3D model of the spoon.

Now the 3D model of the spoon is complete and it's structure should match the structure of the spoon in picture 20. Finalize the spoon by moving polygons, edges and vertices. View the model from all angles, fix errors and shape the spoon to your liking.

Cell Shading

Picture 1. Cell shading in 3DS MAX.

12.07.2008 Category: 3D (Rendering)
In 3D graphics cell shading (also called cartoon shading or toon shading) means a material / rendering method that produces a result that looks like a hand drawn picture. The purpose of cell shading is to create a rendering that looks like cartoon or comic book style.

In this cell shading tutorial I cover a method of doing cell shading in 3DS MAX with the scanline renderer. Of course cell shading can be done by using Mental Ray's Ink'n Paint material but in this tutorial I concentrate on a method that is very fast and works with both scanline renderer and Mental Ray.

Default Rendering in 3DS MAX

Picture 2. A rendering in 3DS MAX with the default settings of the scanline renderer. The picture is illuminated by one Omni light.

In picture 2 you see a standard rendering in 3D Studio MAX. All material settings have default values except for the diffuse value which has been adjusted to get some color. The model is illuminated with one Omni light. So if you are trying cell shading according to this tutorial, please do the following preparations:

• Open a simple 3D model.
• Apply materials (adjust only the diffuse color).
• Create one Omni light with default settings.
• Change background color to pure white

Remove shading

Picture 3. Self-Illumination is changed to 100. As a result there is a rendering with no shading. In other words there are no darkness variations in any single color.

The first thing to do is to get rid of the shading. At the moment the model is clearly shaded. There is a lot of color variation that depicts the levels of darkness. Shading can be removed from material by changing Self-Illumination to 100 (Blinn Basic Parameters > Self Illumination: 100). The result is shown in Picture 3. (If you are familiar with 3DS MAX you might wonder why we even created the Omni light. At the moment the light has no effect at all but in the end it will have.)

Add Composite Map

Picture 4. Composite map is the basis for cell shaded material.

We will be using two separate maps to achieve cartoon rendering:

• Falloff Map for the cell shading
• Mask Map for the black edges

We will use Composite map to combine these two maps into one material. So first add Composite as Diffuse Color Map according to picture 4.

Add Cell Shading

Picture 5. Falloff map is used to achieve toon shading in 3DS MAX.

Picture 6. The upper color is the color on the shadow side and the lower color is the color on the side of the light source.

Picture 7. Cell shading is easily achieved by adjusting the Mix curve.

Picture 8. Cartoon rendering in 3DS MAX.

The actual cell shading is achieved by using Falloff map. Click on Composite map and add Falloff as Map 1 according to picture 5. Click on Falloff map and make the following adjustments to it:

• Select colors for your model (picture 6). The upper color is the color on the shadow side and the lower color is the color on the side of the light source. So the both colors should have the same hue but upper color should be darker.
• Change the Falloff Type to Shadow / Light (picture 6)
• Adjust the Mix Curve according to picture 7. Add two new control points to the curve and place them according to the picture. (The staircase falloff curve combined with the Self Illumination is the key to cell shaded graphics.)
  Now is a good time to make a test rendering with the cartoon shader. At the moment the cell shading should look like in picture 8.

Cell Shading with Borders

Add Mask

Picture 9. Add Mask to Map 2 in the Composite map.

Picture 10. Noise map is used just to produce a black color.

Picture 11. Noise map's output is just black color.

Picture 12. Black borders for the cartoon shading are achieved by combining black color (Noise) with a mask (Falloff).

Picture 13. Staircase Mix curve controls the thickness of the black edges.

Let's add black edges to our cell shader. Go back to the Composite Map and add Mask as Map 2 according to picture 9. (In rendering the Map 2 is displayed on top of Map 1. The purpose of Map 2 is only to produce back edges. Mask is needed because we want to show Map 2 only partly (edges)).

Add Noise Map

Next click on Mask. There are two slots: One for Map and one for Mask. First we need to place black color to the Map slot. Let's do that with a Noise map. Choose Noise as Map according to picture 10.

Click on Noise and change the white color to black according to picture 11. This way the output of this Noise map is just black color. (We could have achieved the same output also with several other maps)

Add Falloff Map

Go back to Mask and add Falloff as Mask according to picture 12. We'll use Falloff map to mask unwanted parts away.

Click on Falloff and adjust the Mix Curve according to picture 13. Add two new control points and place them according to the picture. (The placement of the stair controls the thickness of the black edges.)

Cell Shaded Rendering

Picture 14. Cell shading with Super Sampling.

Render to test your cartoon shader. The rendering style should look similar to picture 14. If you render a large picture you will see many jagged edges. To fix this just turn Super Sampling on. If you have several materials you might want do that globally in Renderer's settings. Picture 14 is rendered with Super Sampling. (The effect of Super Sampling is hardly visible in such a small rendering but in large renderings the effect is clearly visible).

Cell Shading With Three Colors

Usually two color shades is suitable for cell shading but sometimes you might want more. If you need more color shades just add one or more steps to the Falloff Map's Mix Curve. Just make sure you adjust the right Falloff map. It's the one with color.

3DS MAX Mental Ray

Picture 1. This tutorial explains how to render diamonds in 3D Studio MAX.

04.08.2008 Category: 3D (Rendering)
The purpose of this tutorial is to familiarize you with the following:

• Working with Mental Ray in 3DS MAX
• Rendering diamonds with Mental Ray (picture 1)

I have prepared a simple 3DS MAX scene for this Mental Ray tutorial. In my scene there are two diamond models on a Plane object (picture 2) and a camera. 3DS MAX is on default settings and at the moment the Scanline Renderer produces picture 3.

Prepare a Scene

Picture 2. Two diamond models on a Plane object. This is the starting point for this 3DS MAX Mental Ray tutorial.

Picture 3.This is how diamond models look like when rendered with the default settings of the Scanline Renderer.

I use my diamond models but you could just use the Hedra primitive (Create > Extended Primitives > Hedra) to create some jewels in seconds. Just create two Hedra objects and place them on a Plane object to create something similar to my scene. Change the color of the Plane object to white. Create a camera and make sure that you don't see the edges of the Plane object in the view. Change the size of the Plane object when necessary.

If you would like to create a 3D diamond model I suggest the following: use Google to find diamond blueprints and model a diamond using poly modeling techniques.

Mental Ray Renderer

Let's change the renderer from Scanline Renderer to Mental Ray renderer:

• Open rendering settings (Rendering > Render...).
• Expand Assign Renderer group on Common tab.
• Change the Production renderer from Default Scanline renderer to mental ray renderer

You could try to render an image. At this stage the Mental Ray rendering will look almost exactly like the rendering with the Scanline renderer. Actually the Mental Ray rendering looks a little worse because of the jagged edges.

Mental Ray Material

Picture 4. Mental Ray's Arch & Design is a solid basis for rendering diamonds.

Let's start by creating Mental Ray material for the diamonds. Open material editor (Rendering > Material Editor...) and assign the first material to the diamonds. The goal is to create a material that would be suitable for a diamond. Let's make the following adjustments to the material:

Main Material Parameters

• Change the material from Standard to Arch & Design. Arch & Design is a very powerful Mental Ray material which can be applied to many different situations (For example ambient occlusion is achieved with Arch & Design material)
• Change the Transparency to 1,0 to make the material fully transparent
• Change the IOR to 2,42. This is actually a value that 3DS MAX suggests for a diamond in a tool tip
• Change the Reflectivity to 1,0 to make the material fully reflective.

BRDF

• Select: By IOR (fresnel reflections) Render the scene. The rendering should look similar to picture 4.

Mental Ray Lights

Picture 5. Diamonds rendered with Skylight and Mental Ray (Final Gather enabled).

Illumination plays a big part in diamond rendering. Luckily you can use standard 3DS MAX lights also with Mental Ray. Let's illuminate the whole scene by using Skylight:

• Create Skylight (Create > Lights > Standard Lights > Skylight)
• Change the color of the Skylight to pure white. (By default the color of the Skylight is light blue).
• In order to use Skylight with Mental Ray, you have to use Final Gather. Enable Final Gather (Rendering > Render... > Indirect Illumination > Final Gather > Enable Final Gather)

Render the scene with Mental Ray to see how your diamonds look like. The rendering should look similar to picture 5.

Diamonds look already better but there are still some problems:

• Diamonds are too black
• There are no specular highlights

Let's fix these issues to achieve more realistic Mental Ray rendering.

Background

Picture 6. Diamonds rendered in 3D Studio MAX with white background.

Change the background color to pure white (Rendering > Environment...). Render the scene with Mental Ray to see the effect of changing the background color. As a result the diamonds are brighter. The rendering should now look like in picture 6.

More Reflections

Picture 7. Black boxes are placed on top of the diamonds to produce nice reflections.

Picture 8. Reflections of black boxes can be seen in diamonds.

Now the surrounding is pure white color and therefore the diamonds look little too bright and flat. Let's create some dark objects around them to achieve more interesting reflections:

• Create a grid of 25 boxes like in picture 7 and place them on top of the diamonds.
• Change the color of the boxes to black

Render a test image. Now the rendering should look similar to picture 8. Diamonds should look more real.

Specular Highlights

Picture 9. Omni lights placed randomly around the diamonds.

Picture 10. Specular highlights are created by the Omni lights.

There are some pretty light spots in the diamonds but real specular highlights are still missing. When you see diamonds in real life there are always several light sources around that produce specular highlights. Let's add more light sources to our scene:

• Create an Omni light and make 7 instance copies of it. Now you have 8 Omni lights.
• Change the multiplier of the Omni lights to 0,2 (Omni > Intensity/Color/Attenuation > Multiplier)
• Turn the diffuse effect off so that the lights affect only the specular characteristic of the materials (Omni > Advanced effect > Affect Surfaces > Diffuse)
• Place the Omni lights randomly around the diamonds like in picture 9. Just make sure that light comes from many different directions. Avoid symmetrical arrangement.

Make a test renderings with Mental Ray and adjust the placing of the lights if necessary. The rendering should be similar to picture 10.

Mental Ray Caustics

Picture 11. By default my Mental Ray caustics effect is far too strong.

Let's increase the realism by using Mental Ray to create caustics effect with the diamonds. Caustics have to be enabled in three separate locations: lights, geometry and Mental Ray rendering settings:

• Select all Omni lights and all diamonds. Right click on them and select Object Properties... from the menu. Select mental ray tab and turn 'Generate Caustics' on.
• Go to Mental Ray rendering settings and enable caustics (Rendering > Render... > Indirect Illumination > Caustics and Global Illumination (GI) > Caustics > Enable).

Make a test rendering using Mental Ray to see how the caustics look like. If you can't see any effect your geometry is probably too large. Try changing the diameter of the diamond to around 0,1. (I use metric system and the diameter of my diamond is about 0,07. That's a huge diamond;) By default my caustics look like in picture 11.)

Adjusting Mental Ray Caustics

Picture 12. Diamonds rendered with Mental Ray in 3DS MAX.

At the moment the caustics effect is far too strong. Let's make a few adjustments to it:

• Change the Multiplier to 0,03. (Rendering > Render... > Indirect Illumination > Caustics and Global Illumination (GI) > Caustics > Multiplier)
• Change 'Average Caustic Photons per Light' to 40000 to make caustics more defined. (Rendering > Render... > Indirect Illumination > Caustics and Global Illumination (GI) > Light Properties > Average Caustic Photons per Light)

Render the final image. Now the Mental Ray rendering should look similar to picture 12.

If you are rendering a large picture I recommend increasing the sampling quality (Rendering > Render... > Renderer > Sampling Quality) by increasing Samples per Pixel minimum and maximum values a few steps.

Pageflip Animation

Page 1 of 3

Once upon a time .... This phrase has been used in storytelling of childrenbook, movies and animated film. Often, opening shot of this movie shows an self opened book. Piece by piece of paper flipped revealing more pages. In this tutorial, you will create this kind of animation. If you think to create this animation is hard, think again.I will show you how to create this kind of animation easily.

1. First, you need 3D book model.You can download 3D book model here (3DS format, zipped). After you download this file, extract, and import into 3dsmax (File>Import). This model will be converted in 3dsmax into Editable Mesh. In Perspective viewport, activate Edged Faces display (press F4 in keyboard).

You also need to download bitmap file used later as material. Download required file here. This file contains sample of finished pageflip animation and material files. There are several bitmap files, but in this lesson you need only 3 JPGs files. The others are used in Multiple Pages Flip Animation tutorial

2. First step is texturing the book. I will use Multi/Sub-Object Material. Using this material type, single object can have several map applied altogether. For example, I will apply 3 different material for cover, book side, and inside pages. Before you can apply Multi/Sub-Object Material, you need to set different Material ID in each area to be mapped.

Select book model. Go to Modify tab. Activate Polygon selection. Select all polygons in book side (look at image below). In Selection rollouts you should read about "132 faces selected". Use Ctrl+click to select multiple polygons. You also need to zoom and rotate your view to select polygons in 4 directions. When finished, go to Surface Properties rollout.By default, every polygons has Material ID=1. Now, change Set ID=2. Press Enter after you fill in.

3. Next, select all polygons creating book cover. You should read "754 faces selected" in Selection rollout.. Change Material ID=3.

4.At this point you should have 3 Material IDs. (look at image below for reference). Next step is to apply different material into each Material ID.

5. Open Material Editor (press M in keyboard). Select one empty material slot, name this material "book". Apply this material into book model (by clicking Assign Material to Selection button). Then change material type, click Standard button. In Material/Map Browser click Multi/Sub-Object twice. Just click OK in opened dialog box.

In Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout, click Set Number button. Fill 3, because you only need to make 3 material.

Click button right next to Mat ID=1 (Under Sub-Material). Name this material "page base". In Blinn Basic Parameters, click small button right next to Diffuse. Click Bitmap in Material/Map Browser window. Then choose "page_base.jpg". Click Go to Parent button twice to go back to Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout.

Click button right next to Mat ID=2 (Under Sub-Material). Name this material "page side". In Blinn Basic Parameters, click color box right next to Diffuse. Change color into light brown (R=244, G=231, B=208). Click Go to Parent button twice to go back to Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout

Use similar process like above for cover book material (Material ID=3). This time use red brown color (R=175, G=97, B=34). Click Go to Parent button twice to go back to Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout

Now, you have created Multi/Sub-Object Material for book model.

6. Before you can render, you need to apply UVW Mapping to book model. For Alignment, use Y axis. Click Bitmap Fit and choose "page_base.jpg" as reference. UVW Mapping Gizmo will be scaled proportionally with bitmap file.

7. In Modifier Stack, click minus (-) sign on the left of UVW Mapping. Select Gizmo row. UVW Mapping Gizmo will turn yellow, and now you can move it. Position and scale to fit opened pages in 3D book model. When finished click Gizmo row again to turn off.

8. Render Perspective viewport. You should have something like image below.

Page 2 of 3

In Page 1 tutorial, you have textured a book model using Multi/Sub-Object Material. Now, it's time to make page flipping animation. Before you can create animation, you need to create single page from book model.

9. Continue your previous exercise. Activate Polygon selection in 3D book model. Select all polygons creating one side of page (right side). Zoom in for easy selection. Don't forget, you can use Ctrl+click for multiple selection. You should see "16 Faces Selected" in Selection rollout.

10. Activate Select And Move Tool. In Front viewport, hold Shift and move selected polygon up. A dialog box will be opened. Choose Clone To Object. Fill in new object name and click OK. Now, you have separate page object. Turn off all sub-object selection.

11. Zoom in in Front viewport. Select your newly created page object. In Command Panel, click Hierarchy tab. Turn on Affect Pivot Only button. You can move pivot point now. Move pivot point in the most bottom part of page object. When finished, turn off Affect Pivot Only button.

12.Next, move page object close to book object. Page object should positioned a little bit above book object.

13. We need more polygons in page object in order to have nice flipping animation. Right click page object and choose Convert to>Convert to Editable Poly. Now, activate Edge selection. Select 2 edges in page object (look at image below for reference). In Edit Edges rollout, click Settings button right next to Connect. In Connect Edges dialog box, fill Segments=10 and click OK. Now your page object has enough polygons.

14. Before we begin to animate, let's add more frame. Click Time Configuration button in bottom right of the screen. A new window will appear. In Animation group, fill End Time=150. Click OK to finish. Your scene now has 150 frame.

15. Let's animate. Turn on Auto Key. Move slider to frame 125. Rotate page object into position like image below. You will have two keyrame in frame 0 and 125. Select keyframe in frame 0 and move to frame 25. We move this keyframe because we want animation to start at frame 25.

16. Activate Vertex selection. In Front viewport, move up vertices one by one. All vertices should be slightly above book object. When finished, turn off Auto Key and play your animation. Turn off sub-object selection. You now have simple flipping animation.

Page 3 of 3

In Page 1 tutorial, you have created a book complete with its mapping. Then, in Page 2 tutorial you managed to create a simple flipping page animation. Not quite good animation. That's why we will fix the animation to make it more smooth and realistic. In this tutorial, we will also texture the flipping page.

17. Continue your previous exercise. Now, we will begin to texture the page. Open Material Editor. Choose one of unused sample slot. Name this material "pageflip". Apply this material to page object.

Because a book page need to be textured in both 2 side (facing and back), we will use Double Sided material type. Click Standard button. In Material/Map Browser window, choose Double Sided. A small dialog box will appear. Just click OK.

In Double Sided Basic Click button right next to Facing Material. Name this material "pageflip A". This will be front map. In Blinn Basic Parameters, click small button right next to Diffuse, and then in Material/Map Browser choose Bitmap. Next, use file "pageflip_a.jpg". When finished, click Go To Parent button twice to go back to Double Sided Basic Parameters.

For back material, use the same process like above. This time, use file "pageflip_b.jpg".

18. Before you can render, you need to apply UVW Mapping modifier into page object. In Alignment group, use Y axis and click Fit button.This option will automatically fit UVW Mapping gizmo into page object. Do a test render. Your page is now well textured.

19. Move slider to frame 150. Do a test render, you will notice that bitmap texture is not right (flipped). To fix this, go to Material Editor. Select "pageflip" material. In Double Sided Basic Parameters click button right next to Back Material. In Blinn Basic Parameters, click small button (M) right next to Diffuse. Then, in Coordinates rollout, change U Tiling = -1. Render again, Back Material should have fixed now.

20. Page texturing is now finished. Now, we will begin to create more realistic page flipping animation. Select page object. Add Bend modifier to this object. In Parameter rollout, set Direction=90, Bend Axis=X.

Then, turn on Auto Key. Move slider to frame 50, decrease Angle value to -75. Next, move slider to frame 100, Angle value=75, and in frame 125 set Angle value=0. Turn off Auto Key. Then, select keyframe in frame 0 and move it to frame 25. Now, you have nice page flipping animation in frame 25-125. Play your animation.