3 simple questionsabout 3dmax

[gamecubicle]

Hi there, i got 2 little questions about 3dmax.

1: How can you make your texture visable in 3dmax itself (or at least give it another color then grey. because everything with a texture on it turns grey for me.

2: What is bump mapping? Really want to know that.

3: How do the modifiers like MELT etc... work?

Hope anyone can help this noob :P

[Sen3D]

Ok, firstly I really recommend reading the help files that come with max as all these questions will be answered there.
However:
1. In the material editor, there is a little button that looks like a square with chequers on it. Hit that to display the map in the viewport. How it looks will depend on your graphics card & what rendering mode you are using for the viewports - open gl, direct 3d or heidi.

2. Bump mapping is where you use a map to give the impression of raised or lowered areas on your surface, like pits, scratches, little bumps & imperfections etc. It's really only good for small details - try making a dent with a bump map & you'll see what I mean. The reason for this is that bump mapping does not affect the geometry of the object or surface at all. What happens is that the map alters the way the surface normals face, (for more on surface normals, read the help files,) making it look like those details are there. If you have a sphere with a bump map that makes it look like the surface has scratches, those scratches aren't really there, it's essentially just a trick of the light & if you look at the edge of the sphere, you'll see that it's still just a flat sphere. If you want the scratches to actually indent, you'd need to use displacement mapping, which actually alters the model. Bump mapping is used a lot because it's basically a good cheat & renders a lot faster than displacement mapping. A good rule of thumb is that bump maping should really only be used for details that are only raised or lowered on the surface by 1 mm. I'd say you can get away with anything up to 3mm, maybe 5mm in certain cases, but anything above that should either be modelled in or else use displacement mapping.

3. Modifiers like melt alter the properties of an object, most often the shape. You apply them to an object via the modify panel & then experiment with the spinners to see the effect it has. Usually these are non-destructive, meaning if you don't like it, you can always zero out the spinners or else delete the modifier from the stack to return the object to it's original state. This should not be used instead of good modelling though, but rather in conjunction with. Anyone that's been doing 3d for a while can spot something that's been essentially 'modelled' with modifiers a mile off.
Of course there are many other types of modifiers that do very different things besides alter the shape of the object, such as skin, UV modifiers etc, but it's too big a topic to cover here so again I recommend the help files.

[madmenno]

Hi fellow dutchman ,

Just try do some tutorials that come with max, they discribe every single step. When you are used to the interface and used all kinda options from the command pannel, go to www.3dtotal.com and check out some tutorials there. Fiat is a good one or that race car. I found joan tutorial to hard when i first started (probably can't fix the head the way i wound now).

I'v been modeling for almost a year now and i am still crap . But there is real noticable improvement when u often try some stuff out even if stuff won't work out the way you want.