3D Studio Max Advanced Techniques

Boolean
The boolean technique can be rather difficult to use and can take a lot of time to get it right. Basically you create two shapes and then place one inside the other, select one of the shapes and then go to compound objects and select boolean. you can the select the other shape and then remove parts of the current shape. This leaves you with whatever you have left.

This was made up of a sphere and a rectangle, the rectangle has been removed and left with the sphere. This is quite a good shape for a wheel so this may be of some use in future work.

Array
The array technique can also be quite fiddly and diffiucult to use. The user can create one object then multiple it many times. It can then be moved evenly apart to create all sorts of things like fences and stairs. This technique is very useful for objects like stairs because the same object has been multiplied and is evenly apart from one another, this saves the user having to draw each stair by hand.

Here a simple cylinder was created and then multiplied many times and moved around to form a stair case. This saves memory since only one object has been created in the first place.

Lathe
The Lathe techinque is a very useful one as the user can draw whatever the want using the line tool. The point of origin then needs to be placed and the lathe tool will then make the object 3D.

In this example a lance has been created, the top right hand corner box is where the object was first drawn, then the point of origin was placed to one side of it. this then replicated it like a cylinder moving around the object to be left with a 3D version of the drawn object.

Lofting
The lofting technique is similar to the lathe technique as it also starts with the user drawing a shape using the line tool. When the loft tool is used the hole shape becomes like a 3D cylinder.

Here a coat hanger or the number two was freely drawing in the top right hand corner box, the shape was then lofted to make the shape 3D.

Tank
This is quite an advanced technique, as it involves using images to create shapes, in this instance a tank. First a plane is put in which will hold the image, its usually best if the size is entered first in which case the size of the image will need to be known(then divided by 10). The map editor will allow you to place the image on the plane, you can make it double sided so that you can move the image around on the plane with ease.
Another plane can be put in so that you can have a side view and a top view of the object you are modelling.

Here the basics of a tank has been made with the use of blueprints of tank. This will be useful in the future especially when it comes to making the james bond car.