3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [17]
2. The turret model is loaded right in the middle of the scene and consists of a single part. We need to scale the turret and move it to the side of the wall.
3. Click the turret to select it, and then select the Scale tool. Then drag the top handle only to scale it in the Z-direction. Then move it in the Front viewport using the Move tool so it lines up with the left side of the wall and its base it even with the base of the wall. Then move it in the Left viewport until it is centered and overlaps the wall.
4. With the turret still selected, press and hold the Shift key and drag the turret to the right to create another turret positioned at the right edge of the wall. In the Clone Options dialog box, select the Copy option and click OK.
5. Select the Create⇒AEC Objects⇒Foliage menu command, and click the Foliage button. Then select the Generic Palm, and click in the Top viewport to create four trees. Use the Scale tool to increase their size along the Z-axis.
Turrets now stand on either side of the wall, and some trees add to the scene, as shown in Figure QS.2.
FIGURE QS.2
The loaded turrets make the wall seem stronger.
Tutorial: Adding a ground plane
With the turret model loaded, we next add a ground plane to the scene. This can be a simple plane object, and we want to apply a Noise modifier to give it some bumps.
To add a ground plane, follow these steps:
1. Click the Top viewport, and zoom out. Select the Plane button in the Command Panel to the right, and drag from the upper-left corner to the lower-right corner in the Top viewport to create a large plane object.
2. In the Create panel, set the Length Segs and Width Segs to 30 to increase the plane's polygon density.
3. With the plane object still selected, choose the Modifiers⇒Parametric Deformers⇒Noise menu command to apply a Noise modifier to the plane object. In the Parameters rollout, set the Scale value to 100 and the Z Strength value to 200.
The ground plane with a Noise modifier creates a nice landscape of rolling hills, as shown in Figure QS.3.
FIGURE QS.3
The scene now has a ground plane of rolling hills.
Adding Materials and Lights
The modeling phase, which usually is quite time-consuming, went really quickly when we used the Array dialog box and existing models. The next phase is to add materials to the models and lights to the scene. Because some of the models have applied materials already, this phase also goes pretty quickly.
Tutorial: Adding materials
After the modeling is complete, you can add materials to the objects to improve their look. Materials are added using the Material Editor, which is opened using the Rendering⇒Material Editor⇒Slate Material Editor menu command or by pressing the M keyboard shortcut.
Max 2012 includes a special set of procedural materials called Substance materials that are created using small bits of code instead of bitmaps.
To add materials to the wall and ground plane, follow these steps:
1. Select the Rendering⇒Material Editor⇒Slate Material Editor menu command (or press the M key) to open the Material Editor. Locate and double-click the Standard material in the Material/Map Browser and also the Substance map in the Maps category.
2. Double-click the Substance node, and click the Load Substance button in the Substance Package Browser rollout of the Material Editor. In the textures folder, locate and load the Desert Sand 01 texture, and connect the Diffuse and Bump channels of the Substance node to the Standard node.
3. With the ground plane selected in the viewports and the Standard material node selected in the Material Editor, click the Assign Material to Selection button in the toolbar of the Material Editor. This applies the material to the selected object.
4. Click the Select by Name button on the main toolbar. Press and hold the Shift key, and click the first