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In this tutorial, you will complete the modelling of the interior that you
started creating in the previous tutorial. Start by loading the model from
the previous tutorial; alternatively, you can download it. |
Grouping
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At the end of the previous tutorial, I suggested that you create doors for the
various kitchen cupboards. So, before we continue, lets clean that up a bit! |
| If you think that some of these boxes are not in the kitchen,
click on the Display Tab in the Command Panel and then pick
"Hide Unselected", and then alter your selection... |
Click on "Select by Name", which is to the left of the "Select and Move" icon.
A dialog box listing all the visible objects in the scene will be displayed.
Assuming you followed the previous tutorial's instructions(!) there should be a
collection of boxes (Box06..Box18 in my model), select them. If the benches
and cupboards are not included in the selection, include them! Use Ctrl-click
to add an object to the selection set. |
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When all the objects that make the kitchen have been selected,
choose Group - Group, and call the group "Kitchen"! |
Create a Balcony
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Create a balcony floor (box) 2000 wide to the East (right) of lower space.
The balcony's should go all along the edge of the space (10,000).
Once you've created it, rename the box "Balcony". |
Editing Shapes
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Having added the Balcony, we now want to extend the walls out
1000 to provide some wind protection for the Balcony. |
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Select either the South or North Wall, then (using the Front View)
click on the Modify Tab of the Command Panel and choose
"Editable Spline" from the object's Modifier Stack. When you do that
the walls should change to "wire-frame".
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Select "Segment" editing
and "Select and Move", then pick the right-hand vertical edge and move
it 1000 (to the right). Remember that you can do this "by eye", for this
exercise it doesn't matter it the wall is a few centimetres too long or short!
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When you are satisfied, simply click on "Extrude" in the Modifier Stack
(above "Editable Spline"). Notice that both the "south" and "north" walls
will have been extended! When the original wall was copied, the "instance"
option was chosen - this means that if one is edited, then the other instance(s)
will also be changed. |
Balcony Railing
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In this section we will create a "railing object" and then use Array
to copy it along the Balcony edge. The object will only contain a "post",
top "rail", bottom "rail" and a sheet of glass. Hiding all the objects,
except the Balcony floor will make the task easier... |
| Create the Post |
Start by zooming the Top View in on the bottom of the Balcony,
make sure you can see the bottom 2000 of the Balcony. Then
(using the Top View) create a box 100(L) x 100(W) x 1000(H)
just in from the bottom-right of the Balcony (I placed mine at
6900,0).
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Create the Rails
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Switch to the Right View and if necessary zoom in. Then create
a box starting from just below the centre-top of the post and ending
a bit above the top of the post and 2000 to the right, make the third
dimension ("height") 100. |
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You may notice (in the Front View) that the railing is created at
(world) X = 0. Use the Front View to move the railing to the post. |
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Once you've created the top one, choose
"Select and Move", hold down the shift key and drag the top rail
down to about 200 above the floor, doing a "shift-drag" will create
a "clone" of the original railing! Choose "Instance" from the
Dialog Box. |
| Right View of the Balcony post and rails |
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Finally, create the (box that in the next tutorial will become)
Glass. I suggest doing this in the Front View. "Bury" the top and
bottom of the box in the railings and make the glass about 20
thick (width), for the third dimension use the Right View to extend
the box about 2000. The box I created was 800(L) x 20(W) x
-2000(H) in the Front View. |
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After creating it, I decided to move the "ends" of the glass
away from the posts, so I reduced the boxes width (Height in
Front View) to 1800 and moved it (in the Right View) so that
it started about 100 to the right of the post's centre
(leaving a gap of about 50). |
| Array . . . |
Now we are ready to array the objects to create the balcony
railing! Firstly, group the objects (call them "BalconyUnit") - make
sure that you don't include the Balcony floor in the group. |
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Zoom out so you can see the whole Balcony floor then,
in the Top View, choose Tools - Array (or click on the Array
icon). We want to have 5 balcony units each 2000 apart,
so specify 2000 in the Y Move editbox, set the "1D"
count to 5, finally, set the "Type of Object" to Instance
and hit "OK".
There should now be 5 of the "balcony units", note that
there is no post at the "northern" end of the balcony! |
| Create the Balcony "return". |
Select the northern BalconyUnit and In the Top View,
use shift-Move to create a COPY (not instance) of
the Unit, to the right of its present location. |
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We made a copy of the BalconyUnit because the
Balcony "return" is only about 1000 not 2000, so we will now
edit the object to make it fit |
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Before editing the BalconyUnit, click on the Display
Tab of the Command Panel and click the "Unhide by Name"
button. Unhide the north wall - it should be called "North Wall". |
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Ungroup the copy (Group - Ungroup) and then,
using shift-Move again, create an instance copy of
the post and locate it at the end of the arrayed units. |
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Select the un-grouped unit (the one off to the side),
and rotate it 90 (use Select and Rotate and watch the
angles on the coordinate read-out at the bottom
of the application's window). |
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Now move the railing so that it ends about
50 "above" and to the "left" of the end of the
previous units. This should make the return
pass (approximately) though the middle of
the North Wall. |
| Top View of north-east corner of balcony. |
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| Shrinking the glass! |
Deselect the whole unit and select the glass
box, then click on the Modify Tab of the Command
Panel and alter the boxes longest (Height) dimension
from -1800 to -600
so the "glass" box finishes short of the wall.
Finally, move the top railing so that it covers the
post (presently it finishes over the post's centre).
You may also want to shorten the railings, but they
don't really matter! |
| If you have problems selecting the correct
objects, then try using the Front View! |
Select the Balcony "return" objects
and Group them - call the group "BalcRet North" or similar.
Copy the return to the other end of the balcony. You can
either use shift-Move or Array to do this. Whichever
method you use, make sure you "Instance" the group,
rather than duplicating it. |
"East" Wall
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While we are on the Balcony, lets create the final
wall of our space - the glass wall leading on to the balcony.
This wall will be somewhat similar to the balcony railing;
it will be made up a number of columns/mullions with
glass in between. There will be a pair of glass doors
in the middle segment. |
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In the Top View, zoom in on the southern end of the
balcony. Create the first mullion so that it is centred on
the inside edge of the wall. The mullion I created was
160x160x2700 centred at 5000,0. |
| You should probably hide the Balcony railing
objects before continuing . . . |
Next create a transom (horizontal element) at about
2100 above the floor. Mine was 100x150x2000 at
5000,0,2150 (in the Front View). Once you've created it,
switch to the Right View to check it position; I had to
change mine's "Height" to -2000. The instance copy
the transom to the floor so that it becomes the bottom
mullion.
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Copying the pieces
Note that if you aren't using
the Top View, then you may need to set X not Y to 2000. |
Array the 3 boxes five times (as with the
railing set Y=2000, "1D"=5 and "Type of Object"=Instance).
Create the end mullion by instance copying the last
vertical 2000 across.
Group all these boxes (call the group "East Wall Frame"). |
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If you want to, create a thin box to be the glass. I generally
don't bother creating glass unless there will be a view not
through the glass. If you decided to model the glass doors
in an open position, then it would be possible to see the
difference between having and not having glass. |
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The final step in the East Wall are the pair of glass Doors
in the middle panel of the glass wall.
I will leave it up to you to create them! I would suggest
including a frame around the doors (though some glass
doors don't have frames). You can model the hinges as two
boxes (or cylinders). |
Put a Lid on it!
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The final piece needed to enclose of spaces is the ceiling!
Using the Front View, draw the outline of the ceiling
(you may wish to refer to the diagram below), and then
extrude it -10000. |
| Note that the ceiling object on the right extends past
the "east" wall to the end of the "north" wall. |
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Conclusion
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| You may note that we haven't created the window
frames for the windows between the roof objects . . . |
That's the end of this tutorial.
We have finished making (the shell) of our space,
and in so doing have used many of the common
techniques that are needed to create models of
buildings and/or interiors. |
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Depending on the time remaining in the tutorial,
do one or more of the following:
- create some furniture (coffee table, dining table, chairs, bookcase)
- merge some furniture created by someone else
- create light fittings
- save, log-off and leave! J
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If you are at UNSW doing DMV you might want to check out
the class library! Alternatively have a look at
3D Cafe.
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Learning MAX & VIZ
