Reactor - Toy Car in 3dsmax

Toy car is a Reactor component in 3dsmax which can be used to animate a car in a realistic way. In this tutorial we will be animating a car with 3dsmax Reactor's Toy car. 3d model of a car is provided, which we will be using in the tutorial. The car is grouped in such a way that the car body, interior all grouped into one object and the four wheels as separate objects.

Open the given max file which contains the car and draw a box object, which acts as the ground. Adjust the box in such a way that the car wheels touches the ground(box), it should not penetrate. (Ref Pic)

Now Select the car body,(object named MyCar01) and from the menu select reactor -> Open Property Editor... This will open the Rigid Bodies Dialog. In the Dialog under Physical properties set the value of Mass to 25 and under Simulation Geometry select Mesh Convex Hull and close the dialog. (Ref Pic)

Reactor Property Editor Dialog

Next select all the four wheels and open the reactor's property editor again and set the Mass value to 5 and select Mesh Convex Hull.

Now select the box (ground object) and set the Mass value to 0(zero) and select Bounding Box, in reactor's Property Editor.

Now all the properties were set, but we haven't created a rigid body collection, which is the main component of 3dsmax reactor, used in calculating the simulation. To create the rigid body collection select all the objects (car body, wheels and the box) and select reactor -> Create Object -> Rigid Body Collection.

Rigid body Collection created

Now select reactor -> Create Object -> Toy Car and place it in any viewport. Now go to the Modify Panel, under Toy Car Properties click on the button labelled none for chassis and select Mycar01 (car body). Then click Add and select all the four wheels. you must have the following objects assigned as shown in the pic. Also check the following parameters. Most of them were default values.

Now you align the Toy car Icon in such a way that the arrow points forward. Now go to the Utility panel, select Reactor, under Preview Animation click on Create Animation Button. This will create Keyframes for your animation. If car moves slowly try to increase the Ang Speed and Gain values in Toy Car panel.

Download the file Here

Shell Modifier in 3dsmax

Many of us would have faced the problem of polygon flipping while importing .3ds or .obj files. In this tutorial I am going to simulate the polygon flipping scenario and a way to rectify it. The Shell modifier in max is useful in achieving this. Polygon flipping is basically the direction of normals facing the other way. So usually when you draw a plane in 3dsmax viewport, you can see only one side of it, the other side becomes invisible.

First lets create the scenario. Draw a sphere in 3dsmax viewport. and Right click on it and convert it to Editable Mesh.

Next select few rows of Polygons from the sphere and delete it.

Now in the perspective (shaded view) you could see that the inside of the sphere becomes invisible. This is because the normals of the sphere are pointing outwards, so the interior becomes invisible.

Sphere with Show Normals enabled. You can see all the Normals pointing outward.

Sphere after the polygons being deleted. See the other side of the sphere becomes totally invisible. You can fix this by applying shell modifier over it.

Sphere with shell modifier applied. You can also use shell modifier to fix the Polygon flipping in imported meshes. Keep the outer amount and inner amount value low or else it will blow up your mesh like a balloon.

Add Details to your 3d models with Normal Maps

Modeling an Object in 3D requires a lot of skill and patience, that too a detailed model requires lot of time in every aspect such as modeling, texturing and rendering. But nowadays most of the 3D games present us with ultimate realism and performance in realtime. How is this possible for the game engine to render a 3D model with high level of detail as well as responding instantly to players input.

The secret lies in the Game engine as well as the simplification of certain procedures. For example when we render a frame in 3dsmax or Maya, a lot of render elements such as Ambient Occlusion, Global Illumination, Raytracing, Radiosity etc.. goes into it. But Game engines use a different method, where all these render elements or done before the model goes into the game engine. One such element is Bump mapping and Normal mapping.

Bump mapping is based on the intensity of the image, usually grayscale which is used to calculate the relative height of the pixels, while Normal mapping stores te direction of Normals, which renders the Normals in different directions as we intend to render. Look at the images below, where a truck tyre is detailed through Normal maps.

Lowpoly Tyre (Actual Mesh) without Normal Map

The same mesh with Normal Map used in Bump slot.

So a Normal Map is usually used to fake high-resolution geometry detail on what is actually a low-resolution mesh. This is one aspect used in 3d games, which helps to add fine detail to the models. You can create your own Normal maps using tools like CrazyBump or Nvidia's Normal Map filter for Photoshop.

Attribute Holder in 3dsmax

Attribute Holder is a modifier in 3dsmax, which helps us to add a custom attribute to an object in 3dsmax. For example, if a Bend modifier is applied over a Box object in 3dsmax, you could either control the Bend parameters or the Box's parameters by switching between the Bend modifier and the Box object.

In the above image you can see Bend Modifier applied over a Box. As said before, you need to select the respective object to edit its parameters. Instead of switching between the Bend modifier and Box object, we can use a single modifier that holds the attributes of Bend as well as the Box in one place. In this tutorial let us see about the Attribute holder modifier.

First place a Box object with the following dimensions (Length and width = 20 units, Height = 50 units).

Next apply a Bend modifier. Now we are about to control the Bend angle and Box width from one place.

Now apply the Attribute Holder to the stack. (Refer image below).

Box, Bend modifier and Attribute Holder

Attribute Holder modifier shows an empty panel, in which you will put your custom attributes. Now from the menu select Animation -> Parameter Editor , which will open the Parameter Editor Dialog.(Refer image)

In the Parameter Editor Dialog use the following settings and click - Add

Parameter type = Float
UI type = Spinner
Name = Bend angle

Now you must see an attribute named Bend Angle added to the Attribute Holder panel. (see image below)

In the same way add another attribute named Box Width. Now from menu select Animation -> Wire parameters -> Wire parameters and connect these attributes.

Modified object -> Attribute holder -> Bend Angle with Modified Object -> Bend -> Angle.

for wiring parameters read the last tutorial Animate car wheels through wire parameters.

Volume Select Modifier in 3dsmax - 3d tutorial

Volume select modifier in 3dsmax named as (Vol. Select) in the modifier stack is a versatile modifier which can be used to achieve some simple animation effects. For example , we would have enjoyed Tom and Jerry cartoon animation and most of the times we would have seen Jerry (mouse) running under a carpet. In this tutorial we are going to do that, but we are not going to use 3d model of mouse or cat here, just the effect as illustrated below.

Step 1:

Create a plane and adjust the settings as below.

Plane Settings

Step 2:

In the Command Panel, from the Modifier tab select Vol. Select modifier.

Volume Select modifier

Step 3:

Now create a cylinder over the plane and move the cylinder in such a way it intersects the plane as shown below.

Step 4:

Now adjust the settings of Vol. select modifier as shown below. Only change the highlighted settings.

After selecting Mesh Object radio button, Click on the button labelled 'None' and select the Cylinder. The trick here is we have selected 'Crossing' as Selection type and Cylinder for the Mesh object. So the vertices of the Plane that intersects with the Cylinder is selected.

After this scroll down and select Soft selection as shown below, leave the default values as it is.


Step 5:

Now Select Push Modifier from the modifier tab and set the Push value to 8. Push modifier will be placed over the top, as shown below.

Now you can see a nice bulge around the cylinder where it intersects with the plane. Now move the Cylinder around and you can see the bulge follows the cylinder. Animate the Cylinder by setting keyframes and hide the cylinder. You will get an animation as illustrated at the beginning.

Here is the file for your reference. Download