|
rezin|digital
Making
Grass in 3D Max
by Dagan
Potter
Start with a new
scene (click reset if you have a previous scene open).
Under the Create/Geometry
tab make a Box in the Top viewport with the following values:
Length-250
Width-250 Height-0.0
Length Segs-25
Width Segs-25 Height Segs-1
Go to the Modifier
panel and add a noise modifier to the box with the following
values:
Fraclal: Checked
Iterations: 2.0 X: 5 Y: 5 Z: 20
Collapse the modifier
stack for speed and memory reasons.
Apply a UVW Map
modifier to the Box. Make sure it is a planar map.
We have the ground
object finished but there is no grass or any shaders applied.
Next we are going to create the grass. This can get a bit tiresome
but shouldn’t take too long.
Click Line under
the Create/Shapes tab. Change the Steps to 3 and deselect Optimize.
Draw a triangle
in the Front viewport. Start at the lower left next the top
then the lower right and finally click on the lower left again.
Click OK on the Close spline dialogue that pops up.
Click on the Move
button (button with 4 arrows pointing different directions).
Right click on the button again and a little dialogue box will
pop up (Note: Do not close it until step IV is done).
Go to the Modifier
tab and click Sub-Object. Select the lower left vertex. Change
the Absolute:World XYZ coordinates to 0,0,0.
Click the top vertex
and change the coordinates to .25,0,20.
Click the lower
right vertex and change the coordinates to .50,0,0.
Close the Move
Transform Type-In dialogue box.
Now click the Hierarchy
tab and activate the Affect Pivot Only button.
Move the three
axis pivot arrows to the base of the triangle. Click on the
Affect Pivot Only button to deselect it.
Go back to the
Modify tab.
Add the EditMesh
modifier to the triangle and click the Sub-Object button to
deselect it.
Add the Bend Modifier
with the following values:
Angle: 60 Direction:
90 Bend Axis: Y
Now you’ve
got a droopy strand of grass. Only 44,999 more to go!
In the Front viewport
click the strand of grass while holding the Shift button and
drag it to the right. This will clone another strand of grass.
Do this one more time so you have three strands of grass side
by side.
Select the second
strand of grass, click the Modifier tab and change the Angle
to 80.
Select the second
strand of grass, click the Modifier tab and change the Angle
to 100.
Collapse the modifier
stacks for each strand of grass (Your scene will render faster
if you do this and will take up less HD space).
Yippee!!! We’ve
got three droopy strands of grass. Only 44,997 more to go! This
is the part where we will apply shaders to the grass and ground.
Go to the Material
Editor. This scene will have four materials and the following
will be the settings for each material.
Material #1: 2
Sided: Checked
Diffuse Color:
Red: 15 Green: 80 Blue: 15
Material #2: 2
Sided: Checked
Diffuse Color:
Red: 50 Green: 140 Blue: 50
Material #3: 2
Sided: Checked
Diffuse Color:
Red: 130 Green: 200 Blue: 20
Material #4: Diffuse
Color: Red: 80 Green: 50 Blue: 20
Apply Material
#1 to the first strand of grass Line01.
Apply Material
#2 to the second strand of grass Line02.
Apply Material
#3 to the third strand of grass Line03.
Apply Material
#4 to the Ground object.
We now have the
shaders applied and are ready to start to place the grass on
the ground plane.
Select the first
strand of grass and go to the Create/Geometry tab. Now click
Standard Primatives and go to Compound Objects.
Click the Scatter
button. And change the following settings:
Pick Distribution
Object: Ground (Select the ground)
Deselect Perpendicular
Select Random faces
Under Transformations
change Rotation: 15,360,15
Scaling: 20,20,20
Under Display change
100% to 1%
Select Hide Distribution
Object
Now go up to Source
Object Parameters and change the duplicates to 15,000.
Go to Load/Save
presets. Type "r|d grass" and click save
Now repeat steps
I-II for the other two strands of grass.
Sometimes the grass
will be above or below the ground plane so once you are done,
move the ground plane to the bottoms to the grass strands. (Note:
It is OK if the grass and ground intersect about 1/3 the length
of grass strands.)
It looks as though
you finished the tutorial. You should now have a hill of grass.
Keep in mind that
this is a large scene. There are 450,000+ polygons to render.
Regardless it shouldn’t take too long.
To download the
Max file, click here.
Dagan
Potter
|