Poly by Poly modeling

using

Surface tools in 3dsmax

by John Van Der Zalm

This Tutorial assumes that you have some knowledge of 3ds max and some basic grounding in modeling with surface tools and poly modeling It would be good for you to read through some of the basic modeling tutorial that ship with 3ds max if you are unfamiliar with these techniques.

This is really just a demonstration of a modeling technique that I use. Mainly whenusing 3ds max 3 and 4 as some of the poly modeling tools where not that good. However max 5's poly tools incorporate some of these tools now . In saying this I still use this technique as a starting point for most of my models.

Surface tools

basic idea behind surface tools is that you can use a spline to create a surface in between 3 or 4 vertex's. (Try to stick to quad or 4 sided surfaces)

when you create a web of these you can create a large surface or your model. The other thing with surface tools is that you can create a curves surface using the spline Beziar vertex points. and this is how surface tools is used to create a model.

However we are going to use surface tools to create just flat poly's and collapse it into editable poly's or mesh after we get the basic shape.

The advantage of this is that using this method enables you to create a large amount of polys at one time and easily edit them. As you go along you will see some of these techniques make this allot easier. I fine this technique allot more intuitive than subdivision modeling cutting poly's can really be painful.

Basically we are just going to be doing a dot to dot and join bits up. So enough of me ranting here goes

Note- This is what your modifier stack will look like using this technique.

Some tools to get familiar with

Snap tool- right click on it and turn on vertex snap and turn of all others- use "S" on your keyboard to toggle on and of.

Show end result button - So you can see what the final model looks like when your working down the stack

Setting up your scene

First things first when starting too model you need good reference images.use the one download the startup files the scene is already set up. Click me!

step 1 eye lid

Start by Creating a spline with about 14 vertex points in the front view around the eye see pic below.

There should be a few eye spheres in the scene. unhide them and bring the spline you just created forward so that it is just touches the front of the sphere.

Now move each vertex back in the Y- axis to follow the contours of the eye shape. Don't worry about the edges intersecting through the sphere as long as the vertex's are just on the surface of the sphere.

Step 1 applying modifiers

Select the spline in spline mode and hold down shift and scale up a copy of the spline. By doing this you know have to identical splines within the one shape

copy the spline another 4 times

You can know apply a crossection modifier. This modifier will draw in the the other splines

Then add a surface modifier - change the patch typology to '0'. You may have to change the threshold to 0. Make sure the poly's are facing the right way if not check 'filp normals'.

Collapse it to an editable mesh

Then add a meshsmooth modifier - change the interations to 2

you can know move individual vertex points in "Edit mesh". Turn the show end result button on ( this is the button below the modifier stack )to give you the smoothed view with the outer construction cage.

Now use the reference images to get the basic contours to suit the face.

Image without- show end result on