The following describes how I setup the UV’s for my model in order to paint the textures.

Step 1: make a duplicate of your model. This is important so you don’t mess up any of your original model. Later you can transfer the UV’s from this duplicate back onto your original.

Step 2: On the duplicate, select the areas that are the most complex (ie. nose, ears, eye area, lips). (you probably will want to do this step one area at a time).

Step 3: now you’ll want to average your selected vertices. You can get to this command through the Polygons>Average Vertices>options menu.

Set the Iteration value to whichever you feel is appropriate. I set mine between 10 and 50 and applied it a couple times. Repeat this step for all of your complex areas on your model. The reason for averaging the vertices is to make the more complex areas of your model less complex, so after you apply the Cylindrical projection, you won’t get so many (if any) overlayed UV’s, which will cause problems for your mapping.

When you’re finished with that, your duplicate should look something like the images on the right. As you can see, all the more complex areas of my model are now less complex and more planar, which should make a better cylindrical projection and UV layout.

Step 4: Now you’re ready to map the UV’s for your model. Select your duplicate model and go to the Edit Polygons>Textures>Cylindrical Mapping>options menu. I just used the Smart Fit option which fits the projection automatically around your selection. You’re welcome to play around with the different options, but for this instance, these are the settings I used.

Step 5: In the attribute editor for the cylindrical projection, you’ll find the following options (right image). Make sure you set the Rotate Z value to 0.1. Maya has this weird habit of messing up the UV’s of the cylindrical projection, and this seems to fix the problem. These are the settings I used.

Step 6: I also noticed that the UV’s for the top of the head and the UV’s for the neck area were garbled
from the Cylindrical projection, so I selected the poly’s on the top of the head, and did a planar projection for those, and selected the poly’s around the neck and did a second Cylindrical projection for those.

So I ended up with 3 UV shells in the UV Texture Editor, which I’ll need to sew together to get one unwrapped UV shell

I wanted to push myself on how far I could go, so I decided to build a piece capable to make an art statement; I didn’t want to feel that it was just another 3D model.

Being an automobile nut, I, like some of you, have had the idea of building a car from the first to the last bolt. I find out that for this task a good set of blueprints is never enough. I spent around a week collecting photographs before the beginning of the modeling process, and I was still collecting references at the end of the texturing and rendering steps.

My first advice to you will be, if you are trying to make a model above average, start with planes, boats or cars that had been restored. You will easily find part catalogues, illustrations, schemes and diagrams of objects with historic meaning. I made a quick selection of some of the GT-40 pictures I found during my research (Fig. 01).

I usually try as much as possible to start from spline cages. It comes very handy to have a tridimensional blueprint of your model; it will guide you making decisions about size, position, and where your components should be organized, even before you model the shell.

Later on, you can use the spline curves to loft panels that will be the base mesh of your car body.
Once I had my cage done, I started modeling the chassis using photo references (Fig. 02).

The next step was modeling all the components that have direct relationship with the chassis.

I always started creating primitives to establish rotation and proportions, and then I went in detail using pictures. Here once more I used techniques like nurbs revolves, lofts and extrusions than later on turned into polygons.

Finally, I used lattice and nonlinear deformers to achieve the desired shapes (Fig. 03, Fig. 04, Fig. 05).

Picture 1. The end result could look for example like this. Notice that this is a stylized head which is not exactly realistic. For example the eyes are too big.

Human head is one of the most difficult subjects to model believably. The structure and form of a human face is so familiar to everyone that even a small fault in the 3D model is easy to notice.

This tutorial covers the 3D modeling of a human head in 3D Studio MAX using polygons. The head is modeled roughly using polygons. The head will get its final form when Meshsmooth modifier is added to it. When the Meshsmooth modifier is added to it the face becomes a so called subdivision surface. Subdivision surface means a surface which is created by dividing the original surface into smaller polygons. Meshmooth modifier does exactly this. This way the rough surface can be made rounder and smoother. The end results is a head similar to the one in picture 1. Notice that this is a stylized head which is not fully realistic. For example the eyes are too big and the ears have been simplified. However, I believe that this model could very well work as a basis for realistic geometry of a human head.

Topology, Edge loops and Poles

Picture 2. In the picture above you can see the polygon construction of the model. By seeing the construction of the model you can conclude how well the model is suited for animation.

Picture 3. The picture above is rendered so that you can see the Isolines of the Meshsmooth modifier.

In picture 2 and 3 you can see the topology and edge loops of the model. By seeing the structure of the model you can conclude how well the model is suited for animation. Edge loop means a row of edges that goes through successive four sided vertices. Four sided vertex is a vertex where four edges meet. In my opinion, in an ideal model that is made for animation edge loops are parallel or perpendicular to the movements of the muscles.

There are almost only four sided polygons (quads) in this model which is good if the model is going to be animated. One should always aim to construct the model from four sided polygons when modeling a character. There are naturally three sided and five sided poles in this model. A pole is a vertex where less or more than four edges meet. Pole ends an edge loop and might sometimes cause trouble in animation. If you want to know more about the subject I recommend reading Bay Raitt’s instructions about 3D modeling and edge loops. Another great resource where to find more information about edge loops, head modeling and 3DS MAX is www.cgsociety.com.

3D Studio MAX Tools

Picture 4. Low polygon version of the human head. This is how the complete 3d model will look like before the Meshsmooth modifier is added.

Before starting the 3D modeling one should be familiar with the following concepts and 3DS MAX tools:

• Editable poly
  • working in sub-object modes
  • copying polygons
  • weld
  • cut
  • extrude
  • create
• Symmetry modifier
• Meshmooth modifier
• Basics about materials

Reference Pictures for the 3D Head

Picture 5. Reference pictures provide a lot of help when modeling a human head.

It’s best to use real photographs as reference pictures when modeling a human head but if real photos are not available you can download pictures below.

Create reference pictures in 3D Studio MAX according to picture 5. Change Left view to Right view. Create two plane objects whose size is 512 x 512 (the same as the pixel dimensions of the pictures. It’s relevant that the proportion between width and height is the same as in the pictures) and add textures to them. Set the Self-Illumination of the materials to 100 (material will become self illuminating and therefore is easier to see).

• Human head reference picture: right
• Human head reference picture: front

Prepare the Views

Turn on Smooth + Highlights (F3) and turn off grid (g) in all view ports. Set the width and height segments to one in both plane objects. The head is considerably easier to to create when we can model according to the reference pictures in the background.

Page 2: 3D Modeling a Mouth in 3DS MAX