| 3ds Max4 tutorial:Easy orbiting planet Well, I don't think this will be that useful to many people since not alot of users here have 3ds max, but dark Machina was asking about tutorials for 3ds max, so I figured I'd try one. This is a pretty simple tutorial that will help with linking objects, using textures, and simple animating. I will be creating a simple moon (or whatever you want) orbiting a planet. It will turn out something like this »/r0/down···rbit.zip (Zipped .avi file)
First, start up by starting whatever version of 3ds max you have. I used version 4 for this, never used 5, but it would probably be similar.
Click on the create tool (pointer with shiny thing), then click on the geometry button. It looks like a sphere. This is for making 3d shapes. Click on sphere (or geosphere, I haven't found a difference between them). We don't need to change any options for the sphere for this project.
Drag your mouse across perspective view, and a sphere will appear. Click on the tool on top that is a pointer with 4 points. This is the object position/movement tool, you can move shapes wherever you want around the grid if you want. On the bottom you should see where it is on the X,Y, and Z axis. Make it so it is 0 for everything, but 125 Y. That means it's centered for everything, but it is moved backwards (Not, the X, Y and Z axis' are different for each view. For front view, changing the Y axis will move it up or down, while perspective will move it back and forth. Change this in perspective mode.)
Now create another smaller sphere in the top view. The colors do not matter, we will be adding textures later. If you are not satisfied with the size, click n the sphere, then click on the modify button (the blue rainbow to the right of the create button). You can change the radius. Position the sphere similar to what I have done.
Next, we will link the spheres together for an easy way to make an orbit. Click on the link button on top where the arrow is pointing to in the picture. Then, click the small sphere, and drag to the large sphere. Let go and the large sphere should be selected for a second. This links the two circles. It links the "daughter" object to the "mother" object. If you move the daughter, it will not affect the mother. But move the mother, and the daughter moves. Play around a little with that, but Ctrl-Z to get it back to what it was before.
Next, drag the slider bar on the bottom all the way across to 100. This will set it at the 100th frame. Then click the animate button. This will make it able to be animated.
Now comes the animation part. Click the rotate tool to the right of the position tool. It looks like a curved pointer. Click the mother sphere (the large middle one) in perspective view. While your mouse is still pressed, drag upwards. You will see the small circle circling it. Go as far as you want. This will affect how many rotations the sphere will do in 100 frames. I made it go around twice in my animation. You can do how ever many times you like.
Now, click on the top menu bar, not on a tool on the bar (where the position tool is) and drag your mouse to the left. (If you have high resolution you may not need to do this). Then click on the button with 4 different colored circles. This is called the material editor
First click the square next to diffuse where the black arrow is pointing. This is for choosing a texture. Now you can choose whatever texture you want. For mine, I chose planet for one, and noise for the other. You can also choose bitmap to select any texture on your hard drive. Click ok when you have the one you want. Next, drag the circle on the top left (which has your texture one it) onto the sphere you want to have the texture. Then click the blue and white rubiks cube the red arrow is pointing to. This will make the texture viewable while you are working on it. Click on another grey circle, and select a new circle, and drag it to the other circle. make sure you click the rubiks cube for that too.
Now your animation is done. Click on rendering, then render
Note, if you want a backround other than black, click render>Environment. You can click the black box in the top left to change backround color, or click environment map to make it a bitmap or a premade backround.
Now in the render section, click "Active time segment" to make sure it will do all of the frames. Then under render output, click files. Type in a file name, and make sure it is set as a .avi. You can choose any codec, I just use the default one. Now click render. It will render each frame one by one, so it may take awhile, depending on your computer. There is a window saying what frame you are one etc. if you wanna look at that. After it's done, it will save it to where ever you saved it to when you select files. Hope this was helpful to at least one person  . For more advanced stuff, you can add little jiggles in the rotation to make it look realistic.
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The Fanta Penguin says FANTA FANTA |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | GREAT TUTORIAL!!!!
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ill give you my thumbs! |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
just wondering how do you make your persective look like that? |
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| Look like what? It is at default. Do you mean look 3d? If that's it, right click and select 3d mesh or something like that
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The Fanta Penguin says FANTA FANTA |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
my default  |
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| I guess that's the default for version 5. Try playing around with the view buttons on the bottom right where the hand and magnifying glass are. You can always make that top view by right clicking where it says perspective then selecting view>top, then changing it to 3d instead of wireframe, and moving the view around with those buttons to make it how you like.
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The Fanta Penguin says
FANTA FANTA
[text was edited by author 2002-09-01 22:04:10] |
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| reply to IDrink Fanta
Where's the finished product?
edit: saw it 
[text was edited by author 2002-09-01 22:37:02] |
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| said by bluebear:
Where's the finished product?
Here's the quick one I did while making to tutorial
»/r0/down···rbit.zip
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The Fanta Penguin says FANTA FANTA |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
hey did this still didnt fix the oersective any ideas? |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
persective * also sorry didnt follow your tutorial im not that advanced yet cus i only started today. |
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| reply to null
Hmmm, I'm kinda confused. Are you trying to make the perspective view look like that, or are you trying to do the oribit? The perspective doesn't have to be exactly like mine, it can be whatever you think looks best.
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The Fanta Penguin says FANTA FANTA |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
ok im trying to make the perspective look like urs but did the ball as a side project.
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any ideas on the perspective? |
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| Looks like your perspective is similar, but just zoomed out. You will have to use those buttons on the bottom most right of the window. First use the arc rotate tool (2nd to the left, circular) and turn it the way you want. Then use the field of view (looks like a ) to zoom in and out. Then you should get your perspetive view to look like mine.
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The Fanta Penguin says FANTA FANTA |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
the best i can. |
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| That's pretty good, it doesn't really matter if it doesn't look exactly the same, as long as it looks good for you
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The Fanta Penguin says FANTA FANTA |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
its good for me :\
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great tutorial by the way! |
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| Thanks, glad you got it working |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
Great!! |
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| Nice work |
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nulllolPremium
join:2002-04-12
Brooklyn, NY | reply to IDrink Fanta
thanks a bunch! not as hard as i thought |
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