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2- 14 T e r r a i n C r e a t i o n
11. Select the Bulge tool to grow parts of geometr y. Use it to add large details, or remove them
with the same tool by holding down Ctrl on the keyboard. In the fol lowing il lustr ation, you can
see how the terrain geometry looks after it has been modif ied with the Bulge tool .
12. I f you see errors in the form of inter secting geome try, fix them with the Smooth and Flatten
tools.
13. Use the Grab and Bulge tools to form the base of the stone steps leading to the pumpkin patch.
Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.
Hopefully, you can see that many of the tools in Mudbox are incredib ly easy to understand and
many of the names and icons make their purpose obvious. Compare your geometry with the
reference image and try to make it match as closely as possible. Pay extra attention to the areas tha t
connect to the house, the stairs, the trees and other objects in the scene. You can also shape the
ground in the area where there is a garden on the re ference image. Be sure to save your work from
time to time. In the following il lustra tion, you can see the final terrain geometry creat ed using all the
tools and techniques descr ibed in this exercise.

Now that the terrain model is completely finished, we need to assign textures . Since the texture
coordinates have already been unwrapped using the Unwrap UVW modifier, you might think that
the simplest way to draw textures would be to open t he map image in Phot oshop and paint a ll the
elements of the t exture using the unwrapped map as a refer ence. However, this method won’t work
for our purposes. If we want the texture to look detailed when the object is close to the camera , it
would need to have a resolution o f at least 8000x8000 pixels or per haps even more. A texture of
such a large resolution would take up a great deal of memo ry, causing slow screen refresh t imes and
long render s. Instead, we will use an alte rnative method that takes up far fewer system resources:
we will draw masks for each textur e separately, and in 3ds Max we will create a Composite material
with them. Such a texture will render faster and will ref resh in viewports faster than a large textur e
map.
15. Continue with your saved file or open Ground_01.mud.
16. In the Layers tab, switch from Sculpt mode to Paint mode.
17. On the Paint Tools tab, select the Paint Brush . This is a simpl e brush that you can use to draw on
an object’s surface.
Let’s consider the separate masks we will need. Virtually dividing the terrain into separat e parts,
we find that we wil l need 6 different masks, one for each of these areas: grass, dirt , trai l , soi l , rocks
(rocky surface on the sides of the cl i f fs) , and large stones. We wil l start with the grass mask.
18. In the Properties: Paint Brush tab, set the Color to white, if it is n’t alre ady.
19. Set the Size to 100 and change it during the painting process as needed. You can also l eave
Strength at 100 because if you use a lower value, the paint will become transpa rent. Because
the terrain object is not symmetrical , leave the Mirror parameter set to Of f . Refer to the fol-
lowing i l lustration.

2- 17T e r r a i n C r e a t i o n
20. Click the New Layer button to create a new paint layer.
21. In the Create New Paint Layer dialog box, set Size = 2048 , set Save As to PNG[8bit, RGBA] , and leave
Channel = Diffuse . For the Name , type in Grass and cl ick OK . Refer to the following il lustra tion. If
you receive a message about mul tiple tiles, just sel ect OK .
22. Referring to t he reference image, use the brush to paint a mask over the places where grass
will be on the terrain objec t. Try to make the edges of the mask look natura lly chaotic and
uneven. Refer to the i l lustration for an example of an appropriate grass mask.
23. Create a new Paint Layer and cal l it Ground. Using the same technique, paint a mask for the
ground over the places where worn ground is supposed to be on the terra in object.
24. Repeat this technique for all the othe r masks until you have 6 masks with appropriate names.
Use different colo rs for different masks to better visually separat e them from each other. In
the following il l ustration, you can see how masks are painted on the sur face of the terrain .

Now that all masks are painted on the terr ain surface, we need to transfer them to an image so

25. Right-cl ick any Paint Layer and choose Export Selected from the menu that appears.
26. Select PNG format for Save as type , and for the f i lename enter Ground_Mask, Grass_Mask, or what-
ever mask name is appropriate to the paint layer you selected. Refer to the following
i l lustration.
27. Export al l the other masks using the same method, giving each a name that consists of the
layer name with the suffix _Mas k .
28. Save the scene. If you wish to see an already prepared scene, open the file Ground_02.mud.
29. You can now close Mudbox.
Exercise 3: Texturing with tileable and procedural maps
Now that we have painted all the masks, we need to add details to them in Adobe Photoshop, and
then we can start creating material s for the terrain. You can follow the instructions here to create the
base fi le for edit ing, or open the fi le Terrain_01.psd .
1. Open Adobe Photoshop .
2. Create a new file with File New, or just press Ctrl+N on the keyboard.
3. In the New window, set Width and Height to 2048 , and enter Name = Terrain . Leave the other para-
meters unchanged. Click OK .
4. Open al l the mask fi les that you exported from Mudbox. All masks support alpha channels
because we saved them in PNG format.

2- 19T e r r a i n C r e a t i o n
5. After you have opened all the mask files in Pho toshop, drag them into t he Terrain document
that you created. To do this, right-cli ck the layer in a mask image and choose Duplicate Layer
from the menu. In the Duplicate Layer dialog enter an appropriat e layer for the As parameter.
For Document choose Terrain , and cl ick OK . Another way to do this is to dr ag each mask layer
from one document to another while holding down Shift on the keyboard, and then r enaming
each copied layer by double-clicking its name. Refer to the following il l ustration .
6. When all the mask layers have been transfer red into the Terrain fi le, close the mask images,
then create a new layer in the Terrain f i le and cal l it Background . Drag the layer to the bot tom of
the layers list.
7. Fil l the new layer with any bright col or such as red. T his will help you spot any pla ces that are
not covered by a mask. To fil l th e layer, use the Paint Bucket Tool or press G on the keyboard,
select the color tha t you want, and click the canvas.
8. Take a detailed look at the image to check if there a re any areas that are not covered by a

2-20 T e r r a i n C r e a t i o n
9. Using different brushes, make the edges of the masks distorted and uneven to add more real-
ism. Be sure to sel ect the layer you intend to work with, and paint with the appropr iate color
so you can keep track of how the layers are painted. Don’t forget to fil l in places where the
Background layer is visible. In the following il lustra tion, you can see an example of how the Ter-
rain fi le should look.
10. Save the file as a PSD fi le. You can compare your work to Terrain_01.psd .
Now you will make the masks for the Composite material and detach each layer into its own
image fil e.
11. Fi l l the Background layer with black and hide a ll of the ot her layers. Unhide one layer at a time,
uncheck the Contiguous check box under the paint bucket settings, and fil l the current color
with white. Use a Gaussian Blur fi lter to blur the edges sl ightly if they are too sharp.
Right-cli ck the layer name and choose Duplicate Layer , and duplicate the layer into a new docu-

2-2 1T e r r a i n C r e a t i o n
12. Using this techni que, detach each layer into a separate mask image file and save them as JPG
fi les. Save the entire fi le also as a PSD fi le as a safeguard. You can use this overall mask file if
you run into difficulties with your individual masks. Refer to Terrain_02.psd to see a completed
file.
The masks are fini shed, so now we need to find good textures to use with them.
13. Start 3ds Max .
14. Open the file with the ter rain object tha t you saved earlier, or use the already prepar ed file
named Ch02-05.max.
15. Open the Material Editor , select any empty slot, and cl ick the Material type button (named Stan-
dard by default).
16. In the Material/Map Browser window, choose VrayMtl and cl ick OK .
17. Rename this material Terrain_Mtl , and assign it to the Terrain object.
18. In the Basic Parameters rol lout, assign a Composite map to the Diffuse channel, as shown in the
fol lowing i l lustration.

The Composite map will allow you to use multiple textures simultaneously and control their
blending with masks. Refer to the fol lowing i l lustration.
19. Choose any textures th at will work for the terrain and make them tileable in Photoshop using
the Offset f i l ter (Filter menu Other Offset), or you can use the textures available fr om the
book’s support fi les.
20. I f you are using your own textures, name them accordin g to their correspond ing masks for
easier use.
21. On the Composite map, click the Texture button for the first layer (large square button on the left
side), assign a Bitmap map type, and choose the image Ground.jpg.
22. Return to the base level of the Composite map and click the Mask button (large square button on
the right side), choose Bitmap, and load the mask you created, or if you are using the scene
provided, load Ground-mask.jpg. This compl etes the ground layer.
23. Click on the Add a New Layer icon (top-right of the Composite map), and repeat the process to
create all the textures for the terrain material. The remaining texture maps you will load, if
you are following along with the provided files, are Grass.jpg , Soil.jpg , Rock.jpg , Stone.jpg , and Dirt.
jp g . The mask maps begin with the same names and end with -mask . As a result , you should
have 6 layers. The following il lustration shows the structure of the finished Composi te map.
24. For each texture you will need to adjust the til ing. Set U and V Tiling for each bitmap to the fol-
lowing: Dirt = 5x5 , Stones = 3x4 , Rock = 2x2 , Soil = 7x7 , Grass = 2x2 , Ground = 3x3 . The effect of

2-23T e r r a i n C r e a t i o n
25. Add a Standard Direct l ight to the scene using the settings shown in the following il lustr ation.
Elevate the light to approximately 60 degrees above the horizon.
26. Render the scene and, if needed, adjust each texture’s brightness and contrast by clicking the
Color Correct This Texture button located next to the Texture slot. The color correction param-
eters are very similar to the image adjustment parameters in Photoshop. Refer to the

27. Now let’s add tracks left by characters walking over paths through the terrain. To do this, cre-
ate a new layer in the original Photoshop file, and using brushes paint lines to represent
tracks. If you use soft brushes, apply a Sharpen fi lter to make the mask sharper. Make inter-
rupted lines and add lots of details to make the tracks look natural. In the foll owing il lustratio n,
you can see how an initial mask image can be created for positioning purposes, but then
refined with numerous brushes and tools to create the effect of wear marks in the road.
These could be wear marks from foot travel or from some type of wagon that has been
pulled over the road. Use your imagination in this type of si tuation.
28. In order to make the tops of the pil es of soil in the gar den area bright er, paint masks for t he
areas that you want to make brighter and add another layer of soil into the materia l structure.
Posit ion that layer at the top of the l ist, change the Blending Mode to Screen , and change the
Opacity to 50% . You can also use Soil-mask2.jpg in the book’s support fi les.
29. Check your viewports and test renderings for places with masking problems. Fix any problems
using the techniques described thus far.
30. To add more depth, add a VRayDisplacementMod and load a black-and-white displ acement map
in the Texmap channel. You can create your own image or use the Displ. jpg fi le provided
(shown in the following il lust ration).

2-25T e r r a i n C r e a t i o n
31. For the Bump channel of the material a pplied, you can use the Ground.jpg texture converted in to
a black-and-whi te image, using the same til ing setting you used for this texture in the Com-
posite map . In the following il lustra tion, you can see the final appearance of the terrain. Open
Terrain_02.psd in Photoshop to see the layer structure of the masks.
32. Now the terrain is fin ished. Save the scene. You can find a finished versio n of this scene in t he
fi le Ch02-06.max.

Summary
Terrain is undoubtedly one of the most difficul t elements of a scene to create prope rly. Unlike other
elements such as furniture, vegetation, cars , and even characters, there is very litt le that you can do
with library content or pre-developed models provided by third party content or software providers.
Good terrain crea tion practices can go a long way to make your scenes more efficient to work in and
render. This chapter only scra tched the surface of the many ways that terrain can be created, but the
techniques outlin ed are tried and tested and can stand up to any other method available. With exper-

Tree Creation
In thIs chapter, we ’ll reproduce the tree model shown in Figure 3-1. After al l the objects are built , we
will prepare them for paintin g by assigni ng texture coordinat es to the finished object, and then paint
the tree model.
Figure 3-1. Tree created in this chapter
Because the trunk of the tree doesn’ t follow any standard type of mapping of fered by the UVW
Map modifier, we will need to unwrap custom textur e coordinates with the Pelt tool. This tool al lows
you to unwrap the UVW coordinates right on the surface, cutting them with seams you specify
manually.

3-2 T r e e C r e a t i o n
After the texture coordi nates are created, you will paint out any visible seams on the tree using
the Viewport Canvas tool, which allows you to paint specific areas right in the 3ds Max viewports.
Based on this workflow, we can separate the tree creation process into the following stages:
• Modeling the tree trunk with polygonal modeling methods
• Modeling the underlying base for the tree crown with the BlobMesh compound object
• Creating the leaves with the Hair and Fur modifier
• Creating custom texture coordinates for the tree trunk with the Pelt tool
• Painting the model directly in 3ds Max using Viewport Canvas
Exercise 1: Modeling the tree trunk
In this exercise, we will build the tree trunk using polygonal mode ling. To begin the process, we will
use a Box primitive, convert it to an Editable Poly , and use the Editable Poly tools. By increasing and
editing the geometry step by step, you will give your model the desired fo rm.
In the reference image shown at the begi nning of this c hapter, you can see that the tree’s roots
twine around the house and the smal l outhouse. That’s why it makes sense to create the tree after
the buildings are created and placed . You will start with a scene that already con tains models of the
house and the outhouse, and begin immediatel y with the modeling of the tree itsel f. You can also see
that the tree’s crown is quite dense, so the branches lying inside the crown will not be visi ble. That
means you can save time on modeling because you only need to model the branches that show
below the crown. Building the rest would be unnecessary work. Let’s get started.
1. Open the fi le Ch03-01.max. This scene contains models of the house and a small outhouse
placed as they are in the reference image.
First, we will place the refer ence image in the scene to guide us while modeling the tree.
2. Select al l objects in the scene and press the shortcut Alt+X to make the selected objects
transparent.
3. In the Front viewport, create a Plane object without concern for its dimensions or placement.
Set Length Segs and Width Segs parameters to 1 . Name the plane Background_Plane .
4. Using the Material Editor , create a Standard material with Tree_Reference.jpg in the Diffuse Color
channel, and assi gn this material to the pla ne you just created (Background_Plane ) . Cl ick Show
Standard Map in Viewport to make the map appear in t he viewport.
5. Now, to use the plane for reference while you are modeling, you must set the size and place-
ment of the Background_Plane object so it is oriented to the objec ts placed in the scene and
corresponds to the elements in the reference image. Thus, the dimensions and the place-
ment of the Background_Plane object should be approximately the same as those shown in
the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration, and from the Front view the scene should look the
same as the placement shown on the left-hand side of the foll owing il lustrati on. If you resize
the Background_Plane object, you should maintain its correct length/width ratio so that the
reference image does not appear overstretched or squashed.

3-3T r e e C r e a t i o n
6. In the Front view , create a Box with about the same dimensi ons to fil l the space between the
house and outhouse. This obje ct will be the base for the tree trunk . Place the box as shown
in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration. The size and coordinates of the Box01 object ar e
shown on the right. Note that the box is a cube.
7. Now convert Box01 to an Editable Poly and rename it Tree_Trunk .
8. Make the Tree_Trunk object transparent using the shortcut Alt+X so the reference image will be
visible while you are working . You can use the same shortcut to make the object opaque at
any time, switching between see-through and opaque mode as needed to facilitate your
modeling process.
9. Access the Edge sub-object level for Tree_Trunk . In the Perspective view , select the upper edge
paral lel to the Y axis as shown in the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration. Then, in the Selec-
tion rol lout, press the Ring button to select al l paral lel edges, and then the Connect Settings

10. In the Connect Edges dialog box, shown on the left of the next i l lustration, enter 2 for Segments
and press OK to complete the command.
11 . Select any edge paral lel to the X axis and repeat the same steps to cr eate new edges. The
object wil l take the form shown on the right of the next i l lustration.
12. In the Front view, select all th e upper vertices and drop them down, as s hown in the left image
of the following il l ustration , to the level of the lower border of the tree holl ow in the reference
image. You may need to move the entire box down to match t he il lustra tion.
13. In the Perspective view, select al l corner edges paral lel to the Z axis and the bottom-inner
6 edges paral lel to the Y axis , as shown in the middle image of the following il lustr ation. Hold
Ctrl and click the Remove button in the Edit Edges rollout to delete these edges together wit h

Now, we’ll begin modeling the roots. For this purpose, we will create splines to guide the
extrusions.
14. Switch to the Front view , and in the Create panel, cl ick Shapes Line , and draw a spline to show
the root’s path as shown in the left image of t he next il lustra tion. Make sure your vertices are
al l set to Corner .
15. In order for the ext rusions to work corre ctly, we need to snap the end vertex of each spline to
the center of the polygon we will be extruding. For this pur pose, we will create an extra edge
which we will then delete. Go to Vertex sub-object mode of Tree_Trunk object. Select two
diagonall y opposite vertices on the polygon that you will be extruding, and click Connect. This
should genera te an edge which bisects the pol ygon diagonall y, as shown in the right image of
the next i l lustration. .
16. Go to the Perspective view and right-cl ick the Snaps Toggle icon to open the Grid and Snap Settings
dialog box. On the Snaps tab, turn on the Vertex and Midpoint options. On the Options tab
uncheck the Use Axis Constraints option. Close the dialog box and activate the Snaps Toggle
icon by clicking it. In the left image of the il l ustration below is a view of the Snaps tab, and on
the right a view of the Options tab of the Grid and Snap Settings dialog box.
17. Bring the cursor close to the upper end of spl ine. As soon as you do that, crosshairs wil l
appear representing activation of the Vertex Snap mode. Click and drag your spline to the

which the cursor is bound will also become colored, and the Midpoint Snap mode activation
symbol will appear.
18. You can now remove the edge we created for snappi ng purposes. Go to Edge sub-object mode
of the Tree_Trunk object, select the edge that we used to snap the spline to and click the
Remove button to remove it.
19. Turn off Snap and activate the Top view. Move the spline’s vertices so t hat the splin e twines
around the small outhouse. The result can be seen in the right image of the next i l lustration.
20. Using the same method, build two more splines from which you will extrude the middl e root of
the tree and the root lying on the roo f. The splines should loo k similar to those shown in the
following image.
The scene Ch03-02.max shows all the tree splines from which roots will be extruded already
created. If you like, you can open this scene and continue with the rest of the modeling
process.

21. After the splines are built, select the Tree_Trunk object, go into the Polygon sub-object mode
and select the polygon that the first spline adjoins. In the Edit Polygon rol lout, press the Set-
tings icon to the right of the Extrude Along Spline button. The Extrude Polygons Along Spline
dialog box wil l open. In the dialog box, cl ick the Pick Spline button and select the splin e that
adjoins the selected polygon. Set Segments = 9 , Taper Amount = -0.92 , Taper Curve = -1.2 , and
Twist = 105 , and click OK to close the dialog box . The left image of the next il lustratio n shows a
view of the Extrude Polygons Along Spline dialog box, and on the right you can see the resul t of
the operation completed.
22. Using the same methods, extrude the remaining two polygons that the splines adjoin. Incr ease
the number of Segments so the root is smoothly curved. In the Perspective view, the scene
should look similar to the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration.
23. Select the Background_Plane object and look at it from behin d. This object does not have vol-
ume, and the back part of the polygon is black, as shown in the right image of the following
illustrat ion. It might be frustra ting for you to try to work with the rest of the scene’s objects
when they are not visible from behin d. You will improve this situation by using Backface Cull .
24. With the Background_Plane object selected, right-c lick in the viewport to open the quad menu,
and choose Object Properties in the Transform quadrant to open the Object Properties dialog
box. Turn on the Backface Cull option in the Display Properties group and click OK to apply these
changes. Now the back side of the plane is transpar ent. The Object Properties dialog box wit h
Backface Cull checked is shown on the left of the next il lust ration, and the result of this change
in the Perspective view is shown on the right. Note : On some systems with certa in video drivers

25. Now we will further fi l l out the tree base. Select Tree_Trunk and access the Polygon sub-object
level . Select the polygon as shown on the left of the next i l lustration and press the Settings
icon next to the Bevel button. In the Bevel Polygons dialog box, enter the Height = 150 and Outline
Amount = -40 , and click OK to complete the operation.
26. Select the polygons as shown on the left of the next i l lustration, and press the Settings icon to
the right of the Extrude button. In the Extrude Polygons dialog box, set the Extrusion Height to
400 and cl ick OK to f inish the operation.
27. To match the reference image, use the Select and Uniform Scale and Select and Move tools to
resize and move the selected group of polygons to match the refer ence image.
28. Switch to Edge sub-object mode. In the Front view, select the edge as shown on the left of th e

29. To match the reference image, in the Front viewport, build two more splines al ong which the
polygons will be extruded, forming the left and right branches of the tree. Using snaps, place
the ends of the spl ines on the surface of the polygons that wil l be extruded. In the Top view-
port, move the splines’ vertices to adjust their shapes as you see fit.
30. Select the tree trunk and go into Polygon sub-object mode. Highlight the polygons and extr ude
them along the splines using the method described in earl ier steps. See the fol lowing i l lustra-
tion for an example of the splines created and the polygons selected and then extruded
along the spl ines.
31. In the reference image, you can see that the right r oot and the right branch split off int o two.
Bui ld short spl ines for these offshoots, and use the method described earl ier to extrude poly-
gons and create the offshoots .
32. Select the polygons at the ends of all the roots and branches, including the end polygons of all
upper branches, and delete them. This will prevent these polygons from being affected by
subdivision modifiers (like TurboSmooth and MeshSmooth ), and will also simplify the mapping
process later. The left image of the foll lowing il lustration shows some of the polygons that
should be selected and deleted.
33. In test renderings, the branches wil l not appear to smoothly join the trunk because of the dif-
ferent smoothing groups assigned to the extrusions. To solve this problem, go to Polygon
sub-object mode of the Tree_Trunk object and select all tree trunk’s polygons with the short-
cut Ctrl+A, and in the Polygon: Smoothing Groups rol lout, cl ick Clear All . Having eliminated the
smoothing g roups, you have achieved a more uniform shading o f the tree’s polygons. At this

3- 10 T r e e C r e a t i o n
34. Use the Shift, Push/Pull, and Relax tools on the Freeform tab of the Modeling Ribbon to further
sculpt the form and pos ition of the trunk, roo ts and branches and to make the object’s shape
match the reference image more closely. This is an important step in the creative process. If
you hover your cursor over each tool, you can see a deta iled descript ion of the too l and read
about its possibil ities.
The scene Ch03-03.max shows the trunk model created up to this poin t with the tools described
so far. If you like, you can open this scene and continue with t he rest of the modeling process.
35. Next, we’ll make the hollow in the tree tr unk. Add a TurboSmooth modif ier with Iterations = 1 to
give you more edges to work with, and add the Edit Poly modifier. Go into Polygon sub-object
mode and select polygons as shown in the left image of the following il lustratio n.
36. Hold down the Ctrl key and in the Selection rol lout, choose Vertex sub-object mode to se lect the
vertices associated with the selected polygons. Hold down Al t and click the center vertex to
eliminate it from the selectio n.
37. With the Vertex selection stil l active, apply the Spherify modifier. As a result, the selected vert-
ices wil l be pushed into a circular shape as shown in the right image in the fol lowing
i l lustration.
38. Add another Edit Poly modifier, access the Polygon sub-object mode, and press the Settings
button to the right of the Inset button in the Edit Polygons rol lout. In the Inset Polygons dialog
box, set the Inset Amount to 8 and click OK to complete the operation . This creates a new set
of polygons just inside the selected polygons.
39. Click the Settings icon next to the Extrude button to bring up the Extrude Polygons dialog box. Set
Extrusion Height to -8 and cl ick Apply to apply the change. To continue extrud ing polygons, se t
the Extrusion Height to -40 and cl ick Apply . Set the Extrusion Height to -8 and cl ick OK to com-
plete the operatio n and close the dial og box. You can see the result in the left image of the
next i l lustration.

3- 1 1T r e e C r e a t i o n
40. Next you will correct the shape of the hollow. Using the same selection of polygons, click Grow
four times to select all the surrounding polygons that form the holl ow. Go to the Front view-
port. Choose the Select and Uniform Scale tool and make sure that the Reference Coordinate
System is set to View . Scale down the selected group of polygons along the Y axis to flatten
the hollow a little. Then stretch the selected group of polygons a little alo ng their X axis . Move
the selected group of polygons slightly to the right. As a result, the hollow should look simil ar
to the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration.
Next, you can proceed in one of several ways to add more detail to the model . The first way is to
add a TurboSmooth modifier with a high number of Iterations such as 2 or 3 , then to add Edit Poly modi-
f ier and use its Shift, Push/Pull, and Relax tools to further revise the obj ect’s shape and sculpt additional
detai ls.
This method gives you a lot of flexibil ity in model ing, however it can also be difficul t due to the
large number o f modifiers in t he stack, which will s low down your system’s display time, and thus,
slow down your work. The left image in the following il lustration s hows what the modifier stack looks
like when another TurboSmooth and Edit Poly modifie r is added.
Another way is to collapse the stack, which will allow you to use less memory and speed up
system response time; however, you then you lose some flexibil ity in modeli ng.
41. To retain flexibil ity but al so speed up your system, save a copy of the object in its present state
in its own file with the Save Selected option (from the File menu). Name this object and file
Trunk_Low_Poly . We will collapse the sta ck in the current s cene to save memory and speed up
screen refr esh time. By saving a copy of the tree trunk in it s present stat e, we can return to
the uncollapsed version in case you are not satisfied with the results of the additional editing.
We also will use this version of the model to assig n UVW coordinate s later in this chapter.
42. After saving the object out to its own file, add a TurboSmooth modif ier with Iterations set to 3 ,
and Convert to Editable Poly to col lapse the stack. Then use the Shift, Push/Pull, and Relax tools
to work further with the object’s form and detail ing.
43. After sculpti ng the details, the tr ee trunk is compl ete. Save your work. The modified tr ee trunk
with a gray material is shown in the right image of the following il lustration. You can find a

Exercise 2: Modeling the crown
In this exercise, we will model the tree’s crown, the object representing the leaves and smaller
branches in the upper par t of the tree. First, we will use the GeoSphere primitive to form the shape o f
the crown and to vis ualize the volume, then we’ll use BlobMesh to make a single blob-like form from al l
the spheres. You will use the GeoSphere rather than the Sphere primitive because a GeoSphere has
equidistant vertices, which work much better with BlobMesh than the longitude/ latitude vertex struc-
ture of a sphere. Then you will use the Relax modifier to smooth the fo rm of the created object.
Then you’ll apply the Edit Poly modifier to delete any unnecessary geometry that appears as a
result of the BlobMesh, and assign a Push modifier to final ize the object’s size. You can also use the
ProOptimizer modifier to greatly reduce the number of polygons in the object while retaining its
appearance. This process is a quick and easy way to create visuall y soft organic sur faces such as a
tree crown.
1. Open the scene you saved in the previous exercise or use the file Ch03-04.max to continue
working on the model .
2. In the Front view, create a GeoSphere object, which is one of the Standard Primitives available in
the Create panel. Set Radius = 120 and Segments = 4 , as shown in the left image of the next
i l lustration.
3. Create more GeoSphere objects with the same settings and place them as shown in the follow-
ing il lustra tion (Front and Top views).

3- 13T r e e C r e a t i o n
4. To create a BlobMesh object from the geospheres, access the Compound Objects dropdown on
the Create panel and cl ick BlobMesh, then click in the viewport to place the BlobMesh01
placeholder object. Go to the Modify panel and set Size = 30 , Tension = 0.01, Render = 30 , and
Viewport = 30 .
BlobMesh works by making a mesh from a set of object s, in this case the geospheres, which
you will select in the next step. When you select objects for use with BlobMesh, an internal versio n of
these objects is generated for creating the BlobMesh . These internal objects are referred to as meta-
bal ls. The Size value sets the size of the metaballs that are cr eated at the vertex of each selected
object. Tension sets the degree of webbing on the resulting mesh in areas where metabal ls intersect
or touch each othe r. The Render and Viewport values set the degree of detail in the resulting mesh,
which affects the speed of generat ion and screen refresh. The higher the values of these amounts,
the less detaile d the resulting mesh will be, and the higher the speed of their generation wil l be. When
first working with a BlobMesh, it is best to keep the Render and Viewport values relatively high , as with
our value of 30, unti l you’ve achieved a form clo se to your desired resul t.
5. In the Blob Objects group of the Parameters rol lout, cl ick the Add button and select al l the Geo-
Sphere objects you just created, as shown in the left image of the following il lustration . Click
the Add Blobs button to confirm the addit ion of the selected objects as metaball generation
objects. The results of the addit ion of the GeoSphere objects are shown in the r ight image of
the fol lowing i l lustration.
6. To the BlobMesh01 object, add the Relax modifier and use the values shown in the left image of

7. Press Alt+Q to put the BlobMesh into Isolation Mode . Switch to Wireframe display by pressing F3 .
Inside the object, you can see that there are unnecessary internal polygons formed as a
result of pasting together the metaballs.
8. Apply an Edit Poly modif ier . Go into Element sub-object mode and cl ick on the BlobMesh object.
Then on the Edit menu choose Select Invert to invert the selection. Now all th e inner elements
of the objects are selected as shown in the next i l lustration. Delete them by pressing Delete .
9. Exit from Element sub-object mode and return to the base level of the Edit Poly modifier. Press
F3 again to return to the Smooth+Highlights display.
10. You need to compensate for the additi onal volume that will be added by the leaves in a later
step. Apply a Push modifier with a Push Value of -17.5 to reduce the object’s volume a li ttle.
11 . Next, optimize the objec t’s level of detail . Add a ProOptimizer modifier. In the Optimization Level
rol lout, press the Calculate button. After the vertices and bor ders are calcul ated, the object’s
statistics before and after optimization appear below the Calculate button. At the momen t, the
before and after values are equal. Set the value of Vertex % to 50.0 to reduce the vertex coun t
to half its current count. The new number of vertices and borders are reflected in the statis-
tics box. You can also set t he desired number of vertices explicitly by typing in a value for
Vertex Count .
12. Add another Relax modifier with Relax Value = 1.0 and Iterations = 1 to smooth the optimized
BlobMesh01 object a little more. If you notice any holes in the mesh, add a Cap Holes modifier to
correct this.

13. Select BlobMesh01 and al l of the GeoSphere objects and using the Save Selected option on the File
menu, save the selection into a new file. This will al low us to return to these objec ts if neces-
sary. The tree crown with its uncollapsed stack of modifiers can be found in the file Ch03-05.
max .
14. Select the BlobMesh01 object. Col lapse the modif ier stack and delete al l the GeoSphere objects
from the scene as they are no longe r necessary.
15. The modeling o f the tree crown is now complet e. Save your scene. The resulting model can be
seen in the file Ch03-06.max.
Exercise 3: Mapping the tree
In this exercise, we will create texture coordinates for the trunk using the Pelt tool, which is pa rt of
the Unwrap UVW modifier. Unwrapping texture coordinates for a high-poly object such as the tree
trunk would be quite a difficult process, so we will use the low-poly version that we saved previously
instead. After the mapping coordinates are set on the low-poly tree trunk, you will apply a Morpher
modif ier to this version (low-poly) and use the high-poly version of the tree as a Morph Target .
The Morpher modifie r works only if the number of vertices are the same in both morph targets.
To ensure the number of vertices will be the same in bot h versions of the tree, you will apply a Turbo-
Smooth modifier with the same number of Iterations as we applied to the high-poly sculpted version.
1 . Continue with the scene saved in the previous exercise, and merge in the Trunk_Low_Poly
object that we saved earlier. Or, you can open Ch03-07.max in the support f i les.
2. Rename the detailed trunk object Trunk_High_Poly . Select Trunk_Low_Poly , col lapse it to an Edit-
able Poly and apply a Unwrap UVW modifier. With Trunk_Low_Poly selected, right-click in the
active view and select Hide Unselected from the quad menu. All objects will be hidden except
for Trunk_Low_Poly .
3. With Trunk_Low_Poly selected, in the Face sub-object mode of the Unwrap UVW modifi er, turn
off the Ignore Backfacing checkbox in the Selection Parameters rollout, and select all of the
polygons.
4. In the Map Parameters rol lout, cl ick the Quick Planar Map button to get rid of the mapping coordi-
nates’ existing seams.
5. Select the polygons a t the very end of the root that twist ar ound the outhouse, and then press
the Plus (+) button in the Selection Parameters rollout several times until all the pol ygons on the
root are selected, as shown in the left image of the next i l lustration.
6. Click the Point To Point Seam button in the Map Parameters rol lout and cl ick along the root to
indicate the seam for the UVW coordinates. The seam is where the map wil l be cut so it can
be unwrapped. If you were going to create a bear s kin rug, for example, you would have to
skin the bear by cutting seams along the torso and down each limb. We don’t condone skin-
ning bears, but t he idea is the same in 3D. You create seams where you want to make cuts. It
is better to place seams i n areas that are rar ely seen or are not visi ble. Therefore, you should
place the seam for this root as shown in the right image of the following il lustrat ion. Make as
many clicks as necessary to define the seam where you want it to be, then right-click to end
the seam creation. Turn off the Point To Point Seam button when you are satisfied with the
seam.

7. In the Map Parameters rol lout, press the Pelt button. Two windows appear on the screen: Edit
UVWs , where the texture coordinat es are displayed and edited, and Pelt Map , where the tools
reside, allowing you to quickly unwrap the texture coordinat es of the surface. The windows
are shown in the next i l lustration.
8. Press the Start Pelt button in the Pelt group in the Quick Pelt rollout. The button label changes to
Stop Pelt . In the Edit UVWs window, you will see the UVW coordinates begin to smooth out
under the influence of the Stretcher tool. You can see this effect as red and white dott ed lines
outward from each vertex that lie on the seam vertices of the UVW coo rdinates.
9. After the UVW coordinates are smoothed and become as they are in the left image of the fol-
lowing i l lustration, cl ick Stop Pelt .
10. Press the Settings button in the Relax group of the Pelt Map dialog box. In the Relax Tool dialog
box, select Relax By Face Angles from the dropdown menu and click the Set As Default button.
This will cause the selected rel ax method to work by default every time the Start Relax button
in the Relax group is clicked.

11 . Close the Relax Tool window and click the Start Relax button. The vertices displ ayed in the Edit
UVWs will begin to rel ax. When the vertices slow down to the poin t where you can’t see them
moving, click Stop Relax . The result is shown in the right image of the fol lowing i l lustration.
12. In the Pelt Map window, press the Commit button to complete the operation. The Edit UVWs win-
dow will remain open.
13. Using the same method, cut seams and smooth out the mapping for the rest of the roots and
branches, the hol low, and the tree trunk. For some roots and branches, the relax process
may take longer than for ot hers. Make sure you allow it enough time. If during the re lax pro-
cess vertices stop moving but the geometry is not complete ly relaxed, open the Relax Tool
dialog box by clicking the Settings button in Relax group, set Amount to 0. 5 and Stretch to 0.05.
Cl ick the Start Relax button on this dialo g box and allow the vertices to move more (this may
change the orientation of the geometry). Cl ick the Stop Relax when the geometry looks com-
pletely relaxed and close the Relax Tool dialog box. Refer to the finished scene Ch03-08.max to
see how to correctly place the seams.

14. After all the texture coordi nates of all the tree trunk elements are smoothed, you will need to
scale them in relation to each other and to place them in the square texture space in the Edit
UVWs window. For convenience in scaling the texture coordinates’ parts, create a material
with a Checker map in the Diffuse Color channel and assign it to the tree trunk. Set the U and V
Tiling values to 50 , and turn on Show Standard Map in Viewport so the texture map shows in the
viewports. In the Options panel at the bottom of the Edit UVWs window in the Selection Modes
group, click the Face sub-object mode button and check the Select Element box.
15. Select each of the elements of the texture coordinates and use the Scale tool in the Edit UVWs
window to scale each element. As you do this, monitor the process in Perspective view to see
the size of the checkers on each par t of the tree trunk. Try to make the checkers on different
parts of the Trunk_Low_Poly match in size, as shown in the left image of the next il lustr ation.
16. After you have finished scalin g each element, select them al l at once and scale them so that
they fit within the texture space, the area in the Edit UVWs window limited by thick, dark blue
l ines. With the Move and Rotate tools, arrange al l elements approximately as shown in the right
image of the foll owing il lustrat ion. At the same time, try to use as much of the texture space
as possibl e.
17. Save your scene. The model of the tree trunk with its cor rectly unwrapped UVW coordinates
can be found in the file Ch03-09.max.
18. Unhide the Trunk_High_Poly object by right-clicking in the act ive view, selecting Unhide By Name
from the quad menu and then double-clicking Trunk_High_Poly in the list of objects. Move the
Trunk_High_Poly object to the right so that it ’s next to the Trunk_Low_Poly object, as shown in
the fol lowing i l lustration.

19. Add a TurboSmooth modif ier with Iterations set to 3 to Trunk_Low_Poly . This will make the number
of vertices in the detailed and mapped objects match so they will work with the Morpher
modifier.
20. Assign the Morpher modif ier to the Trunk_Low_Poly object. In the Channel Parameters rollout, click
Pick Object from Scene as shown in the left image of the fol lowing i l lustration, and select the
detailed tree trunk, Trunk_High_Poly .
21. In the Channel List rollout, opposite the active channel with the name of the object highlighted,
specify the percent value to 10 0 as shown in the right of the following il lustration. The tree
trunk with the correct mapp ing will take the form of the earlier, detailed tree trunk.
22. After the object has been warped by the Morpher modifier, the texture coordinates of t he object
appear somewhat distort ed. It is especially notic eable in the border area of the hollow end of
the tree trunk. To correct this problem, add anot her Unwrap UVW modifier to the Trunk_Low_
Poly object, and go to the Edge sub-object mode. Select any edge positioned on the seam
between the hollow and the tree trunk. Using the Loop and Expand Selection tools, select
edges on both sides of the seam where the texture map is strong ly distorted, as shown in
the right image of the following il lustr ation.

23. Click Edit to open the Edit UVWs window, and use the Relax command under the Tools menu. In
the Relax Tool window, select the Relax By Face Angles method and cl ick the Start Relax button.
Wait until the relax process in the Edit UVWs window stops making noticeable changes in the
selected area of the texture coordinates, and cl ick Stop Relax . Cl ick Apply to see the eff ect in
the viewport.
24. In the Options toolbar of the Edit UVWs window in the Selection Modes section, enable the Select
Element option and select any edge in the cluster of the hollow’s texture coordinates. All
edges of this cluster shoul d now be selected. Use the Relax command under the Tools menu
with Relax By Face Angles as in the previous step.
25. In the same way, correct the textur e coordinates a t the end of the longest r oot and its off-

3-2 1T r e e C r e a t i o n
26. I f the texture coordinat es self-intersect, as shown in the left image of the next il lustration, you
will need to smooth them. Turn off Select element , then select the vertices in the self-int er-
secting area. You may want to use the Paint Selection tool to make the selection process
easier. Turn on Soft Selection in the Options toolbar. Adjust the value of the Falloff parameter to
select the ful l area around the self-intersection, and use the Relax Tool to move the vertices
apart and correct the ones that overlap. In the Relax Tool window, choose any one of the
smoothing algorithms: Relax By Edge Angles, Relax By Face Angles, or Relax By Centers , which-
ever one gives you the best results. You may have to experiment with different Amount &
Stretch settings and cl ick Apply instead of Start Relax . You may have to click Apply numerous
times until you get the desired resul t, if the texture coor dinates move too quickly when using
Start Relax .
27. To finish up the process, select the vertices along the edge of the opening and use the Relax
tool with the Relax By Centers option and the Keep Boundary Points Fixed option turned on . The

28. Now that the object is correctl y mapped, you no longer need its modifier st ack. Collapse the
stack for the object Trunk_Low_Poly , rename it Tree_Trunk, and delete the Trunk_High_Poly
object from the scene.
29. Unhide all objec ts. Save your scene. The tree trunk with its unco llapsed stack of modifiers can
be found in the fi le Ch03-10.max.
Exercise 4: Texture painting with Viewport Canvas
In this sectio n, we will touch up the tree trunk’s texture coor dinates and create and apply maps. We
wil l use the Viewport Canvas tool to paint the joints of the tree bark textur e maps and create separate
texture maps for the holl ow and the moss. We’ll also use the Render Surface Map tool to create a Cavity
Map as a mask for color correct ion on the texture map in Photoshop. In the same exercise, we will
create a Displacement map of the tree bark. This map will be used in the VRayDisplacementMod modifier
and give relief and additional detail to the model.
1. Open the scene you saved in the previous exercise, or open the f ile Ch03-11 .max, and hide all
objects except Tree_Trunk .
2. In order for you to work with the texture maps in 3ds Max, it is very important that they appear
in the viewports at the highest quality poss ible. On the main toolbar, select Customize menu
Preferences . In the Preference Settings dialog, in the Display Driver section of the Viewports tab,
cl ick the Configure Driver button. In the Configure Direct3D window, in the Background Texture
Size and Download Texture Size groups, turn on the Match Bitmap Size as Closely as Possible
options, select the largest resolutions l isted under both sections, and cl ick OK .
3. In the Material Editor , create a Standard material with the bitmap Bark_Tile.jpg as the Diffuse map.
This file contain s an image of tree bark, and is designed to tile seaml essly. Apply this material
to the tree, and click Show Standard Map in Viewport to see the bark on the tree. You will paint
the tree trunk’s joints with this map.
4. Set the scale of the map in rel ation to the tree trunk by increas ing the values of the U and V

We have set the U and V Tiling in 3ds Max solely to figure out the amount of til ing needed to
adjust the bitmap in Photoshop. When you want to use viewport painti ng on an object, any maps on
the object act ually have to have the U and V Tilin g values set to 1x 1 in the Mater ial Editor. You will use
Photoshop to make a version of this bitmap with the ba rk tiled 5x5 within the bi tmap, and then you
will be able to use the new bitmap in the Materia l Editor with U and V Tiling values set to 1x1 .
5. Open Photoshop, and open the file Bark_Tile.jpg .
6. To unlock the Background layer, in the Layers window, right-click the Background layer and select

7. Select the Edit menu Define Pattern command to make a new pattern from the image. Click
OK to confirm.
8. Select the Image menu Canvas Size command, and set Width and Height to 500 percent. Select
the upper left square of the Anchor diagram as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration, and cl ick OK .
The canvas will increase to five times its original size, and the image will remain in th e upper
left corner. Zoom out to see the entire canvas.
9. Select the Edit menu Fill command and in the Contents group in the Use f ield, select Pattern.
Click the dropdown arrow by the icon in the Custom Pattern field and sele ct the pattern you
created with the tree bark image. Click OK to complete the command. The entire canvas will
be fi l led with a seamlessly ti led image of the tree bark, as shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.
The size of the texture map is now 8500x8500 pixel s. Such a large textur e map is not needed,

10. Select the Image menu Image Size command, reduce the image’s Width and Height to
2048x2048 pixels, and cl ick OK .
The texture map now contain s the same image, but tiled 5x5, corresponding to the til ing you set
when testing the map in 3ds Max wi th the U and V Tiling values.
11 . Save the texture map with the name Bark_Base.jpg .
12. Close Photoshop, return to 3ds Max , and in the Material Editor , replace the Bark_Tile.jpg map in the
bark material with Bark_Base.jpg , and set the U and V Tilling parameters to 1 . The size of the
bark should now be the same as in the previous version of the mater ial.
Visible seams appear at the texture coordinat es’ borders, as shown in the following il lust ration.

13. Put the Bark_Tile.jpg texture map into a free Material Editor sample slot as a map on its own. I n
the Coordinates rol lout, choose Environ and make sure Screen is displayed in the Mapping drop-
down.
14. Choose Environment from the Rendering menu, and drag the Bark_Tile.jpg map from the Material
Editor slot to the Environment Map slot as an Instance .
15. Use the Alt+B shortcut to bring up the Viewport Background dialog box. Enable the Use Environ-
ment Background and Display Background options and cl ick OK .
16. To prevent the texture map from appearing distort ed in the viewports, its square aspect ratio
must be preserved. Open the Render Setup dialog box (F10) . In the Output Size group, unlock the
image aspect ratio, then enter 1 for the Image Aspect value. This will ensure the background
texture map doesn’t str etch when displayed in viewports. Close the Render Setup window and
activate the Show Safe Frames option with the Shift+F shortcut. The dialog boxes used for this
process are shown in the fol lowing i l lustration.
If everything was done correctly, the viewport should look like the left image in the next il lu-
stration.
17. In Windows Explorer , make a copy of the Bark_Base.jpg fi le in the same folder, and name the copy
Bark_Paint.jpg . You will use this new file to hold the results of the paintin g you do in the view-
ports.
18. Return to 3ds Max, select the trunk model, and choose Viewport Canvas from the Tools menu. In
the Viewport Canvas dialog, click the Setup button. In the Object Setup window, choose Use exist-
ing texture , as shown in the right image of the next i l lustration. Cl ick Pick texture , choose the
Bark_Paint.jpg fi le, and then click Setup. This will cause all of the viewport painting to be
recorded in this f i le and wil l also automatical ly replace the current material appl ied to the

19. The sections of the bar k on the background image are too lar ge; they do not match the tree’s
mapping. Change the values of the U and V Tiling parameters of the background text ure map
in the Material Editor so that the bark in the background texture map is approximately the
same size as the bark on the tree trunk. The exact s ize doesn’t matter, because with this
technique you’ll be constantly zoomi ng in and out and readjusting the til ing value. Note that it
is okay to set the background image til ing to numbers higher than 1x 1; it is only the material on
the object that needs to have 1x1 ti l ing to have success with viewport painting .
20. Zoom in on a place on the tree trunk where a seam is visible. Rotat e the view so that the area
you are about to paint is as parallel as possible to the viewport. When using the Viewport
Canvas tool, the texture you are painting is project ed directly from the viewport background
to the object, so having the painted ar ea parallel to the viewpor t will prevent the pattern from
warping as it is painted. Note that the til ing of the background textur e needs to be changed
when the Viewport Canvas Clone or Paint buttons are inactive. The til ing settin gs will not update
in the viewport unless you deactivate the brush.
21. Go to the Material Editor and make sure that the Diffuse channel of the tree trunk’s material has
Bark_Paint.jpg and not Bark_Base.jpg in it. Otherwise the result s won’t be visible.
22. In the Viewport Canvas dialog, activate the Clone tool. Hold down the Al t key and click in the view-
port where you want to start copying the map. Release Al t , and move the cur sor over the
seam in the model. Right-click when you are done painting.
23. Rotate the view, find the next seam to repa ir, and fix it in th e same way. Do this with all the
seams. If you have any trouble with this , you can overwrite Bark_Paint.jpg with Bark_Paint_Cat-
apult. jpg as Bark_Paint_Catapult. jpg is the texture that has alr eady been properl y modified by
us for your convenience.
Next, we will create the texture map for the tree hollow. Over time, the circular opening of a tr ee
hollow grows a thick scar of bark, while t he inside of the ho llow can become mossy. You will create
new custom maps for this area to cr eate this effect.
24. Press Setup in the Viewport Canvas window, and this time select the Assign new texture option.
Press the Presets: 2048 button to set the Width and Height of the new map to 2048 pixels.
Enter Hollow_Layer.tif as its name and specify its location as the same folder where you
stored the other maps for the tree. Don’t overwrite any existi ng files; change the fil ename if
this f i le already exists.

25. Place the Hollow_Tile.jpg texture into a free slot in the Material Editor . This bitmap contains the
scarred bark you will use to paint the hollow opening. In the Coordinates rollout, choose the
Environ option and make sure it displays Screen in the Mapping f ield.
26. Press the shor tcut key 8 to open the Environment dialog, and drag Hollow_Tile.jpg to the Environ-
ment slot to replace Bark_Tile.jpg if it is stil l loaded as the background image. Use same
process as descr ibed in steps 15 & 16 to set the scene up correctly.
27. In the Options parameters group of the Viewport Canvas window, check the Generate Alpha Mask
and Draw Wireframe options. I f Generate Alpha Mask is active, 3ds Max will create an additi onal
f i le with the same name and extension as the editable texture Hollow_Layer.tif , but with t he
addit ion of _mas k at the end of the filename. The alpha mask is a black-and-white image
where white pixels represent pixels that have been changed by painting, and black pixels
represent untouched areas of the texture map. I f the Draw Wireframe option is active while
interactively drawing the texture in the viewport you will be able to see t he wireframe of the
object, which will help you to see the area of the hollow.
28. From the Brush Type dropdown, select Layer . This wil l cause strokes to be applied with consis-
tent transparency.
29. As you are working, in the Material Editor , you will have to keep changing the value of the Angle
W parameter in the Coordinates rol lout for the Hollow_Tile.jpg texture map. This will r otate the
texture map in the background , allowing you to paint in the direction of t he tree fibers around
the hollow. Choose one area o f the circular opening to start your work, and rotat e the map to
align it with that area .
30. Using the Clone tool, paint the area insi de and around the hollow on which the bark is missin g.
Then rotate the map again to match another area, and paint again. Repeat this process unti l
the entire holl ow opening is painted. You may have to cll ick Reload under the Bitmap Param-
eters in the Material Editor to refresh the view of the newly painted map areas in the
viewport.
31. Perform the same process on the mossy areas, this time saving to the new file Moss_Layer.tif
and using the fi le Moss_Tile.jpg for painting . Save your work. You can also open the file Ch03-12.
max if you want to see how this should loo k at this stage.
32. Next, open Photoshop so you can touch-up these new maps. You could perform some basi c
adjustments in 3ds Max , such as color correction with the Composite Map, but Photoshop is far
more powerful and is a program th at you simply shouldn’t do without if you are serious about
creating good 3D work. Therefore, we are covering some of the critical features that you
should be familiar with.

34. Hold down the Shift key, and drag the Hollow_Layer_Mask.tif image into the Hollow_Layer.tif
image.
35. I f the Background layer is locked, then select it on the Layers panel and from menu choose Layer
New Layer From Background and cl ick OK to confirm. In the Channels panel, cl ick any chan-
nel while pressing the Ctrl key to select the black areas. Retur n to the Layers panel, and invert
the selection with the Ctrl+Shift+I shortcut. Hide the black and white layer and activate the
bottom layer and press Delete on the keyboard to delete the area fil led with gray. Delete the
black and white layer.
36. Open Moss_Layer.tif and Moss_Layer_Mask.tif , and repeat the process.
37. Open the Bark_Paint.jpg f i le in Photoshop. Holding down the Shift key, drag t he layers which you
just de le ted the backgrounds from in Hollow_Layer.tif and Moss_Layer.tif into Bark_Paint.jpg .
Name the layers Bark , Hollow, and Moss as appropriate.
38. Hide the Hollow and Moss layers and select the Bark layer. Add a new adj ustment l ayer, choosi ng
Curves as the type. Rename the l ayer Less_Light. You will use this layer to decrease the bright-
ness of the texture map part s that are too light.
39. Select the Less_Light layer and adjust the curve’s form, as shown in the right image in the fol-
lowing il lustration. The left image of the following il lustration shows the Bark layer, and the

40. Add another Curves adjustment layer and name the new layer More_Dark . Adjust the curve as
shown in the right image of the following il lustration. The left image shows the Less_Light
adjustment layer applied, and the middle image shows the More_Dark adjustment layer
applied.
41. Next, we will adjust the overall hue of the texture map. Create a new adjustment layer, this time
with the type set to Color Balance , and name it Brown . Adjust the layer’s colors as shown in the
fol lowing i l lustration.

3-3 1T r e e C r e a t i o n
42. Next, we will create a single image from the brown-ti nted result so we can adjust it separately.
Select all the layers, except the currently hidden Moss and Hollow , right-click any of the
selected layers, and choose Duplicate Layers from the dropdown menu that appears. Click OK
to create the duplicate layers in the same file. With all the new layers stil l selected, choose
Layer menu Merge Layers . Name the merged layer Brown_Temp .
43. Now we will remove contrast from the image without affecting its hues. Access the Channels
panel and look at the channel s available. We can see that the channel with the strongest vis-
ible contrast is the Blue channel so we will adjust that channel. Sel ect the Blue channel, hold
down the Ctrl key, and click the channel to sel ect its ligh ter pixels.
44. Move to the Layers panel and, without removing your selection , choose Layer New Adjustment
Layer Curves to add new Curves adjustment layer. Name this layer Darker . It will be masked
from the selectio n you made on the Blue channel.
45. Hold down the Al t key and click the layer mask to see its re sults represented on the source
image. Use Filter menu Blur Gaussian Blur with Radius = 5 pixels to blur the mask a littl e.
Then choose Image menu Adjustments Curves and lighten it a li ttle. The adjusted mask

47. We will again adjust the amount of contrast in the image. Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking
on the Layer mask thumbnail of the Darker layer to select the light areas of the mask. Without
removing your selection, choose Layer New Adjustment Layer Curves to add another Curves
adjustment l ayer. Name it Less_Contrast. Hold down the Al t key and click the Layer mask thumb-
nail of the new layer to see its results represented on the source image. Then choose Image
menu Adjustments Curves and adjust the curve shape so that the image has more con-
trast. The resulting mask and the shape of the correcting curve are shown in the next
i l lustration.
48. Select the Curves layer named Less_Contrast and adjust the shape o f the curve as shown in the
left image of the next i l lustration. The result ing image is shown on the right.
49. Make the Hollow and Moss layers visible. For the Moss layer, select the Overlay blending mode.
50. Save the file as Bark.psd.
Next, we will create a custom map to emphas ize the bumpiness of the tree tr unk and the depth
of the hollow. You will use the existing surface map as a base, and adjust the map’s contrast in
Photoshop.

51. In 3ds Max , open your last saved scene or open Ch03-12.max fi le, select the trunk model and
choose Rendering menu Render Surface Map . In the dialog box, set the texture size to
2048x2048. Cl ick the Cavity Map button to render the bitmap. This creates a new map from the
existing surfa ce, showing light and dark areas to represent bumps and cavities. Click the Save
image button and save the new map as Cavity_Mask.tif . Under Setup, in the Save Image dialog
box, you may have to select the Store Alpha Channel option.
52. Open Cavity_Mask.tif in Photoshop. Go to the Channels panel and hold down the Ctrl key while
cl icking the Alpha 1 channel to select the l ight parts of the channel . Return to the Layers panel,
invert the selection, and fil l the selected area with black with the Shift+F5 shortcut.
53. Remove the selection, and use Curves to give the image more contrast , as shown in the next
il lustrat ion. Save the file.

54. In the Bark.psd fi le, drag the Brown_Temp layer above the Less_Contrast layer.
55. Select the Moss, Hollow , and Brown_Temp layers, duplicate them, and fla tten them to one layer
with Ctrl+E . Name the new layer Relief .
56. Holding down the Shift key, drag t he Cavity_Mask.tif f i le into the Bark.psd fi le. Name the new layer
Cavity_Mask .
57. Select the Cavity_Mask layer, go t o the Channels panel, and click any channel while hol ding down
Ctrl to select the white areas.
58. Return to the Layers panel and select the Relief layer. Choose Layer menu Layer Mask
Reveal Selection .
59. We only needed the Cavity_Mask layer to get the selection. Delete it now, as we no longer need it.
60. Drag Brown_Temp layer back under Darker layer.
61. To the Relief layer, appl y two Curves adjustment l ayers. To make both layers influence only the
Relief layer, select them and choose Layer menu Create Clipping Mask . Adjust the cur ves as
shown in the following il l ustration, on the fi rst and second layers respectively.
62. To darken the entire texture map a little more, add another Curve adjustment layer on top o f all
the layers. The curve form is shown in the next il lustra tion. The right image shows how the
texture map looks after al l the correction steps.

63. Save the file as Bark.psd. You can also open the Bark.psd fi le from the book’s website to com-
pare your results.
64. Save this file again as Bark.jpg. This f i le wil l be used as the texture map for the tree trunk model.
A jp g f i le is much smaller than a ps d fi le, so using a jpg f ile will save memory.
65. Now we will make a displacement map from the file. In Bark.psd, delete all o f the layers except
Moss, Hollow and Brown_Temp .
66. Select the Brown_Temp layer. Use Image menu Adjustments Desaturate to make the image
black and white.
67. Add a new Curve adjustment layer and adjust its curve as shown in the following il l ustration.
68. Select the Brown_Temp layer and choose Filter menu Convert for Smart Filters . With this too l,
you can change the filter set tings applie d to the layer, or cancel thei r influence on t he layer
altogether.
69. With the Brown_Temp layer stil l selec ted, use Filter menu Blur Gaussian Blur with Radius set
to 1 pixel to make the image a littl e softer.
70. Hold down the Ctrl key and click the Hollow layer’s image thumbnail to select the fil l ed areas of
the layer. No relief is necessar y in these areas, so we will fi l l them with black. Sel ect Hollow
layer and choose Edit menu Fil l to f i l l the selected area with black . Press Ctrl+D to remove
the selection.
71. Select the Moss layer, and change it back to the Normal blending mode. Use Image menu
Adjustments Desaturate to make the image black and white. Invert the layer’s colors.
72. Choose Layer menu Layer Style Blending Options or double-cl ick the layer name in the
Layers panel. In the Layer Style window in the Blending Options section, in the Blend If group, set
the placement of This Layer and the Underlying Layer sliders as shown in the next il lustratio n.
The result is shown on the rig ht. To define a range of partiall y blended pixels, as shown in the
illustrat ion, hold down Al t , and drag one half of the slider tri angle. The two values that appear

73. Save the file as Bark_Displ.psd. You can compare your results with the file Bark_Displ.psd from
the book’s support fi les.
74. Save this file again as Bark_Displ. jpg.
75. Return to 3d s Max , disable Safe Frames , Viewport Background , and Environment Background . Create
a VRayMtl and assign it to the tree trunk model. In the Diffuse channel, place the Bark.jpg tex-
ture map.
76. Add a VrayDisplacementMod modif ier to the tree trunk. In the Texmap slot, place the Bark_Displ. jpg
texture map. This will add extra bumpiness to the texture when it is rendered. Adjust the
modifier’s parameters as shown in next il lustration.
77. Render the tree trunk. With GI turned on, the rendering shoul d look similar to the righ t image in
the following il lustration.

78. The tree trunk textur ing is now complete. Save your scene. You can also see the final result in
the file Ch03-13.max.
Exercise 5: Creating leaves with the Hair and Fur modifier
In this exerci se, we will make tree leaves using the Hair and Fur modifier. This modifier is intended for
hair and fur creation , but it can also be used to scatter objects across a surface. The Hair and Fur
modifier offers more flexi bil ity and control over the distribution process than other tools like Scatter .
Note: The Hair and Fur feature in 3ds Max uses a lot of RAM. It is highl y recommended that you
work on a 64-bit computer with at least 8GB memory (preferabl y 16). You will also experience l ess
RAM consumption if you are using 3ds Max 2011 versus 2010. If your system crashes during this
exercise and you are using 3ds Max 2010, we suggest install in g the trial version of 3ds Max 2011, as
you will have a better chance of not crashing.
1 . In 3ds Max , open Ch03-14.max, which contains al l the objects needed for this exercise. Alterna-
tively, you can open your own file with the fi nished model o f the tree cr own. If you use your
own file, you will need to delete the tree trunk from this file, and use Merge to place the
painted trunk model from the scene saved in the previous exercise. Then merge the Flat_Leaf
object from the file Ch03-15.max.
2. Select the BlobMesh01 object and apply the Hair and Fur (WSM) modifier to i t. In the viewport, you
wil l see hairs on the BlobMesh01 object, as shown in the left image of the following il lustration .
3. In the Modify panel, turn on Display Guides in the Display rollout. The viewport will look similar to
the right image in the fol lowing i l lustration.
4. In the Styling rol lout, cl ick the Style Hair button. This enabl es hair editing mode, where you can

5. In the Styling group, click the Scale button and use the slider to inc rease the brush radius t o
include the entire obje ct. Turn off the Distance Fade option so the brush influence is the same
throughout the entire brush.
6. Move the brush over the guide hairs and decrease the guide le ngth, as shown in the left image
of the next i l lustration.
7. In the Util it ies panel, cl ick the Recomb button to make the guide hairs droop downward, as
shown on the right of the next il lustration.
8. In the Styling group, click the Stand button, and drag the brush in the Front viewport a littl e to

9. I f you make a mistake and need to restore the ori ginal guides so you can start over, click Finish
Styling and then the Regrow Hair button in the Tools rol lout.
10. After the guides are combed as needed, cl ick Finish Styling in the Styling rollout to exit styl ing
mode.
11 . Next, you will replace the hair s with leaves. In the Instance Node group in the Tools rollout, click
the button labeled None and click the Flat_Leaf object. This changes al l the hairs into leaves.
12. In the Display rol lout, turn off the Display Guides option to hide the guide hairs . Make sure the
Display Hairs option is enabled, and enter 100 for the Percentage parameter to show all the
leaves in the viewport. Set the Max. Hairs parameter to 30000 .
13. In the General Parameters rol lout, set Hair Count to 30000 . If this setti ng crashes your compute r,
you can use a much l ower one, like 2500 , just for the purpose of completing the exercise.
14. To make all of t he leaves have the same size, set Rand. Scale to 0 in the General Parameters
rol lout.
15. Now the leaves look too nar row. To return to the normal pr oportions of the leaves, set Root
Thick to 20 .
16. I f the high number of l eaves in the scene slows down your system too much, decrease the
Percentage parameter in the Display rollout. Even with a lower percentage of l eaves showing in
viewports, you will stil l be able to see enough of the result to finalize the remainin g settings.
17. In the General Parameters rol lout, set Cut Length to 80 to shorten t he leaves relative to the length
of the guide hairs. This l ower value will also raise the ends of the leaves a little.
18. The other parameters in the Hair and Fur modifier can be left at thei r default values. I f you like,
you can experiment with additional parameters to make the leaves’ distribution and shape
more stylized.
19. In the the BlobMesh01 object’s Object Properties , turn off the Renderable option as shown on the
left of the next i l lustration. This wil l hide the BlobMesh object in renderings, leaving just the
leaves (hairs).

20. Save the scene. The result of the work done is shown on the right of the next il l ustration . You
can also open Ch03-16.max to compare your result. Note that on 32-bit systems with limit ed
memory, you can easily crash 3ds Max while render ing this file. Reducing the hai r count will
al low for rendering, but the rendering wil l not look as good.
Summary
This chapter i l lustrated numerous techniques for modeling and texturing organic objects using tools
within and outside of 3ds Max . Although there ar e plenty of shortcuts and numerous ways to speed
up your workflow, in the end, you only get out of your scenes what you put into them. As the saying
goes, “the devil is in the details,” and good scenes have the kinds of details we demonstrated in this
chapter. Modeling and texturing details are equally important and you should strive to build in the
same details you see in real life, provided your systems can handle them .
Hopefully, you have now been introduced to many new thin gs that you can now inco rporate in to
your workflow.

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