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Tutorial Details

Software: Autodesk 3Ds Max

Difficulty: Beginner

Completion Time: 1-2hrs

Tutorial Files: None

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Modeling from Photographic Reference in 3DsMax Pratik Gulati on Oct 7th 2010 with 15 comments

Tutorials \ Autodesk 3Ds Max

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In today’s tutorial, Pratik Gulati takes a look at how to reproduce a model from a reference image, even if

you don’t have any information on the camera used! Let’s take a look…

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An introduction This tutorial is divided into two parts : an introduction covering the different types of perspective, and then

how to apply this knowledge when modeling from a reference image.

Perspective is very important to keep in mind whilst creating architectural models; by understanding simple

dimensions like the height of a door, or the average human height, we can often pick out visual cues which

can then be used to recreate the models as accurately as possible. One of the biggest challenges in

architectural modeling is trying to maintain a ‘realistic’ scale in our 3d application.

The different types of perspective A reference image (whether drawing or photo) could be characterised with one of three different perspective

types. The key difference between the three types is the number of ‘vanishing points’ – an actual point, or

points, in the scene towards which all lines converge.

Let’s now take a look at each type in turn :

One-point perspective

An image with ‘one-point’ perspective will contain only one of these ‘vanishing points’, and as such there will

be only 3 ways that lines in the scene can be shown – 1) running vertically, 2) running horizontally, or 3) at

an angle, converging towards the ‘vanishing point’.

Take a look at the example images below. In the top one, you can see that the camera has been placed so

that it looks directly down the street. The fronts of the buildings are exactly perpendicular to this direction,

and therefore present us with only vertical or horizontal lines. The tops and bottoms of the buildings (and

the other lines in between) however, are all at an angle. If you were to take a pencil and ruler and extend

these lines further into the scene, you would see that they all come together and cross at a single point, and

that (as you’ve probably guessed), is our vanishing point.

The photograph below it shows the same effect, this time looking down a train track.

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Two-point perspective

As you have probably inferred from the name, two point perspective has double the amount of vanishing

points. If you take a look at the examples below, you can see that the camera is no longer positioned so that

it’s looking directly towards a particular vanishing point, and as a result the horizontal lines from the previous

perspective type are now running at an angle – something that introduces our second vanishing point. If you

were to extend all of these angled lines as before, you’d see that they now eventually meet on either the left

or right side of the image. Vertical lines are still vertical however!

One other thing to take into account are ‘horizon’ lines, the imaginary line at the same height as, and

running perpendicular to the camera. This can quickly be created by drawing a straight line between our 2

vanishing point, and is used to get an estimate for the height of the camera.

The photo shown gives a typical, everyday example of two point perspective – the corner of a building.

Three point perspective

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This perspective type takes things to their natural conclusion. Our camera has now been rotated, giving us

our two vanishing points, but also tilted to look either up or down at the scene. This tilting makes our

previously vertical lines angled, introducing a third vanishing point either high above, or far below the scene.

The examples below both show this three point perspective, and you can see just how much more dramatic

this makes the image feel.

Putting this to good use We’ll now go on to produce a 3d model of the building shown below, using what we’ve learned above.

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Step 1 After analysing the image, it’s clear that even though the front face of the building is directly facing the

camera, there are lines to either side that are vanishing off to the left and the right of the image. Given that

there are still many vertical lines present in the image, we can conclude that it’s two point perspective, not

three point. By joining these two vanishing points, we can see that the ‘horizon’ line runs about halfway up

through the main entrance.

Step 1 We need to import our image into 3Ds Max. To do this we’ll first create a free camera in the front view,

directly at 0,0,0 on our grid. As we don’t have any lens information for the camera used, we’ll choose 35mm

(a good ‘default’ value) for our cam. If you’re using more modern reference however, camera information

can often be found in the properties of the image itself, as shown below :

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Step 2 Now add a Camera Correction modifier to our camera. This is used to minimize perspective distortion. Once

added, hit Guess to have 3DsMax calculate some appropriate initial values.

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Step 3 Now select the camera view and press Alt+B to bring up the Viewport Background settings. Browse for your

reference image, and then in the settings make sure to tick Match Rendering Output, Display Background

and Lock Zoom Pan before pressing Ok.

Step 4 Open the Render Settings, set the Output Size to match that of your reference image and then lock it.

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Step 5 In the Camera settings, turn on Show Horizon. Now the tricky part! First of all, you need to estimate the

rough height of the camera in the scene, using the horizon line, and move your camera to that height. Now

create a box to represent the very front face of the building, and position it so that it roughly matches the

reference image (as shown below). It’s now a case of rotating the camera on the X axis only so that the box

matches up as closely as possible. If, after some experimentation, things aren’t lining up as closely as you

would hope, try altering the focal length of the camera.

This is not an easy process, and it does take some trial and error, but once you’ve gone through it a few

times it gets easier and easier!

Step 6 Once you have your camera set-up and in place, remember to freeze it so that you don t move it

accidentally!

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Step 7 Now create a plane in the front view and extrude its left and right edges to match the main sides of our

building. Remember, you don’t want to move these new edges in Y at all – they would be straight in real-life!

If you extrude and things aren’t lining up, I’m afraid it’s time to go back and tweak that cam rotation a little

more…

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Step 8 Now select the three edges and connect them with 4 divisions. Adjust these divisions to match the features

of the building as shown.

Step 9 Now it’s time to start modeling the details! Connect the edges on the front wall, and move the new edges

into place to describe the outlines of the windows. You can now extrude these in for the

windows.

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Step 10 For the shape on top of the windows, I took a box, extruded it and then just tweaked some of the verts into

position. Duplicate this shape 5 times (once for each window) as seen in the image.

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Step 11 I then used a cylinder to create the circular steps at the front of the building, and yet another cylinder and a

few bent tubes for the circular border running across the top of the door. As you go, remember to convert to

editable polys, and delete un-needed faces.

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Step 12 For the beading on the roof, I created a very simple shape (shown here in red), and then simply extruded it

along the front edge.

Step 13 For the window, create a plane in the front view and convert it into an editable polygon. Now bevel it in,

delete the middle polygon as shown below and then apply a shell modifier to give the frame some depth. For

the glass, you can create a new plane inside of the frame itself.

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Step 14 You can now duplicate this frame object to create 1 generic window, which can be grouped and

duplicated/instanced into place wherever needed.

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Step 15 It’s now really up to you how far you take this remodelling. You can leave it here, or continue on down to the

finest details!

Step 16 When you’re happy with the model, you can light and render as per normal, and you should end up with

something very similar to your original reference image!

>

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Discussion 15 Comments

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, if you have any questions or comments, just let me know!

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Add Comment

October 7, 2010 at 8:54 pm

eff man thats good, i wish someone would do this for cinema 4d….

chase

REPLY

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October 7, 2010 at 9:26 pm

Hi Chase!

Glad you liked it! Essentially the process would be exactly the same in Cinema 4D. Add a

camera, bring in the image and set the render size to match it. The slowly but carefully start

making everything line up! From there it’s just a case of modeling away The only part I can’t comment on is the lens distortion. Perhaps someone else knows how this is done in Cinema? If

you do, let us know!

Cheers,

Matt

Matt Brealey

REPLY

October 7, 2010 at 11:38 pm

Hi matt, in cinema its almost the same two things to point out.

First, select in the your front view>in the panel at your right select edit> configure>

back>background image, and select the image you want to link to your scene. (here you

can change the sizes, rotation, transparency for your reference image)

Then when you create your camera, in the object tab select> focus length, and changes the

value. By the way in the release 12 maxon put a white balance presets that really helps to

get the right illumination for your scene (its in the object tab also).

I hope this helps. Really enjoy your post matt and really useful one. Cheers… 

novenapuerta

October 8, 2010 at 8:54 am

Thanks very much for clarifying that NovenaPuerta – I’m sure a lot of people will find it very

helpful!

Matt

Matt Brealey

October 8, 2010 at 12:10 am

Hey Matt i know this is not probably the place to placing this comment. But i think it would be

awesome if you created a post to give huge rep to the grate Laurens Corijn after the

release of his new tutorial for eat3d which is a grate group: The Dozer – Part 1 – Building &

Rendering a High Poly Dozer in 3ds Max.

I thought nothing could be more amazing then the hot rod series that he was kind to create

for us users of cg tuts and i just believe that every user should have the opportunity to know

about the grate tutorials that he is releasing

cheers Lucas

Lucas

October 7, 2010 at 10:02 pm

Hey great tutorial! I would love a Cinema 4d Version of this one! Cheers!

Leafkit

REPLY

October 8, 2010 at 11:11 am

Just look at the comment above you.

Great tutorial there !

Jannes

REPLY

October 8, 2010 at 12:25 am Dan Warner

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Wow thanks for this. This will definately be coming in very handy very soon!

REPLY

October 8, 2010 at 4:23 am

Thanks man, great tut

Mirosllav

REPLY

October 8, 2010 at 10:12 am

Hey, great tutorial, thanks heaps! I looked all over this page for the original reference

image, but couldn’t find a link, I may be blind though… Anyway, if anyone wants the

reference image used in this tutorial, I found it:

http://www.greensvillecountyva.gov/images/County%20History/Pics/Old%20Bank%20on%

20Halifax%20Street.jpg

Ryan Wilson

REPLY

October 8, 2010 at 1:01 pm

Hi,

Thanks for this tutorial.

Appriciate your efforts explaining different perspective camera views. all gone well and a

3d building model is completed in perspective view.

This scene or building will remain fixed in this position for any practical use,bcos If I, move

my camera to any orthographic position, I see a distorted view of this building.

If someone please explain, How this 3d scenery/building can be utilized for practical

purposes other than a fixed perspective camera view.

haqzaf

REPLY

October 8, 2010 at 3:22 pm

Great tutorial thanks as I am particularly interested in learning to model buildings well. I

think it would be even better on these kind of tutes if they were made available as PDF’s

so that they can be easily printed and used as reference, I’m guessing that a lot of us here

don’t have two monitors? PDF option wouldnt be difficult to produce either. Hope you’ll

consider it?

Midge

Midge

REPLY

October 8, 2010 at 5:12 pm

WOW!!! great tutorial. I hope you guys post similar posts soon. I hope you guys can show

us how to place a model into a background image using max for nice architectural renders.

I really love this tutorial. It helped a bunch.

Mike Garcia

REPLY

October 8, 2010 at 7:23 pm

Great job on this tut mate, done us all a big favor on this one.

Joe

REPLY

October 9, 2010 at 1:23 am

Thanks, i am looking for this from a long time, and you have done it.

Thanks again.

Siddharth

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