[Tutorial] Making Fantasy 3ds Max Skyscrapers

[SimCity4IE 202]

 Welcome to my tutorial on making and texturing a realistic skyscraper in 3ds Max 2011 (which can be downloaded for free with a 10minutemail or a student email address).

 

First of all, these are the basic programmes you'll need to be able to make and export this:

1. 3ds Max 2011

2. PIM-X Tool

3. BAT4Max

4. Gmax w/ BAT plugin (You should have this already )

5. SimCity 4 Rush Hour or Deluxe Edition (This too )

 

Also, here's a link to the textures and the actual building itself. 

Linkie

 

Step 1.

Open 3ds Max. I'll take it that you know basic functions of gmax, and have reaed the omnibus' tutorial on Simtropolis. Take a while to familiarize yourself with 3ds Max's layout. it's a little different to Gmax, but it has much more functions and is more versatile when creating buildings or scenes. I take it that you have BAT4Max set up already for previews and rendering.

 

 

Step 2.

Click "Create", and go down to "shapes". From there, choose "rectangle". This is to get a basic idea of area. 1 SimCity  tile is 16m across. Since our rectangle will be 32m x 48m; our building will be 3x2 SimCity tiles.

 

 

Step 3.

Click and drag the rectangle to any length and width. Change the length and width in parametres to 32.0m and 48.0m.

 

 

Step 4.

Now go to create > shapes > arc.

 

 

Step 5.

Click and drag 1 arc. Adjust the radius to about 12m. Move the arc to where the left touches the left side of the rectangle and the apex touches the bottom of the rectangle. When satisfied, click and drag while holding "shift" on the arc to duplicate and drag to the other side; as in the photo.

 

 

Step 6.

Next go to create > shapes > line.

 

 

Step 7.

Create a shape similiar to the photo.

 

 

Step 8.

Right click on the rectangle, and choose "convert to editable spline". A spline is one of the most important concepts of 3d modelling. It can be any shape, and can be used to create anything possible.

 

 

Step 9.

Under selection, click "segment", and click on the edge of the rectangle touching the arcs. Delete this.

 

 

Step 10.

Next click "vertex". highlight the 2 lowest points near the arcs on the rectangle, and drag up to the end of the arcs.

 

 

Step 11.

Next scroll down in the geometry rollup, and click attach. Click on the 2 arcs and the line with this.

 

 

Step 12.

Make sure you're fully alligned up with the points on the arc.

 

 

Step 13.

Click and drag to highlight the points you want to join. When you have that done, click "weld".

 

 

Step 14.

You now have the basic shape of your floor.

 

 

Step 15.

Using the "Select and Uniform Scale" tool, click on the shape, and drag with the yellow area while holding shift to make the inner wall. Clone as a copy.

 

 

Step 16.

While in the vertex tool in the shape you just created, select areas that aren't parallel to the other spline, and click and drag points until it matches.

 

 

Step 17.

Clone this inner shape for later. Using one of the 2 shapes for the inner wall, attach one to the outer wall. When you've done this, go to modifiers > mesh editing > extrude.

 

 

Step 18.

Change amount to 4.0m. Sims are about 8' tall, so this is about 3.5m to include the verticle scale when exporting to SimCity 4. leave everything else alone.

 

 

Step 19.

Create a rectangle from shapes, and extrude. Place around the door to hide the door. Mine is about 7m x 14m. Extrude to about 0.2m. Remember the spline you left earlier from the inner wall? Extrude this to about 0.2m. Set the z-axis to about 3.5m.

 

 

Step 20.

Next create a circle from create > shapes > circle. Place one near the corner of the rectangle and set radius to about 0.3m. Clone the shape for the other side.

 

 

Step 21.

Next clone the floor from step 19 to create the ceiling. Set the z-axis to about 3.6m.

 

 

Step 22.

Clone the wall, and go modifiers > parametric deformers > lattice.

 

 

Step 23.

Don't freak out! Set geometry to "struts only from edges", and radius to 0.05m.

 

 

Step 24.

Select all of the floor you created excluding the 2 circles and the rectangle on them, and group them. Name it something such as floor.

 

 

Step 25.

Clone the group, and set it to about 6m. use the scale tool to make it look like the shape in the picture.

 

 

Step 26.

Create a pathway using the line tool. Set everything to smooth before you drag it.

 

 

Step 27.

Extrude it to about 0.5m, and set z-axis to about 3.375m.

 

 

Step 28.

Now to using boolean. Create a box the length and width of the stairs you're going to use. Mine is about 2.5m by 5m. Make sure it is thicker than the floor. Clone the box again.

 

 

Step 29.

Ungroup the floor, and select one of the two boxes. Go to create (this time the first icon on the top right!) >  compound objects > boolean > pick operand b. You now click on the extruded line from earlier. Make sure to have "subtraction (B-A)" to make the cut.

 

 

Step 30.

Do the same again with the ceiling with the other box.

 

 

Step 31.

Clone the concrete with the hole in it, and drag over to the other side. Cut a hole in the ceiling using boolean on the other side.

 

 

Step 32.

Now to create stairs. go to Create > AEC objects > Straight stairs

 

 

Step 33.

Now click and drag to choose the length, width and height of the stairs.

 

 

Step 34.

Clone the floor in between the concrete a few times to create the rest of the tower.

 

 

Step 35.

Now click on the hammer icon located in the top-right corner. In parameters, click refit LODs; in preview click "SD Output", "s" and "5" in that order. Now go to the "Let There Be Light" foldout and click "day". Click "preview", and wait. This is what it will look like in game at the moment. As you can see, we have the basic shape, but no textures or roofjunk.

 

 

Step 36.

Click on the material editor on the top, located beside the 3 teapot icons; third from the right. Drag the glass material included with this tutorial into the first slot.("24e5e6b.jpg")

 

 

Step 37.

Scroll down to maps in the materials editor, make sure that the material you dragged in is selected. Tick the box for reflection, and set it to about 50 for now. Click on "none", and choose "raytrace".

 

 

Step 38.

Ungroup everything, and select all of the glass that will be seen. Group this and name it "glass". Drag the material onto this group, and apply to all. When this is done, go to modifiers > UV coordinates > UVW map. Set it to "box" in the right.

 

 

Step 39.

Now preview again. See how it reflects the environment? Now, it looks like a giant mirror, so let's change that.

 

 

Step 40.

Drag an image of Tokyo into the background, and click ok. Preview again.

 

 

Step 41.

Next set reflection to 10, and tick "bump". Set it to 30. Choose "waves".

 

 

Step 42.

It looks a lot more realistic now. Texture the roof and ground with the concrete texture.

 

 

Step 43.

Add the grass texture to wherever you want. Apply UVW Mapping to it. Add a new material. Click on "standard", and go to flooring > vinyl > checker black-white. Drag this onto the floor of the ground floor.

 

 

Step 44.

Apply the rest of the textures, and preview again. It looks a lot better now.

 

 

Step 45.

Create a plane on the roof from create > standard primitives > plane. 

 

 

Step 46.

Apply the helipad texture to this.

 

 

Step 47.

Add roof junk, and texture to add variety to your roof. It's the most viewed part of your building from SimCity 4's isometric projection perspective.

 

 

Step 48.

Add foliage and texture using a grass texture, since the original textures look radioactive, it will look better.

 

 

Step 49.

You're finished! So what now? You can go to refit LODs, export LODs, import them into gmax, export them using the SC4BAT, go back to 3ds Max 2011, open the export foldout, choose the name of the LODs you exported from your plugins folder, click render, go down to batch cmd, click fsh batch build, and finally dat fsh insert. After this, you can use the PIM-X tool to choose what type of building this is (commercial offices), it's wealth level ($$$), it's stage (about 7), and finally it's lot. It may look like an extreme amount to do, but all it is, it pretty much design and texture a building, export it, and put props on a lot. 

 

 

I hope this tutorial has been of use to someone! I'd like to thank SimFox for his rendering script "BAT4MAX", and everyone else who taught me these simple tricks  

[paroxysm 2]

This is absolutely brilliant work, SC4IE. It simplifies it nicely and makes it easy to get acclimated to 3dsMax, which has a rather steep learning curve. This should be put in the Omnibus, or at least stickied here.

[SimFox 801]

SimCity4IE:

Are you sure about this tutorial?

I mean to teach others one must know quite a bit oneself. And, I'm sorry, this tutorial clearly states that you don't really have nearly enough knowledge.

In fact this tutorial is significant step down from Philippbo's that is already on Omnibus. The fact that you use Max 2011 only highlights the fact that you don't really know much about it. Techniques you show are inappropriate - they result in clumsy, inaccurate and inefficient model. So in NO way this could be recommended.

When I 'll get more time I could go step by step to explain what is wrong with this and what should have been done instead.

Desire to help others is commendable, but you really should talk about things you know well, not just something, somewhere, sometimes. Or you risk to do more harm than good with it.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I have to agree with SimFox, taking the time to write a tutorial is definitely a good thing, but first you need to understand the subject you're writing the tutorial on.

But I think this will turn out to be a good learning experience for everybody. The mistakes you've made are the same types of mistakes that I did, and I'm sure most people do. And there's nobody better than SimFox to explain how to do 3D. Hopefully everyone will discover a bad habit of theirs, or a better way of doing certain things. I'll be watching this thread looking for something to learn as well.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

This is one of the reasons I have not made a tutorial, I don't know enough set it apart from Philippbo's (at least from an efficiency standpoint). One can make things look pretty, but the steps to get there may be prolonged and barbaric at the same time. This may not be an issue in a small project, but when you start talking skyscrapers then a few hundred clumsy objects can become tens of thousands very rapidly. If People are going to learn something it ought to be the correct way first.

You did use an impressive amount of effort on this, if nothing else that should be admired.

[IL. 1,043]

Great turtorials

What about making night lights for this?

[gutterclub 2,729]

The last post was 2 years ago, you don't use Max and there is a tutorial on night lighting made by Jason..so not entirely sure why you have decided to post in such an old topic. You seem to be a bit of a post count mission at the moment which as much fun as it might seem, isn't really the most productive activity

[KonstantinII 1,106]

SimCity4IE:

Are you sure about this tutorial?

I mean to teach others one must know quite a bit oneself. And, I'm sorry, this tutorial clearly states that you don't really have nearly enough knowledge.

In fact this tutorial is significant step down from Philippbo's that is already on Omnibus. The fact that you use Max 2011 only highlights the fact that you don't really know much about it. Techniques you show are inappropriate - they result in clumsy, inaccurate and inefficient model. So in NO way this could be recommended.

When I 'll get more time I could go step by step to explain what is wrong with this and what should have been done instead.

Desire to help others is commendable, but you really should talk about things you know well, not just something, somewhere, sometimes. Or you risk to do more harm than good with it.

 

This is actually very good tutorial. If you criticize, make suggestion. If you make suggestion, do it.  There's no real reason to hate tutorials.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Yeah... and it was totally necessary just now to commit some thread necromancy and drag a long-dead thread back up just to attack something posted by a member who is known to have left Simtropolis years ago?

 

Please do not bump up old thread without any substantial new information. ("I disagree" is not substantial new information.) You've been here long enough to know  that.