Making a Vase Using FFD's, Boolean Operations and a Cylinder in 3dsmax - Back

The purpose of this tutorial is to give you working knowledge of FreeFormDeformation tools, and one of the uses for Boolean Operations, not to teach you how to make a vase. (There are many other easier ways to make a vase!) Pay special attention to the graphics and keywords that are in Bold Italics. Getting familiar with 3D Studio's interface is the key element in learning to model! If you have trouble finding something, STOP.....retrace your steps and make sure you are READING THE ENTIRE SENTENCE! If all else fails think for yourself. Use your critical thinking skills. MAX is pretty intuitive. The other key step to learning this program is understanding the vocabulary. Not just know the word associated with the button, but what it actually does and is used for. Often, tools in MAX can be used for thing you would never expect, and they can make your project much simpler. GOOD LUCK!

First you are going to click the "3D snap" button" . Right clicking this button will give you 3D snap options which allow you to choose how you want your cursor to "snap." Grid Points are selected as default, and that is what we are going to use.
Next, click the Create tab . Then select the Cylinder button.
In the Top viewport select a grid point. I usually choose the center because a good central point to begin all my projects. In the viewport, click then drag the mouse to create a circle. It doesn't matter how big.

When you let up your mouse will want to modify the height of your cylinder. Move the mouse up slightly (again it doesn't matter how much because we will be changing the properties later) and click. You now have a cylinder. Keep it selected.

Now click the Modify tab. Notice the Parameters rollout menu.

Change the Radius to 40 and the Height to 120. You will also need to change the Height Segments to a larger value. The higher the value the smoother your object will look, especially when it is modified later. Increasing the number of segments (length, width, height, cap) is also essential when modifying objects. For this project we will only need to change the Height Segments to 20. You may also want to Zoom Extents periodically to keep everything inside the viewports.

Click the 3D Snap button to deactivate it. Click the Modify tab. We are going to apply a FreeFormDeformation or FFD. There are different types. For this project we will use FFD (cyl) for cylinders. This option is found by clicking the More... button in the Modify tab as shown here.

Choose FFD(cyl) from the list. I assume you know when to click OK.

Before we go any further you may need to adjust the Set Number of Points. This is found in the FFD Parameters rollout menu under Dimensions. Click the Set Number of Points button. For this project I chose to increase the number of height points to 6. Once you have finished, close the window.
Click the Sub-Object button. This is used to select an object within an object (hence the name sub-object). In this case the object we are referring to is the FFD(cyl), and the sub-object is the Control Points.

Now in the Front viewport you are going to select a row of Control Points. Like so....

Once you have a row selected (the selected points will turn yellow) click the Uniform Scale transformation button . This is going to allow us to pull the Control Points apart evenly. Click the X-Axis Constraint . This will allow us to pull apart the Control Points evenly on one plane in stead of all planes (x,y,z).
Move your cursor over the selected Control Points. Notice how the cursor changes to the Uniform Scale transformation icon. Click and drag the mouse up/down. Notice how it affects the cylinder. Do this with each row of points until you have the desired look.

You can also use the Move transformation along with the Y-axis Constraint to move the rows up/down for added modification.
Click the Sub-Object button to deactivate it. Click the Create tab. And click the Uniform Scale button if not already selected. We are now going to hollow out the vase. We do this by creating a similar object that is a bit smaller in size and using that object to "cut" out the insides of our vase. This is also know as a Boolean operation.
We are going to cheat a bit and clone our first object while making it smaller at the same time. To do this, hold down the SHIFT key, click and slowly drag down until the object the size you want it. I.E......

When you have it the size you want release the mouse button. The Clone Options window will appear. Choose Copy. Notice the bottom edges are slightly aligned, yet the top is not. This is all right. We will correct it later.

Select the the Move transformation button and the Y-axis Contract . Make sure to click the inner/smaller vase and move it upwards until most of the edges are somewhat aligned and so that you have a bottom edge to your vase. Otherwise you'll have a large hole in the bottom of your vase when we're finished.

Click the Modify tab. Notice that the smaller vase has a FFD(cyl) modifier identical to the larger one. Select the Sub-Object button. Click the Move transformation button and the Y-axis Constraint.
Select the the top set of Control Points and move them up in order to align the edges with the top half of the larger vase. You may need to use the Uniform Scale transformation tool (X-axis only remember!) to even out the thickness of your vase. And don't forget to move the top set of Control Points of the smaller vase above the ones of the larger, like so....

Once finished deselect the Sub-Object button. And click the Create tab. Make sure you still have the inner vase selected.
Select Compound Objects.

Click the Boolean button. (If you're wondering, I pronounce it Boo-lee-an.)
Under Operations make sure you have Subtraction (B-A). A is the object currently selected (small vase) and B is the object you are going to select (larger vase). Click Pick Operand B.

Now select the larger vase in the Front viewport. Vwaala! (I know it's spelled wrong!) You have a vase. Now to texturize that bad boy! The most important lesson to be learned is that nothing looks good without proper lighting and texturing!

Click the Material Editor button . This is the source for all your mapping needs.
Click a box with a sphere in it. Click Apply Material . Then click the button that says Type: Standard.
Click the radio button that says Mtl Library on the left hand side of the Material/Map Browser and then choose Granite Red Black. Click OK.
Click the Maps rollout menu. Click the button that says None to the right of Bump.
Select New in the Material/Map Browser and then double click Bitmap from the list.
Click the blank button that says Bitmap to the left of it in the Material Editor window. Then select DINOSKIN.TGA.
Change U Tiling from 1.0 to 0.2 and do the same for V Tiling. Then click then upward pointing arrow to go back one screen. You should be here.....

You may want to turn the Bump up/down depending on how bumpy you want it.

Go to the Modify tab. Click UVW Map. The default (planer) will work just fine for our vase. Fiddle with the different types to get a fell of how they wrap the map around and object.

Click the teapot button for a final render! Yippee! You ought to have something that looks like this.....!

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