Model a High-Poly RPG Rocket Launcher in 3ds Max – Day 1
Tutorial Details
- Program: 3ds Max
- Difficulty: Advanced
- Completion Time: 1-2 hours
Final Product What You'll Be Creating
Because of the time constraints inherit to realtime video tutorials, it is usually almost impossible to find tutorials that deal with modeling large or very complex objects, as they would just take too much time to complete. Well not any more. In this mammoth, 3 day, nearly 10 hour long video tutorial series, Chris Tate will give us an in-depth look at modeling a faithfully constructed, photorealistically precise high-poly RPG launcher and rocket using 3d Studio Max.
Every few weeks, we revisit some of our reader's favorite posts from throughout the history of the site. This tutorial was first published in December of 2009.
This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2, or Day 3
Throughout the creation of the model, we will utilize a wide range of modeling tools and techniques, including many of 3ds Max’s edit poly and spline modeling tools. We will also work with subdivision quite heavily , while going over the workflow for many different objects and discussing the use of support edges, and when and where it’s necessary to use them. Lastly, we will talk about the final mesh clean up, fixing problem areas, and the use of proper topology when cutting holes into subdivided surfaces while maintaining a quad based mesh.
You can find the reference images and schematic blueprints here: RPG_Blueprint_And_Reference_Images
Video 1
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Video 2
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Video 3
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Video 4
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Video 5
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Video 6
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This tutorial is Day 1 in a series – Go to Day 2, or Day 3
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Noice!
Score another point for the Tate brothers.
Amazing. Really appreciate the effort put into these tutorials. Can’t wait to get started.
Man, perfect timing. Looking for a little modeling boost.
Wham bam thank you, ma’am, my questions are asenrwed!
Chris Tut, nice tute, t u :)
Great!!!! Big thanks.
Very GOOD!!!!!! I love it!
great job dear chris and u used gud techniks.
dosn’t get any better than this! Big fan. Keep it up :)
great tutorial thank you so much
Wooww Amazing tut keep the good work. Can you please upload a tut about
the texturing or modeling a character please.Would be awsome!!
should be interesting watch :) cheers.
I have an addiction, and you’re the only 3D pusher that can give me the right fix!
Metaphor aside, your tutorials are AMAZING!! I have learned more from you than from anyone else, and I LEAP forward skillwise!
Brilliantly explained and well executed, looking forward to the next days!
Thanks from Denmark!
Wow! Thanks guys. I really appreciate everyone taking the time to leave such kick ass comments! I was hoping the tutorial would be well received and thanks to all of you, it seems like it is, so thank you again!
I just wanted to mention that the tut was recorded over a period of about two weeks and I was a little under the weather through most of it, so I apologize if I sound a little “unenthusiastic” at some parts. I was just really tired and yes, that occasional whistling sound you hear, is my nose! Apologies again, but I didn’t notice it until after the whole thing was completed (so I couldn’t really do anything about it:) Hopefully it’s not too noticeable!
Anyways… Thanks again guys and good luck with the videos, I hope everyone enjoys the series and gets a sweet model out of it!
I started to watch the first video last night. I’m going to try and reproduce the model in Lightwave. Thank you so much for sharing your techniques.
Man this is the longest tutorial ever, and guess what not finish yet, I really love it, nice job Chris
There’s actually 2 more parts that are just as long as this one!
Thanks Chris for taking the time to do a lengthy tutorial. I love what you have done so far, it’s brilliant and again I appreciate that you have spent so much time on this excellent tutorial! Great model!
Thank you very much for putting the effort and recording these videos.
I have a question though, why didn’t you use splines to lathe the shapes
instead of modeling it out of cylinders?
it could have saved you extruding the caps to punch through the heat shield by using outline, and you can get your chamfers more accurate using fillett
Thanks! and you’re absolutely right, that would have been a faster way to do it. There’s really was no specific reason I chose to model it that way. I guess it just comes down to personal preference. For some reason I rarely use lathe (not sure why, because it’s a great option) but I like to do a lot of stuff manually, even though it’s a little slower and there are probably better, faster ways to do it. It’s just my preferred method, but it’s by no means the best or only way to model a shape like that.
I’d recommend trying out as many different techniques as you can while modeling, after all there’s really no “right” way to do anything… Just try out different approaches and find out what works best for you and what you’re most comfortable with and go with that:)
Thank you for your answer
and lots of thanks again for the tutorial.
Chris, I didn’t notice any whistling or annoyances, I was busy trying to keep myself afloat in the ocean of awesomeness your tutorials are!!
I am looking forward to seeing day 2, my F5 key is in dire need of repairs after all the pushing it has seen after the release of this tutorial! (refresh page key)
Keep up the good work!
You guys rock!
WOW! Chris, your tuts are insane. The way you show and explain every little ditail is fantastic.
verry well , i can’t find the words to describe your effors and cg tuts+ services.
Hey forget the whistling noise of your nose, so you were feeling a bit under the weather.. nobody’s perfect… Try listening to Chris from 3D palace, another monster video tutorial producer for 3DS Max. Kids screaming and shouting, phone ringing, stopping for a fag or a drink, even using phrases like “quite frankly I don’t care”.. No this tutorial was easy to follow, well thought through and in my opinion much more professional.. and of course FREE, which many of the BIG 3D palace tutorials are not.. Keep up the good work and I look forward to completing the series.
Nice tutorial. Its really been a helpful for other weapon models I’ve been trying to do. If this one is anything like your others, I can’t wait to check out the low poly and texturing tutorials. I have to ask though, is there anyway you can make these videos downloadable? Thanks again for the great tutorial and can’t wait for parts 2 and 3.
Check out the red arrow with download written beside them above every video clip to download them. Idk if there’s a full download instead of six seperate parts though if thats what you were asking for.
fantastic Tutorials im on lesson 3 at the moment and although im pretty well rounded with 3D Modeling im still learning some nice new techniques. The Clips made in Lesson 2/3 dont require a Nut on the Bolt as thier is a Thread on the Cuved over side of the Clip.. Brilliant lesson… Beginners will love this.
Excellent lesson, thanks!I can not find only a picture on which author does RPG.
Sorry, find
Thanks man. You really make complicated things look way too simple. Great tutorial. I’ve watched the six tuts and they are incredible. Keep up the good work.
Big thanks from Brazil!!
Amazing tut man!!!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks a lot for this help… waiting for other parts… Good Luck!
wow! wow! wow! wow! wow! wow!!!!!!!!! ……….itz a nice tut keep it up bro………
Nice Work, i learned a lot
In part 5 you target weld verts but for some reason max is not allowing me to weld them.
image attached: http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/4333/98419366.jpg
Kindly guide mw what I am doing wrong.
Thnaks
Great tutorial man! I come from having almost no skill to learning everything about this program in one tutorial! Only I haven’t been able to finish the tutorial.
When I go to cut the circle into the band, it doesn’t actually cut it into the band. I don’t really understand why it doesn’t, because it seems to work for everyone else.
I’m using 3D Studio Max 2009.
Hey Razorcane,
Thanks! and yeah that’s a weird one… I don’t know why it’s not working for you, are you trying it in the left viewport?
The cut tool can be a little whack at times, so you could try making your cuts in the “perspective” viewport instead. It’s not going to be as easy, but it might fix the problem.
I’d suggest trying this. Select the band, then go into “perspective” view, zoom in on the top of the band and turn on “Ignore Backfacing” (on the Edit poly rollout) I’d also suggest turning the “Snaps” off for this. Then turn on “Cut” and try to manually cut the circle shape into the band.
It’s going to be almost impossible to get the shape perfectly even, without using the circle spline as a guide, but don’t worry about it. (you can always adjust it after) Just concentrate on getting the basic shape cut into each side of the tab. (remember to try to get an 8 sided octagon shape)
Once you have the cuts made, you can then go back into the “left” or “Right” viewport and use the ‘Move” tool to even the verts out. You can still use your original circle spline as a guide to get everything spaced correctly :)
Hope that solves the problem and best of luck on the rest of the tutorial.
Cheers!
F*** YEA THANX IT WORKS IN PERSPECTIVE THANX MAN I LOVE YOU!!!! (Not Gay) :D
Very GOOD!!!!!! I love it!
Just want to say thank you very much for your time and efforts. really appritiate it.
I guess i should get started with this beauty.
Thanks again
Video 5 does not work for me.
Nevermind, now it’s working.
Chris, thank you. I’ve been trying to do smth valuable in 3dsmax since i was
13 years old, but I was missing a really good tutorial, just like this one. This tutorial (and those on your web-site) are outstanding and almost perfect. Most important is I just need to see professional man in work to understand techniques he or she uses. But I don’t have any friends familiar with CG, so I spend last 3-4 years with just few weak attempts to follow tuts from books. It seems with your tuts I will be able to start improving skills finally. Thanks again =).
Just want to say thank you very much. I’m just a newbie and i learned a lot.
Awesome tutorial. One of the best tutorial I have ever seen.
Your voice is great for tutorials, your “explanations” are good : don’t explain a lot but just what we need to understand and IT’S FREE :P
Thank you for your work i’ll check out the other tuts :)
Hi Chris. I am an old Max user — since version 1 in 1995, but I feel that you can never get enough tuts — especially with polymodelling, which has always frightened the pants off me.
You, however have managed to take what I feel is the most daunting part of Max and explain it in a clear, lucid, and above all, entertaining fashion.
You are pretty much at the top of the tree.
Thanks for these brilliant tutorials.
Don’t watch video ,don’t download video T_T ,please help me,Chris
hey very nice tutorial, learned quite a few things along it. Thanks alot :)
Please,help me . I don’t watch video .I don’t download video
thanx alot chris, love the tuts you guys do. keep up the good work.
:)
nice work……………….:) thankxxxxxx
Here’s my result!!!!
http://www.foro3d.com/f27/rpg-87805.html
Hey Chris! Love this tutorial. This will be the third one I followed through with! Thank you so much buddy! I am very new to modeling and have a quick question. The part where you cut the 8 sided square around the brackets on the gun. Wouldn’t it be 10x quicker to use proboolean? I decided to use this method instead as I learned it from another tutorial. My other question would be you obviously have a reason for your methods is there a draw back to use Proboolean? Im modeling with 2011 3dsmax. Any incite would be great!
thanks again
Nevermind I can see exactly why you didnt use Proboolean… You cannot turbo smooth! :(
Why when i open the material editor to place the rpg blue print in my plane with the right size it doesn’t appear the image on the plane and it stays like this http://img844.imageshack.us/f/121ok.jpg/ note: I’ve already clicked on show map on viewport I think it has something to do with the units setup can anybody help me ?
by the way thanks for the tutorial
This tutorial.. wow! WOW! i have been modelling for 2-3 years now and this tutorial, it is sick! it is one of the best i’ve ever watched, I am only at part 5 atm but man! I have learned LOTS!
No way…. this is greaaaat :) same as everything on this server…. :) thank you