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Model and Texture a Stylish Modern Chair with 3ds Max and Mental Ray

on Feb 9th 2010 with 52 comments
Tutorial Details

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

In the field of 3d product visualization, any decent artist must be able to create realistic and believable results in a very short time frame. In this beginner level tutorial you will learn all of the steps needed to quickly create this stylish looking modern chair in 3ds Max. Both polygonal modeling and paint deformation will be used to create the model, and the materials and final render will be achieved using Mental Ray.

Tutorial Video

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Hello, my name is Matthias and I am doing CG and Motion Graphics in my free time. You can take a look at my work at http://3docean.net/user/Matthias_.  

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  • Jethro

    FIRST!!!!!!!!

  • RZX

    nice for beginners……….this one is great but how to render it in mental ray?
    ‘cos i don’t have v ray installed………..

    • Matthias
      Author

      Hey RZX

      It’s renderd with Mental Ray!
      Check the Rendering part at 16:40

      -Matthias

      • RZX

        Ya sorry man didn’t see it…….today i was modeling this chair and saw that u used mental ray and was happy…….sorry for that comment man……..

        awesome tutorial…….

  • BaRt

    Hi,
    where are the characters from the comic?

    • kaleb aylsworth

      There were some issues with the code, and it had to be taken down temporarily while it is being fixed.

  • http://dav3design.wordpress.com Dave

    I wasn’t expecting you to you use Boolean.

  • http://dav3design.wordpress.com Dave

    Is boolean really the best way for this kind of modelling?

    • Spencer

      Boolean is NEVER the best way to model, but sometimes you can get away with it. It is super un-clean and usually results in render errors, ‘specially with materials

  • Confused

    U have Mental Ray and 3DsMax… with 16 years? And u bought After Effects?
    So 3DsMax: $3,495.00 and After Effects: about $ 900….

    Ok…

    In your renders i can´t see watermarks (demo)… Ur using pirate software to make money with tutorials… should i send an e-mail to autodesk?

    If u bought it, i appologize.. if not cgtuts should delete this tutorial…

    • http://kaleb-3d.com Kaleb Aylsworth

      There are many perfectly good explanations as to why he might have legitimate copies of those applications. For instance, perhaps he is using the trial version, or perhaps his school provides this software to their students (as both my high school and college did), or maybe he simply saved up to buy the software himself, or received it as a gift from his parents. Either way, it is not really your place or your concern as to what version of the software he is using, and it would be nice if you could keep this type of pointless and negative comment to yourself.

      • Confused

        simply stupid answer.

        as i said -> demo -> watermark
        school -> could be true.. but i am german and german schools don´t buy that software.. with 16 ur on a “gymnasium or realschule” they DON´t BUY that software..
        bought by himself -> come on…
        gift? ok gift could be true.. but -> come on..

        i think many guys here use pirated software.. maybe u too…

      • Stefan Frank

        German schools also buy this software. They name it “Berufskolleg” and i was also on one of these. You can start there with an age of 16.
        And Kalebs answer wasn`t stupid…he is right…your comment is pointless!
        It is not your business and you just seem very jealous.

      • http://kaleb-3d.com Kaleb Aylsworth

        @Confused:

        No, I don’t use pirated software. I am a video game industry professional and have licensed copies of many softwares at my disposal. Perhaps you’ve heard of my most recent title, Bioshock 2?

        Secondly, it doesn’t really matter what you “think” people are using, because for all of your speculation and conjecture, his school truthfully could have provided it to him, or he could have saved up from his job for a year, or he could just be from a wealthy family and have bought his own copy ….get where I’m going here? It’s none of your business.

        Lastly,….Stupid? As I said before, this type of pointless and negative name calling is completely unacceptable on this forum, and it will not be tolerated. Last warning.

      • cool

        Prick.

        Are you the autodesk owner? Do you work at autodesk? I suppose you don’t because otherwise you wouldn’t have time to post stupid comments.If you do you are wasting your time on internet. Should I send and email to Autodesk?

        I will assume you are a normal person so what really bother you if the guy have made it on a piratate software? will this money come out of your pocket? Shut up wanker. Due piracy autodesk have so many users able to operate those softwares.Have a nice day

    • jflg1

      You sound like a 10 year old accusing his little brother, “should i send an e-mail to autodesk?” lmao chill out dude, if he’s using pirated software is his problem not yours… envy anyone?

    • Gomezz

      Cofused, take it easy… He isn’t like you, depedend of injuries for call attention of all… Anyway, at least he haves enough knowledge to make a decent tutorial, unlike you! Think about it!

    • lucas

      Autodesk give free study compies. for students. they don’t have a water mark and they are free.

    • lucas

      Autodesk give free study copies. for students. They don’t have a water mark and they are free. My school in Australia have got copies of 3ds max and autocad for students.

    • Turel0397

      Your evidence are beyond any reasonable doubt. This copy of 3ds MAX is pirated.(smell the sarcasm?)

      ooowwww He’s jealous,how cute.

  • Daniel Grid

    well, nice one but you not actually textureing the model, u just add some colors, right ? correct me if i,m wrong

    • Matthias
      Author

      Just some Material, no textures used :)

      -Matthias

  • http://www.youtube.com/mikkelholmabrahamsen Mikkel Abrahamsen

    wow, those are a lot of S’s. SSSS SSS SSSS is almost all I hear in the beginning :D

  • floon

    hi,
    enjoyed the tutorial,
    but i have the same question:

    is boolean the best way to do this ?

    • Abojung

      If you want a Clean model, with no artifacts, just follow some basic rules for it.

      1) avoid N-gons, Triangles
      2) avoid boolean- the stuff that u can do manually, you dont need to boolean that out, unless there is no other way round.
      3)roundup your models

    • Stefan Frank

      There are plenty of other ways to quickly create this. For example use the Slice modifier and shell it for the basic spherish form. Scale/copy it in to get the second sphere form. Use the lathe modifier on a spline for the stand and use boxmodelling for the pillow. Ohh and chamfer the edges – please :-)
      Just another way…

  • http://WWW.VERTUOZA.RU Vertuoza
  • http://www.godsdesign.nl GODSDESIGN

    you could also have used the: Hemisphere option :)
    instead of the: ProBoolean option
    just to let u guys know xD
    their are alot of ways to get the same result :D

    GREETINGS

    GODSDESIGN-designer for life

    • Oliver

      Hemisphere option, great idea, but you have to rotade then the sphere, delet the inside ones and hit on the Shell modefier.

      • http://www.godsdesign.nl GODSDESIGN

        rotate true cant realy see the harm in it tough :)
        + if u dont connvert it to a editeble poly but only use the edit poly modefier u can also change your lets say cut of the chair and also the other options from the sphere

  • http://www.sonalife2.com azaddien

    thanks lot for this great tutorial, / from morocco

  • Paul Sweeney

    Great tutorial. Easy to follow, lots of different techniques with excellent results. Thanks

  • Turel0397

    The bottom line is:THE FINAL RESULT MATTERS,if its faster with boolean and the final result is the same why complicate things,don’t get me wrong I rarely use booleans(we all know the drawbacks) but you can achive very cool stuff very fast and with just a few clicks.Boolean is also good for a very quick and complex sketch etc…(i hope you see my point).
    P.S.(for begginers) DO NOT USE BOOLEANS IF YOU WANT TURBOSMOOTH!!!

  • Matthias
    Author

    Thanks guys!

  • O Rei da Galeria Page

    Cópia pirata é legal…thanks

  • TS

    really helpful quick tutorial. Thanks for sharing.

    And yes I read Confused’s comment too and it seems these morons are everywhere. I’m sure this tutorial helped him yet he still want to find fautls. You can never please people like that!

  • http://3dmention.org.ua MindWin

    If anybody using not licenced software, he simply can’t buy it now, because don’t have enough money.
    I am live in Ukraine (ex-USSR republic), we have licensed software only in big design studios, freelancers simply can’t buy it.
    PS. sorry for my english :)

  • CrowdControl

    When I render my scene with mental ray lights my render window spit out a black image. Any way to fix this? Its max 2009 if that helps.

  • Kaj

    Looks fine.
    Although I would have liked something more advanced model where you really do some awesome texturing on the model.

    I would never use Boolean on such a simple model. But ok, it’s for beginners and they should know that that tool is available.

    Thanks for this.

  • Thiago Consolaro

    Very Nice model. Thanks for this video.
    I’m learning a lot here.

    Thank you.

  • shah

    Hi,

    very beautiful & easy modeling mapping super dudu thx so muxh u have your persinal web site if u have than plz put here

  • MIRIAM

    THE BEST !!!

  • http://www.theactiv.com/Shiya Shiya

    Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for making this tutorial :)

  • Abe

    Thanks man, that was a very useful one, great job :)

  • Hannah

    I’m very begginer and got lost in 1.57sec. Could anybody help me and explain what’s happend with sphere? How did sphere become empty inside?
    I would appreciate any help :)

  • Tomas

    Hello Mathias…where did u gez ProMaterials? I dont have them in Mental ray…where can i get them?thx

  • Benji Thorne

    Can someone explain how you would use the hemisphere option? Yes it makes the same shape, but how do you then pull the “base” out?

  • GIOVA

    Thanks for the tutorial.
    Good Job Matthias, I definitely learned something about Mental Ray.

  • StroboPop

    Thank you very much for the tutorial, I’m very happy with my results and I couldn’t have done it without you. I hope you’ll make more tutorials aimed for beginners.

  • barrlley

    boolean blows. learn to model properly.

    • GZ

      lmao stupid noob, at least he tries to teach people stuff… and at least people can get a “start” from here to learn the “proper” way of modeling… instead of posting brainless-moron-crap you can instead write your own tutorial on how to do it properly instead of crying on here?

      I’m a veteran myself but do you see me crying? no… I apreciate his effords nevertheless…

      Thanks for the tutorial man it’s nice! :) Keep up the good work!

  • uma

    Thank you very much for the tutorial…..