Open a new 3ds Max file by choosing File → New.

Go to the Customize menu → Units Setup. In the dialog box, set the units to Generic. Generic units are the 3ds Max's default units—one Max unit equals one inch.

Figure 5.1. A photograph of a child's Red Rocket flyer

Go to the Create panel to create a box (click the Geometry button (

Instead of creating the box with the click and drag method, we will use Keyboard Entry, as shown in Figure 5.2. Expand the Keyboard Entry rollout. Make sure the Perspective View is selected. Leave the XYZ parameters all set to 0; this will place the box at the origin point of your scene. Change the Length, Width, and Height parameters to the following and click Create:

Figure 5.2. The Keyboard Entry panel for creating the box

When you click Create, 3ds Max will create the image plane we'll use for the side view. Rename the box01 object Side View.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 to create another flat box, which you'll use for the Top View image plane. Use the following parameters.

Length: 22

Width: 12

Height: 0.05

Rename the box Top View.

Activate the Front View, and then repeat steps 2 and 3 one last time to create the image plane for the front view of the rocket toy. Rename the box Front View.

Length: 12

Width: 12

Height: 0.05

Move the Front View box up six units in the Z-axis to raise it so the bottom edge is directly on the Home Grid, as shown in Figure 5.3. Switch all the viewports to Smooth & Highlights (F3).

Figure 5.3. The Front View box is moved up.

Navigate to the SceneAssetsImages folder in the Red Rocket directory that you copied to your hard drive. In this folder, you will find three reference JPEG images, one for each of the three image plane views we just created in the scene. Select the Top View reference image (called TOP VIEW.jpg); drag it into the Top viewport in 3ds Max, and drop it onto the Top View image plane box. This will automatically place the image onto the box, so the image will be viewable in the viewport.

Repeat the previous step to place SIDE VIEW.jpg onto the Side View image plane in theLeft viewport and place FRONT VIEW.jpg onto the Front View image plane in the Front viewport. Figure 5.4 shows the image planes with the reference images applied.

If you need to, adjust the placement of the Front View image plane so the proportions of the rocket match up. The bottom of the wheels and the top of the handlebars should line up in all three images. Just move the box using the Select and Move tool. You will need to use the Arc Rotate Viewport Navigation tool to rotate the view so that the image planes can be viewed from different sides to get them aligned.

Select the image planes

On the main toolbar, click the Layer Manager icon (

In the Layer Manager, click Create New Layer (

If you create the new layer with the objects you want in the layer selected, they automatically will be added to the layer.

Figure 5.6. Changing layer names

Now when we work in the scene, we do not want to select the image planes. There is no need to adjust them as you model. In the Layer Manager, this is made very simple. Click the Freeze icon next to the layer, as shown in Figure 5.7. The layer will be frozen so its objects cannot be selected in the viewports. The frozen boxes will turn gray, and the images will disappear.

Figure 5.7. The Freeze icon

Open the layer by clicking the plus sign. You will see the objects listed. Select all three image planes by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the objects. Click the cube symbol next to one of the image plane names. This will bring up the Object Properties dialog box for that image plane box for that layer, as shown in Figure 5.8. In the Display Properties list, uncheck the Show Frozen in Gray box. When you press OK, the image will show up on the plane. Because all three objects were selected, this option was applied to all three.

Any objects you create will automatically be assigned to the selected layer, so in the Layer Manager make sure to click on layer0 (default) to set it as the current layer.

Start in the Front viewport. In the Create panel, click the Geometry icon (

Figure 5.9. Capsule with Front viewport

In the Modify panel set the capsule's Sides to 8 and Height Segs to 6. Uncheck the Smooth option; we will do the smoothing later.

Rename the capsule Rocket Body. Make Rocket Body see-through in all the viewports by pressing Alt+X in any of the viewports. This way you will be able to see the image plane through the geometry.

Line up the rocket body to the Side, Top, and Front image planes, matching the rocket body to the front end of the image as shown in Figure 5.10.

Figure 5.10. Line up the Capsule object to the image lane views.

Center the pointer over the capsule to access the right-click menu, and choose Convert To → Convert to Editable Poly as shown in Figure 5.11.

Enter the Vertex sub-object mode and select the vertex at the very front tip of the rocket body (as shown in Figure 5.12).

With the body selected, go into the Modify panel. In the Soft Selection rollout, click on Use Soft Selection and set the Falloff to 6.0. Now switch to the Scale tool (R). We need to scale along the XY-axis, which is a nonuniform scale. Do the scale in the Front viewport, center your cursor over the Transform gizmo's XY-axis as shown in Figure 5.13, and scale while watching the top view. Scale down to create a morepointed front.

Selecting some of the front vertices section by section in the Top viewport, scale and/or move the rest of the front to match the front of the rocket in the Top Viewimage plane, as shown in Figure 5.14.

Figure 5.11. Convert to an editable poly.

Figure 5.12. Select the vertex at the very front tip.

Figure 5.13. Center your cursor over the Transform gizmo.

Figure 5.14. Select some front vertices and scale and/or move to match.

Using vertices with or without soft selection (using a Falloff setting if needed), shape the rest of the body to the shape in the three image planes (you can also look at Figure 5.16). Don't worry about the back end of the rocket body just yet; we'll tackle that in the next step.

When you have the general shape of the body of the rocket, go into Polygon mode, select the polys at the rounded back end of your shape, as shown in Figure 5.15, and delete them by pressing Delete.

Figure 5.16 will show you the result of the deletion.

Figure 5.15. Select the end polys to cut the end of the rocket body.

Figure 5.16. Delete the end of the capsule for the tail section of the rocket.

Go to the Modify panel to view the editable poly's parameters. Under the Subdivision Surface rollout, check the Use NURMS Subdivision box. This subdivides the polygons and relaxes the transition between polygons, smoothing the shape of the rocket's body. If you are still in Polygon mode, you will see the orange SDS cage appear. This cage allows you to continue editing the body's overall shape by just selecting the lower-res cage's polys and editing them. This lets you affect its broader form without having toselect many more polys of the smoothed version.

Enter Poly mode (press 4) with the rocket's body selected, select the polygons on one side of the rocket body's right side (as shown in Figure 5.17), and delete them.

Figure 5.17. Select the polygons as shown.

Go to the top level of the editable poly (press 6). Go to the main toolbar and click on the Mirror tool (

Select the original side of the rocket and rename it Rocket Body ORIG. Select the reference side of the rocket that you just created and name it Rocket Body REF.

In the Layer Manager, create a new layer called ROCKET, and assign both halves of the rocket mesh to the new layer.

With Rocket Body REF selected, go to the Display panel (

Go into the Layer Manager and hide the Image Plane layer. With the rocket's body selected, press the 1 key to enter Vertex sub-object mode. In the Modify panel, go tothe Edit Geometry rollout and select QuickSlice, as shown in Figure 5.19.

To create the new cuts, you will need to use both the top view and the side view. You will create one cut along the top and down the length, and two cuts from the top to the bottom of the rocket (as shown in Figure 5.18).

Figure 5.18. Use the QuickSlice and Cut tools to add detail to these areas on the rocket's body.

Figure 5.19. Select QuickSlice.

QuickSlice creates straight lines of edges only, so you need to click where you want the slice to begin, move the pointer to where you want the line to end, and click again. Use Figure 5.18 to show you where to create the division line. When you first click, you will see the slice before it is created. You can set the direction and location of the inserted edges by moving the pointer, so you can be sure the position of the slice is where you want. To stop slicing, you can right-click in the viewport or click Quick- Slice again to turn off the tool. Once you lay down the QuickSlice lines, your rocket shape will have new divisions, as shown in Figure 5.20.

We will continue to add some detail using the Cut tool to where the wheel well detail will be added in the steps continued next. As you may recall from the Hand exercise in the previous chapter, the Cut tool works nearly the same way as QuickSlice. With the Cut tool, you can begin and finish the cut line at a vertex or at any point along an edge. The Cut tool also creates cuts from edge to edge in the same or another polygon.

The Cut tool has three modes: cutting to a vertex, cutting an edge, and cutting a polygon. Each mode displays a different pointer, as shown in Figure 5.21. The pointer's ppearance will change according to where you click on the model.

Select the rocket's body. Select the Cut tool in the Modify panel under the Edit Geometry rollout, as shown in Figure 5.22.

Select the Rocket Body ORIG mesh. Change to Poly mode (press 4) and select the three polygons in the middle of the body, as shown in Figure 5.25.

In the Modify panel under the Edit Polygons rollout, click the Extrude Settings button, as shown in Figure 5.26.

In the Setting dialog box, set Extrusion Type to Group and Extrusion Height to 0.8, as shown in Figure 5.27. Click OK.

Figure 5.24. The rocket's wheel well

Figure 5.25. Change the Poly mode and select the three polygons

Figure 5.26. Click the Extrude button

Figure 5.27. Setting the Extrusion parameters

Now select all the polygons that were created with the extrude operation shown in Figure 5.28 (on the left). Right-click in the Front viewport to activate it, press the V key, and select Back View to switch to the Back viewport. In the Back viewport, use the Rotate and Move tools to align the polygons so that they line up with the wheel well in the Front View image plane as shown in Figure 5.28 (on the right). (You can switch back to the Front viewport at any time by pressing F.)

With Rocket Body ORIG still selected, switch to Vertex mode. Select and move the second row of vertices from the bottom of the rocket body out to the right and slightly down as shown in Figure 5.29. This evens out the bottom part of the body to give it a more rounded look. If we left those vertices where they were, that part of the body would appear lopsided. And who wants that?

Figure 5.28. Use the Rotate and Move tools.

Figure 5.29. Round out the bottom of therocket's body.

Disable NURMS smoothing by turning off the Use NURMS Subdivision check box.

Enter Polygon Selection mode. Select the polygons at the bottom side of the wheel well, as shown in Figure 5.32.

Go to the Edit Polygons rollout in the Modify panel and open the Inset Settings button. Set the Inset Amount to 0.1 and click OK. Then, with the newly created inset polygons still selected, extrude them with an Extrusion Height of −0.7 to push in the area. Finally, delete the inside polygon.

We don't need to create the inside of the wheel well because we are not going to see it. We extruded into the wheel well in step 2 to make a solid lip at the wheel well, but it only needs to go halfway up.

Figure 5.32. Select the polygons at the bottom of the wheel.

Check to make sure that the new edges don't pokethrough the mesh (in Figure 5.33). If any do, select the vertex and move them inward.

Figure 5.33. The geometry is poking through the outside!

Enable NURMS smoothing, and your rocket body hould resemble the one in Figure 5.34. Make sure o disable NURMS smoothing before you continue with the rest of the exercise.

Figure 5.34. The smoothed wheel wells look pretty good.

Save your work.

To create the control panel, we need to add one more cut along the top of the body for extra mesh detail, as you can see in Figure 5.36. To create this cut, we will try another method of creating new polygons: the Connect tool.

Figure 5.35. The control panel

The Connect tool creates new edges between pairs of selected edges. In the Connect Edges Dialog Settings box, shown in Figure 5.37, you can specify the number of edges to be created. Using the Pinch and Slide values, you can define the spacing between those new edges.

Switch to Edge mode (press 2). In the Top wiewport, select the edge at the top center of the Rocket as shown in Figure 5.38. Go to the Modify panel, and in the Selection rollout, click on the Ring button. This selects all the edges from top to bottom.

Stay in Edge mode and in the Edit Edges rollout, select the Connect button. This adds a single new edge.

Figure 5.36. Add a cut line using the Connect tool to create extra mesh detail for the control panel.

Figure 5.37. The Connect Edges dialog box

Figure 5.38. Select the edge at the top center.

Now we are going to create a new cut line vertically down the length of the rocket body, as shown in Figure 5.39, using the same technique as in the previous exercise(the Connect tool).

This time, select one of the horizontal edges at the top of the rocket (as shown in Figure 5.40). Then in the Selection rollout, select Ring to automatically select all thehorizontal edges above and below your initial selection. Go to Edit Edges and click Connect to create the new cut line shown in Figure 5.39.

Figure 5.39. Add a lengthwise cut line to the rocket body.

Figure 5.40. Select one of the horizontal edges at the top.

Figure 5.41. The polygon at the tip does not have an edge to connect.

There is one little problem, however. The front end of the rocket doesn't connect to the newly added cut line. This is because the polygon at the tip, shown in Figure 5.41, does not have an edge for the new cut line to connect to, because all of those edges come to a point at the tip. We will continue the new cut line to the tip using the Cut tool in the next step.

Rotate the Perspective viewport so you can see the front end of the rocket clearly. Switch to Vertex mode and in Edit Geometry rollout, click the Cut tool. Center the cursor over where the new Connect Edge cut line ends and click. Then move to the tip of the rocket nose and click to finish the cut, as shown on the right in Figure 5.41.

With the new vertices along this lengthwise cut line, in the Top viewport, move the vertices to fit the shape of the control panel as shown in the Top View image plane. See Figure 5.42.

Switch to Poly Selection mode and select the control panel polygons shown in Figure 5.43.

Go to the Edit Polygons rollout and click the Extrude Settings icon. Extrude the polys with an Extrusion Amount of 1.0 and with the Extrude Type set to Group.

Figure 5.42. Shape the new vertices around the control panel in the Top viewport.

Figure 5.43. Select the control panel polygons.

If you look at the top view of the rocket, you will see the new extrude where it meets the reference half of the rocket body, as shown in Figure 5.44.

The two sides where you extruded should split away from each other. Remember that the two sides will eventually be stitched together to form the whole body, so all we need to do is make sure that all the vertices of the original side are aligned in the middle. For the original rocket half, you'll need to delete the polygons along the middle and move the vertices together. We'll do this in the following steps.

Select the middle inside polygons, as shown in Figure 5.45, and delete them.

Figure 5.44. The top view of the rocket

Figure 5.45. Select the middle inside polygons.

Switch to Vertex mode, select the vertices shown in Figure 5.46. Move them along the X-axis to the middle, where the original and the reference halves meet, as shown in Figure 5.47. The problem is fixed! When the body halves are stitched together later, the body mesh will look seamless.

Switch to Vertex mode, and using the Front, Side, and Top viewports, move the vertices of the control panel to line up with the real rocket's control panel in the imageplanes, as shown in Figure 5.48.

Let's look at this rocket body smoothed. Go to the Subdivision Surfaces rollout and check Use NURMS Subdivision to smooth the model again. It should look like thegraphic shown in Figure 5.49.

Use the cage to further edit the control panel to better fit the real control panel in the reference image planes.

Figure 5.46. Select the vertices shown here.

Figure 5.47. Line up the vertices to fix the split in the control panel between the two halves of the rocket body.

Figure 5.48. Shape the vertices of the control panel to the outline shown in the image planes.

Figure 5.49. Use NURMS Subdivision.

Disable smoothing by unchecking the NURMS option and switch to Polygon mode. Change your Top viewport to a Bottom viewport (press B).

Select the two polygons at the back bottom of the body shown in Figure 5.53, and extrude them with an Extrusion Amount of 0.6.

The extruded polygons will split at the middle where the original and mirrored reference halves of the body meet, as they did with the control panel earlier in this exercise. Movethe vertices and fix the seam in the center the same way you did for the control panel.Make sure to delete the unneeded inside polygons as you did with the control panel. You can see the fixed result in Figure 5.54.

Figure 5.52. he back wheels

Figure 5.53. Select the two polygons at the back bottom of the body.

Figure 5.54. The fixed result

Go into Vertex mode and adjust the extruded polygons of the back axle so that they have the shape of the axle from the Side View image plane, as shown in Figure 5.55.

Select the polys on the side of the extruded polygons and extrude them with an Extrusion Amount of 0.6, as shown in Figure 5.56.

Rearrange the vertices to create a small delta wing coming off the bottom/side of the body, as shown in Figure 5.57.

Figure 5.55. Adjust the extruded polygons to better fit the shape of the back.

Figure 5.56. An Extrusion Amount of 0.6

Figure 5.57. Create a small delta wing.

Figure 5.58. The rocket body is taking shape.

Turn on Subdivision Smoothing again to see the smoothed results shown in Figure 5.58.

While still in NURMS Subdivision mode, try moving the cage vertices to sculpt the back wheel axle. Save your work.

In the Create panel, click the Create Geometry icon and select Standard Primitives from the drop-down menu. Click to create a Box primitive. In the top view over the wing on the image plane, click and drag to create a box with the following parameters: Length 4.5, Width 3.2, Height 0.4, Length Segs 4, Width Segs 4, and Height Segs 2.

Press Alt+X to make the model see-through (if it isn't already). Now you should be able to see the image plane under the box you just created for the side fin shown in Figure 5.60.

Select and rotate the box −16 degrees in the Z-axis to line up with the side fin. Convert the box to an editable poly and enter Vertex mode.

Using the Top viewport, move the vertices to match the fin in the Top View image plane, as shown in Figure 5.61.

Figure 5.60. See the image plane under the box.

Figure 5.61. Move the vertices to match the fin.

On the side of the fin model, select the center row of vertices, go to the Edit Geometry rollout, and in the Constraints Group, turn on Normal. As shown in Figure 5.62, move the vertices, which are now constrained along their individual normal (meaning they will move only perpendicularly out from their current surface location), to create a nice round edge.

Select the vertices along the top and bottom rows at the edge of the fin model. The Constrain Group is still turned on for the Normal setting. Now move the vertices up along the X-axis, and they will move away from the center to create the bulbousrounded end of the fin (Figure 5.63).

Choose the row of vertices shown in Figure 5.64. (Make sure you select both rows on the top and bottom sides of the box.)

Figure 5.62. Move the verticesto create a nice round edge.

Figure 5.63. Create the rounded end of the fin.

Figure 5.64. Choose the row of vertices here.

With Normal in the Constrain Group still turned on, move this set of vertices along the X-axis as you did in the previous step to increase the bulbous end of the fin, as shown in Figure 5.65. Move that row of vertices in the X-axis a little closer to the tip of the fin.

Select the row shown in Figure 5.66, and move the vertices closer to the tip of the fin to slightly narrow the bulbous end.

Figure 5.65. Scale up more vertices to create the rounded tip of the fin.

Figure 5.66. Refine the shape of the fin's bulbous tip.

Enable NURMS smoothing for the fin as you did for the Rocket body mesh itself, and check your work against the fin shown in Figure 5.67. Remember to disable smoothingwhen you're done.

Select the first fin and line it up to the body of the rocket on the side on which you are currently working. Select a copied fin, and move and orient it to line up with the fin on the other side of the body.

Select the third fin and place it on top of the rocket body as the vertical fin. Line it up with the images of the real rocket. Figure 5.68 shows you the fins placed on the rocket. Save your work.

The Scenes folder of the Red Rocket project has a completed fin model. The "Merging Objects into a Scene" sidebar discusses how to import a finished model into an existing scene and merge it with the current objects.

Figure 5.67. Smoothing makes the fin look more like the real fin in the red rocket.

Figure 5.68. The fins are in place.

The profile shape we need to use is laid out in Figure 5.70. In the Create panel, click the Create Shapes icon. There you will find the Line tool button. Click Line and, in the Front viewport, lay out a profile similar in shape to Figure 5.70. The shape will makemore sense once you see it lathed.

Figure 5.70. This shape will be used to lathe the thruster for the rocket

Once you have created the spline or merged the existing one into the scene, select the spline, go to the Modify panel, and add the Lathe modifier to the line.

Don't worry if you get something like the lathe shown in Figure 5.71, which is rotatingabout the wrong axis. Currently, the profile line is rotating about the axis at the center of the line shape. We need the axis of rotation to be at the inside edge of the profile shape.

Go to the Modify panel and select the lathe to display its parameters. Under the Parameters rollout, in the Align section, click the Min button (shown in Figure 5.72). This moves the rotation axis for the profile to the inside edge.

Figure 5.71. The lathe is rotating about the wrong axis

Figure 5.72. Click the Min button.

The lathed object should look more like the thruster but will have a big hole in the middle (Figure 5.73). This is also an axis issue. You need to adjust the axis of rotation of the lathe to get rid of the hole.

Go to the Modifier Stack, expand the Lathe modifier (click the plus sign to the left of the Lathe entry in the Modifier Stack), and select Axis. We now are in the lathe's subobject mode. Go to the Perspective viewport and move the Transform gizmo to the left until the hole is closed to the naked eye.

Go back to the Lathe parameters and change Segments to 20. This will help the thruster look less faceted than it does right now, but it will look a bit chunky on the edges. Don't be too concerned with that; the thrusters will not be seen that close in this scenario. Use the Segments parameter to make your lathes look only as smooth as needed for your shot, as shown Figure 5.74.

Name your thruster geometry Thruster, and add it to the Rocket layer in the LayerManager.

Move it to the back of the rocket body, according to the reference images.

Figure 5.73. The lathe is starting to look more like the thruster.

Figure 5.74. Using the Segments parameter

Let's make the work area a little easier to navigate by hiding some of the rocket parts. Open the Layer Manager and click to hide the Image Planes layer, expand the Rocket layer, and click in the Hide column to hide the three fins. You can unhide them from the Layer Manager at any time.

Go to the Create panel and, under Shapes, select Rectangle. Click and drag in the Top viewport to create a rectangle with Length 0.74 and Width 0.42. Move the rectangle above the thruster geometry we just lathed, as shown in Figure 5.75.

Center you cursor over the wireframe of the rectangle and right-click; choose Convert To → Editable Spline as shown in Figure 5.76. Converting to an editable spline will give you access to the sub-object modes, as you saw in the previous chapter, and it will let youedit the shape for the detail we need in the thruster.

Figure 5.75. Move the rectangle above the thruster geometry.

Figure 5.76. Convert the rectangle to an editable spline.

Go into Vertex mode for the rectangle spline and select the bottom two vertices. Go into the Geometry rollout, enter a value of 0.04 for Chamfer, and press Enter Figure 5.77).

Select the two top vertices and move them closer together so that the rectangle tapersat that end. In the Geometry rollout, enter a value of 0.1 for Fillet. Click the Fillet button to round out the top of the cylinder, as shown in Figure 5.78.

Exit Vertex mode by clicking on the editable spline in the Modifier Stack. When it is n sub-object mode, it is yellow. When it is at the top level, it is gray.

With the spline selected, go into the Modifier List and choose Extrude. Set the Extrusion Amount to 0.4. We will use this to indent into the thruster sides.

Line up the Thruster Detail object to the thruster as shown in Figure 5.79.

There are eight indentations all around the thruster, so we are going to copy this one and array the indentation around the thruster eight times. To make it easier, move the pivot point of the Boolean object to the center of the thruster; this will enable the objectto be copied nicely around the thruster.

Figure 5.77. Enter a value of 0.04.

Figure 5.78. Click the Fillet button to round out the top of the cylinder.

Figure 5.79. Line up the Thruster Detail object to thethruster.

With the thruster selected, go to the Hierarchy panel (

We want to make sure the pivot is in the center of the exhaust. In the main toolbar, select the Align tool (

Click Affect Pivot Only again to disable it. Press A to turn on Angle Snap. Change to the Rotate tool while holding down the shift key and rotate 45 degrees in either direction around the thruster dish. When you release the mouse button, the Clone dialog should open. Select Copy, enter a value of 7 for Number of Copies, and press OK.This will place seven copies of the object, each at 45 degrees of rotation around the thruster, making a total of eight Boolean objects that are 360 degrees around, as shown in Figure 5.80.

Figure 5.80. Seven copies ofthe object

Select the Thruster, go to the Create panel, and select to create Geometry. In the pulldown menu, select Compound Object and select ProBoolean. Click the Start Picking button, as shown in Figure 5.81. Move to the Detail objects and click on each one to subtract from the thruster.

Figure 5.81. Using ProBoolean to add detail to the Thruster object

Your thruster should now have the indentations shown in Figure 5.82.

Unhide the other parts of the rocket to see how everything looks so far. You can do this through the Layer Manager window. Save your work.

Figure 5.82. The thruster with its indentation detail

Select and delete the reference half of the body. You don't need it anymore.

Select the original body half and make sure Use NURMS in the Subdivision Surface rollout is turned on in the Modify panel.

Choose Symmetry from the Modifier List. This will copy the half of the rocket body to the other side. Depending on your settings, the rocket might disappear. If this happens, go to the Symmetry parameters in the Modify panel and, under Mirror Axis, choose X and check Flip.

You should see a seam running along the top middle of the body (Figure 5.83). To fix this, we need to bring those vertices in toward the center of the body until the seam disappears.

Select the vertices that run along the middle. Select and move a few at a time. Fromthe side view, you can see that those vertices stick up farther than the row below; this is what causes the ridge. Make the vertices level with the row of vertices below themby moving them along the Z-axis, as shown in Figure 5.84. (This step will be easier if you turn off the Use NURMS in the Subdivision Surface rollout.)

Go to Symmetry up in the Modifier Stack to view the whole body without the seam.Turn smoothing back on if necessary (Figure 5.85).

Figure 5.83. A seam runs down the middle of the rocket body.

Figure 5.84. Make the vertices level with the row of vertices below them.

Figure 5.85. The seam is gone!

Turn off smoothing if it's currently enabled. Also, hide the fins and the thruster.

Make sure the body is selected (with the Symmetry modifier). Go to the Modifier List and select Edit Poly to add the modifier to the rocket.

In the Edit Poly modifier, go into Borders mode and select the edge in the back of thebody, as shown in Figure 5.87.

Go to the Edit Borders rollout and click Cap, as shown in Figure 5.88. This will create a poly where the hole was.

Switch to Poly mode and select the new polygon. Go to the Edit Polygons rollout and open the Bevel Settings dialog box. We will do four bevels through open the dialogbox. Between each bevel, make sure you click Apply and not OK. This will apply your bevel but keep the Settings dialog open for more.

Figure 5.86. The lip between the thruster and the rocket body

Figure 5.87. Select the edge in the back of the body.

Make four bevels with the following values:

Figure 5.88. Click Cap in the EditBorders rollout.

Click the Edit Poly name to go to the top level of the Edit Poly modifier.

To see how the rocket body looks when it is smoothed, you will have to do something other than turning on NURMS in the editable poly for the body as you have been doing. If you click back to the Editable Poly entry in the Modifier Stack and try to turn smoothing on, you will see the Warning dialog box shown in Figure 5.89. You do not want to continue turning on smoothing this way.

If you click the top Edit Poly modifier in the Modifier Stack, and look for the Subdivision rollout, you won't find it. The Edit Poly modifier doesn't have that feature; it is available only in a converted editable poly. Until we collapse the model into an editablepoly, we will have to use another modifier: Turbo Smooth. Turbo Smooth is similar toSubdivision Surfaces in the editable poly, but it has fewer bells and whistles.

Select the rocket body and select Turbo Smooth from the Modifier List.

Unhide the exhaust and the fins. Make sure everything lines up, and render if you'd like (Figure 5.90). (See Chapter 11, "3ds Max Rendering," for more aboutendering.)

Figure 5.89. Warning!

Figure 5.90. The finished rocket body

If the Image plane is hidden, unhide it for the side view. In the Layer Manager, make sure the default layer is checked. This will ensure that the object you create for the wheel will not be in the layer that has the hidden Rocket objects.

Go to the Create panel. In the drop-down menu, select Extended Primitives and click to create a Chamfer Cylinder.

To get the side of the wheel to finish, click and drag the cylinder in the Side viewport. Go to the Modify panel and set the Chamfer Cylinder parameters as follows:

Set the parameters as shown in Figure 5.92.

Convert the Chamfer Cylinder to an editable poly and go into Vertex mode. Select the vertex on the front in the center, as shown in Figure 5.93.

Go to the Edit Vertices rollout in the Modify panel and select the Chamfer Settings dialog box. Set the Chamfer Amount to 0.4 and click OK.

Switch to Polygon mode and select the new center polygon, as shown in Figure 5.94.

Go to the Edit Polygons rollout and open the Bevel Settings dialog box. Set Height to −0.4 and Outline Amount to 0.0, and click Apply to create one bevel. Then set Heightto 0.5 and Outline Amount to −0.12 and click OK to create a second bevel.

Now change the viewport so you can see the back of the wheel.

Go back into Vertex mode and select the center vertex. Go to the Edit Vertices rollout and click the Settings button for Chamfer. Set the Chamfer Amount to 0.2 and click OK.

Figure 5.92. Set the Chamfer Cylinder parameters as shown.

Figure 5.93. Select the vertex on the front in the center.

Figure 5.94. Select the newcenter polygon.

Switch back to Polygon mode and select the new center polygon. In the Edit Polygons rollout, extrude the polygon with an Extrusion Amount of 3.0. You can see the completed wheel in Figure 5.95.

Figure 5.95. The completed wheel

In the Modifier Stack, click the Light Bulb icon next to TurboSmooth (Figure 5.96). This turns off the effect of the modifier.

Figure 5.96. Click the Light Bulb icon next to TurboSmooth.

The body of the rocket will appear low poly again, as you can see in Figure 5.97. It's usually easier to model in the low-poly version rather than the smoothed one.

Move down one level in the Modifier Stack to the Edit Poly modifier and go into Vertex mode.

Change any viewport to a bottom view. Select the vertices on the inside of the wheel well and move them to make the opening larger, so the wheels can fit, as shown in Figure 5.98.

Go back to the Modifier Stack and click the light bulb next to TurboSmooth to turn it back on. See if the wheels fit with the body when it is smoothed as shown in Figure 5.99.

Figure 5.97. The body of the rocket in low poly

Figure 5.98. Select the vertices on the inside of the wheel well and move them.

Figure 5.99. Make sure the wheels fit into the wheel wells.

Start by going to the Create panel. Click the Create Shape icon and select the Line tool.

In the Back viewport, against the image of the front view of the rocket, click to place the line's first point where the handlebar meets the control panel. Move the cursor to where the handlebar has a bend in it and create another point. Place a final point where the handle ends, as shown in Figure 5.101, and right-click to create the line.

Figure 5.101. Place a finaloint where the handle ends.

Move to the Modify panel and enter Vertex mode for the line, as shown in Figure 5.102. Select the middle vertex, go to the Line Parameters/Geometry/Fillet, and enter 0.1. This will add a smooth corner to the bend.

Figure 5.102. Enter Vertex mode for the line.

Use the right-click menu to create a Circle shape from the Create panel and convert it to an editable spline.

Go into Vertex mode, select the top vertex, and delete it to flatten the top.

Next, we will create the Loft object.

Select the Handle Bar Path spline and go to the Create panel. Click to create geometry and select Compound Objects. Click the Loft icon.

Because we started the Loft process with the handlebar's path line, we only need to let 3ds Max know which shape to use. Go to the Creation Method rollout (Figure 5.104), and select Get Shape.

Select the handlebar shape in a viewport to use as the loft's shape.

Go to the Modify panel and select the Loft object.

Go into the Shape sub-object mode (Figure 5.108).

In a viewport, select the loft's shape at the end of the Loft object. The shape will turn red when it is selected, as shown in Figure 5.106. You should notice the shape spline is the smoother line in this figure.

Select the Rotate tool and rotate the shape on the loft −90 degrees. The entire loft will be updated as shown in Figure 5.107.

Go back to the top level of the loft in the Modify panel, and go to the Skin Parameters rollout. This is where you can manage the Steps (subdivisions) in the loft. By default, there is a value of 5 for both the Shape Steps and the Path Steps. The Shape Steps hereare fine, but the Path Steps value is too high. To fix this, turn Path Steps down to 1, as shown in Figure 5.109. If there are too many steps in your loft, it will get too heavy and dense to model.

Figure 5.109. Reduce the Path Steps.

Go back to Shape mode and select the shape. Take the cursor and center it over the Z-axis wire of the Transform gizmo that is connected to the shape.

We need to make copies of the Shapes so we can taper down the end of the handlebar. Shift+click and drag the gizmo to move the shape just a little bit up the body of thehandlebar to make a copy of the loft shape, as shown in Figure 5.110.

Figure 5.110. Make a copy of the loft shape.

In the dialog box, choose Copy. Make three copies and place them close to the end of the handle, as shown in Figure 5.111. Switch to the Scale tool, and scale the outside shapedown 30 percent and the middle shape down 10 percent. Leave the last inside shape alone, which should create a nice curved taper at the end of the handlebar.

Select the inside shape on the loft, and make four more copies in a row close to where the bar curves (Figure 5.112). Select the two inside copies and scale them both down20 percent. This will create the groove toward the center of the handlebars.

Figure 5.111. Place copies of the loft's shape close together at the end to taper them down.

Figure 5.112. Creating the groove

Select the shape closest to the bend, and make a copy. Move it all the way to the otherend of the object, away from the tapered tip. This is where it will meet the body of the rocket. Select the Scale tool, and scale this end shape up 50 percent. Exit the Loft's sub-object mode.

If any parts of the rocket are hidden, unhide them and see how the handlebars line up. You will probably agree that there is room for improvement (Figure 5.113).

Instead of rotating the Loft object, rotate the last shape at the end of the loft. Go back to sub-object mode and select the last shape to rotate to line up with the body, as hown in Figure 5.114.

Select the handlebar and mirror it for the other side of the rocket. Place it as needed. Figure 5.115 shows the rocket with its handlebars.

Figure 5.113. The handlebars will probably not line up with your rocket body right away.

Figure 5.114. Rotate the end Shape object to line up with the rocket body.

Figure 5.115. The rocket with the handlebars in place

If you are using your own scene file and not Rocket_10.max, in the Left view, create a cylinder with the following options.

Use the parameters shown in the dialog box in Figure 5.116.

Figure 5.116. The Parameters dialog box

From the side view, line up the cylinder so it is over the part of the rocket body where the seat would be (as shown in Figure 5.117).

From the top view, the cylinder should be evenly spaced on both sides of the rocket (Figure 5.118).

Figure 5.117. Line up the cylinder with the seat area.

Figure 5.118. The top view of the cylinder

Select the rocket body, go to the Create panel, and click to create the geometry. Select Compound Objects from the menu and select ProBoolean. Choose Start Picking fromthe Pick Boolean rollout, and then select the Cylinder in a viewport. The cylinder willcut a seat into the rocket body as shown in Figure 5.119.

Convert the rocket body to an editable poly by right-clicking on the Rocket Body object.

The control panel of the rocket needs some buttons. To add them, create a few Chamfer Cylinders and place them there. Now you're really done! Figure 5.120 shows the completed red rocket with buttons in the control console.

Save your work, but that is second nature to you by now—right?

Figure 5.119. The seat is almost done.

Figure 5.120. The rocket!