Modeling and texturing a low polygon character in 3D Studio Max

Modeling and texturing a low polygon character in 3D Studio Max
_VERY_ basic tutorial on modeling and texturing a low polygon character
in 3dstudio max.
tutorial requires basic knowledge 3dsmax

MODELING THE CHARACTER 1 step one!

Allright! We'll use a modeling method called "kune's box method" or "kune modeling". Create a box: 4 length segs, 3 width segs, 1 height seg. Collapse the box to editable mesh.
This will be the torso of your character. By extruding some of the faces of this box you'll create the arms, legs and head of the character.

MODLING THE CHARACTER 2 creating limbs

Select the faces where the arms, legs and head should start and extrude them. Keep extruding faces, dividing edges, moving vertices etc until you have a mesh that looks like a character!
This may sound easy, but in reality this is where the real artists are seperated from the wannabe's :-). It is best to first design your character on paper. Make some sketches & do some research. Then draw a good front view, side view and top view of your character. Map those drawings as textures on the background of your modeling environment as a reference (like I do in the car modeling tutorial). Then start tracing the reference images with the mesh.

TEXTURING THE CHARACTER 1 unfolding the mesh

OKAY! It's time to texture this beautifull model! I'm not going to bother to model a real character just for this tutorial so this thing will have to do.
We're going to texture the character using "Jack's method". This basically means that you break up the mesh into easily texturable elements.
Make a face selection that you want as patch in your texture and detach it as an element. In this case I first selected the chest.

TEXTURING THE CHARACTER 2 dividing the texture

After you have broken up the entire character into easily texturable elements: make a copy of the mesh. This copy will server as a morph target later on.
Now take each element and flatten it. Arrange the flatenned elements in a square, this is how you will texture the mesh so be very precise at this stage.

TEXTURING THE CHARACTER 3 morphing the mesh back

Now texture the flattened character, it is much easier to texture a flat object than a fully-3d character!
After texturing the flattened character, morph it back to the original shape using the compound morph of 3dsmax. (create tab - compound objects - morph)
That's it! Modeling and texturing a low-polygon character in a nutshell. Of course there are many many things left to learn about this subject but this tutorial should at least get you on your way.

© December 27 2001 Kent Kuné

MODELING THE CHARACTER 1	step one!
	Allright! We'll use a modeling method called "kune's box method" or "kune modeling". Create a box: 4 length segs, 3 width segs, 1 height seg. Collapse the box to editable mesh. This will be the torso of your character. By extruding some of the faces of this box you'll create the arms, legs and head of the character.
MODLING THE CHARACTER 2	creating limbs
Select the faces where the arms, legs and head should start and extrude them. Keep extruding faces, dividing edges, moving vertices etc until you have a mesh that looks like a character! This may sound easy, but in reality this is where the real artists are seperated from the wannabe's :-). It is best to first design your character on paper. Make some sketches & do some research. Then draw a good front view, side view and top view of your character. Map those drawings as textures on the background of your modeling environment as a reference (like I do in the car modeling tutorial). Then start tracing the reference images with the mesh.
TEXTURING THE CHARACTER 1	unfolding the mesh
	OKAY! It's time to texture this beautifull model! I'm not going to bother to model a real character just for this tutorial so this thing will have to do. We're going to texture the character using "Jack's method". This basically means that you break up the mesh into easily texturable elements. Make a face selection that you want as patch in your texture and detach it as an element. In this case I first selected the chest.
TEXTURING THE CHARACTER 2	dividing the texture
After you have broken up the entire character into easily texturable elements: make a copy of the mesh. This copy will server as a morph target later on. Now take each element and flatten it. Arrange the flatenned elements in a square, this is how you will texture the mesh so be very precise at this stage.
TEXTURING THE CHARACTER 3	morphing the mesh back
	Now texture the flattened character, it is much easier to texture a flat object than a fully-3d character! After texturing the flattened character, morph it back to the original shape using the compound morph of 3dsmax. (create tab - compound objects - morph) That's it! Modeling and texturing a low-polygon character in a nutshell. Of course there are many many things left to learn about this subject but this tutorial should at least get you on your way.