Main toolbar-main toolbar across the top
Command panel-menu box on the right used to create primitives and edit them.
Also contains modify panel
List of Keyboard Shortcuts for 3ds Max
Undo: ctrl+Z
Transform Tools:
Select and move-q
Position-w
Select and rotate-e
Select and Uniform Scale-r
Navigation of the viewports:
Zoom-increments-Mouse Wheel
or for more accurate zooming - ctrl+alt+middleMouse Button
Zoom Extends All-Z-zoom all viewports to enclose the selected object
Pan View-(moving left to right and up and down)-hold down middleMouse Button.
Orbit-(click in center of yellow circle if icon clicked instead of shortcut) alt+middleMouseButton
Right click on viewport label and choose undo to undo a view change. (Different from ctrl+Z)
Tutorial for Creating the Bendy Straw
Creating the Bendy Straw!
1. We will create two tubes
a. Click on the geometry button and make sure the dropdown is set to standard primitives. Then click on the box labeled tube.
b. Click then drag to define the first radius. Let go and move the mouse to define the second radius. Then click and move down to define the height. Make sure your tubes
start at the plane and end below the plane, So the tubes will have a negative height. They don’t have to be perfect because we will modify the parameters of the radii after.
c. Now that we have our tubes we will set them to have the same radii. Click the modify tab right next to the create tab and then click on one of your tubes.
d. Now that we have a tube selected we can go down to the parameters in the modify tab and set the radii to four and three.
e. Now click on the second tube and repeat step d.
f. Now that the tubes have the same radii let’s make sure they are somewhat next to each other. You can do this by clicking the move tool
g. Now we can make the bendy part of our straw. Go back to the Create tab and click the drop down and select Extended Primitives. From Here click on the box labeled Hose.
h. Click and drag to define the radius and then release and move to define the height. The size and place of the hose does not matter because we will link it to the hoses and redefine its shape. The Hose should look something like this.
i. Now we have all of our pieces of our Straw. Next we will bind each end of the hose to our two tubes. We do this by clicking on our hose to select it and then going back to the modify tab.
j. Here we select Bound to Object Pivots. Then go down to Binding Objects and click Pick Top Object then click the shorter tube to select it and bind the hose to it. Then do the same with Pick Bottom Object and click on the Longer tube. Also set the Tension to 20 for both the top and bottom bindings. Your settings should look like the left image and your hose should look something like the right Image.
k. Then scroll down to Hose Shape in the hose parameters and change to diameter to match the diameter of the tubes. Which in this case would be 8
l. To make our hose look more like the bendy part of a straw scroll up to Common Hose Parameters and set the starts, ends, and Cycles to 5, 95, and 8. Starts and Ends are how far from the start and end of the hose the cycles start, which are the indents.
m. Then to change each part of the hose to the same color control+click the two tubes and the hose. Then click on the modify tab and click on the color box and set to a white or a gray.