How to make the 3D enviroment

How to make the Robot environment

This is how I created my 3D environment; the class was divided into two groups where we decided on a game idea. The group I was in chose to do a Third Person game set in the future, with 3 different armies. The aliens were tribal, the humans were futuristic and Robots who were SC-FI. We had to research different issues for each faction, for example, tanks for the robots; also we were placed into smaller groups to do a certain task. I was put into the robots group. I drew my environment in many different views before I started making it.

The following examples explain how I made the environment; first open “Photoshop” and load an image of a circuit board. Use the black and white function, to change the colour. Save the image into a file. The reason you need to make it black and white is because it will copy the pattern in “3D studio max”. .

Now open “3D studio max” and create a plane approximately twice the size of the grid.

Go on to the materials editor and insert the photo and play around with the strength and geometry until it looks like a circuit board. After this go onto mesh smooth and modify it to smooth out the pointed areas. The reason I chose the circuit board design, is because, I think, the base would look like it has power flowing through it; also I based it on the “Tron” franchise.   

Now create a cylinder and edit the poly so it looks like this;

Clone the cylinder 3 times and place them onto the corners, these will make the shield generators; I based the ideas for these on a pencil sharpener. 

Create a cone and place it into the middle of the plane. This will make the base on the power generator.

Place a cylinder on the cone to make the midsection of the power generator.

Create a triangular prism shape. To do this you use the cylinder tool and reduce the sides to 3. 

Clone the new shape 3 times and place these on top of the cylinder in the positions north, south, east and west. These make the top of the power generator.

  

This design was based on the power generators in “Halo Combat Evolved”.

Create a rectangle and place it in front of the generator, this is where the warehouse is going to be positioned. Then, using the cylinder tool, create a triangular prism.

 

Place it on top to create the roof of the warehouse.

The warehouse design was based on an actual warehouse shape for example “B&Q”.

Create a cone and place it in front of the warehouse, this will be the base of the solar panel. 

Using the sphere tool create a sphere and position it on top of the new base. This will then become the top of the solar panel.

 

Using the rectangle tool make a rectangle. Edit the poly and bevel the segments so it resembles a chocolate bar. 

Clone this and place both on each side of the sphere. These will make the solar panels.  

Create a box with many segments. This will be the top of the war shop. 

Chamfer the front two corners as in the image below. Then bevel the top square as shown.

Create a square and rotate it into a flat diamond shape. Then clone this 3 times.

Place these clones onto the front corners as the image shows.

Create 4 cylinders and attach to the ends of the squares.

Repeat this on both sides.

These are to give the impression that they are moveable, for example like an old clock work mechanism.

 Create a rectangle and rotate it diagonally. Then place it on the squares as shown below;   

Clone the rectangle 3 times and place these on the other squares. This is to create robotic like arms. 

Using the cone tool, make two cones and position them as shown below. These are the motor wheels.

Create a rectangle and place it below the claw

Using the connect tool create two segments on the new rectangle from one side to another. Then remove the middle so it looks as shown below. 

Place two cones on the end of it to make more motor wheels.

Now make a rectangle and attach it on the end of the motor wheel. Then create a bigger rectangle and place it on the new one. 

Clone the new building and place them behind the power generation as shown.

Create a flat box; this will be the air port.

Now go on to editable poly and select both sides using the line tool. Create two segments.

Select the two new lines and connect them. Position the new line towards the end on the rectangle. Using the select polygon tool extrude it upwards. 

Using the line tool pull down the line to make a slant as shown below.

Extrude the two sides. Also create a cylinder and place a sphere on top of it.  Position the new shape as shown. These are guide lights.

Clone the guide light multiple times and place them as shown below.  

Make a new box and place it on the beginning of the runway.

Create a sphere.

Edit the poly and delete half of it.

Create a cylinder and pull out the top of it and position it in the middle of the half sphere, this will make the satellite.  

Create a cylinder and then attach a box on the bottom of it. Then attach it to the dish as shown below.

This is the first space ship I made. However I had to delete it because it used too many polygons.

Here is the airport.

Now create a box and edit the poly to change it into a trapezium. 

Create 9 cylinders.

Boolean the cylinders into the trapezium, these will make a hole into the shape and make it look like a missile launcher. Now create a cone and attach a cylinder onto it. After this, place two cylinders and position them on both sides of the cylinder. Create yet another cylinder and attach this on top of the previous ones, this creates the base of the missile launcher. Attach the base of the head of the missile launcher. The end result should look like the image below.     

Using the cone tool create a cone. This will be the base of the gun turret. Create a cylinder with only 3 sides and clone it. Place the two new shapes at both side of the base.  

Create a cylinder and place it in between the triangle. 

Make a new cylinder and place it behind the other cylinder. Create one more cylinder and place it in front. Edit the poly so you get a bump on the end. The end result should look like this.  

Place the missile launchers and the gun turrets around the base as shown.

Create an isosceles triangle, clone it and then place them on the power generator as shown below.

Scale the shield generators as shown below.

In photo shop, change the circuit board so it is black and blue, save it. Then open material editor on 3D max and drag it onto the buildings.

Texture the rest of the environment as shown below.

Create 4 planes and position them as shown. These will make the walls.

Make a cylinder and edit the poly. Place the new cylinder in between the power generator. The end result should look like this. 

Create a triangle and mesh smooth it, so it looks like the one below.  

Clone the new shape and remove half of it. Position it as shown.

Attach together. Convert the object into an editable poly and pull the back part in order to make the wings. Make a sphere.

Stretch out the sphere so it fits between the wing and the nose. Attach it all together.

Texture the ship with the circuit pattern. To do the spaceship screen you have to open material editor.

On material editor, set the diffuse to black and select 2 sided. Then set the specular level to 275, set the glossiness to 45 and soften must be on 0.1. Then go onto map and set the opacity to 100 and click on the tab next to it. Select falloff. On the falloff menu go to falloff type and click on Fresnel, when you render the model it will look like glass.

     To make the walls use the same technique you used for the spaceship screen, however set the diffuse to blue and the self illumination to 100. In order to create the light in the centre of the environment, select the cylinder you meshed smooth earlier.  

Set the diffuse to light blue, after set the glossiness and the specular level to 0. Set the self-illumination to 100. Now press 8.

  By pressing 8 you will open environment and effects. Click on the effects tab and add lens effects, go onto lens effects parameters and select glow. Scroll down to glow element, set the size to 0.1 and the intensity to 161.0. Set the radial colour on the left side to light blue. Now go onto options and select object ID and set it to 1. The final part is to right click on the object and go onto object properties and set the G-buffer object ID to 1.  

The finished product should look like this: