From the course: 3ds Max 2022 Essential Training

Creating primitives interactively with the mouse - 3ds Max Tutorial

From the course: 3ds Max 2022 Essential Training

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Creating primitives interactively with the mouse

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- [Instructor] Primitives can also be created interactively using the mouse. The method for interactive creation is slightly different for each primitive type. You'll need to click and drag the mouse cursor in a specific pattern. A sphere is the simplest, because it only has a position and a radius. Go to the create panel and click the button labeled Sphere, and in the perspective view, click and hold the mouse button down. When you click, you're determining the position for a new sphere. And when you drag out holding the mouse button down, you're setting the radius for that sphere. Release the mouse button to complete that sphere. And since the tool is still active, we can continue to make spheres. Click and drag to set the position and the radius. To finish creating spheres, we can right-click in the viewport to exit that tool. For some types of primitives, we'll need to click and drag more than once to set its parameters interactively. So let's click on the Box tool and with the creation method set to Box, go to the perspective view, click and hold the mouse down and drag to set the footprint of the box. And we can see those numbers change over there in the create panel. Release the mouse button and then move the mouse up or down in order to set the height. Click the mouse button again in order to complete that box. We can exit out of creation mode by right-clicking, as we saw, or by choosing another tool, such as the select and move tool up here on the main toolbar. When you activate that tool, you get a manipulator or gizmo. Gizmo is just English slang for some sort of machine or small device. The move gizmo is a manipulator that allows us to change the position of the selected objects. Click and drag on the arrows, labeled X, Y, and Z, to move the object in the three cardinal directions of 3D space. And in 3ds Max, Z is the elevation or the height. I can click on any object to select it. It'll be highlighted in blue and then I can move it around. And of course I can do that in the other viewports, such as the top view here. I can right-click to not lose my selection, but activate that top view and then continue to move objects around. And that's the basics of creating primitives using the interactive method.

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