Standard and extended primitives

- [Teacher] Now let's take a look at some of the modeling tools in 3ds Max. We're gonna start with creating objects, and we're gonna start off with Standard and Extended Primitives. Now a Primitive is really just a basic shape of an object that we can use to create more complex objects. Now you can create objects in one of two places. We have a Create menu, and under this you can see we have Standed and Extended Primitives, as well as a number of other types of objects.

So we really have a wealth of objects that we can create in 3ds Max. And we also have the Create tab over here. Now we have a Geometry button, and all we have to do is pull down the type of object we wanna create. In this case, we're gonna do Standard Primitives. So I'm gonna go into a perspective viewport here. And let's go ahead and just create some of these objects just to understand what they are and some of the basic parameters of these. So we're gonna start off with a Box. Now when you click on this, it's going to give you a Creation menu as well as Basic Parameters.

Now I'm just gonna leave this at default. And let's go ahead and left-click and drag, and you can see we're pulling out the base, and then when we let go, we can pull up the height. Now once we have that, we can go to these parameters and change them. So if I wanna change the length, the width, or the height, I can either dial them in or type them in. Now we can also add detail, but in order to see that, I need to make sure I have Edged Faces turned on. And so if I want, I can add detail to the length, the width, as well as the height.

And this detail can be used in modelling. So if we wanna reshape this, we may need to have a specific amount of detail in order to do that. Now I'm gonna go ahead and hit Delete. Now let's go on to another type of object. So now I'm gonna go ahead and create a Sphere. I'm gonna leave it at the defaults, and just left-click and drag. Now as you can see, this Sphere is basically arranged like the pole of a globe. So it's all the vertices and edges converge at the top, and it has kind of latitude and longitude lines.

Now we can change this just like we did with the Box. We can change the radius, we can change the number of segments, we can add or subtract detail, we can also only draw part of a Sphere. So if we want, we can create a hemiSphere, which cuts it this way, or we can slice it, which cuts it the other way. So here we go, we can slice it this way. Now we also have another Sphere, and that's called the GeoSphere.

Now a GeoSphere is a little bit different, in that it doesn't have poles. It doesn't have latitude and longitude lines. It's kind of more regularly arranged. But we still have creation parameters. We can add segments, so we can add or subtract detail to this. We can create a different type of base. So we can create what's called an Icosahedron, or an Octahedron, or a Tetrahedron as the base. And then we can also do Hemisphere.

Now in addition to these, we have a number of other types. We have Cylinders and Cones and Tubes, and these all work kinda the same. So let's go ahead and just draw a few of these. The Cylinder, basically you draw out the base, and then lift up the height, and then we can add in cap segments or height segments. The Cone is very similar, except we can change the size of one of these. So if I bring it all the way down to nothing, it's a pure Cone, otherwise it's an irregularly shaped Cylinder.

And then we also have the Tube. So we have two radiuses, the outside radius, the inside radius, as well as the height. So as you can see, we've got radius one, radius two, and the height. And again, we can change these values as we work with it. Now I'm gonna go ahead and select all of these, and delete it. Now in addition to these, we have a couple of others. We have a simple Plane, which is as described.

It's just a flat object. And we can change our width and height for our segments. And then we also have a Torus, which is a donut shape. So we have two radiuses, the big radius of the outside as well as the radius of the circumference here. And then we also have one that's called a Teapot, which is basically your standard Utah teapot, which is very familiar to computer graphics veterans. And then finally, we have Text.

So all we have to do is just click in here, and we've got text, and we can go through, change our text, change our font, change our size, and so on. So if I want to, I could take this, change the font, and work with it that way. Now these are what we call Standard Primitives. If I want, I can also go to Extended Primitives, which takes some of these basic shapes and give them another additional parameter.

So for example, the OilTank. If I left-click and drag on that, you can see how it's kind of a cylinder, but it's a cylinder with a rounded top. So you can see how you can make this into kind of a capsule shape. Now we also have a Capsule, which is basically a Sphere that's been extruded to make this shape. Now another important one is the Chamfer Box, which is basically a standard Box that has chamfered edges.

So you can see how these edges are rounded. Very easy way to make a rounded-edged Box. And if we want, we can increase the number of fillet segments to round off that a little bit more. And then we can also play with the size of that fillet to play with the rounding of the Box. Now other additional ones are the Hedra, which is basically a Tetrahedron, a Cube, a Dodecahedron, so these are standard geometric shapes.

We have a Torus Knot, which as you can see is kind of a wacky, curvy shape. Another really important one is the L- and C-Extrude. So let's go ahead and draw that. I'm gonna do an L-Extrude here. So what we do is we draw out this, basically a corner, and then we can extrude it. So as you can see, there's three clicks: one for the angle, one for the height, and one for the depth.

So we have Side and Front Width, as well as Height and number of segments on each side. So this is a great way to draw things like corners or L-shaped objects. Then we also have one that's a little bit similar called the C-Extrude, and as you can see, it's just like the letter C. So it's basically an L-Extrude with one more extra corner. So as you can see, we've got a number of Basic Primitives that we can use within 3ds Max.

Now in addition to these, we have other Primitives that are even more specific. So you can get things like stairways, doors, other types of objects that are actually very, very specific.