3D Max Tutorial » Making a Glass Bottle

As requested by Burning Star IV, I’ve posted the tutorial I used to create the bottle with alterations made and included my own comments. (The tutor had so many typos!!!)

Note: This tutorial does not belong to me.

As the tutorial is very long I have cut it into two parts and posted in seperate posts. Please click the links below to read the tutorials. The first shows you how to create the geometric of the bottle and bottle cap. Whereas the second one teaches you how to add a label to your bottle and create the materials for the glass and bottle cap.

Tutorial 1 : Creating Geometries

Tutorial 2 : Materials and Rendering

3D » Final Entity: Fire Extinguisher

The final outcome of the Fire Extinguisher entity I made for my 3D project. It has more shiny materials and I’ve included some close-ups.

3D Max » Boat and Bottle Models

For our assessment we had to follow some tutorials and learn how to use 3D Studio Max (this was before I created my Fire Extinguisher) and model a glass bottle and a wooden boat. The bottle took forever to make because of its geometries. Alex helped me with the glass and label materials because I couldn’t get the label working or the correct orientation. I prefer to watch people doing it then do it for myself. I learn better that way.

Wooden Boat: Learning lofting and to use materials

This boat was created by lofting different splines. Took me about 3 attempts to get this final result because the UVW map of the wood material wasn’t facing the correct direction and wasn’t wrapping around the boat. Even Andrew, my tutor didn’t understand the problem. It was Andy who had the same problem as me who helped. Apparently the yellow map box had to be scaled differently so the material would wrap around. Instead of stretching it to fit the model, I had to stretch it vertically. Weird eh? Took me a while to find the button to make the hole for passenger seat compartment transparent. It was a black square before so users weren’t able to see the inside of the boat.
In the end I added a plane with a water image to make it seem like it was floating in the sea. However the lighting isn’t correct and therefore it doesn’t look realistic. I did try to have it washed ashore but it looked odd too. So I kept the file like this.

Glass Bottle: Modelling with splines and lathe

This next image is the Glass Bottle and Glass (which looks like plastic) tumbler I created. The tumbler was the first thing I ever created in 3D Studio Max. That was simple as it was just extruding a few polygons.
The Glass was such a huge task and some people in my class are still trying to create it. The hardest part of that particular tutorial was the bottle cap, because we had to weld vertices and delete different lines and if you get it wrong then you’re having to start again. It had so many people frustrated. Gaz did it so many times he has practically memorised the tutorial and can do it from scratch.
The bend modifier on the cap doesn’t show well, possibly because I require something to reflect it. There is a slight scratch on the bottle neck where the bottle of the glass shows through. I am not sure why this happens though.
I think this model looks realistic and it has taught me many techniques in 3D Max. The only problem I think is to make the cap a realistic metal material.

3D Max » Fire Extinguisher

I was set to create a 3D model of an existing object in the real world within 3D Studio Max. I chose to model a fire extinguisher because I thought this would be fairly easy and simple to make. To begin I researched on the components of a Fire Extinguisher and found that it consists of:

• Cylinder – Holds extinguishing agent and expelling gases
• Handle – Used to carry and hold extinguisher
• Trigger – When pressed, releases extinguishing agent through hose and nozzle
• Nozzle or Horn – Agent expelled through these items
• Pressure Gauge – Shows pressure of the extinguishing agent being stored in the cylinder.  The indicator should be in the green area.  CO₂ extinguishers do not have a pressure gauge.

I have modelled all these components except the Pressure Gauge, because I’ve seen many images of Fire Extinguishers without this component. Therefore I chose to save time and not create this section. However if I do have enough time and feel like creating this cylindrical glass piece, I shall. (It could give me more marks…)

I have used a variety of methods to model this object including Spline Modeling, Lofting and Scaling. Plus many modifiers to create smoothness of the materials and object. A problem that arose was creating the tube because I was trying out methods such as spline modeling and bending a cylinder shape. These weren’t valid methods because they wouldn’t create a smooth bend of the tube I wanted, so another method was necessary. Searching websites online I finally found a solution, a simple one too, all I had to do was draw a line in the shape of the tube I wanted and then alter the thickness of it. However I had to render the scene to see it in action which annoyed me because I thought I was doing it incorrectly.
Another was the label which looked stuck on to the cylinder. The material used for the main body was a bright Red colour. However once the label was placed above the two Red colours didn’t merge; therefore making the label seem separate from the whole product. To solve this issue I remade the mask, used to cover the rounded edge on the top of the label, in Photoshop to also mask over the Red coloured sections on the label. This then allows the main cylinder of the Fire Extinguisher to show through and not clash with that of the label image. It also makes the label seem like it is stuck onto the cylinder and is part of it.
The cylinder had to be stretched as well since it looked inproportional to the whole model. This was done by manoeuvring the vertices on the Y-axis.
A total of 6 materials was created for this model: Floor, Wall, Cylinder, Handle/Trigger, Hose, Tube.
To make the metal looking materials I made the specular level rather high and glossiness a low number to create a shine effect and the illusion of a metal component. These values and Diffuse colours were tweeked every now and then to create the perfect shade.

Here is the final result:

3D Max Model of a Fire Extinguisher

The only problem I have now is the handle/trigger of the Fire Extinguisher because it doesn’t seem 3D, but a matte component compared to the rest of the scene. I believe this is due to the handle/trigger having flat sides rather than a smooth and curved edge. I will have to play with this model further to try out different methods and possibly make some curved edges for the trigger. Hopefully it’ll then cause somewhat a shine effect like that of the hose. Another solution is to change the colour of the trigger/handle to a Red because I’ve seen many Fire Extinguishers with a Red handle.