3dsmax: Making of Window

1. MODELING

First, we create the walls and the window. I start with a simple box and I detach the faces that will make the window. I extrude multiple times these faces to make it look good. Don't forget to apply a different ID map to the different parts of the window: one for the glass, one for the wood. Refine the parts of the wall next to the window, we need more points to make this part look older. Select these points (use the soft selection) and apply a noise modifier with light values.

Stores are made with a simple box subdivided and extruded multiple times. We add a chamfered box in front of the window with a little noise on it and two extruded lines on the bottom to hold this thing. The curtains are two nurbs surfaces.



Create an arc and extrude it to make a tile for the roof. Copy it and rotate it to 180°. Move it next the first tile as they overlap a little. Select these two tiles and copy them to make the entire roof.



I add a wire made with a simple line that runs on the wall and add extra things like the flowers and the sign with the chains.

2. LIGHTING & TEXTURES

Now, let there be light. First we need the feel light from the sky. I locate the scene in the south of the France, so, we assume there is a bright blue sky. Place a sky bitmap on the environment background slot. Turn on the indirect light from the vray panel and in the environment panel choose a bright blue for the colour of the sky. Test different settings until you find something good.



We need also a direct like for the sun. Turn on the vray shadows and choose a yellowish colour. Move the light to have interesting shadows with the sign and the stores.



Now, put a bitmap of a tree on the projector map slot of the light as we want to have the shadow of a tree projected on the wall. Blur it a little to have more indistinct shadows. Make some test to have the sky and the sun light balanced.

 

Now we can apply textures to the scene. I made the textures with Photoshop and most of them are mixed bitmaps. The glass has a dirt map on the refraction, glossiness and bump slots.



Refine details and settings and let's go for the final render.

3. POSTPRODUCTION

The final look of the image is an old post card. So, open Photoshop and load the final image. First, create a new layer and copy the first layer into it. It's always useful to have the original picture as the first layer. Desaturate the second layer in order to have a black and white image. Now, blur it a little and change opacity to 50%.



Copy the second layer in a new layer and change blending mode to screen. This will blurry the brighter parts of the image.

Make a new hue/saturation adjustment layer. Turn on colorize and choose a sepia toning with the hue slider. Turn down the saturation to a low level.



Add a new layer with a dirt map and turn the blending mode to overlay. Adjust opacity to 50%. That's it!



Try different settings for the blending modes and opacity; you can create a whole range of fillings to your images. I hope this tutorial has been useful for you!


Best Regards,
Michel Belalbre & Evermotion Team