How to convert 2d images into 3d models in 3ds Max?

[alan2]

I want to create 3d models of plants and leaves.

 

If I have the liberty of taking high quality photographs of a small plant or a leaf, from what angles I should take the photos and in what format/resolutions to save the photos and also do I need to have alpha channel info in the photos ( after processing in Photoshop)?

 

After above is done how to use these photos to create 3d models that looks like natural plant or a leaf but now in 3d? Is this possible to automate this process as much as possible or do I still need to draw manually lots of polygons and curves?

 

The goal is to create extremely realistic 3d model of small plant and a leaf that looks like the real plant or leaf without doing lots of manual work ( other than taking photos and Photoshop work).

[Nadimos]

take a ~90 degrees photo, then you patch the texture from it onto your mesh and resize the uv or mesh as needed, bake it, done. and for the rest of your questions, if you wanna put this into game, look at those files as example. there are also lots of meshes and reworked textures to be found here on the sites, but you must make sure to use permission. Edited February 11, 2011 by Nadimos

[alan2]

take a ~90 degrees photo, then you patch the texture from it onto your mesh and resize the uv or mesh as needed, bake it, done. and for the rest of your questions, if you wanna put this into game, look at those files as example. there are also lots of meshes and reworked textures to be found here on the sites, but you must make sure to use permission.

 

Thanks but unfortunatly its not clear to me yet as I am new to 3d modeling. So still looking for more details to my questions.

[Nadimos]

well what question do you have?

 

first of all, if you want to model something, you have to look for the tutorials of that program (there should be a sticky here) and then it might be smart to take also an example file from the game you are working for.

 

incase you just want to retexture something, refer to turotials for that, which are all out here on the sites.

 

as for the modelling i dont do max, but blender and there are lot of free tutorials on youtube aswell as articles on how to put things into game.

Edited February 11, 2011 by Nadimos

[sputnik421]

If you want to learn to use S Max get Gmax first and get happy with modelling with that. Work though at least 3 of the G Max tuts before installing S Max. S Max 2011has enough features to confuse an experienced modeller. So it is not recommended that a novice jump straight in, as you will find the water very deep.

 

Once you are happy the G Max UI move on to the S Max tuts and again do at lest 3, I would advise doing more. I only did 3 but I had been playing with G Max for some years, before moving to S Max. There are loads of plugings out on the net for S Max to find that will help your work-flow.

 

Here is a youtube channel I found very useful when I moved to S Max.

 

iwkya.co.uk