However, to be able to create the rest of the model, you should block in the major volumes and anything else that’s not repeated more than once. The majority of the scene is laid out parametrically. To make the environment appear a little lived-in, we’ll finish up by examining how to randomise open windows and blinds in the windows as well as adding texture variations to the marble floor. Bertrand's scene is available for sale on Turbosquid.Įven though modular design exists all around us, an issue when reproducing it in CG is that repetition can start to make scenes look unrealistically perfect.

We’ll examine techniques to make an almost entirely procedural modular atrium by creating glass facades, an elaborate elevator shaft, plus a skylight and tiled floor. In this tutorial we’ll use a scene by Bertrand Benoit to explain how RailClone can be used to model architecture inspired by the Ludwig Erhard Haus, better known locally as Gürteltier (Armadillo) or Berlin’s chamber of commerce. Because RailClone automatically instances geometry and render time, the source meshes can contain a tremendous amount of detail with little impact on render times and memory consumption, even if the scene contains millions or even billions of polygons. It allows you to define simple construction rules to generate one dimensional and two dimensional arrays using a node-based interface. The RailClone plugin for 3ds Max is ideal for this kind of task. Whole buildings can be created with just a few objects, and when combined with procedural modelling techniques, you can very quickly populate entire scenes in a way that’s easy to update and fast to iterate. This makes modern architecture an ideal candidate for 3D modelling. A huge part of the built environment is constructed using repeated modular components. What do you see? Repetition, and lots of it. Next time you’re in a city, examine the way modern buildings are constructed.

3ds max architecture modeling