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Part VI: Advanced Modeling
Tutorial: Extruding a bullet
As a simple example that uses a couple of Mesh modifiers, you’ll create a single bullet using a hemisphere
object. You can create this simple object in other ways, but this offers some good practice.
To create a bullet using the Face Extrude modifier, follow these steps:
1. Select Create ➪ Standard Primitives ➪ Sphere, and drag in the Top viewport to create a sphere
object. Set the Radius value to 60 and the Hemisphere value to 0.5 to create half a sphere.
2. Right-click on the sphere object, and select Convert To ➪ Editable Poly in the pop-up quadmenu
to convert the hemisphere to an Editable Poly object.
3. Select the Top viewport, right-click on the viewport name, and select Views ➪ Bottom from the
pop-up menu (or press the B key) to switch to the Bottom view.
4. In the Selection rollout, click the Vertex button to enter Vertex subobject mode and enable the
Ignore Backfacing option. Then select the single vertex in the center of the hemisphere, and press
the Delete key.
5. In the Selection rollout, click the Border button to enter Border subobject mode, and then click
the edge of the hemisphere in the Front viewport to select the border of the hole that was created
by deleting the center vertex. Then click the Cap button in the Edit Borders rollout.
6. Select the Polygon button in the Selection rollout to enter Polygon subobject mode and select the
bottom polygon subobject in the Perspective viewport after rotating the object around. Then
select Modifiers ➪ Mesh Editing ➪ Face Extrude to apply the Face Extrude modifier to the selected
polygon face. Set the Amount value to 200.
7. Select Create ➪ Standard Primitives ➪ Cylinder, and drag in the Bottom viewport to create a thin
Cylinder object that is just wider than the extruded hemisphere. Then move the new Cylinder
object until it is positioned at the end of the bullet object.
Figure 26.8 shows the completed simple bullet.
ProOptimizer modifier
Although the latest game consoles are getting much better at handling lots of polygons, sometimes you’ll
want to reduce a high-resolution model. For example, if you have a high-res statue in your scene, you
might want the same statue to be lower-res when used as part of the background. Max offers an excellent
modifier that enables you to reduce the total number of polygons in a model while maintaining its shape.
When first applied, the ProOptimizer modifier doesn’t do anything. To use it, you need to select the set-
tings first and then click the Calculate button. The settings found in the Optimization Options rollouts let
you define which vertices can be removed. For example, you can set the optimization to Crunch Borders,
Protect Borders, or Exclude Borders. A border is an edge connected to a single face. The Crunch Borders
option makes the borders fair game for being optimized. This can yield the greatest amount of reduction
but also can change the surface of the model. The Protect Borders option minimizes the amount of reduc-
tion at the borders, and the Exclude Borders option removes any border faces from being considered for
reduction. The last choice limits the amount of reduction that is possible, but rigidly maintains the surface.
Other settings let you specify the Material Boundaries, Textures, and/or UV Boundaries off-limits.
Additional settings protect any applied Vertex Colors and Normals. The Merge tools cause all vertices and/
or faces within a given Threshold to be merged before optimizing the mesh. This helps to eliminate any
extra vertices or co-planar faces that could cause problems. Finally, the Sub-Object Selection setting lets
you preserve a given selection of vertices and makes it possible to optimize only a portion of the model.

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