Making abstract renders in 3d max and photoshop
by - Siner


 

Before you start:

You need photoshop and 3d max. This is one long tutorial so get some soda, put on a movie and relax. ;)

Step 1 Make the shape

I hope your smart enough to have opened 3d max already so if not do so. I have 3d max 5.1 so if your using a version higher then im sure you can stil get the same effect if not better. So first we need to get our basic render shape. So girst make a Geosphere

Now we have something like that. Simple huh well now we have to add modifers to it to make it all abstract. So while the Geosphere is selected goto the modifers window.

Now to add the modifers to get the shape we want. First add Noise. You need to change the settings to get the shape you want.

Those are the settings I used and this is what I got from those. That is what kind of shape we want to make the best abstract design. Its sharp and looks damn cool right now. :) Also add a smooth mesh modifer too to make it nice and smooth. ( View image for all the settings )

Step 2 Create the abstract

Now we will create the abstract shape that we will make our render from. See out main finished render is not one complete 3d max file but a large number of the same render put together in photoshop. Ok now that is all cleared up we must duplicate the shape we have a it will all start to make sense. Ok this one is simple, select your shape and hold shift and simply move it to the left or right to copy it.
( View image )

Now we have to add more modifers. So select all you shapes at once and goto the modifers window. We will first add TWIST.

That is the shape I got after I added the twist modiger. here are the settings I used to get the effect.

So now we have some crazy abstract shape. Look cool, but not nearly as cool as we can make it. Well one thing, if your shape doesnt look anything like mine dont worry cause the effect will be different each time you do it. Plus you can also add more modifers such as bend to get more effects. Ok so now copy that shape like you did before. But make sure you have all of them selected. You should get something like this. Remember you dont have to copy me exactly.

Step 3 Field of view

Now we have to change the camera angle of render. To do that simply take the Field of view tool and pull the view of the render back to get a nice angle of view.

Rendering!!

1.Make sure your image looks the way you want it to be rendered. So the pic above is what I want the render to look like.
2. Now add a material.I didn't go all out with material cause really I just am way to tired to make a nice material. But thats not stoping you from making one. If you dont know how to make them well quit 3d max now cause your hopeless ;)
3. Ok we have our material and now we need to light the render. This one you should also know. I hope...but I will show you anyway.
4. Ok that was easy huh. Ok we have a material, a light and its all good. Ok now to Render.

So click on that and then down to render. Or hit f10 , then this should come up.

4b. Ok now that you have your render size typed in and your AA filter hit the render button.
So the render should finish and now you have to save it. Just click save and save as a jpeg.

Render it again and again

Ok what we need to do now is get about 5 to 6 more renders. Why? So we can make the image. Ok so remember how we rotated the render around so it looked different each time. Ya you remember that. So just do that a few more times and render each of them. Get it? Didnt think so....Ok so rotate the render around so it looks different and is at a different angle to have a different look at it. Then once you like that render it save it. By the way if when you move the render around and you get really bad "lag" its because of the MESH SMOOTH literations, change it to 1 to make it go faster.

Examples of the render in different angles.

Take note that render I made is very smooth and doesnt have a nice sharp angles and points and it doesnt look that great. That means I should have spent more time on my render and more time on the Noise modifer and tried to get it to be sharper. Dont worry you can always fix that. Just start over :) It takes a few tries to get it right. ( View image )

Photoshop

Now open photoshop and open up all the renders you made. Make a new 1600x3000 canvas and start adding your renders. This is where it all comes together. So here we go. You made 5 or 6 renders right? Now add them to the blank canvas and move them around and resize them and rotate them around and stick them together to get a nice image.

That's it :)
Example done using this technique.

 
 
PS: Tutorial written with the permission of the Author!
Siner