CREATE A PRERIGGED ROBOT

AUTHOR

Donovan teaches modelling and animation classes at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. He has worked in 3D since 2002. 3ds Max, ZBrush, Mudbox and Maya are his favourite 3D programs. www.donoman.com

PART 3/4

Welcome to Part 3 in our four-part series on creating a unique fully rigged robot using only a CAT Rig in 3ds Max. Applying a texture using UVs is an essential first step in adding realism to many 3D scenes. The same applies to the robot we are creating. The texture alone will inform the viewer that the robot is old or new, metallic or wooden, and even if it is transparent or solid. What makes this tutorial so unique is that UVs are not generally applied to bone objects, and there are some very specific steps you have to take with the CAT Rig to accomplish this. Here you will learn how to lay out UVs for your bone objects using an Unwrap UVW Modifier.

Laying out UVs can sometimes be baffling but, in this tutorial, I limit what I do with UVs to just a few very specific tools, and I am able to get consistent results very quickly. There is a special trick I introduce to allow you to export a substitute bone object out of 3ds Max, by transferring the UVs to this regular polygonal object in order to take it into a 3D painting program such as