Make the scene lived-in - 3ds Max Tutorial

- [Instructor] Now we're ready to make our next step, which is, make this scene look like someone lives here. So in order for us to achieve that, a good strategy is just to add a few extra objects to increase the depth of the scene. So I have another scene with a few objects that we can play with, so I'm just going to merge those objects here. So I'm going to go over to File, Import, Merge. And in here, just open this file here, Extra Objects. So you can see that we have add the different objects already in this single scene. So I'm going to click on Open, then I'm going to select all of them and click OK. I have a conflict of material name, it's my base material. This is the same material that I create, and I always call this same name. Either way, it's fine, I'm going to use the same material and just wait for it a little bit, and there you go. So, we have all the objects here, and you're free to look around and see which one works. We're not going to use every single one of them here, so you're free to use whichever you like. You can see that we have a number of different objects. I have this book here that is already mapped, and we have a few textures that we can apply. I gave you five different textures for books, and you can use the template that I have and just paint over different books if you want to increase the number of books in your scene. So I'm going to begin with the book. We select this, and then we can move to a better view and just move this around. So, the trick here is just try to add a few objects and don't make them way too perfect in their position. Also, you should try to make small changes in the rotation and the size of these objects. For example, if you put in more than one book, they shouldn't be identical. So try to change the size. One good strategy for that is just add a modifier, which is called FFD, and we can use the two-by-two-by-two in this case, and then I can just open, access the control points, and as you can see, I can change pretty quickly the size of this, and it's going to do a really nice job in resizing this book. So I'm just going to delete this modifier for now. And then, it's just a matter of placing this and making sure that you have a good staging going on. So, in here, just move this over. I think I want this book standing. And for me to rotate this easier, it's best if I move this pivot around, so I'm going to click on this panel here, and then I'm going to go over to affect pivot only, and then I'll move this over, just something like this, just so it's easier for me to rotate. And then I can click this again, and then I'll rotate in this axis, so something like this is probably pretty good. As you can see, this book is way too big for this area. So I'm just going to place this, and then I'll add the FFD modifier again, and then I'll just select this, start points here, and then I'll just move them over, something like that, looks good, OK? This is probably way too large now, but just make the changes you feel are needed, and then you can move on to add more books and move them around. I'll move on to other objects, so you can see the bigger picture of what I mean. So we have a small cactus here that we can put in either end table, something like this. I think I'll move this over to the other side because I'm planning to put the vase plant on the left side, so I'll put this on the right. So it's just a matter of placing these objects, and you can rotate them around just a little bit just to make it look more natural, if you like. We're just placing objects. You're pretty free to do as you wish at this point. So I'm going to place this plant here. Always check the cameras that you have available. If you want, you can change them, but make sure that you're not adding extra geometry that won't be seen in the final render. So, we have three cameras here, and you can check if those objects are being seen because if they're not, then they're not needed. So just move to the third camera here so that I can place this a little better, something like this, probably, OK. Then I can switch back the perspective and continue on with the object. So, pretty straightforward, as you can see. Another thing that I want to mention is that it would be nice if we broke down some of these perfect symmetry that we have here. So try to move some of these objects around. So just, this is a little off, but we can move one of these lamps just so it's not perfectly symmetrical, and you can even slightly rotate it. So I'm going to disable the angles map so that I can rotate this freely. Then I'll just break this down a little bit. Remember, like I said before, it's just the small details, it's just small adjustments here. We don't want to do overdo anything. So we're just making this slightly more interesting by breaking down some of the symmetry, OK? So just small details. As you can see, I think I moved this over, so I just put it back to place. There you go. And you continue on with this. With these shoes, a good idea is, if you put them in your scene, try not to make them this perfect. I mean, you want to leave some shoes around, probably you're imagining that someone dropped them, you know, arrived from work or something, and then just removed the shoes and left them there, so they wouldn't be this perfect. What I would do here is just rotate any of these just so it's not perfect. Actually, I'm going to turn angles map on again and just remember that you want to make sure that these look natural, so I would do something like this if I would place them in the scene, just so they look more natural and just rotate this one as well, just so it's messy. And the same thing goes for everything else here. Just try to place, this is a pencil, don't place this pen freely, maybe you put this pen over this notebook here, and you just rotate it so it's more natural. So try to make everything look as natural as possible, as freely placed as possible. So just try to rotate this over, but this is really hard, so I'm going to leave this as it is. But you got the picture, right? So just placing everything around and making sure that everything is as messy as you possibly can. And we'll move on, in the next video, you'll see what I did with my scene, and we'll move on to our next step.