Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials >  Modeling Tutorials > Modeling Level Design > 
Adding a Streetlight Using XRefs
 
 
 

You can add a streetlight to the scene using XRef Objects. First, you will open the streetlight scene and use XRefs to help correct the scale of the streetlight before you add it to the street.

Use XRef objects:

Scale the street lamp:

  1. Choose File > XRef Scene.
  2. In the XRef Scene dialog, click Add.
  3. Navigate to the \tutorials\level_design directory and select toonstreet.max. A thumbnail appears in the Open File dialog when you highlight the name in the list.

    The path and name of the XRef scene appears in the XRef Scenes dialog. After a pause, the scene also appears in the viewports.

  4. Close the Xref Scene dialog.
  5. Click Select and Uniform Scale and then select the street light. Scale down the street lamp using the scale gizmo so that it fits in the scene.
  6. Move the scaled lamp so it's on the street corner.

  7. Use Arc Rotate to rotate the viewport for a look from a different angle. Scale the streetlight some more, if necessary.

  8. Now remove the XRef Scene. Choose File > XRef Scene to open the XRef Scene dialog. Select toonstreet.max and then the Remove button. The lamp post stands alone, in place and proportionate to the street.

  9. Save the lamp as mystreetlight.max.
  10. Choose File > Open and choose toonstreet.max again. After a pause the file opens.
  11. In the Perspective viewport, navigate to the street corner where you had moved the street light. Zoom in if necessary.
  12. On the File menu, choose XRef Objects.
  13. On the XRef Objects dialog click Create XRef Record from File, and then navigate to the \tutorials\level_design directory, and chose mystreetlight.max.
  14. From the XRef Merge dialog, choose the object LampPostwSign. Click OK.
  15. Close the XRef Objects dialog.

    The lamp appears on the street corner, where you had scaled it.

  16. Select the street light, then right-click and choose Move from the quad menu. Move the streetlight to the corner near the yellow-and-black striped barricade.

    Next, you will create a light to associate with the streetlight geometry.

Add lights:

  1. Select the streetlight if it isn't already selected.
  2. In the Display panel, in the Hide rollout, click Hide Unselected.
  3. Use Zoom Extents Selected so the streetlight is clearly visible in the viewport.
  4. On the Create panel, click the Lights button.
  5. In the Object Type rollout, click Omni, and then turn on AutoGrid.
  6. Move your cursor over the streetlight. A creation tripod is displayed and is projected from whichever face you touch.

  7. Click to create the light on the surface of the globe.
  8. Raise the light up slightly above the globe.

  9. On the Modify panel, in the General Parameters rollout, turn on Shadows.
  10. On the Intensity/Color/Attenuation Parameters rollout, in the Decay group, choose Inverse Square as the type of Decay.
  11. In the Near Attenuation group, turn on Show and change Start to 20. You can see the Decay Start Attenuation gizmo in the viewport.
  12. On the Display panel, in the Hide rollout, click Unhide All so that you can judge the decay size in the scene geometry.

  13. Go to the Modify panel, and turn off Show in the Intensity/Color/Attenuation rollout when you've set the Decay.

Clone the lamps and lights:

  1. Change the lower Perspective viewport to Wireframe shading.
    TipIf you want, you can disable the two viewports on the left. Right-click to activate the viewport, then press D to disable. This will prevent unnecessary redraws.
  2. Press H on the keyboard to select objects in the scene by name. Choose Omni 01 and the LampPostwSign object.
    TipPress the Ctrl key to select multiple objects in the dialog.
  3. On the main toolbar, in the Named Selection Sets field, name the selection lit lamp.

    Now you can retrieve the light and the lamp in one touch.

  4. Hold down the Shift key, then move the selection to create a clone of the lit lamp.
  5. In the Clone Options dialog, choose Instance, so you can control all the lights by changing one.

  6. Repeat the last two steps to add streetlights up and down both sides of the street. If performance is slow, use wireframe shading when you drag in the lamps.

Add global lighting:

Next, you will give a little color to the Omni lights and add directional lighting.

  1. Select the light Omni01.
  2. On the Modify panel, In the Intensity/Color/Attenuation rollout, General Parameters rollout, click the color swatch next to the Multiplier field.

    A color selector appears.

  3. Click in the left middle of the color selector to choose an orange color for the Omni light. Close the dialog.

  4. To add directional lighting to your scene, right-click in the Top viewport and press Alt+W to maximize it.
  5. In the Create Panel, click the Lights icon.
  6. On the Object Type rollout, click Target Direct.
  7. In the Top viewport, click and drag from the lower left of the geometry to the center of the street.

    The target directional light is displayed in the viewport.

  8. Adjust the size of the light coverage by using the Hotspot/Beam spinner In the Directional Parameters rollout. Notice that increasing the hotspot/beam automatically expands the falloff/field as well. When you decrease the hotspot/beam, the falloff/field remains unchanged.

  9. Click Maximize Viewport Toggle to display the four viewports again, then rotate a perspective viewport so you can see the directional light.
  10. Select and move the directional light to raise it up. The target stays on the street.

  11. On the Modify panel, in the Name and Color group, click the color swatch. Click Add Custom Colors and select a medium to dark blue to give the light a blue color for a moonlight setting.

  12. On the toolbar, in the Selection filters, choose Geometry from the list. This excludes the lights from the selection operation.
  13. In the Top viewport, drag a selection rectangle around the entire scene in the viewport. Do a Zoom Extents All out if necessary.

    All the geometry except for the lights are selected.

  14. You can name this selection Vertex Lighting in the Named Selection Sets field on the Main toolbar.

Create vertex lighting:

Here you can take the lighting information and map it into the color of the vertices.

  1. Continue from before, or load city_vertex_color.max from the \tutorials\level_design directory.
  2. If you do choose to load the supplied scene file, then choose Vertex Lighting from the named selection sets on the toolbar.
  3. On the Utilities panel, click the More button, then choose Assign Vertex Colors.
  4. If Mapping is on in the Render Options group, turn it off. This means to use the map's colors rather than the scene lighting.
  5. Turn on Shadows.
  6. Click Assign To Selected.

    A series of calculations will result. You will observe a progress bar flying by furiously at the bottom of the screen, rendering vertices for each of the objects in the scene. When this finishes, left-click in the viewport to deselect everything in the scene to see the affect of the lighting without any selection highlights.

    The scene is a little dark, so you'll make some adjustments to the lights.

  7. Right-click in the active viewport, and from the Display quadrant, choose Unhide All.
  8. Click Select by Name, and select Omni20 through Omni28. Make sure Omni01 is not selected.

  9. Right-click in the active viewport, and from the Display quadrant, choose Hide Selection.
  10. Select Omni01.
  11. In the Modify panel, change the Multiplier value to 2.
  12. Select the Direct01 light and turn on Shadows.
  13. Choose Vertex Lighting from the named selection sets on the toolbar, and in the Modify panel > Assign Vertex Colors rollout, again click Assign.

    Next you'll use Vertex Paint to change some of the vertex lighting.

Next

Painting Vertex Color in a Level

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