General Rollercoaster questions about making one in 3ds max 7..

#1

Hi guys,

Im new here, and was about to build a coaster in 3d studio max and stumbled across this forum where it would seem people are having a contest on making one.

I have purchased 3d studio max 7 and would like some tips on getting started if possible…

  1. What tools shall I use to actually make the coaster cars. is there a tutorial for the technique you describe.

I’ve already drawn front, top and left and right views for it so have a plan to work from.

  1. How shall I construct the track and once again, what tools and is there a tutorial?

The track is simply going to be a straight with a big climb at the start for the coaster to roll down from on the other side. there also needs to be a pulley mechanism depicted as taking the coaster up. Any ideas for that and a tutorial anywhere?

  1. When it comes to animating it, I just want it to slowly go up the hill of the track and then roll down the other side. Any ideas on doing that?

Thankyou 1000000000000000000% in advance for any help at all.

Your new forum user,

Maniac618

#2

“What tools shall I use to actually make the coaster cars.”
“How shall I construct the track”

Hmm… wait!
You seem to be absolutely new to 3ds max.
What about doing all tutorials shipping with 3ds max first?
There´s no “do it that way”. You need to grow your skills and find your way like everybody does.
You can´t learn it from now till tomorrow.
If you try it now, you will not have success I think.

Answers:

  1. Polys, Nurbs… whatever you want. You can also click each vertex into 3d space and connect them poly by poly :buttrock:

  2. Loft

  3. The rollercoaster as a rule based particle system or the way the others do it.

André

#3

I agree with ACantarel. Work on the tutorials in Max first. You would be way overloaded if you started working on the coaster now, with only a couple weeks left. It has to be physics based, which requires much more learning with Reactor. Then testing, tweaking, modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering. Start with the basics.

But if you feel like going for it anyways, this is what I did:

used a spline and loft for the track
Reactor for the physics
lathe, mesh, and poly modeling for enviroment and the coaster

Heres a link to my coaster page http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=180952
you might find a few tips in there.

good luck to ya, 3d Max is the best :thumbsup:

Sir_Vulcan

#4

thanks guys. I think I’m going to make the coaster cars by turning a block into an editable poly and then move the points around to shape it.

#5

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