Software Trials - 3DS Max

Creating Metal Stairs

To create the stairs I used two basic shapes. I used a Box to create the steps, platform and the kicker at the sides of the steps and for the hand rail and the supporting legs I used a Cylinder.

Step 1:

I started by creating a simple 3D rectangle and once the sizes were in the proportions I wanted I cloned this object by right-clicking selecting clone. As I wanted to clone the step numerous times I used X, Y, Z buttons in the Parameters window. This duplicated the steps by the number I required and already aligned in position.

Step 2:

Next I created the kicker boards either side of the steps. Again I created a simple but longer 3D rectangle. Using the Move and Rotate Tools, by pressing W and E respectively, I positioned the kicker board against the steps on an angle so which matched the steepness of the steps. By using the Edit Poly function in the Modify tab I selected the vertices at one end of the shape I had created. I used the Rotation Tool, by pressing E, and turned the vertices at a slight angle so they would be flat against the ground. I also did the same at the other end of the kicker board so that it was level with the platform, which was my next step. However, before I moved onto the next step I had to have another kicker board on the other side of the steps and to do this I held down shift and using the Move Tool dragged it across.

Step 3:

I then created a platform by making a very thin and flat square shape by going to Create and selecting Box prior to moving into position at the top of the steps and the in between the kicker boards.

Step 4:

From the Create tab and choosing Cylinder I created a support from the platform to the ground. As I am making low polygon models I had to reduce the amount of polygons by going into the Modify tab and reducing the amount of segments in the Parameters menu.

Step 5:

I made the hand-rail by using the same principle as I made the supports in Step 4, but this time ensuring that they were much thinner.

As the Metal Stairs is now created I then unwrapped and textured them. See the blogs on Unwrapping and Texturing on how I achieved this.

After I had textured the objects I then linked them together by selecting the handrails, kicker boards, the platform and supports objects individually then linking them to the steps and clicking on the chain link icon in the top left of the interface.

 

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