..::egg cell::..

Note from the author: It's come to my attention that the Egg Cell tutorial does not render correctly in 3ds max 5 (ie it takes forever). This is due to an addition to the Raytrace map. To rectify this, change all Oren Nayar Blinn shaders to Blinn and check off "Treat Refractions as Glass" in the Raytrace map's Refraction Material Extensions rollout. This is a temporary measure and can be fixed by grabbing the bugfix / service pack releases made available from Discreet.

As a rule, organic objects are quite difficult to emulate due to their irregular materials and shapes. For this tutorial, we shall attempt to create a human cell that is being fertilized by IVF; quite odd I know, but it is quite a challenge as we will be using extensive raytracing to create the required refractions. The modelling itself is quite basic, but getting the materials right to produce a kind of cross section / 2D see-through of a 3D image is quite a challenge in itself. For a job like this, the thing to remember is that your end result is only as good as your source material, so always ensure you acquire as much as possible!

	We shall begin by creating the initial cell structure. For this, we will create two Sphere primitives. Create the first one with a radius of 105 and 64 segments and label it 'Cell Interior'. Create the second with 120 radius and 64 segments and label it 'Cell Exterior'. Group the two spheres and label it 'Cell Group'.
	On the Cell group, apply an FFD 4x4x4 modifier. Navigate to the Control Points sub-object and deform the cage by grabbing the end points and moving and scaling them down so the mesh deforms to a point so it is indented at the right side and is pulled out at the left as illustrated.
	The cage and geometry should now resemble that shown. Select it if not already, and open the group. Select the Cell Interior sphere and apply a Normal modifier. Check on the Flip Normals box. This will allow the interior geometry to be viewed without viewing the exterior.
	The cell will be held in place by a 'large' glass vacuum tube. In the front viewport, create the cross section by creating a closed spline like that illustrated; the spline has to be closed due to shadows and refraction purposes. Label it 'Sucker'.
	Add a Lathe modifier to the spline. Select the Axis sub-object and rotate the axis if needed so it is pointing in the right direction. Offset the Axis down so it creates a gap at the right side of the 'tube', as illustrated. Position the 'Sucker' so it touches the left side of the cell exterior sphere.
	Create a Tube primitive with Radius 1 of 4, Radius 2 of 5 and 18 sides. Label it 'Needle'. Set the height to 600 and rotate and position it so it intersects the cell in the middle of the right hand side, directly opposite the 'Sucker' object. Ensure the tube 'pierces' the 'Cell Interior' sphere by an adequate amount.
	Create a Geosphere primitive with a Radius of 50, 2 Segments and set to Icosa. Label this 'Divided Cell'. Position it in the center of the cell geometry. Copy the Geosphere and position it so they just intersect. Select the 'Divided Cell' and create a Boolean Compound object.
	Click on 'Pick Operand B' button and select the second 'Divided Cell' Geosphere. Change the Operation from Subtraction to Union. Apply a Relax Modifier and a Meshsmooth Modifier and set the iterations to 2. Finally, apply a Noise modifier and set the x, y and z strength to 10. Check on Fractal and set the Roughness to 0.3. Non-Uniform scale the object down to about 70% along the x-axis to squish the dividing cell, then Uniform Scale it up to about 140%.
	Select the 'Cell Exterior' sphere and apply a Volume Select modifier. Change the Stack Selection Level to Face. Select the Gizmo sub-object and in the Top viewport, scale the gizmo down along the y-axis so about 4 faces high are selected around the geometry as illustrated.
	Create a Geosphere primitive and label it 'Large Bits'. Set the Radius to 10, Segments to 3 and the Geodesic Base Type to Icosa. Ensure Base to Pivot is checked on. Apply a Noise modifier, check on Fractal, set the Roughness to 0.1, and the x, y and z strengths to 10.
	Copy the 'Large Bits' Geosphere and label it 'Medium Bits'. Set the Geosphere's Radius to 5 and the Segments to 2. Copy the 'Medium Bits' Geosphere and label it 'Small Bits'. Set the Geosphere's Radius to 3. Copy the 'Medium Bits' Geosphere and label it 'Particles'. Select the 'Large Bits' Geosphere and create a Scatter Compound Object.
	Click on the Pick Distribution Object and select the 'Cell Exterior' Sphere. Set the Duplicates to 30. Ensure Use Selected Faces is checked on. Change the Distribution Object Parameters to Random Faces. Under the Transforms Scaling rollout, check on Use Maximum Range and Lock Aspect Ratio and enter 20 in Scaling's x spinner. Under the Display rollout, check on 'Hide Distribution Object'.
	Select the 'Medium Bits' Geosphere, create a Scatter compound object and set the 'Large Bits' Scatter as the Distribution Object. Set the Duplicates to 100. Under the Transforms Scaling rollout, check on Use Maximum Range and Lock Aspect Ratio and enter 50 in Scaling's x spinner. Under the Display rollout, check on 'Hide Distribution Object'.
	Select the 'Small Bits' Geosphere, create a Scatter compound object and set the 'Medium Bits' Scatter as the Distribution Object . Set the Duplicates to 100. Under the Transforms Scaling rollout, check on Use Maximum Range and Lock Aspect Ratio and enter 20 in Scaling's x spinner. Under the Display rollout, check on 'Hide Distribution Object'.
	Instead of using particles, we will position any additional bubbles or material using Scatter on a deformed Plane primitive. Create a Plane primitive so it's pivot point is in the center of the cell. Set the length to 1000 and the width to 1500. Set the Length and Width segments to 30. Label this 'Particles Distribution'. Add a Noise modifier and set the z strength spinner to 2000.
	Select the 'Particles' Geosphere and create a Scatter Compound Object. Select the 'Particles Distribution' plane as the distribution object. Set the Duplicates to 200 and set Distribute Using to 'Area'. Under the Transforms Scaling rollout, check on Use Maximum Range and Lock Aspect Ratio and enter 20 in Scaling's x spinner. Under the Display rollout, check on 'Hide Distribution Object'.
	Hide the 'Particles Distribution' plane. Create a large Geosphere; Radius 850, 2 Segments and set to Icosa. Check off Base to Pivot. Label it 'Background'. Add a Normal Modifier and check on Flip Normals. Position it so it's center is about the center of the Cell geometry. In the Geosphere’s properties, turn off Cast Shadows and Receive Shadows. The modelling is now complete... now to set up the materials!
	Create a new Blinn material and label it 'Background'. Assign it to the Background Geosphere. In the Diffuse slot, add a new Noise map, label it 'Bg Noise', amend Color 1 to RGB 80,27,27 and Color 2 to RGB 200,123,123. Change the Noise Type to Fractal and the Size to 100. Instance copy this noise map into the Bump slot.
	Create a new Blinn material and label it 'Glass'. Assign it to the 'Sucker' and 'Needle' objects. Set the Ambient and Diffuse colours to Black, the Specular Level to 300 and the Glossiness to 40. Add a Falloff map in the Opacity slot and label it 'Rim'. Set the Falloff Type to Fresnel and adjust the Mix Curve to that illustrated. Add a new Raytrace map in the Refraction slot, label it 'Glass Raytrace' and set the Refraction slot's spinner to 80.
	Create a new Oren-Nayar-Blinn material and Label it 'Cell Skin' and assign it to the 'Cell Exterior', 'Large Bits', 'Medium Bits' and 'Small Bits' objects. Unlock the Ambient and Diffuse, set Ambient to black and Diffuse to RGB 128,128,128. Set the Specular level to 160 and the Glossiness to 30.
	Create a new Mask map in the Opacity slot and label it 'Small Cells'. In the Map slot, create a new Speckle map and label it 'Small Cells Diffuse'. Set the Size spinner to 50, Color 1 to black and Color 2 to white. Create a new Falloff map in the 'Small Cells' Mask's Mask slot and amend the Mix Curve so it is like the one illustrated. Label it ‘Small Cells Falloff’.
	Back at the top level of the material, Instance-copy the 'Small Cells' Mask into the Bump slot and set the Bump spinner to 80. Add a new Raytrace map in the Refraction slot, label it 'Cell Skin Raytrace' and set the Refraction spinner to 50.
	Copy the 'Cell Skin' material and label it 'Cell Inner'. Assign it to the 'Cell Interior' object. Check on 2-Sided. Navigate to the Opacity mask map, and label it ‘Cell Inner Opacity’. In the Speckle map in the mask’s map slot, amend the Size spinner to 10 and label it ‘Inner Edge Opacity’.
	Back up to the mask map, create a new Mix map in the Mask slot; label this ‘Falloff Mix’. Swap the black & white colours. In the Color 2 slot, create a new Falloff map and label it ‘Perp Falloff’. In the ‘Falloff Mix’ map, add a new Falloff map in the Mix Amount Slot. Label this ‘Fresnel Falloff’. Swap the black and white colours in this new map and change the Falloff Type to Fresnel.
	Navigate your way back up to the top level of the material, and remove the map from the Bump slot by dragging a None (empty) map slot to the Bump slot. Increase the Refraction spinner to 80.
	Copy the ‘Cell Skin’ material and label it ‘Dividing Cells’. Assign it to the ‘Divided Cell’ object. Amend the Diffuse colour to RGB 64,64,64. Remove the Mask map from the Opacity slot and create a new Falloff map; label this ‘Dividing Opacity’. Change the Falloff Type to Fresnel and amend the Mix curve to that illustrated.
	In the top (Front) slot, create a new Speckle map and label it ‘Dividing Opacity Speckle’. Amend the Color 1 to white and Color 2 to RGB 180,180,180 (light grey). Increase the Size to 100. Back at the top of the material, instance copy the opacity slot into the Bump slot and set the Bump spinner to 30.
	Copy the ‘Dividing Cells’ material and label it ‘Particles’. Assign it to the Particles scatter object. Amend the Diffuse colour to RGB 200,200,200. In the Opacity Falloff map, rename it to ‘Particles Opacity’. Rename the Speckle map in the top (front) slot to ‘Particles Opacity Speckle’, and change Color 2 to RGB 82,82,82. Back at the top of the material, amend the Refraction spinner to 10.
	Now that the materials are all set up, all we need to do is light the scene. Create an Omni light with raytraced shadows in the Top viewport and position it to the right of the encompassing Geosphere as illustrated. Amend the RGB value of the light to 200,123,123, set the Multiplier to 2 and the Contrast spinner to 50.
	Copy the Omni light and position it directly behind the cell just inside the background Geosphere. Set this new Omni light’s Multiplier to 4, change the Decay to Inverse Decay and set the Start spinner value to 200. Check on Show. Select the first Omni and exclude the background Geosphere from both Illumination and Shadow Casting.
	You may also want to use multipass Depth of Field to focus of the center of the cell and subtly blur the surrounding particles. You may also want to add some contrast in Post to bring out the black lines more. The additional image here illustrates a microscope version of the scene, with all colour taken out of the environment.
	Zip file to accompany.

Initially published: 3dworld website (tutorial no longer on 3dw site due to redesign), February 2002.

Copyright © Pete Draper, February 2002. Reproduction without permission prohibited.

www.xenomorphic.co.uk