Wooden Barrel

In this tutorial I'll show you an easy way to make a wooden barrel like the ones bellow.

1.    As always you might want to start Max or create a new scene.

2.    In the create panel create a line in a shape of a "L" in the front view.  Feel free to change the steps to say a value of 12.  Overall it should be is a vertical, shorter horizontal, tiny vertical, again a horizontal, a vertical and a small horizontal line connecting to the first line.  Make sure though that when you create these lines don't create them as a individual lines make it all one spline.   You might use the 3D Snap for a better and a quicker result.

3.    In the Modify panel apply a Edit Spline modifier to the line we just created.  Make sure that the Sub-Object button is clicked in and select the vertex from the pull down menu next to it.  Select all the bottom vertexes in the front view and move them a bit in the x axis towards the right.  Now select the upper 2 vertexes and right click with the mouse on one of them.  Chouse Bezier from the pull down menu.  For the bottom vertexes of the vertical lines select Bezier Corner.

4.    Now play around with them to create a spline like the one bellow by moving the vertex's green boxes.  I really don't know what to call them so they are just green boxes to me then.  Try not to disturb the bottom horizontal lines since they are the base of the object.  That's why we selected Bezier Corner for the 2 bottom vertexes.

5.    While still having the spline selected apply a Lathe modifier.   The Degrees should be set to 360 and you may need to click one of the Align buttons.  I clicked the Max button and it turned out to look like the image couple steps bellow.  You may want to change the Segments to improve the quality of you object.  I selected a rather larger value of 60.

6.    Open up Material Editor and set the Defuse to Bitmap.  I chose a the image that is at the bottom of the tutorial for the texture.  Changed the U and V Titling to 3 and apply to the object.

7.    In the Modifier panel apply a UVW Map and set it to Cylindrical.   Play around with the alignment to get a result as the one bellow.  I had to click on the X alignment to get what I have bellow.

8.    In the top view create a Torus around the barrel.  Switch to front view and change it's Radius 1 & 2 to get a better result.  Copy the Toruses and position them as in the image bellow.  For the each sets of 2 in the middle don't change their settings so that they have the same radiuses, but for the top and base one adjust them to fit on the barrel.  At least a half of the radius of the tube should be with in the barrel's wall.

9.    Again go the the Material Editor and select a new material.   For the Defuse chouse Bitmap and select the rusted metallic image that is for your convenience at the bottom of the tutorial.  Apply the texture to all of the Toruses you just created.  It should look now like the image bellow.

 

10.    In the top view port create a Cylinder with some height for the lid of the barrel.  Create the same material as for the barrel, but with the U & V Titling set to 1.  Apply a box UVW Map and place it over the opening of the barrel.   Congrats. You're done.

Materials:  Wood Boards, Rusted Metallic