Q:I am trying to create a page turn effect(animation) in 3D Studio Max. I'm not sure how to do it, any help would be appreciated. I have been to the tutorials page and found the Q and A's very interesting and helpful. Being a novice at email I hope I've sent this question to the right address. Thank you very much.

A:Here is how it works:

  • Create 2 boxes for the two parts of the open book (some segments to allow bend modifications), other 2 thin boxes bellow them.
  • Apply a Skew Modifier to the first 2 boxes.
  • Create a QuadPatch for the turning page over the right part of the book.
  • Create a Dummy Helper in the middle of the book.
  • Link the page to the Dummy and move the Dummy slightly up - the turning page should not be coincident with the other pages...
  • Animate the Dummy to rotate about Y - the page follows.
  • Now, apply a Bend Modifier to the Page.
  • On Sub-Object level, move the Center of the effect to the edge of the page (in the middle of the book, where the Dummy is). In this way the bend effect does not affect the edge the page rotates about.
  • To bend only the corner of the page on start and end apply a Twist Modifier and move its Sub-Object Center to the upper left corner of the page - the lower right corner gets bent.

    You can animate the settings of Bend and Twist to achieve the effect you want.

    After the animation is ready, apply a Bend Modifier to the Left & Right parts of the book to get rid of the stupid flat look - an open book is always bent. The animation of the Bend modifier for the page should start with the same value as the right-side Bend, and end with the negative value of the left-side bend.

    Materials:

  • For the left & right parts of the book create two Multi/Sub materials. The first sub-material is for the edges, the second is for the page's face. Put a bitmap into the Diffuse channel of the second material.
  • To display the Multi/Sub material, select the parts of the book, apply an EditMesh modifier, on Face level select the faces displaying the page image, and selected Mat.ID 2. You can use the automatic mapping coordinates of the box or apply an UVW-Modifier.
  • For the turning page, create a Double-Sided material and put a bitmap to each side. (the one should be mirrored)

    I know it is not perfect, but I did it in an hour, so you can play with the scene, change settings and pictures, until you get what you want...

    Here is the .MAX scene and some textures to download.