Modeling A Chair Using Spline

In this tutorial I will show you how to create 3D chair model. This is a simple and modern style chair, created from bended tubular metal and some leather for chair seat and backrest. You may think I will use Lofting to create this tubular metal. Wrong. I will use another technique, using spline. It's faster and simpler.

1. Open 3ds max. In Left viewport, draw Line like image below. Use Initial Type=Corner and Drag Type=Corner. Right click to finish drawing line.

Tips: To create straight line (like from vertex number 2 to 3, hold Shift while drawing)

2. Go to Modify tab. Activate Vertex selection. Select three vertices like image below. In Geometry rollout, increase Fillet value until you get rounded corner.

3. Activate Spline selection. Select line. In Front viewport, hold Shift while moving selected line to the right. Distance between these lines will become the width of chair.

4. Next, change to Vertex selection. Activate 3D Snap toggle. In Geometry rollout, click Connect button. Then, click and hold vertex no 1, don't release yet, then click vertex no 2. Repeat this process to connect other vertices. When finished, de-activate 3D Snap Toggle and Connect.

5. Next, select 4 vertices like image below, and apply Fillet to make rounded corner.

6. To make tubular metal, open Rendering rollout. Activate Enable in Renderer, Enable in Viewport. Enter Thicknes values and use Sides=8. Easy, isn't it?

In Page 1 tutorial, we have create tubular metal frame for our chair. In this tutorial we will try to add thin chair seat and backrest.

7. Right click object and choose Convert to>Convert to Editable Poly.

Activate Polygon selection. Select several polygons like image below. In Edit Geometry rollout, click Detach button. In opened dialog box, check Detach As Clone. Selected polygons will be cloned as separate object. When finished, turn off all sub-object selection.

8. Select newly created object. Go to Modify tab. In Top viewport select 8 vertices close to the center. Look at image below for reference.

9. Using Select and Uniform Scale Tool, stretch vertices along horizontal axis.

10. Next, change to Polygon selection. In Perspective viewport select 4 polygons like image below. Delete them.

11. Next, change to Edge selection. In Top viewport, select 2 edges like image below. In Edit Edges rollout, click Bridge Settingsbutton. In opened dialog box, enter Segments=10. New polygons will be created connecting the edges.

Repeat the same process with the backrest.

12. Activate Polygon selection. Select all polygons in backrest. In Edit Geometry rollout, click Detach button. In opened dialog box, uncheck all option. This will ensure selected polygons cut out as separate object.

13. Make sure chair seat object is selected. Activate Vertex selection. In Front vieport, select 2 vertices in the middle. Open Soft Selection rollout, turn on Use Soft Selection. Adjust Falloff value. Then, move selected vertices down. You'll get curvy chair seat. When finished turn off all sub-object selection.

15. Repeat above process with backrest object. When finished, apply Shell modifier to chair seat and backrest object. Adjust Outer Amount value. Shell modifier will add thickness to objects.