TRACK MAKING TUTORIAL 1.

first, lets start out by making the basic shape of the track. use the wheels, sprocket and idler for guides, or any reference you might have handy.

remember that tanks with christy suspension has tracks resting on top of their wheels, and should have more edges on the top part of the track.

2.

now i'll introduce the refine tool
it's found when using the editable spline function, and works the same as divide edges in edit poly or mesh.
i'll use it to refine the bottom part of the track, since i forgot to add vertices under each wheel.

3.

here's the track with refined edge underneath the roadwheels. each roadwheel has it's own vertice. i've also selected the spline, and used "SHIFT+LMB_drag"
to create a copy of the spline.

4.

now comes the cross-section making. this is to make max create faces between the 2 splines,
when adding the surface modifier. if no cross-section is added, no surface will appear.

.5

track with cross-section.

6.

this is an important step, i've added the surface modifier, but if you look closely at the tracks,
where the red arrows are pointing, there's multiple polygons there.
this is because the "steps" is set too high. set steps to 0 to get a lower poly result.

7.

steps has been reduced, and so has the polycount. convert the model to an editable mesh. or add an edit mesh modifier if you prefer.

8.

now, add an unwrap UVW modifier to the stack, and unfold map the whole model.
it will look like this when you're done. don't move it around, one of the corners are gone.
this can only be fixed by adding another UVW modifier above the previous one.

9.

now that that is done and over with, add a shell modifier to the modifier stack, and set it's outer thickness
to whatever the track thickness is. it's a huge time saver to apply this after you've unwrapped the tracks.
also, set the "edge mapping" setting to "strip"
this will unwrap the edges as a UVW strip. now add an edit mesh modifier.

10.


well, the shell modifier has messed a bit up while unwrapping our UVW's.
so we'll have to trick max a bit.

first, select the middle of the tracks from the front view, and click detach. mark the box that says "detach as element"

then select the outer, or inner track segment,
and click detach again. but this time make sure "detach as element" is unmarked.

why do this? well, the shell modifier glues the vertices of both the inner and outer track segments together.
this is good if both faces should look the same, but not in this instance.
we want the inner and outer segments to have different textures.
now it's time to find out which of the side segments the shell modifier messed up.

11.

ok, now that the segments are separated, select all the vertices and weld them all together again.
we're going to stitch stuff together later on, but it's not possible with all these separate elements
floating around.

12.

go into the UVW editor, turn on "Select Element" and just click and drag either of the inner or outer
track segments away from the other.
now, select the most distinctive edge(in this case, chose the longest edge in the map.
we're going to identify on which side the bollocked up shell edge is,
and later remove it, and replace it with the other side.
if you select a long edge, and a short edge shows up blue on either of the shell edges, you'll know which one
is bollocksed.
just select the other side of the track piece, and click stitch.

13.

now if there was any deformations of the UV pieces, click undo, and select the other side of the track.
otherwise, it should come off as above, nicely, but maybe slightly offset.

14. *optional*

this isn't a neccesary step, but it keeps the UV's nice and clean.
detach the segment, and stitch it to the other parts of the UV's.

15.

now comes the time to stitch the other side of the track to the track ledge.
but there's a small problem. it's mirrored, so just stitching it directly will give an odd result
16.

flip the part before you stitch it.
17.

here's the bollocksed up UV.
select it, and delete it. the world is better off without it. trust me.

18.

now select, and flip the edge on the other side, and position it in the hole.

19.

now lets apply a fitting track texture.

it looked a bit messed up, but it should be a simple task to rescale it to fit.

now adjust the position of the track ledge and its....

DONE!!