Building Printable Battlemaps with 3dsMax

by Kalvin Lyle

I’ve been using 3dsMax professionally for about 12 years now.  I’m going to show you what it takes to make some basic maps that you can print and render in a few simple steps.  I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on how to use the program, just the bare minimum to point you in the right direction.

3DSMax

3DS Max is a very powerful 3D graphics package.  Get the fully functional 30 day trial here.  The 2011 demo version is what I used to make this tutorial.  When the program first starts up there is a pop-up with some links to some video tutorials that will show you the basics of the program.  Take the time to watch all of these, multiple times if necessary.  Without doing these tutorials it will be impossible to follow this walk-through.

Plan your Map

Use the map template to plan your dungeon.  Each of the small squares will be one inch when you are done.  The thick lines indicate where the seams in your printed map will be.

3D Setup

Once you’ve designed your map and watched the video tutorials that come with Max download the max file. Unzip the zip file into your project folder and open the .max file therein. The file is set up with frozen and hidden objects in the scene for your own safety.

Import your Map Template

Press M. This will being up the material editor. In the first material slot is the map template image. Click the long button with “printnHackDungeon-DesignTemplate.gif” in it. Browse to the edited version of your file. You can also, save over the file in the .zip you downloaded at any time and Max will auto-magically update the image in the viewports. There is also a flat black material in the editor. This is the material we will be putting on the walls after you have made them.

Rendering Previews

While you are creating your dungeon it will be important to see what it looks like as you work. You can see the final output of the render at any time. Move to the frame you want to render. Time 0 will render the whole map. Press Shift-Q to render the current frame. Each frame should take from 2 to 5 minutes depending on the speed of your computer, the number of objects and the number of lights. To keep the render fast, use fewer lights.

Create your Dungeon Walls

Make sure the snap tool is on. In the command panel go to the Create tab and click the Box primitive. Fill in your map with boxes where ever there are walls in your map. Make sure your walls are at least 15′ high. As you create the boxes you can see the Height parameter change in the command panel.

Once you have all the wall space filled in on your map select all the objects in your scene. With all of those objects selected press M to open the material editor. Select the black ball material. In the material editor window go to the Material menu and choose ‘Assign to Selection’. All your walls should turn black.

With all your walls selected this is a good time to rename them. In the main Max menu go to Tools>Rename Objects… In the Base Name field enter Wall and check the Numbered box.

With the walls still selected right click on one of them and choose ‘Freeze Selection’. This will make them unselectable, but still visible.

Create Doors

Doors will be more tricky than walls. You can’t snap them to the grid, so you’ll have to place them by eye.

Turn off the snap tool and make your first door. I used the Door primitive. Go to the command panel, on the Create tab. Make sure the geometry icon is selected. In the drop down choose Doors. Select the Pivot door. Create a door with the snap tool on.

Change the door settings so they match the image to the right. Rename the Door to Door00 and apply the Door material. This should make your frame for the door black and the door white.

Create instances of the door by holding Shift and moving the door. In the dialog that pops up make sure you choose Instance. This will mean when you change any other doors they will all change. If you want to make a unique door instead choose Clone and adjust the properties to your liking.

In case this is too tricky, I’ve added a couple doors, some stairs and a few lights to the template file. You can just Shift-Drag them to create more.

Add lights

There is already a sunlight in the scene that will set the shadow colour for your whole level.
Create an Omni Light: Go to the command panel. Select the Create tab. Press the light icon. In the drop down select Lights. Click the Omni button. When you create lights they will appear on the floor. Set the height to 15′.
Turn on shadows: In the modify panel turn on Shadows and in the shadow type drop down choose Area Shadow. Find the Area Shadows Parameters and change the Area Height and Width to 2′.
Set the colour and attenuation: Change the colour to very slightly orange. Turn on Use Near Attenuation and set the Near Attenuation End to 12. Turn on Use Far Attenuation and set the Far Attenuation Start to 18 and the Far Attenuation End to 40.
Name your light and duplicate: Change the name to BrightLight00. Place these lights in the biggest rooms. These will be your brightest lights.
Create some smaller fill lights: Create some mood lights (orange blue, red, purple etc) and place these to fill out the corridors and smaller rooms.
Note: When placing lights you want to make sure of two things. First, that your lights to not too bright that they wash out the floor grid. Second, that the map isn’t too dark that it won’t print too close to black.

Final Dungeon Render

Press F10 to open the Render Setup. At the top in the Time Output section choose Active Time Segment: 0 to 49. This will render all the frames every time you press Shift-Q, but the images won’t be saved unless you designate a Render Output (about half way down the Render Setup panel. Pick the name, file type and location of your final renders.

Final Thoughts

That should be enough to get you started making 3D battlemaps for 1″ scale miniature gaming. If you have any thoughts or problems please don’t hesitate to email me or leave a comment below. I’ve added the Dwarven Hold (my example map used for this article) to the maps page. I’ll try to regularly add more as I make them for my campaign. If you want to add yours to this resource, just send me the files and I’ll put them up as soon as I can. Enjoy!

Published May 14, 2010 at 2:39 pm

Tags: 3D Mapping, 3dsmax DnD Maps, CReate your own 3D DnD Map, DIy Battlemap, DIY Dungeon Tiles