# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > 3D modeling (map elements and height maps) >  Printable Battlemaps in 3dsMax

## kalvinlyle

Just finished a basic tutorial on creating dungeon maps in 3dsMax that you can print at home and stitch together:
http://doityourselfrpg.com/3d-battlemaps/

Tried to make it as easy to follow as possible.  There's also a basic finished sample map you can grab here:
http://doityourselfrpg.com/maps/

I want to do more of these maps.  I've been modelling for years so that part isn't a real problem.  I find I spend more time designing the map than actually building it.  If anyone has any dungeon maps they'd like to see turned into 3D renders you can send them my way.

Cheers!

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## tilt

Really cool - except of course for the pricetag on 3DMax  :Wink: 
Have some rep - he said swinging his sword of cool repping +2  :Smile:

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## JohnnyTrio

Not trying to necro a thread, but wow, this is a great idea. Even with the free 3d program called Blender I bet you could do this same thing.

I'm totally going to try this for my next map with Lightwave.  :Wink:  Thanks!!

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## mearrin69

Threadomancy is not a bad thing...often surfaces things we haven't seen (or haven't seen for a while). I have made and rendered top-view layouts for maps but have never gone the extra step to finely detail and texture everything so that it could be rendered as a final map. I think it's a cool idea though.
M

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## RecklessEnthusiasm

I really like the lighting effects. Another fellow on here was doing something similar with Google Sketchup, I think, but sketchup doesn't have these kinds of neat light source options, as far as I know. Does 3DMax have a steep learning curve (I see it has a steep price, at least)?

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## tilt

I went to a night class once I believe 12 times 4 hours - and learned the basics  :Smile:  ... also learned enough to know I'd never put in the time required to master 3Dmax   :Smile:

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## mearrin69

On price: It's a little more weird but trueSpace (latest version is 7) is now free and has a pretty good renderer. IMHO it's less weird than Blender, which is also free. Actually, there might be older versions of trueSpace (v4 or v5 even) out there...I used to work for the company and we were putting the old versions on "covermount" discs and maybe even made a version free for download at one point. I started with 3D back in the day (early 90s) with trueSpace (well, POVray was first, but...) and like the older versions the best. v4 was where I stopped grocking it, really...
M

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## DevinNight

I looked at your map.. nicely done, nice tutorial. I read your thoughts on traps and really liked that. Nice job. As a DM I'm always looking for good ideas.. the more good ideas I find the less I think of my own DMing  :Smile:

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## wisemoon

3DS Max is a bit like Photoshop on steroids...the interface has a LOT of stuff in it, so it's a bit intimidating at first. However, if you get a good book to go with it, you can manage to figure things out relatively soon. The key is learning how to customize the interface a bit so it isn't quite as overwhelming.

If any of you are students, Autodesk has a 3-year student license that allows you to download and use the latest version of 3DS Max absolutely free. I realize this may not be useable by a large portion of the Guild, but I am an older returning student (already got my BA, just going back to school for training in a new career) and I qualify for it. So who knows, this might be useful info for some of you.

There are free programs out there also: Bryce is one, Daz3D is another, and I think there are one or two other fairly good quality ones that are free.

Good luck!

Wisemoon

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## eViLe_eAgLe

Luckily im in 9th grade! So lucky me! I get a free 3DS max! You can expect some 3D projects from me  :Wink:

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## Midgardsormr

I may be mistaken, but I don't think that Daz has a modeler. It has animation, some sculpting and rendering tools, but you can't build anything from the ground up there. That said, you might be able to come up with a workflow that went from Sketchup for modeling to Daz for some decent renders. Personally, I found the Daz interface to be somewhat impenetrable, but I wasn't terribly motivated to do anything with it since I have Maya. Also, a friend of mine was using it for rendering, and it was _sloooow_. For one frame I guess that wouldn't be so bad, but a simple camera move took him several days to produce.

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## GM Night

thanks for sharing!

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