by Didik Wijaya

It's Halloween! In this tutorial I will show you how to create Jack-O-Lantern using 3ds Max. This is a typical carved pumpkin associated chiefly with the holiday Halloween. In this tutorial you will create this 3D model from scratch. You wil learn a lot from this tutorial, from Loft, Bevel modifier, Taper modifier, Shell modifier, and Bend modifier.

1. Open 3ds Max. Create Ellipse in Top viewport. Use Length=200 and Width=250.

2. Right click and convert ellipse into Editable Spline (Convert to>Convert to Editable Spline). Go to Modify tab. Activate Segment selection. Select one of four line segments in viewport. In Geometry rollout, enter 4 right next to Divide, and then click Divide button. 4 vertices will be added along line segment. Repeat this process with the rest of line segments.

3. Change selection to Vertex. In Top viewport, select leftmost vertex. Move outward, click and drag at Bezier handle (small green box) to make more rounded curve. Repeat the process with all vertices inside red circle.

4. Select all vertices inside red circle (look at image below). To select more than one vertex, hold Ctrl while selecting. Right click and choose Corner in quad menu. When finished, turn off selection.

5. Next, create one segment of vertical line in Front viewport. In Command Panel choose Create>Shapes. Choose Spline from drop down list. Click Line button. Click twice under and above the horizontal line. To make sure you have straight line, hold Shift while clicking. To finish creating line, right click.

6. Select ellipse spline. In Command Panel, choose Create>Geometry. Choose Compound Objects from drop down list.Click Loft button. In Creation Method rollout, click Get Path. Then, click vertical line in viewport. Lofting works like extruding a shape along a path.

Go to Modify tab In Skin Parameters, use Shape Steps=2 to reduce polygons. Next, in Deformations rollout click Scale button. Scale Deformation window will open. Note: Deformation rollout only can be found when you go to Modify tab.

7. In Scale Deformation window, you'll see a horizontal line. This line represents lofting surface. By changing line shape you can get different lofting surface. First, activate Display XY Axes to make symmetrical lofting surface. Then click Insert Cornert Point, and click in the middle of line twice. You'll get 2 additional point.

Select and move leftmost and rightmost points down. Notice the object shape is also changed. Move the middle points like image below. Right click each middle point and choose Bezier-Smooth. Next, you can adjust Bezier handle to create curved line. When finished, close window. Right now, you have nice looking pumpkin.

8. You may scale pumpkin object along X, Y or Z axis if necessary to get proportional pumpkin shape.

Creating Jack-O-Lantern Part 1 | Part 2

Any question or comments regarding this tutorial should be sent to:
Didik Wijaya, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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