UVW Unwrap a brick

Basic Material
This method for mapping 2D materials to 3D surfaces is used by game designers for organic shapes and characters, and is also useful for positioning objects on for building surfaces, etc.

Go to the main menu and from Custommize, drop down to Custom UI and Defaults Switcher ... select Max and ame-light. It is very important to do this, and have Max restart if your default is not set to Max.

Set your units to generic ... main menu/customize/units.

Make the material first from a brick material that has been created and is online: brick_texture.jpg

This is the full link: http://www.deep4d.com/pages_tuts/materials/mats_brick_unwrap_files/brick_texture.jpg

(Right click the image and save as, or save image as, depending on your browser.)

Open the material editor and make the new material by clicking on the diffuse slot and locating the brick image you just downloaded.

Tip -- this is how to navigate the material editor -- click on the Material/Map Navigator icon ...

... click on the top line ... this will retrun you to the top level of the material ... (your name might be different)

Now, if you scroll down on the material editor, to the maps roll-out, you the brick_texture.jpg file here, in the "diffuse color" slot ... we will be returning to the maps rollout at the end of the tutorial.

Model
Make a chamfer box. Where is chamfer box? It is under extended primitives:

Drag the material you made to the box.

UVW Unwrap
Add UVW Unwrap ...

Drop down the plus sign and activate FACE sub-object ...

Select all faces with Control A ... this is a common shortcut for "select all" ...

Hit the big Edit button ...

Under Options make these settings ...

Under Mapping/Normal Mapping, apply BOX mapping ...

Drop down here and select the brick texture, if you see only checks and no brick. It is essential to be able to see the brick texture here.

At face sub-object level, scale and move the faces around to match art created earlier. You can use the free form tool. Watch the cursor change for your cues on how this works. The triangle is to scale. The cross is to move.

The entire idea here is to map the brick texture so mortar only appears on the edges, like a real brick.
You will need to move the faces around to parts of the image that look appropriate.
For example, place a half length pice on teh end of the brick model.
Situate a long part on a long side of the brick.

Tip -- select element will let you select and entire side of the brick texture easily:

Hit Shift-F to see your edges and compose your scene within the inner yellow edge.
Spin the middle mouse to zoom.
Hold down the middle mouse to drag (pan.)
Hold Down the Alt key and the middle mouse to arc rotate.

Hit the quick render button to preview your progress.

Improve the material by adding a bump map
Under the maps rollout of your material in the material editor are many options for affecting your material.

You can drag the diffuse slot to the bump slot under the Maps rollout. Select Instance when asked and leave set to 30%.

(Alternatively, download and add this bump map set to 50%. The map is design to show black as depressions and whites or light grays as raised areas.)

Try the same process by dragging an instance of the map to the specular level slot. Check out the pits, creices and raised surfaces.

Render on a white background, open in Photoshop adn print with your name.