Short lessons, about 12 minutes end to end, with nothing padded.
Three curves to a chair, then the same chair in Maya.
Every tool is named in 3ds Max, Maya, Blender and Cinema 4D as it appears.
Free to watch with an account, including every technique.
There are thousands of polygon modelling tutorials. This is not another one. The Tulip chair is a single continuous surface with no flat faces and no obvious edge flow. Built vertex by vertex it is a fight. Built from curves it takes three lines.
This is not a 3ds Max course. Every tool used here exists in Maya, Blender and Cinema 4D, and the equivalent is named as it appears.
Originally recorded in Italian and re-dubbed in English with an AI model trained on my own voice. Sorry for the inconvenience if it grates a little, it was the only way to get this to you in English rather than leave it on a hard drive. Full note in the details below.
Project files
The finished Tulip chair, exactly as it is built in this module – curves, modifier stack and all. Free, and yours to take apart.
The toolset
The curriculum
Every module is a self-contained step of the build, and all of it is free to watch. You follow along in your own scene, there are no project files with this one.
Surface builds a mesh across a grid of vertices, and it only behaves if the curves are attached in the right order, which is the part nobody explains. Get the order right and three curves become a chair.
3 lessons
The same chair solved a second time, in Maya, with B-Rail and Revolve. Watching one object built twice in two packages is the fastest way to see which part was the method and which part was just the software.
1 lesson
Modellers at any level who want a second way to build. Comfortable with basic modelling in any package. No 3ds Max experience required.
Any 3D package with splines and a surfacing modifier (3ds Max, Maya, Blender or Cinema 4D). Reference images of the chair are widely available.
This started life as a tutorial I recorded years ago, in Italian, and then left in a drawer. Going back through it recently, the thinking still holds up, the software has moved on, the approach hasn’t. That felt worth putting out rather than leaving on a hard drive. So, plainly, before you start:
The picture is older than my current work. It was captured years ago at 720p, which is what screens ran at then. Everything I record now is 1080p. It is not up to the standard of the paid courses in the library, and I’d rather tell you than have you notice it thirty seconds in. What’s on screen is a real working session, not a polished re-shoot.
The voice is not me speaking, it’s an AI trained on my voice. The original narration is Italian. Rather than re-record hours of material, or leave it to Italian speakers only, I used a voice model trained on my own to re-dub it. The teaching, the decisions and the demonstration are mine; only the delivery is synthetic. The paid courses are narrated by me, in person.
The method is why it’s here. Tools change every year; how you decide to approach an object doesn’t. That transfers to any package and any version.
It’s free, start to finish. No preview-then-paywall. All 3 lessons, all the way through.
Course pricing
All future course updates included, free, forever.
Free, forever · Watch in any order · Private Discord · All future updates included
Two modifiers today, and a chair at the end of them. I’ll show you what they do on something simple first, then on the real thing.
What these two modifiers are · Building the grid
Narration is AI-generated from a clone of my own voice, the original recording was in Italian. Paid courses are narrated directly by me.
Surface works, but drawing that whole intermediate grid by hand is a lot of work. This is where the second modifier earns its place. Cross Section builds the grid for you. You give it the profiles, just the outlines, and it wires them together.
Why Cross Section exists · The attach order
Narration is AI-generated from a clone of my own voice, the original recording was in Italian. Paid courses are narrated directly by me.
This one I built from profiles. Three curves, and everything after that is just the stack.
The three profiles · The finished chair
Narration is AI-generated from a clone of my own voice, the original recording was in Italian. Paid courses are narrated directly by me.
The course you just finished builds the Tulip chair in 3ds Max, with Cross Section and Surface. This is the same chair solved in Maya - four curves and two tools, B-Rail and Revolve, plus a little ordinary polygon modelling.
Watching one object built twice, in two packages, is the fastest way to see which part was the method and which part was just the software. The decisions carry over; the menus do not.
This episode was recorded for the PixelTNT series and is in 1080p - newer than the course itself.
Want the finished model? It is free on the store: get the Tulip Chair model.
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