The idea behind this tutorial is to show the power of the new an improved vertex paint system in 3ds max 6. Vertex paint isn't just for gamers. As you'll see in this basic tutorial how to use vertex paint to texture a teapot. Once you go through this tutorial you can see how you could use this method for some really cool texturing. This can be applied to landscapes, add details, dirt, even character for details...

The finished max file is at the bottom of this tutorial, enjoy!

1. Start a new scene in 3ds max. In the top viewport create a teapot with the settings in the image below. Radius of 20, Segments 20. Yes this is a very dense teapot. When using vertex paint it needs vertices in order to paint on them. Also we need a smooth looking teapot.

2. Next apply the Vertex Paint modifer to your teapot. Make sure you press the Vertex Color Shaded button. Highlighted in the image below.

3. Now let's talk about the Vertex Paint modifer a little bit. You can use the bucket tool to fill an entire area or the brush option. Also you can control the size of the brush along with other settings. You also have the option to apply blurs, change opacity, and layer these vertex paint modifiers. First click on the Brush Options, then choose Max Size of 3. Once the Brush size is set you'll need to click on the Brush option. Now when you mouse over the teapot you'll notice a Blue circle with a line in the center to show the normals.

4. Now it's time to paint. We are going to paint an area on the teapot where we want cracks to appear on the teapot. Paint something similar to the image below.

5. Next we will setup our Material. Open the material editor and choose a material slot. First change the type from Standard to Blend. You will see that we have Material 1 & Material 2 plus a place for a Mask. Name the materials like the image below. First will be the crack material. Second will be the Base material. The last thing will be the Mask material, which you'll apply the Vertex Color map. Now apply the material to the Teapot.

6. Now let's place a bitmap image in the Crack material. Go to the material editor and click on material 1 which is our crack material. In the Difuse slot place a bitmap called ConCGray.jpg which is located on the default maps directory. Now just hit render and see what we have. You can see now that we can paint bascially where we want this material to appear. Also note the edges of this material. Let's fix that with the Blur Option in the Vertex Paint Modifier.

7. Click on the teapot and on the Vertex Paint Floater click the Blurr Amount button twice. That way now the edges have a blur to them. See the images below.

8. Now in the material editor click on the material 2 which is our base material. Just change the Difuse color to a green so we can see what we have. The great thing about this now is we can use the vertex paint modifer to create new layers and use the blending options to create some really color textures. You can also change the opacity and use the blur options.

Here is the final image created with vertex paint. Spent a little bit of time on the texture so you can see some good results. This is the results that are in the final download max file.

You can download the max file HERE