Adding materials to the siege machine

To create a life-like replica of the invention I had to add materials to render the model.

By studying Da Vinci's drawings, sketches and notes I was able to come up with ideas for the materials that would be used within the model.

The sketches suggest that the machine would use light wood, arranged in joining planks to form the main bulk.

For sturcture reasons I thought that the frame support and wheels should be made from stronger wood, which would be similar to teak or mahogany.

From here I searched for an appropriate representation of these materials. Below are the ones I chose:

Using the bump feature along with the gloss/specular levels I could make the material have a more realistic 3D look.

For the rope elements I used a coiled rope image. I used the bump/gloss/specular levels again and then applied them to the cylinders. 3DS Max automatically assigned the image to display the correct way on most of the shapes but I had to use UVW mapping to adjust the size and orientation of the material on certain sides.

This gave a look that I was pleased with and I think provides a nice extra texture to the model.