I'm making the cover for my bands album in 3dsmax7. I'm no expert, only used it for a while fooling around with it. http://www.absolutehatred.com/eyecandy.jpg This is what I have so far. I need a sun and to form a pentagram. It will be around the second planet like the ring around saturn. I sort of know how to make custuom objects using splines, but when I tried to form a pentagram, it came out sketchy. It would be best if there is a way to make a 3d object from a negative positive image, black and white. For the sun, I thought it could look something like this: http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/warpspace/warpspace.asp I know that is a tutorial, but I couldn't get similar results. If there is a good tutorial to make a sun, I'd be glad to see it. Not asking for anyone to do anything for me, but if you want the .max file for some odd reason: http://www.absolutehatred.com/planets.max This doesn't have to be awe inspiring, since people will give no more than "hey look at that" before they toss in the cd. [Edited by - alien3456 on December 22, 2004 4:39:16 PM]

Nevermind about the sun...

I have a pentagram made in splines. It is basically a star with a circle around it. I made the star using lines, and the circle using the circle tool. I've grouped them together, but... How do I turn these wires into 3d so I can use it? Again, I'm not looking to become a pro at 3dsmax, just to be able to pull this simple project off.

erm, i have only a vague idea of what you're asking so let me restate your question so you can correct it if i've misunderstood:

You want to make a 2D image for your album cover, of a pentagram (ignore the details for now) such that the image appears to be 3D.

Well, here are 2 possible solutions:

1) throw away all your work, and learn how to use 3DSmax (if you can afford the $3000 to buy it). make a 3D pentagram, render your scene, done. If you can't afford 3DSmax, there are plenty of free/really cheap alternatives, just look around in the For Beginners section, or search the forums

2) learn how to draw with perspective and make the pentagram in photoshop, or draw it and scan it in and touch it up / use it as a template upon which to draw.

-me

- I have 3dsmax, well, my aunt gets it for free from her company.
- The pentagram will be around one of the planets, pictured in my first post.
- I have this made:

and want to give it depth, width and materials so that I can use it with my planets.
- I don't have time to learn 3dsmax in detail, this is a quick simple project. Not looking to create a map for a game or anything, just a simple space scene.

I made a super fast 3 dimensional pentagram in Rhino3D and exported it to .3ds. Try it out and see if it's to your liking. You should be able to scale it accordingly to your project.

pentagram.3ds