Working with 3Ds Max. 3Ds Max

Working with 3Ds Max. To Create a good quality scene or image using 3Ds max there’s some requirement that must exist in the scene in order to produce a good product. The object. Materials. Lights. Cameras. Animations.

Objects. The objects that can be represented in the scene can be predefined primitives and models or user designed models.

Predefined Models. Standard primitives: the simple primitives offered by 3Ds Max like ( box, sphere , cylinder , tours , etc ….) can be created from the create panel or the create menu. Extended primitives : more complex primitives that are defined and offered by 3Ds Max like (chamfer box, chamfer cylinder, capsule , hose , hedra , oil tank , etc ..)

User Designed Models. Any model that have been designed and modeled by the user is a User Designed model. Theres so many modeling techniques like (poly , mesh , patch and NURBS ) modeling.

Modeling Techniques . Poly and Mesh : are very similar but the poly is better than the mesh it has more modeling tools and more flexible than the mesh modeling it can be considered as an developed version of the mesh modeling. NURBS : (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines) is a technique for interactively modeling 3D curves and surfaces. Patch : the same as the ploy but with different tools for modeling.

Materials & Textures There’s a a difference between the material and the texture. Texture : is the image or the picture the will be applied to one property of the Material like (diffusion “color” , opacity , bump , reflection , etc.. ). To apply a texture to a model we apply the texture of image to the diffuse property of the material associated to the model. The material : is the skin that covers the model there’s a set of properties associated to each material changing these properties produces a different material .

Materials & Textures continue. Diffuse: the color or texture of the material. Opacity : the transparency of the material. Self Illumination : the self shining degree of the object color or texture. Bump : to assign a prominence texture to the material (to increase the details of the objects with out the need for complicated modeling.) Reflection: to assign a reflection map to an object to represent the global environment reflection that can occur on the object if it was really reflective object.

Materials Types. Standard Material : the default material supported by the 3Ds Max and have all the previous properties . Raytrace: creates fully raytraced reflections and refractions. It also supports fog, color density, translucency, fluorescence. Architectural: provides a physically accurate material. It is especially intended for use with the default scanline renderer and radiosity. Mental ray: are provided for use with the mental ray render.

Materials Types continue. Matt\Shadow: is specifically for making an object into a matt object that reveals the current environment map. A matte object is effectively invisible in the scene, but it can receive shadows cast onto it from other objects. Shell: is for storing and viewing rendered textures. Advanced Light override: is used to fine-tune the effects of a material on radiosity or the light tracer. This material is not required for calculating advanced lighting, but it can help improve the result.

Materials Types continue. LightScape: helps support import and export of data from the Lightscape product. Ink 'n Paint: gives a cartoon appearance to objects. The DirectX 9 Shader: enables you to shade objects in viewports using DirectX 9 (DX9) shaders. To use this material, you must have a display driver that supports DirectX 9, and you must be using the Direct3D display driver. Other material types fall into the category of Compound materials

Compound Materials. Blend: mixes two materials on a single side of a surface. Composite: mixes up to 10 materials, using additive colors, subtractive colors, or opacity mixing. Double-Sided: lets you assign different materials to the front and back faces of an object. Morpher: uses the Morpher modifier to manage multiple materials over time. Multi/Sub-Object: uses the sub-object level to assign multiple materials to a single object, based on material ID values. Shellac: material superimposes one material on another using additive composition. Top/Bottom: material lets you assign different materials to the top and bottom of faces of an object.

Lights. Lights are objects that simulate real lights such as household or office lamps, the light instruments used in stage and film work, and the sun itself. Different kinds of light objects cast light in different ways, emulating different kinds of real-world light sources.

Target Spotlight. A spotlight casts a focused beam of light like a flashlight, a follow spot in a theater, or a headlight. A target spotlight uses a target object to aim the camera.

Free Spotlight. A spotlight casts a focused beam of light like a flashlight, a follow spot in a theater, or a headlight. Unlike a targeted spotlight, a Free Spot has no target object. You can move and rotate the free spot to aim it in any direction.

Targeted Directional lights. Directional lights cast parallel light rays in a single direction, as the sun does (for all practical purposes) at the surface of the earth. Directional lights are primarily used to simulate sunlight. You can adjust the color of the light and position and rotate the light in 3D space.

Free Directional lights. Unlike a targeted directional light, a Free Direct light has no target object. You can move and rotate the light object to aim it in any direction.

Omni light. An Omni light casts rays in all directions from a single source. Omni lights are useful for adding "fill lighting" to your scene, or simulating point source lights

Skylight light. The Skylight light models daylight. It is meant for use with the Light Tracer You can set the color of the sky or assign it a map. The sky is modeled as a dome above the scene.

Cameras. Cameras present a scene from a particular point of view. Camera objects simulate still-image, motion picture, or video cameras in the real world.

Animation. The basic way to animate is quite simple. You animate the transform parameters of any object to change its position, rotation, and scale over time. Turning on the Auto Key button, then moving the time slider places you in a state in which any changes you make will create animation for the selected objects in the viewport.

Animation Types. There is a lot of animation types supported by 3Ds Max. Standard animation: changing the objects parameters on time using key frames then the program will calculate the intermediate frames . Constrains animation: where the object animated using a certain constrain (sound wav, path, noise , etc..) Motion Capture Animation : motion capture animation is an animation method where humans use machines to capture their movement to assign it to other 3D character models or any other model.

Animation Types. Characters Animation: where user can use a certain behavior in the animation (steps , speed , etc ..). IK animation : type of animation used to animate Machines and electronic robots where the arms of the object animated under certain constrains and behavior (can be used for character animation .) Physical Computation : where you assign a physical parameters to each object on the scene and global environmental physical values like (gravity , wind direction , wind speed , objects mass , etc ..)

Good Scene Requirements. Accurately Modeled Models. High level Detailed materials. Accurate lights distribution (supporting indirect lights will increase the image realty in a good way ) Cameras ( the picturing process and the setting of the camera helps in increasing the final image quality .) Global Environment . Animation. Special Effects. (if needed)