Working with 3Ds Max.
3DS MAX
Working with 3Ds Max.
 To Create a good quality scene or image using 3Ds
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
1. Standard animation: changing the objects parameters on
time using key frames then the program will calculate the
intermediate frames .
2. Constrains animation: where the object animated using a
certain constrain (sound wav, path, noise , etc..)
3. 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.
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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.
1. Accurately Modeled Models.
2. High level Detailed materials.
3. Accurate lights distribution (supporting indirect
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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)