PHAM THANH HAT

Software Used :

3dsmax

General :

Tip 1: Create a basic scene you always load before you start a new project. 3ds Max has a lot of setting that are scene-based. I like to have a base scene with mental ray set as default render, gamma/LUT enabled and metric unit. This can save you a lot of trouble down the road when and if you need to merge scenes together or multiple people work on the same project.

Tip 2: Know your shortcuts! Sometimes you accidentally press a button and 3ds Max does something weird. Here are some of the buttons you want to know to avoid headaches:

“O” toggles Adaptive Degradation, so if your objects turn to boxes when you navigate your scene, press “O” again. Use this option if you scene is very heavy and hard to navigate.
“X” toggles the Transform gizmo. Did your XYZ gizmo on your selection disappear? Pressing “X” will switch it back on. (Use “+” and “–” to increase or decrease the size of the gizmo).
“Ctrl-X” toggles Expert Mode. If your command panel has disappeared and your viewport takes up most of the screen, you probably activated Expert Mode. Press “Ctrl-X” again to exit.
“Space” locks your selection. If you can’t select anything in your scene except for your current selection, and a small padlock icon below your timeline is yellow then you have locked your selection. Press space again to unlock it.

Tip 3: Right click on the snap button to access a whole range of options. I like to have Vertex snap as my default snap option. If you have trouble with a vertex that doesn’t want to snap to another, try and see if Use Axis Constraints is on in the options tab, and turn this off (Fig.01).

Fig.01

Modeling :

Tip 1: Use Editable Poly when polygon modeling. Editable Mesh is leftover from earlier versions of 3ds Max and is no longer developed with new features etc. So if you do come across an editable mesh, just right click Editable Mesh in the modifier panel and choose Editable Poly, and you will now have access to a much larger range of modeling tools (Fig.02).

Tip 2: If you want to export a mesh as OBJ, but get a warning saying “rats nest in mesh” then you probably have an isolated vertex in there somewhere. This typically happens when you use the Symmetry modifier. Simply check you mesh again in wireframe mode with vertex sub-object selected, and find and delete the lone vertex, or click Remove Isolated Vertices as this might also fix the problem for you (Fig.03).


Fig.02	Fig.03

Tip 3: When adding more loops to a mesh, use the Swift Loop tool to create a loop that flows with the surface curve. Simply select the Swift Loop tool, hold down Shift key and click where you want the loop. Note: that the UV coordinates will have to be adjusted afterwards (Fig.04 – 05).

Fig.04

Lighting (Mental Ray) :

Tip 1: When setting up lights always use Photometric lights. Photometric lights are physically based lights, and important to create a real-world natural look in your scene. Note: To achieve the best result it’s also important that your scene is modeled to real-world scale (Fig.06).

Fig.06

Page 1

Page 2

Related Tutorials

If you liked reading this tutorial, you may also be interested in the following.

"Fast Ambient Occlusion in 3ds Max" by Tom Isaksen
Ambient occlusion adds great realism to your renders, but can be bit cumbersome to set up in Max, particular
if you’re using a mix of mental ray shaders and standard shaders. You could create an ambient occlusion effect
by using lights, but it can be slow to render and tricky to get the right look.

"Camera Matching in Six Steps in 3ds Max" by Ciro Sannino
3ds Max and other software usually have a plugin to help the user with camera matching. I think it is also
important to know the basic perspective rules to make a perfect camera match quickly and manually. In this tutorial
I’ll be using 3ds Max, but this is an universal technique than can be applied to other software packages too.

Here you have 15 of the most used Tips & Tricks of the FLORENCE DESIGN ACADEMY (www.FlorenceDesignAcademy.com) to avoid mistakes, errors and imperfections in your projects.

Tip 1

Did you know that "architectural materials" and "self illuminated" materials are light emitting (for Mental Ray & Vray) ? If you apply them on a box you will get a similar effect as a "photometric area light" or a "Vray light".

Tip 2

Try to use always soft shadows in your renderings if possible. Hard shadows are looking always very fake. In "Mr Omni/Spot" scale the size of the light in the area light parameters (mental ray).

In Mental Ray you have to use the "RAYTRACED shadows" !

In Vray enable in the Omni/Spot the "area shadow" and scale the size of the light. Soft shadows will take more render time !

Tip 3

To have perfect shadows it is necessary to create all objects with real dimensions.

Tip 4

How to decrease render time for test-renderings:

a) The main setting to decrease the render time is the image size. Normally I use 150x112 pixels as size. It is too small to see the object's details but it’s perfect to understand the light conditions.

b) Lower the Shadow quality !

c) Reduce the polygon number of the objects (try to use the optimize modifier if you don't have any mesh smooth modifier on the objects)!

d) Reduce the photon number or/and the "sample" settings in the render engines. Vray/MentalRay/Brazil RS/FinalRender/ etc.

e) Be careful with the amount of lights (too many lights will make the rendering very slow)!

Tip 5

Do not use editable MESH but ALWAYS editable "POLY".

Editable Poly is optimized for advanced modeling , creates less errors than editable mesh and has many more settings than editable mesh.

If you were working on a object with editable mesh , you can without problems convert it into an editable Poly object.

Tip 6

Instead to mesh smooth a box, use from the "extended primitives" a "chamfer box"... the result is the same, but the chamfer box" has less polygons !

Tip 7

Sometimes all your Vertexes disappear during modeling of an object. To fix this bug try this options:

a) Convert your object again to an editable poly.
b) Convert your object to an editable mesh and then to an editable poly.
c) Save the file, Exit from 3Ds max and open again the file.
d) Save the file, Exit from 3Ds max and merge the object in a new file.

Tip 8

The best light to create Highlights is the Omni light (or MR Omni).

Tip 9

Do not use "area shadows" in Mental Ray, they are very slow and not optimized for Mental Ray.

The best/fastest result is visible when you use Raytrace shadows.

If you are working with the "light-tracer" than you can use "area shadows". The result is the same as in MentalRay with Raytrace shadows.

Tip 10

(For beginners) When you are working sometimes you can't anymore move your object.

Probably you have pressed the key X. Press again X to enable the move tool (GIZMO).

Similar problem: You can select only one object, all other objects can't be selected anymore: probably you have pressed SPACE and locked the object. Press again SPACE to unlock it.

Tip 11

When you create a "loft" object it can happen that the end or beginning of the object has an error.

To fix the problem you should choose "CORNER" vertex on the first and last vertex of your spline.

Tip 12

Download ALWAYS the last service-pack for your 3Ds Max version. It will fix important bugs.

Tip 13

There can be only 2 mistakes when your extruded (spline + extrude modifier) object has an error:

a) you have overlapping segments in your spline.

b) the shape is not closed-check where you did not weld the vertexes.

Tip 14

If you use splines to create shapes, try to use a very small number of vertexes.

If you convert the vertexes in smooth/bezier/bezier-corner you can create very organic and round shapes without a too high number of vertexes (same tip for loft in deformations-scale-panel).

Tip 15

If your interface/panel disappeared you have this options to fix the problem:

a.) Maybe You are in the "expert" mode...press CTR+x...
b.) Customize > Customize User Interface > Toolbars Tab > Reset!
c.) "Start" button on windows > Autodesk > 3Ds Max > change graphics mode !
d.) There should be a 3dsmax.ini file in ur max folder...delete it and start 3Ds Max again...
e.) Customize > load custom UI scheme.

I hope that this tips will help you.