3ds Max 2020 Essential Training

Learn what you need to know to use 3ds Max 2020 to create professional 3D models, animations, and motion graphics.

3ds Max is best known for its modeling and rendering tools. These strengths come into play in architecture, manufacturing, game development, industrial design, and motion graphics. There are dozens of features and techniques to master, from sculpting and texturing to lighting and rendering. This course covers 3ds Max from the ground up, providing an overview of the entire package, as well as essential skills that 3D artists need to create professional models and animations. Learn how to get around the 3ds Max interface and customize it to suit your preferences. Discover how to model different objects using splines, polygons, subdivision surfaces, and freeform modeling. Instructor Aaron F. Ross also shows how to construct hierarchies, add cameras and lights, animate with keyframes, and more.

Introduction

• 3ds Max from the ground up
• Using the exercise files

1. Getting Started

• Choosing a workspace
• Customizing user interface and defaults
• Setting preferences
• Using project folders

2. 3ds Max Interface

• Getting familiar with the interface
• Customizing a workspace
• Customizing viewport and grid colors
• Creating and manipulating primitives
• Transforming objects with Move and Rotate
• Navigating in viewports
• Choosing viewport shading modes
• Saving time with keyboard shortcut hotkeys
• Customizing hotkeys
• Choosing a reference coordinate system
• Manipulating objects around a transform center
• Using the Scene Explorer outline
• Configuring viewport layouts
• Using Isolate Selection and Lock Selection
• Selecting in window and crossing modes

3. Scene Layout

• Specifying display units
• Specifying system units
• Defining the home grid
• Saving a maxstart.max template scene
• Creating an image plane
• Duplicating objects with Array
• Collecting objects in groups
• Managing display layers
• Merging scenes
• Referencing scenes with Xref objects

4. Spline Modeling

• Creating shapes
• Creating a loft compound object
• Creating a freehand spline
• Editing control vertex types
• Editing Bezier splines
• Rendering shapes
• Setting shape detail with Interpolation
• Revolving a surface with the Lathe modifier
• Extruding with the Sweep modifier
• Importing Illustrator paths to 3ds Max
• Adding a Bevel modifier
• Creating a TextPlus primitive
• Modeling walls with the Extrude modifier

5. Parametric Modeling with Modifiers

• Deforming an object with a modifier
• Layering deformers in the modifier stack
• Defining polygon level of detail
• Passing a selection up the stack
• Understanding topology dependence
• Versioning and collapsing the stack

6. Polygon Modeling

• Preparing Boolean operands
• Adding edges with Quickslice
• Cutting with Boolean subtraction
• Creating doors
• Using the Modeling ribbon
• Creating polygons
• Transforming sub-objects
• Using the caddy to set options for an inset polygon
• Cloning sub-objects with Detach
• Branching with Editable Poly Extrude
• Simplifying geometry with Remove
• Extruding a planar surface to a closed volume
• Detailing with Editable Poly Chamfer
• Reflecting objects with Mirror
• Welding vertices
• Refining geometry with SwiftLoop
• Constraining sub-object transforms

7. Subdivision Surface Modeling

• Understanding subdivision surfaces
• Box modeling for subdivision surfaces
• Modeling with the Symmetry modifier
• Shaping with Ribbon tools
• Using Soft Selection
• Sharpening corners with Crease
• Baking subdivisions

8. Freeform Modeling

• Using the Freeform tools on the ribbon
• Sculpting with Paint Deform Push/Pull
• Using Paint Deform Brushes
• Setting paint options
• Setting brush options
• Conforming one object to another
• Adjustment with Move Conform
• Sculpting with Conform Transform

9. Camera Techniques

• Creating a physical camera and target
• Enabling safe frames
• Choosing aspect ratio in Render Setup
• Setting up a free camera
• Rotating in Gimbal coordinate space
• Setting rotation axis order
• Offsetting the image with Lens Shift

10. Lighting

• Previewing renders with ActiveShade
• Assigning a diffuse material
• Creating photometric lights
• Adjusting light intensity and color
• Adjusting the Camera Exposure Control
• Adjusting light shape
• Adjusting light distribution
• Controlling spotlight parameters
• Creating a sun and sky
• Illuminating a scene with the environment
• Using the Light Explorer

11. Materials

• Using the Slate Material Editor
• Managing scene materials
• Managing sample slots
• Saving material libraries
• Understanding physical materials
• Adjusting physical material parameters

12. Mapping Textures

• Controlling material sample size
• Designing 3D procedural maps
• Mapping bitmap image files
• Projecting UVs with UVW Map
• Using Real-World Map Size
• Mapping with vector art
• Restoring links with Asset Tracking

13. Hierarchies

• Understanding hierarchies
• Transforming pivot points
• Prioritizing rotation axes
• Linking objects
• Locking transforms
• Avoiding and correcting scale issues

14. Keyframe Animation

• Setting up Time Configuration
• Creating keyframes in Auto Key mode
• Creating keyframes in Set Key mode
• Editing keyframes in the Timeline
• Editing keyframes in the Dope Sheet
• Editing function curves in the Curve Editor
• Editing a trajectory with a motion path

15. Rendering

• Choosing a renderer
• Choosing render options
• Rendering an image sequence
• Playing an image sequence with the RAM Player

Conclusion

• Next steps