Autodesk ®

3ds Max ®

2009

Tutorials: Introduction
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Introduction
1
Welcome to the World of 3ds Max
Welcome, and congratulations! You’ve just bought a ticket to the world of
Autodesk® 3ds Max® . Hang on and get ready for the ride of a lifetime! With
3ds Max, you can create 3D places and characters, objects and subjects of any
type. You can arrange them in settings and environments to build the scenes
for your movie or game or visualization. You can animate the characters, set
them in motion, make them speak, sing and dance, or kick and fight. And then
you can shoot movies of the whole virtual thing.

The Ancient Indian Crown

Kameswaran Ramachandran Iyer,
India
www.kameswaran.com

You can use 3ds Max to visualize designs of real things that will actually be
built, such as buildings and machines. The File Link feature of 3ds Max lets you
base visualizations on designs created in AutoCAD or Autodesk Architectural
Desktop: when the design changes in these other applications, the revisions

1
 can be automatically updated in your 3ds Max scene. Add lighting and
materials, then render to still image or movie formats.
These tutorials teach 3ds Max through a series of hands-on exercises. Prepare
to be entertained and fascinated by the awesome power at your fingertips.

Printed and Online Tutorials

The tutorials are provided in two forms, as an online help file, and as a printed
manual. Due to space limitations, not all of the tutorials are printed in the
book.
Links between the online tutorials and the User Reference appear in the printed
manual as underlined text. Illustrations are printed in black and white in the
manual, and are full color in the online system.
To do the online tutorials, from the 3ds Max Help menu, choose Tutorials to
display the online collection.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are due to a number of hardworking and talented individuals

who helped create this volume of tutorials. A tip of the virtual hat to:

■ Jean-Yves Arboit, Jaykar Arudra, Alessandro Baldasseroni, Beans Magic Co.

Ltd, Martin Coven, Frances Gainer Davey, Joana Garrido, Tommy
Hjalmarsson, Kameswaran R. Iyer, Michael Koch, James Ku, Sören Larsson,
Daniel Martínez Lara, Casey McGovern, Eni Oken, Ponsonnet Olivier, Ben
Paine, Herman Saksono, Johannes Schlörb, Pradipta Seth, Metin Seven,
and Marc Tan, for creating beautiful images using 3ds Max and allowing
their reproduction in the online tutorial collection.

■ Michael B. Comet, for creating the character bones and rigging tutorials
and the low-poly character-modeling tutorial.

■ Brandon Davis and Grant Adam, for the Particle Flow and particle effects
tutorials.

■ Alberto Flores, for design of the mental ray water material.

■ Swami Lama, for providing the tutorials on scripting.

■ Peter Carisi de Lappe, of the Autodesk Media & Entertainment Quality

Engineering group, for his help creating the lesson on using IK and FK
together.

2 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 ■ Pia Maffei, of Applied IDEAS, for providing the head model used in the
Creating the Skin Material tutorial. The model was created with Applied
IDEAS's Head Designer plug-in.

■ Jon McFarland, for providing the tutorials on working with CAD files, and
fixing problems in imported files.

■ Paul Neale, for additional tutorials on character rigging.

■ Jeff Patton, along with other users on the Web, for good tips on how to
use the mental ray (lume) Ocean shader.

■ Miroslaw Piekutowski, for the model demonstrating the mental ray

Dielectric Material shader.

■ Retired Captain Irv Styer, fighter pilot, for expertise and assistance in
modeling for the P-38 tutorial.

■ Fred Ruff and Mike O'Rourke for the games and skin-deformers tutorials.

Where to Find Tutorial Files

Most of the tutorials in this volume require you to load sample files to start
and complete the lessons. These files do not install automatically on your local
drive when you install 3ds Max. All the files for these exercises can be found
on the product disc. In order to do the tutorials, you must manually copy the
sample files from that disk to your local hard drive using My Computer or
Windows Explorer.

To install the tutorial files:

1 Locate your product disc: the disc from which you installed 3ds Max.
Place in your computer's drive.

2 Open My Computer or Windows Explorer, and navigate to the disc.

3 Right-click the \tutorials folder and then choose Copy from the context
menu.

4 Navigate to your installation of 3ds Max and paste the folder.

Now you have a tutorials folder inside the program install directory on
your local drive.

TIP If you have limited hard drive space, you can copy individual directories
from the disk.

Where to Find Tutorial Files | 3

How to Learn 3ds Max
Besides the tutorials found in this collection, a number of other resources are
available to help you learn 3ds Max. In particular, consider the online Help
file an important adjunct to the tutorials; if you encounter a feature you'd like
to learn more about, look it up in the 3ds Max Help. There you'll find general
descriptions, detailed descriptions of all the controls, usage notes and tips,
and procedures for accomplishing various tasks.

3ds Max 2009 Documentation Set

■ 3ds Max 2009 Help: The online reference covers fundamental concepts
and strategies for using the product, as well as details about the features
of 3ds Max.
Access the reference online by choosing Help > Autodesk 3ds Max Help.

■ Additional Resources: A number of additional help files are installed with

the software and are available from the Help > Additional Help menu. For
details, see the topic ”3ds Max Documentation Set” in the 3ds Max Help.

3ds Max on the Web

Links to the following Web sites are available from the Help > 3ds Max on the
Web menu within 3ds Max. These pages provide access to a wide range of
product information and support resources: searchable Knowledgebase, FAQs,
technical bulletins, tested hardware information, and product downloads.

■ Online Support

■ Updates

■ Resources

■ Partners

■ Training

Autodesk Training Information and Resources

■ Learning Path: Autodesk provides you with a single access point to an

interface overview, discussion groups, essential skills movies, technical
support, training resources and more. To access the this site, go to:
http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-learningpath.

4 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 ■ Training Resources on the Web: You’ll find other training resources for
3ds Max at http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-training.

■ Other Resources: There is a wealth of information written about using 3ds

Max. There are third-party books that specialize in teaching the software
for various industries. There are magazines devoted to 3D design and
animation, as well as user groups and mail lists. Communities of users
trade secrets daily, and if you ask a question, you're likely to get answers
from experts all around the world.

Some of the above programs or contact details might not be available or

applicable in your country. Please check with your local Autodesk Authorized
Reseller or Autodesk office for details.

User Showcase
In the 3ds Max tutorials, we teach you the tools to use the software. Put those
tools in the hands of talented artists and magic happens.
Here is a gallery of images by creative individuals from around the world using
this software. We hope you find these images inspiring before you set out on
your journey of learning 3ds Max.

User Showcase | 5
 Chinese Opera
James Ku
www.3dartisan.net/~kuman/

6 | Chapter 1 Introduction
The Ancient Indian Crown
Kameswaran Ramachandran Iyer,
India
www.kameswaran.com

Unpleasant Company

User Showcase | 7
 Metin Seven

A Living Room
Frances Gainer Davey

Guardian of the Enchanted Forest

8 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Marc Tan, Insane Polygons

Old Courtyard
Pradipta Seth

User Showcase | 9
 by Tommy Hjalmarsson
http://hem.bredband.net/tomhja

10 | Chapter 1 Introduction
by Tommy Hjalmarsson
http://hem.bredband.net/tomhja

User Showcase | 11
 Student Breakfast
Jean-Yves Arboit, Belgium
www.discreetcenter.com

12 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Electric Water
Johannes Schlörb

by reiv: Ponsonnet Olivier

http://reiv.fr.st/

User Showcase | 13
 Ripples of Spring
Casey McGovern
[email protected]

14 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Indian Beauty
Jaykar Arudra, AMM Studio, India

User Showcase | 15
 by Ben Paine

Old Sunflowers
Joana Garrido (Caixa D'Imagens), Portugal

16 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Pistol Pete
Martin Coven

User Showcase | 17
 Sommar Torp: "Summer House"
Sören Larrson, Sweden
www.3dbetong.se

18 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Anibal
Daniel Martínez Lara (Pepeland)

All images are copyright. Reproduction and distribution is not permitted

without the owner's permission.

User Showcase | 19
20