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Beginners
"Dynamic Water - Video Tutorial" by Mike Bauer Want to quickly animate cool water effects? This is the tutorial for you! Learn how to create great surface disturbances that can interact with other objects in your scene - it has to be seen to be believed!
"Clone Modelling - Video Tutorial" by Mike Bauer This tutorial covers the modelling concept of creating a few basic meshes that allow you to quickly model characters later. We explore setting up the template and quickly knocking out a basic mesh. We also look at the importance of reusing assets in a production environment. The point here is a trick to help ensure that your meshes maintain a solid topology as you generate more and more detail.
"Ball Rigging - Video Tutorial" by Mike Bauer Learn how to create a simple rig that will help you explore the complexity of animating a ball. Everyone should to start their animation experience animating a ball, and this rig will give you some cool tools to make your animation life easier. Topics include MaxScripting, Reaction manager and more. You'll never look at animating a ball the same way again!
"Creating a Pinbox: Part 3 Rendering" by Lee Johnson We’re going to start by picking up where we left off in the Animation tutorial. If you didn’t complete the tutorial, you can download the .zip file on this page and open “pinbox_animated.max”. Select PinBox, and rotate it 90 degrees on the Y axis...
"Creating a Pinbox: Part 2 Animating" by Lee Johnson Alright, so we are going to start off with the model from Step 42 of the Modeling tutorial, or if you don’t have that then
you can download the zip file on this page and open “pinbox.max”. First we are going to do a little file cleanup. Go to
the Display Panel and hit Unhide All. Now go to your Layer Manager (looks like sheets of paper, just to the right of the Align Tool).
"Creating a Pinbox: Part 1 - Modelling" by Lee Johnson
In this two part tutorial on creating a pinbox model, I will show you how to go about modeling the main item from the frame to the pins, then I will conclude with showing you all how to animate it in part two. So let’s get down to it....
"Compositing for Production using 3dsmax and Mental Ray" by Lee Johnson If you need to fix the material paths to get all the texture maps to load, go to the Utilities Panel, and click on More > Edit Resources > Select Missing Files. Hit the “. . . “ button, and browse to where you extracted the files. Now choose “Set Path” (Fig.01).
"Wired Lights - Video Tutorial" by Michael Bauer This video represents a quick little tip that you may find useful. We will use wire parameters and limit controllers to basically rig the lights in a scene so that we can control multiple parameters in a scene with one controller object.
There is no scene to download to follow along with as the concepts are pretty straight forward and you should really
have no problem incorporating this technique into any scene you may desire.
"Facial Modelling - Video Tutorials" by Michael Bauer In this 3 part series we will look at some of the fundamental concepts behind using the edge-copy modelling
technique to model a face. We will also look at the importance of setting up good reference planes to model from, as
well as important considerations to ensure sound topology. If you have some experience modelling already in 3D, regardless of what software you might use, the concepts here are universal and will apply to any software package.
"Box Modelling - Video Tutorials" by Michael Bauer
This is a four part video series which covers many techniques that will help you develop confidence when it comes to modelling characters, animals – or whatever! We mainly focus on elements like ensuring sound topology, how to generate successful creases in your mesh, and the importance of studying anatomy....
"Mental Ray Water Surface" by Bimendra Bandara This tutorial will guide you to achieving a fairly realistic open water effect which can even be animated, using the
‘Ocean’ shader from the Lume Library.
"Mental Ray Sun" by Michael Bauer This tutorial is geared towards showing you how to use the Mental Ray renderer to create really good lighting and
skies. First thing we need to do, before we begin, is set Mental Ray as the Rendering engine.
"Rigging" by Michael Bauer Time to learn how to take your model and make it move! This tutorial will be geared towards learning how to rig a character like the one that I give away on my site (Family of Rigs) in the Downloads section...
"Tyre Modelling" by Ruban Morales You can start the treading from box modelling or splines. I personally use splines for 90% of my work, but if using
splines then you will need to tidy up the model to clean up the geometry (Fig.01).
"Basic Materials & Lighting" By Michael Bauer This tutorial will be focused on teaching the basics of using and creating materials in 3ds Max. To begin, the main
thing that I want to express is that in order to discern materials in a 3D scene, you have to have lighting. You can’t
simply avoid this step. You should have at least a basic lighting rig setup that comes close to the scene that you will
be using. How else will you be able to tweak the parameters of the materials if you do not know how light is affecting
your object?
"Basic Modelling Techniques" by Michael Bauer Here I will show you some of the basic concepts that many students of Max might overlook because they are focused
on modelling characters right off the bat. While this is fine, it also makes for a frustrating experience when someone
new to Max wishes to unleash their creativity.
"Particle Blazing Fire" by Ghassan Lafi The many steps of this tutorial have been explained in a way suitable for those who have experience in using
3ds Max – even for those who may have had some time away from using Max and have decided to go back to it! The tutorial will guide you step by step through how to cheat a particle fire that behaves like a real one. So if you haven't started your Max up yet, do so now!
"Edge Flow Tips & Tricks" by Athev Moravetz A fairly common problem I see people come across is their edge density. In one part of a mesh you may need more edges if it's a wider/larger area, but then higher up it may get skinnier and you’ll not need all of those edges anymore!
"Asteroids" by Kristian Foshaug Okay, so as usual I was sitting around not really doing anything, and so I thought I might as well do something useful!
So I decided to check out on how I could use particle systems – or more precisely, particle flow – to make some decent asteroids quick and easily!
"How to create a circular hole in a mesh - video tutorial" by Luciano Iurino This tutorial shows how a perfectly circular hole can be cut into a mesh using the Editable Poly tools alone. It demonstrates a quick, clean and effective way of creating holes that avoids the often messy results caused by Boolean operations.
"Head Mapping" by Richard Tilbury This short tutorial looks at a quick and effective method of mapping and unwrapping a head by way of a cylindrical
map.
"Composite Materials" by Richard Tilbury This movie looks at the new Composite map which enables a multi layering of various maps and masks that work
in a manner comparable to the blending modes in Photoshop in order to create detailed textures.
"Developing a Scripted Utility" by Sathish Shanmugasundaram Hello everyone, this tutorial will guide you to develop a scripted utility in 3DS MAX 9. This tutorial is for users with basic knowledge in max script or any other object oriented language. Here I explained everything step by step. Actually this coding is a part in my plug-in. Due to coding complexity, I cut short some and added only a few things. If time permits I will explain the rest.
"Using HDRI Maps with VRay and 3ds Max" by HDR Mill
For most of my rendering work, I use 3ds max 8 and V-Ray 1.5. Although Mental Ray, Brazil, and finalRender all
support rendering with HDRIs, I have found V-Ray to be the most intuitive and manageable. However, I will be
writing tutorials in the future regarding the use of HDRIs with all the major rendering engines.
"Creating 3D Clouds" by Jonas Ussing
In this tutorial you will learn to create a fly-through of a realistic cloud tunnel that renders relatively fast, using
3D Studio Max with no plugins or 3rd party renderers.
"Setting up a background" by Matt Sibley
Setting up a camera to match a photograph in 3D space can be a daunting task for anyone if you don’t know how
to go about it correctly. In this tutorial I will demonstrate a real simple way of matching a camera in 3D studio max to a photograph background for easy compositing....
"Making of Water Glasses" by Rick Timmons
For readers "too used" to using raytrace glass this tutorial will seem quite alien in the beginning, and the
methodology of modeling the objects utilizing these two materials will definitely appear even more alien. Both
the Dielectric Material Shader and the Glass....
"Modelling a Duck" by Antti Lehtinen
This is a tutorial about modeling a cartoon duck. The modeling technique is spline modeling. The model is
constructed in 3D Studio MAX by using splines. The model will get its final form when Surface modifier and
Meshsmooth modifier is added to it. Why this kind of modeling technique? Nowadays polygon modeling
seems to be the standard for character modeling. I think that polygon....
"The Basketball Player" by SIKU Here is a standard videogames texture map. Bear in mind to set your map sizes as squares, this makes recall in
real-time game engines easier. 1024 x 1024 pixels tend to be used often for characters in games.
"Unreal 3 Basics" by Jesse Moody
This tutorial will cover the basics on how to export a model from 3ds Max and import it into Unreal 3. Import your
textures and create a material and apply it to your mesh.
"Making a U Joint" by Michael Watkins
This tutorial will be using controllers and wiring parameters which I won't get into here. You should brush up on
those two concepts before trying this.
"Importing DWG's to 3dsmax for Architectual visualisation" by Arq. Octavio Verdugo B
I have gotten several e-mails asking me for tips on how to import files from AutoCAD to 3Dstudio Max. So I
decided to write a tutorial that will, hopefully, be of some help. I use AutoCAD 2006 and 3Dstudio Max 6. I’m sure
that this information will be useful even for later versions of the software. Specially 3Dsmax which is on version..
"HDRI and Caustics for the beginner" by Rick Timmons
This tutorial was designed with the 3D novice in mind, and for that matter, anyone above that level. We'll be creating
and adjusting everything from scratch, this tutorial will hardly yield any graphics you're going to win any awards or
other accolades for but it will will show you a cool technique...
"Smart Terrain" by Cristian "Freespace" Alexandru Ciocotisan
Welcome to my first tutorial for 3ds max. Here we will try to achieve something that looks like the picture below, by
relying mostly on 3ds max's procedural maps. No plugins are required.
"Transparent Blueprints" by Travis Williams
I wrote this tutorial because I've seen a lot of Blueprint Setup's for 3D Studio Max but not this way and wanted to share my technique. The advantage of using this technique is that you may use the blueprints as a transparent 2D Map where you can specify any colour lines you like...
"Creating a Working Chain in 3dsmax 8" by Jason Derocco
Start by creating a single Torus with the dimensions of the type of chain link you want for you scene. Obviously this
can be any shape you would like. Name the torus Chain_link....
"Panorama Exporter" by Trevor Belmont
Hello. I will try my best to guide you through this, my first tutorial, which is about Panorama Exporter for 3DSMax.
First let’s explain exactly what this is about. When one is working, making 3D models of houses, offices or any type
of space occupied by humans, the client usually wants to be able to really “see” or have a realistic “feel” of the space, before it is built.
"Modelling a Toaster" by Guy BlueSummers-3DT The reason I made this was not just because I was bored at work one day (though that’s how it started). I actually remember when I was starting out with 3DSMax and I realized there aren’t enough tutorials out there that really
walk you through every click......
"12 tips for 3dsmax and your PC" by Gary Smith Many people have problems and get frustrated when 3dsmax freezes on them because of too many polygons in a
scene, the lighting setups, and advanced textures all loaded in the viewport. Alot of people know where I'm coming
from when I say this, and you may be one of them. So I'm going to give you some tips on making 3dsmax run faster
for you, and how you can work more efficiently with the program.
"Creating a simple realistic looking scene using simple objects" by Okii Shirow Some people always want to be like others, for example, when you browse the image galleries of 3DTotal, you’ll
see there are a lot of great renderings. Then those peoples say, “Damn! What a bloody good renderings!
What realistic! Can I do things like that?
"Fixing Boolean in 3DSmax" by Bracer Jack I will be using this 3D objectthat i've modeled for this tutorial. Notice the top section requires a boolean subtraction operation while the bottom requires a union operation
.
"Polygon-modelling - A Hand Gun" by Mariska
Vos This is a tutorial for beginners: For people who don't
know anything about polygon-modelling or 3D Studio
MAX, but want to learn how to use the most important
tools fast.
"Decal/Layer Tutorial for Brazil" by Punxva The key to this tutorial is to help you improve your
scenes and your texturing ability, by showing the
basics of using different kinds of maps for different
scenarios. I’m a car modeler so I mainly use
this technique for applying decals to my car’s
paint. The problem is that many don’t know that
the same can be done with the Brazil Advanced material
car shader. . .
"Introduction to Procedural texturing"
by Peter Åsberg Welcome to this little tutorial about wood. This is
just to get you aquainted with a few of Max' basic
procedurals. More advanced tutorials will follow.
Maybe. What you're going to need is a copy of Max
or any 3d package that supports procedural textures
(this tutorial should be applicable to most packages).
. . .
"Brushed metal using procedurals" by Peter
Åsberg Hello again and welcome to the second installment
of my procedural tutorials. In this tutorial we'll
be making a brushed metal. It will focus both on the
procedurals used and on the Raytrace material together
with Shellac. . .
"Brazil Rendering Setup" by Punxva The key to this tutorial is to help you improve your
scenes and how you render in general. It is a fairly
simple concept that once you learn you will always
use.. . .
"Car Paint: Basisc" by Daniel
Buck Start with a Raytrace material, and use a "falloff" material for the diffuse spot.
Change the Falloff Type to "Fresnel". Change
the top color to the color you want the paint to be,
and the bottom color to solid Black. . .
"Modeling a Plant" by Thomas
Rinsch (Rinne) A lot of people have problems modeling plants. I found
my own way and because it’s an easy and fast
one which gives a pretty good result, I want to share
this method with you. I am not going to make very
photorealistic plants here, if you are going to do
this, you should use references from a biology book,
or elsewhere. . .
