Hello, everybody! Here I'm going to show how to get reflection and refraction without having any anti-aliasing problems, using the Scanline Renderer in 3ds Max. I'm working in 3ds Max 2012, but the process is the same in all versions so let's get started.

Create a basic cube, convert it into a poly and extrude the opposite faces in order to get a nice bar shape. Then chamfer the edges to smooth everything out; in my case I've used a setting of 16 (Fig.01).


Press "6" to open Particle View. Create a flow with a Birth Event, Position Icon, Speed, Rotation, Shape Instance, Spin, Scale and Static Material (Fig.02). Then use the following settings:

• Birth Event: set Emit Stop and Emit Start to 0, and Amount to 60.
• Position Icon: set Location to Volume and Select Distinct Points Only to 10.
• Speed: set a 300 var%0 and Directions to Random 3D.
• Rotation: set Orientation Matrix to World Space, Width (X, Y, Z) to (70, 30, 180) and Divergence to 0.
• Shape Instance: in Particle Geometry Object select the bar we created just now.
• Scale: set this to 100% var%0.
• Spin: set Spin Rate to 180, Variations to 45 and Spin Axis to Random 3D.
• Scale: type Relative First and set Scale Factor (X, Y, Z) to (98, 98, 98). Also set Scale Variations (X, Y, Z) to (116,116,116).
• Material Static: as we didn't create anything specific, put in some basic material for testing the scene.
• Display Event: set Type to Geometry.


After using the above settings, you will get something like this (Fig.03).



Now place your text, logo or whatever you want in the center of the particles (Fig.04).