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An Introduction to Texturing, Lighting and Rendering Architectural Exteriors – Part 3

In the field of Architectural Visualization, realism must always be the 1st goal that we strive to accomplish. In this 3 day tutorial series, you will gain a solid introduction to valuable lighting and texture mapping techniques that can be used to achieve realistic architectural renderings.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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Articles Learning Tutorials Videos

An Introduction to Texturing, Lighting and Rendering Architectural Exteriors – Part 2

In the field of Architectural Visualization, realism must always be the 1st goal that we strive to accomplish. In this 3 day tutorial series, you will gain a solid introduction to valuable lighting and texture mapping techniques that can be used to achieve realistic architectural renderings.

Additional Files/ Plugins:Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

Categories
Articles Learning Tutorials Videos

An Introduction to Texturing, Lighting and Rendering Architectural Exteriors – Part 1

This post is part of a series called An Introduction to Architectural Exteriors.
An Introduction to Texturing, Lighting and Rendering Architectural Exteriors – Part 2

In the field of Architectural Visualization, realism must always be the 1st goal that we strive to accomplish. In this 3 day tutorial series, you will gain a solid introduction to valuable lighting and texture mapping techniques that can be used to achieve realistic architectural renderings.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

    • Download the Project Files for this tutorial
    • Grass-O-Matic (Free)

Note: click the ‘Monitor’ icon to view tutorial in full-screen HD.

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Create A 3D Floor Plan Model From An Architectural Schematic In Blender

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a 3D floor plan model from an 2D architectural drawing. Karan Shah will show you some simple, yet effective techniques for constructing the walls, windows and doors following a basic interior schematic in Blender. With the model complete we’ll add materials and textures, and do a final render of the scene.

Additional Files/ Plugins:

Floor Plans are simply a drawing or a diagram showing a top view of a site layout. You can see the picture to understand the meaning of some basic symbols used. More can be found
here (pdf).

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

In a new file, select all objects with the ‘A’ key and press ‘Del’ to delete them. Press ‘N’ to bring up our View properties. In the Background Image Panel, add your reference image. Here I have used image courtesy ofLiamKeiranCooper Ltd who kept the picture in public domain.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Press ‘7’ on the NumPad to get into the Top view. Here you can see the background image. The view must be set to ‘orthographic’ in order to see the image. You can toggle between the ortho and perspective views with the ‘5’ key on the Numpad. Press Shift+A and add a Plane.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

With the Plane selected, press ‘TAB’ to get into ‘Edit’ mode. Select all the vertices with the ‘A’ key, or press ‘B’ to drag select them. Press ‘G’ and move them to the top left corner. You toggle the viewport shading between solid and wireframe with ‘Z’ key. Press ‘S’ and move the mouse to scale them down to fit the width of the wall (as shown below.)

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will cover all the black solid areas i.e. the walls. This will include the windows as they are part of the walls and will be added later. Any type of door whether it’s a slider or normal, is to be left out. Select the bottom two vertices (press ‘B’ to drag select or Hold ‘Shift’ and Right click for multiple select.) And move them down just before the wall turns left. Press ‘E’ and extrude the wall again until you reach the edge.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Select the right two vertices and press ‘E’ to extrude, and match the reference.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now, in order to extrude out a face from the middle, we need to add an Edge Loop. Hover your mouse over the face, and press ‘CTRL+R’ and Left Click to confirm. Move the mouse up and down and then Left click again to confirm its position.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Create another edge loop just below the previous one using the same method, matching the width of the wall to be extruded.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Select the two vertices and extrude the wall.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Create another edge loop on the corner and extrude the right edge.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Using the techniques above (extrude and edge loop division) fill all the solid black lines of the reference image with the mesh.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

To start a new separate wall, duplicate the last edge and then start extruding it. Select the last edge and press ‘Shift+D’ to Duplicate it, and left click to confirm. Move it with the Move control widget or press ‘G’ key of the keyboard. And continue extruding the mesh along to match the reference.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Complete the walls with the techniques you learned from above steps.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

After completing the wall, select all the vertices and then press ‘E’ to extrude them along the Z axis. Now we see that the structure is taking shape. The height should be equivalent to a door.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Press ‘Ctrl+TAB’ and select ‘Edge’ in the mesh select mode menu. Select the top two corner edges of a door (hold shift + right click to multiple select) and press ‘F’ to make a Face between them. Do this for all doors. Refer to your image and always check from all views.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Press ‘3’ on the Numpad to get into side view, and Press ‘Z’ to get into wireframe view so that we can see all the vertices behind are visible and can be selected. Press ‘B’ to drag select all the top vertices or edges, then Press ‘E’ to extrude them. This will reach the final height of the wall.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will place the windows. Press ‘TAB’ to get out of the Edit mode, and in object mode, press ‘Shift+A’ and add a ‘Cube’. In the Top view, size (press ‘S’ to scale) and place it where the window is on the reference image.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

In the side view, the top part of window should align to the top of door. Press ‘TAB’ to enter into the edit mode to adjust the vertices. Adjust the bottom height of the window too. The width of the cube should be such that it should be half inside and half outside. See image below.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Select the Wall mesh with Right click, and in the Properties button window, click on ‘Object Modifiers’.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Click on ‘Add Modifiers’ and select ‘Boolean’.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

In the Boolean modifiers panel, select ‘Cube’ in the Object, and ‘Difference’ under ‘Operation’.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

To see the effect – Select the cube and press ‘H’ to hide it. You will see that there is a “hole” in the wall the size and shape of the cube. Press ‘Alt+H’ to ‘Unhide’ the Cube.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now select the Cube (window) and in the ‘Edit’ mode, select all the vertices and press ‘Shift+D’ to make a duplicate. Place this new cube in the location of the next window.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now press ‘Tab’ to get out of ‘Edit’ mode, and select the Wall mesh and press ‘Apply’ in the ‘Boolean’ Modifier panel. The holes are now part of the geometry.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Move the Cube to see the windows.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Similarly create all the needed windows with this Boolean modifier. Try doing them one by one, adjust the size and position of the cube according to the specific window.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will create the Floor. In ‘Object’ mode and in the Top view, press ‘Shift+A’ and add a ‘Plane’. Press ‘Tab’ to get into ‘Edit’ mode and adjust the vertices accordingly so that it covers the walls. Create Edge Loops or Extrude the edges where necessary.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Make sure that there are no gaps between the edges of the floor and walls. Also in the Side view, move the floor down so it’s aligned with the bottom of the walls.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

To make doors, add a new’Cube’. And in ‘Edit’ mode, press / on the Numpad for Local view (this will show only the selected object.)  In the Top view, Move or Scale the vertices to give it a nice shape. Refer to the image for the height and width.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

In the Top view, and in ‘Edit’ mode. Move all the vertices of the door along the Y axis, so that the center point of the object (orange dot) should be at the corner (see image.) This will set the transform orientation of the object from that corner. Press ‘TAB’ to get out of edit mode and then press’R’ to Rotate and see the difference.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

While in the edit mode, add a new ‘Cylinder’. Rotate and scale it down to create the doorknob (you can add more details if you like.) Press ‘TAB’ to get out of edit mode.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

With the help of the reference image, place the doors in the correct positions (press ‘Shift+D’ to make duplicates.)

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will create the window frame. Start with another new ‘Cube’, and press ‘TAB’ to enter into ‘Edit’ mode. Press the ‘Z’ key to toggle wireframe view, so that we can select the back vertices too. Press ‘3’ on the Numpad to get into side view and then extrude the faces as shown in the image to make the window frame. Press ‘TAB’ to exit out of edit mode, and press / on the numpad again to get back to the scene.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Scale and place the window frames on the walls. Make duplicates and place them according to the image.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will add a texture to the floor. Right Click on the Floor object to select it. And in the Properties window, click on the ‘Materials’ Icon. Add a New material and name it ‘Floor’, increase the ‘Diffuse’ intensity and reduce the ‘Specular’ intensity.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Next we will add an image to the floor. (I got mine from Here.) Click on the ‘Texture’ icon next to the Material icon, and then Click on the ‘New’ button. Select ‘Image or Movie’ for the Type and in the Image panel, click on “Open’ and browse for the image.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

You can preview the texture in the 3d View. Press ‘N’ to bring up the ‘View Properties’ and in the ‘Display’ panel, select GLSL in the ‘Shading” menu (you’ll need to add some lights in the 3d view to see the texture.) Now press ‘N’ again to hide the view properties panel.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Back to the Image Texture properties, scroll down to the Mapping Panel and increase the Size of X and Y to5 or 6 depending upon your image file.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now to add a separate floor to the Bathrooms, we will add a new ‘Plane’ and adjust it’s dimensions and place it just above the wooden floor so that it’s hidden.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Apply an image, just like we did on the floor (I got mine from Here.) Duplicate the Plane and adjust it’s geometry by scaling and extruding for the second bathroom.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Select the walls and add a New material to them. Choose any color and Increase the ‘Diffuse’ intensity and set the ‘Specular’ to 0.0

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Similarly assign the materials to the windows and doors. You can assign the same material to any object by selecting the material from the list.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will prepare the scene for rendering. Make sure you are Not in ‘Edit’ mode (press ‘TAB’ to toggle Edit mode on/off.) Press ‘7’ on the Numpad to get into the Top view, then press ‘Shift+A’ to add a camera.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Rotate and place it however you like. Press ‘0’ on the Numpad to get into camera view.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
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Click on the ‘World’ settings and change the ‘Horizon Colour’ to white, then turn on ‘Ambient Occlusion’ and in the ‘Gather’ panel, increase the samples to 16. In the 3D view delete any lights if they exists.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Click on the ‘Render Settings’ button in the property window, and change the Dimensions (resolution) to your desired size. Down in the ‘Output’ panel, choose the file format for your render.

Step 1 Image

Press ‘F12’ or click on the ‘Image’ button in the render panel. Press ‘F3’ or click on ‘Image > Save image as‘ to save the image.

Your 3D Floor map is now ready!

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
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Quick Tip: Setting up an HDRI using Vray for Maya

In today’s Quick-tip tutorial, Edgar Mihailov shows artists new to Maya, and/or it’s relatively new Vray plugin, how to utilise High Dynamic Range Images (HDRIs) to illuminate your scenes, providing realistic reflections in the process. HDRI is now a standard across almost all rendering software and it’s an extremely useful thing to learn how to use!

Hi everyone! In this tutorial I will be showing you how to first enable Global Illumination (GI) within your scene, and then we’ll add an HDRi map using Vray for Maya. I will be using Maya 2011, but the process is extremely similar in some of the older versions of Maya (up to a point of course!) This tutorial is intended for people who are new to Vray itself, or just the Vray for Maya plugin.

I can’t actually share the HDR image I use in the tutorial, however there are a reat many places on the web where you can download free HDRIs to use in your scenes (though please always be aware of commercial restrictions.) A great website for free HDRi maps is http://www.openfootage.net/, but I would advise you to buy at least one good HDRi map pack, as they are typically of higher quality and allow you to achieve the results below in your commercial projects.

For the purpose of this tutorial I made this very simple scene. It’s essentially just a sphere, a plane for the floor, and a cross shape (which is nothing more than an extruded cube). Although simple, this will be more than enough to allow us to correctly set up our HDRI, and clearly see the results.

Step 1 Image

Before we can start we first have to make sure that the Vray plugin is loaded. To do this, click Window on the top menu bar, and then hover your cursor over Settings/Preferences and a menu will pop up. Once it’s opened, choose the very bottom Plug-in Manager.

Step 2 Image

Maya’s Plugin Manager menu will appear. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and make sure thatvrayformaya.mll is checked as Loaded. If you do a lot of work with Vray, you might want to check Auto-loadas well, which will make the plugin load up everytime Maya starts.

Note : If you don’t see a vrayformaya.mll entry in the list, make sure you have installed the plugin correctly. If you reinstall the plugin, make sure you restart Maya before re-checking the Plugin Manager.

Step 3 Image

Now we have to switch our rendering engine to Vray. To do so, switch to the Rendering menu-set (by using the dropdown menu underneath the File and Edit menus on the top bar), then go to Render > Render Using > V-Ray.

Note: You can also see here the other renderers you have access to on the system. By default, Maya comes with Maya Software, Maya Hardware, Maya Vector and Mental Ray – all of which are covered heavily in the documentation.

Step 4 Image

After that is done we have to go in and set up our materials. Go to Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade to open Maya’s main material editor/creator.

Step 5 Image

In the image below you can see the Hypershade. On the right are the 3 existing material nodes in the scene, and on the left is a list of all of the material nodes you can create. We want to create a standard Vray material, so click twice where it says “VRay Mtl” to create two materials. As you do this, the new materials will pop up in the right hand side of the Hypershade. For this tutorial only these two materials will be needed.

Step 6 Image

Now double-click on one of the materials that we just created to open up the Attribute Editor. (This may appear as a floating panel, or docked to the right hand side of the main window.) In the Attribute Editor go to the Reflection section and change the Reflection Color to white by sliding the slider all the way to the right. This makes the material fully reflective – it is essentially now a mirror. We don’t need to alter the other material as the standard settings will do for this test. Whilst I won’t name the materials here, I strongly advise you to give each material a descriptive name if you’re putting together a complex scene.

Note : If the Attribute Editor doesn’t open, click once on your new material and hit CTRL+A to open it.

Step 7 Image

To apply our new materials to our objects, hover your cursor over the material in the right side of theHypershade, hold down the middle mouse button, move your mouse over the object you want to apply your material to, and then release to apply it. Using this method, I applied our mirror material to the sphere object, and the other default grey material to the floor plane and the cross object.

Step 8 Image

Now we have to change our render settings and add in our HDRI. To do this, go to Window > Rendering Editors > Render Settings

Step 9 Image

We’re now going to enable Global Illumination, a key part of making the HDRI work as it allows us to take into account any light coming from our environment within the scene. Switch to the Indirect Illuminationtab and make sure that the first check box is turned on to enable GI. For this simple test I’ll leave the rest of the settings at their default values, but you should feel free to experiment. For instance, the Primary Bounces Multiplier can be increased to brighten up a dark scene, which can be useful for some HDR images.

Step 10 Image

In order to use an HDRi map for our overall lighting, we have to switch to the VRay tab and tick Override Environment. If we were to do a test render now, the scene would be a light blue color instead of pitch black. That blue color is coming from the GI texture swatch as shown in the image below. This is where we’re going to need to add in our HDRI.

Step 11 Image

Before we can do that however, we have to create a material for our HDRi map. So head back into theHypershade (Window > Rendering Editors > Hypershade) and click the Textures tab as shown at 1 in the below image. We need to create a File texture to load in our HDRI, but it might not be easy to find in the list of available materials/textures. To speed up this process, type File into the search bar shown at 2 in the below image. This will quickly allow you to find a specific texture node. Once done, click once on the Filenode shown at 3 – it should appear in the right hand side of the Hypershade.

If you have stuff in your “Work Area”, click the eraser icon to clear it.

Step 12 Image

Click once on the new File node to select it and hit CTRL+A to bring back the Attribute Editor. Once there, click on the folder icon next to Image Name and navigate to/select your HDRI map. It might take a while to load depending on the speed of your computer and size of the map.

Step 13 Image

Now open both the Render Settings window and the Hypershade window side-by-side. Just like when we applied the materials to our objects, we need to hover over the HDRI File node in the Hypershade, hold down the middle mouse button, move the mouse over to the black swatch next to Background Texture and then release. Maya will automatically add the File texture into this slot for us. We now need to repeat this process for the GI texture, Reflection texture and Refraction texture slots.

Note: Ideally you should use a low-res, slightly blurred version of your HDRI in the GI Texture slot, as it provides much smoother lighting throughout the scene. The 3 other slots should all use the high-res version.

Step 14 Image

You may notice that you can now see your image in the main viewport. If it looks as expected feel free to skip this step, however if your HDRi map is rotated sideways you may need to do the following…

Go back to the Render Settings, and in the Environment tab click where it says Edit UV Placement. As all of our maps are using the same file, altering one UV Placement affects all of the maps, however if you’re using multiple maps you would need to repeat this fix for each one of them.

In the Attribute Editor, change the Vertical rotation from 0 to 90, which will rotate our image map 90 degrees, hopefully lining it up straight! If it’s still not straight, feel free to change the number until it looks correct.

Step 15 Image
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Our materials and HDRI are now all in place so it’s time to render! From the top menu, go to Render > Render Current Frame.

Step 16 Image

Once completed, your render should look something like this. Now go and experiment with different HDRIs to see the wide range of results you can achieve! If you have any questions feel free to leave them below. Thanks!

Step 17 Image
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Multi Pass Rendering and Compositing in 3ds Max and After Effects—Part 2

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

Open 3ds Max.

Open 3ds Max
Open 3ds Max.

I have made a simple scene. I have put three objects with some distance between each other.

Make objects
Make objects

Press Ctrl-C to create a camera in the perspective view.

Create a camera
Create a camera

With the teapot selected, do a right click and select Object Properties.

Object Properties
Object Properties

It opens the Object Properties window. Set the Object ID value as 1.

Object ID
Object ID

Following the same way, set the Object ID value of the cylinder as 2.

Object ID
Object ID

Following the same way, set the Object ID value of the box as 3.

Object ID
Object ID

Press Shift-Q or F9 key to render the scene.

Shift-Q
Shift-Q

Click on Save Image icon. It opens the Save Image window. Set the file name as Diffuse and select the file format as RPF. Click on Save button.

Save Image
Save Image

It opens the RPF Image File Format window. Choose 16 Bits per channels option. Turn on all options. Click on OK button.

RPF Image File Format
RPF Image File Format

Open After Effects. Import the Diffuse.RPF file in the timeline. You will notice the file has come with all properties like Z-depth, Object ID, Zcoverage etc.

Open After Effets
Open After Effets

With the Diffuse.RPF layer selected, go to Effects > 3D Channel > ID Matte.

Effects 3D Channel ID Matte
Effects > 3D Channel > ID Matte

In ID Matte effect, the default value of ID Selection is set to 0.

ID Matte
ID Matte

Set the ID Selection value as 1. You will see that only the teapot is visible. This happens because in 3ds Max, I had set the object id value of the teapot as 1.

ID Selection
ID Selection

Make the duplicate layer of Diffuse.RPF layer by pressing Ctrl-D key.

This time, set the ID Selection value to 2. The cylinder gets highlighted, because in 3ds Max, I had set the object id of the cylinder as 2.

DiffuseRPF
Diffuse.RPF 

Once again, make the duplicate layer of Diffuse.RPF layer by pressing Ctrl-D key. This time, set the ID Selection value to 3. The box gets highlighted also, because in 3ds Max, I had set the object id of the box as 3.

DiffuseRPF
Diffuse.RPF 

You can give proper name to the layers as Teapot, Cylinder and Box. Bring the diffuse layer once more in the background to get the floor.

Rename the layers
Rename the layers

Now you can control the individual layer. For example, if you want to change the color of the teapot, just select the teapot layer, go to Effect > Color Correction > Hue/Saturation.

Effect Color Correction Hue Saturation
Effect > Color Correction > Hue/ Saturation

Change the Master Hue value and you will see the color of the teapot changes accordingly.

Master Hue
Master Hue

Following the same way, you can apply Glow to the cylinder layer. This way, you can control any layer individually and apply any effect.

Glow
Glow

With the diffuse layer selected, go to Effect > 3D Channel > 3D Channel Extract.

Effect 3D Channel 3D Channel Extract
Effect > 3D Channel > 3D Channel Extract

With Z Depth channel selected, it looks like as shown in the following image.

Z Depth
Z Depth

You can play with the Black and White values to get the perfect Z depth. Just remember that the nearest object to the camera remains in white and as it travels far, it becomes grey.

Black and White
Black and White

With the layer selected, press Ctrl-Shift-C to pre compose. Rename the pre composed layer as Diffuse.rpfComp 1.

Ctrl-Shift-C
Ctrl-Shift-C 

Bring the Diffuse layer in the timeline. Turn off the pre composed layer.

Diffuse layer
Diffuse layer

Apply S_Z Blur effect on the Diffuse layer. Alternatively you can use Camera Lens Blur. It makes the entire layer blurred.

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Pick the pre composed layer as the Z Buffer channel. Now you get the real depth of field in the image. The front teapot looks in the focus while the cylinder and box look out of focus.

Z Buffer
Z Buffer

In this tutorial, I showed you how to control the individual object in the layer by using just one pass. This is the beauty of RPF file format. It contains almost every channel like Z Depth, Object ID, Material ID, Z Coverage etc and every channel could be controlled by using just one layer.

In the next part of the tutorial, I will show you the most useful and powerful file format used in the industry to control everything.

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Multi Pass Rendering and Compositing in 3ds Max and After Effects- Part 1

Final product image
What You’ll Be Creating

Open 3ds Max. Draw a plane in the perspective viewport.

Open 3ds Max
Open 3ds Max

Make a teapot and put it on the plane.

Make a teapot
Make a teapot 

I’ve applied several lights in the scene. I’ve chosen Ray Traced Shadows as the shadow.

Ray Traced Shadows
Ray Traced Shadows

Press M to open the Material Editor. Select an empty slot. Click on Reflection channel.

It opens the Material/ Map Browser. Select Raytrace and click on OK.

Material Editor
Material Editor

Apply this material to the plane.

Apply this material to the plane
Apply this material to the plane

Increase the Specular level and Glossiness of the teapot.

Increase the Specular level and Glossiness
Increase the Specular level and Glossiness

Render the scene. You get one rendered frame. In this rendered frame, you get Diffuse Color, Shadow,Specularity and Reflection.

Right now, you can’t control individual channel. It will affect the entire frame. You’ll need to render each and every pass separately.

Render the scene
Render the scene

Press F10 to open Render Settings window. Click on Render Elements tab.

Render Settings
Render Settings

Click on Add button. It opens Render Elements window. Select Diffuse and click on OK.

Render Elements
Render Elements

Following the same way, click on Add button and add Reflection, Shadow and Specular.

Add button
Add button 

You have successfully added these 4 passes in the Render Element list.

Render Element
Render Element 

With Diffuse pass selected, click on Browse tab.

Browse
Browse 

Save the file as Diffuse.TGA.

TGA
TGA

It opens Targa Image Control window. Choose 32 Bits-Per-Channel option. Click on OK.

32 Bits-Per-Channel
32 Bits-Per-Channel 

Following the same way, save the Reflection, Shadow and Specular files in TGA format.

Save the Reflection Shadow and Specular files
Save the Reflection, Shadow and Specular files

Click on Render button.

Render
Render 

You will get 4 different rendered frames for each individual pass.

Passes
Passes

This is Diffuse pass.

This is Diffuse pass
This is Diffuse pass.

This is Reflection pass.

This is Reflection pass
This is Reflection pass.

This is Shadow pass.

This is Shadow pass
This is Shadow pass.

This is Specular pass.

This is Specular pass
This is Specular pass.

Open After Effects.

Open After Effects
Open After Effects.

Import all passes inside After Effects and put them on the timeline in order.

Import all passes inside After Effects
Import all passes inside After Effects

To get all passes at the right place, you need to put them in order. Keep the order of the passes as shown in the following image. With the Reflection pass selected, change its blending mode to Screen.

Blending mode and proper order
Blending mode and proper order

Now you get the final composited scene.

Now you get the final composited scene
Now you get the final composited scene

The beauty of this process is that, you can control each individual pass separately. If you want your shadow a bit light, you can decrease the Opacity value of the Shadow layer, and it will affect the shadow only. All other layers/ passes will be unaffected.

Opacity
Opacity
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If you want to make the reflection blurred, just apply Gaussian Blur effect to the Reflection layer. Play with the blur value, and it will affect the reflection only.

Apply Gaussian Blur
Apply Gaussian Blur

Multi pass rendering and compositing is a great time saver technique. It not only saves the time, but also enables the compositor to work more efficiently and independently on the compositions.

In the next part of the tutorial series, I’ll show you some more important passes in 3ds MaxRLA, RPF andOpen EXR format which make the compositing process even much better.

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Creating a Dynamic Wrecking Ball Simulation Using Mass FX and Constraints in 3ds Max

Open 3ds Max. Go to Shapes > Splines > Ellipse and draw an oval shape in the front viewport.

Draw an oval shape
Draw an oval shape

With the oval shape selected, open the Rendering rollout tab. Turn on Enable In Renderer and Enable In Viewport options. Increase the Thickness value to 7.

Rendering rollout
Rendering rollout

Right click on the oval shape and turn it into Editable Poly.

Editable Poly
Editable Poly

With the oval poly shape selected, click on Hierarchy panel. Enable Affect Pivot Only option and drag the pivot of the oval poly shape to the extreme right.

Don’t forget to turn off the Affect Pivot Only option after that.

Hierarchy
Hierarchy 

Make a copy of the oval poly shape and rotate it. Both objects must not intersect each other.

Make a copy of the oval poly shape
Make a copy of the oval poly shape

Make several copies of the oval shapes to form a chain link.

Make several copies
Make several copies

With the chain selected, go to Mass FX toolbar and select Set Selected as Dynamic Rigid Body option.

Set Selected as Dynamic Rigid Body
Set Selected as Dynamic Rigid Body 

With the first oval poly shape from the left side selected, go to Constrains > Create Universal Constraint.

Constrains Create Universal Constraint
Constrains > Create Universal Constraint

It creates a UConstraint at the pivot point of the oval poly shape.

UConstraint
UConstraint

For the first oval poly object, its parent would be the next oval poly object.

Click on Parent tab and select the next oval poly object as the parent of the first oval poly object. Turn onFree radio buttons of Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties.

Swing Y Swing Z and Twist properties
Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties

You can lower the UConstraint icon size also. Put a smaller value in Icon Size.

UConstraint
UConstraint

Following the same way, with the next oval poly object selected, go to Constraints > Create Universal Constraint.

Constraints Create Universal Constraint
Constraints > Create Universal Constraint

It creates a UConstraint at the pivot point of the oval poly shape.

UConstraint
UConstraint 

For this oval poly object, its parent would be the next oval poly object. So, click on Parent tab and select the next oval poly object as the parent of the selected oval poly object. Turn on Free radio buttons of Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties.

Swing Y Swing Z and Twist properties
Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties

Following the same way, keep making constraints for each oval poly object one by one. After a couple of minutes, you will have the completed chain.

The completed chain
The completed chain

Create a sphere. Put it at the end of the chain link. This will act as the wrecking ball.

Create a sphere
Create a sphere

Put the pivot of the sphere at the edge of the sphere as shown in the following image.

Put the pivot of the sphere at the edge
Put the pivot of the sphere at the edge 

Make this sphere as a dynamic rigid body.

Make this sphere as a dynamic rigid body
Make this sphere as a dynamic rigid body

Apply Universal Constraint to the sphere.

Universal Constraint
Universal Constraint

For this sphere object, its parent would be the first oval poly object. Click on Parent tab and select the first oval poly object as the parent of the selected sphere object. Turn on Free radio buttons of Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties.

Swing Y Swing Z and Twist properties
Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties

Create a small low poly sphere at the extreme right end of the chain.

Create a small low poly sphere
Create a small low poly sphere

This time, make this sphere as a Kinematic Rigid Body.

Kinematic Rigid Body
Kinematic Rigid Body

With the indicated oval poly object selected, apply Universal Constraint to it.

Universal Constraint
Universal Constraint 

Select the low poly sphere as the parent of it. Turn on Free radio buttons of Swing Y and Swing Z. Keep the radio button of Twist turned off.

Turn off Twist button
Turn off Twist button

With the wrecking ball sphere selected, click on Mass FX Tool icon. Inside the Mass FX Tool window, go toMulti-Object Editor tab and put the Mass value as 5.

Multi-Object Editor
Multi-Object Editor

Click on Start Simulation icon. You will see a fine simulation of chained wrecking ball in the viewport.

Start Simulation
Start Simulation

Go to scriptspot.com and download Fracture Voronoi script.

Fracture Voronoi
Fracture Voronoi 

Save the script in the 3ds Max Scripts folder.

Scripts folder
Scripts folder

Create a box in the viewport to make a wall.

Create a box
Create a box 

With the wall selected, go to Max Script > Run Script.

Max Script Run Script
Max Script > Run Script

It opens the Choose Editor file window. Select the Fracture Voronoi script and click on Open.

Fracture Voronoi run
Fracture Voronoi run

It opens the Fracture Voronoi script window. Click on Pick Object button and then select the wall in the viewport.

Fracture Voronoi script window
Fracture Voronoi script window

I have set the Nb parts as 40 since I want the wall to be broken into forty different chunks. I’ve selected theUniform color option as I want all the chunks in a same color.  

Nb parts as 40
Nb parts as 40

Click on Break in 40 button. It breaks the box wall into 40 pieces.

Break in 40
Break in 40

You can further break each broken piece into several more chunks. Select a broken piece and then repeat the process from Steps 2 to 6.

repeat the process from Step 2 to 6
repeat the process from Step 2 to 6

With all wall chunks selected, make them as Dynamic Rigid Body.

Dynamic Rigid Body
Dynamic Rigid Body

With all wall chunks selected, go to Multi-Object Editor tab and put the Mass value as 5. Turn on Start in Sleep Mode option.

Multi-Object Editor
Multi-Object Editor

Click on Start Simulation button. You will see the wall shattering simulation in the viewport.

Start Simulation
Start Simulation
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Once you are satisfied with the simulation result, click on Bake All tab to bake all simulation.

Bake All
Bake All

Mass FX is a great dynamics tool in 3ds Max. It has replaced Reactor and has more controls over the dynamic simulation than ever.

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Creating a Reflective Sheen in 3ds Max

I’ll show you how to render it as a separate pass so that you can control its intensity in multi pass compositing easily.

Open 3ds Max. Open the smart_phone.max file which has been provided with the tutorial.

Open 3ds Max
Open 3ds Max
  • Press M to open the Material Editor. Select an empty material slot.
  • Click on Diffuse channel. It opens the Material/ Map Browser window.
  • Select Bitmap and click on OK.
Material Editor
Material Editor

Select screen.jpg image. This will be used as the texture of the mobile screen.

Texture
Texture

I have used several omni lights in the scene.

Lights
Lights

Press Shift-Q or F9 to render the frame. This looks good but there is no reflective sheen on the screen right now.

Render the scene
Render the scene

Create a plane with the length and width as 200 and 80 respectively.

Create a plane
Create a plane 

Put this plane in front of the mobile phone as shown in the following image.

Put the plane on the front
Put the plane on the front
  • Press M to open the Material Editor
  • Select an empty material slot
  • Set the Diffuse color as grey
  • Increase the Self-Illumination level to 100%
  • Apply this material onto the plane
Material Editor
Material Editor

With the screen material slot selected, click on Reflection channel.

Reflection
Reflection

It opens the Material/Map Browser window. Select Raytrace and click on OK.

Material Map Browser
Material/ Map Browser

With the plane selected, do right click and select Object Properties.

Object Properties
Object Properties

It opens the Object Properties window. Turn off Visible to Camera option. Click on OK.

Visible to Camera
Visible to Camera

Press Shift-Q or F9 to render the frame.

This time you get the sharp reflective sheen on the mobile phone’s screen. The reflective plane is there but you don’t see in the rendered frame because you have turned off Visible to Camera option.

Render the scene
Render the scene

If you want to control the visibility or intensity of the reflective sheen, you need to render it as a separate pass, so that you can control it later in the compositing software.

For separate pass
For separate pass

Press F10 to open the Render Setting window. Click on Render Element tab.

Render Setting
Render Setting

Click on Add button. Select Diffuse, Lighting and Reflection. Click on OK.

Render Elements
Render Elements

Click on Render button.

Render
Render 

You get three different passes as Diffuse, Lighting and Reflection. Save each of them in the TGA file format.

Save the passes
Save the passes

Open After Effects.

Open After Effects
Open After Effects

Import all 3 passes one by one and put them in order on the timeline.

Import the passes
Import the passes

Put Reflection layer on the top of the Diffuse layer. It looks dark.

Order wise layers
Order wise layers 
Step 4

Change the blending mode of the Reflection layer to Add. Now you get the reflective sheen on the screen. Since this reflective sheen pass is a separate layer so you can easily control it without affecting any other layer.

Add blending mode
Add blending mode

Reflective sheen pass adds beauty to the final output. There is quite an easy set up for it. If you use it as a separate pass, you can control it quite easily in post production software.

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Articles Learning Post Tutorials

Bronze and Silver Material In Vray

Final result preview

Step 1

Make sure you are using Vray as your render engine. Once you learn the technique, you can do it in other render engines as well. Open Material editor. apply VRayMtl to one of the free sample slots. Name it as you wish. I chose Aged Metal.

Step 2

Change the Diffuse Color to black. The reflection of the color depends to the type of the metal that we are creating. If you want an old copper color, then choose a brownish color, or if you want a silver metal then light gray could be a good choice. Because it is an old metal material, we need to decrease its shininess by reducing Refl glossiness to 0.7. Make sureFresnel reflections is turn on, and change Fresnel IOR to 15. Note that if it was a polished metal, we could use 20 in Fresnel IOR.

Step 3

One of the characteristics of an aged metal is that the inner parts are darker than the outer parts. We will use VRayDirtmap to create this effect. Setting up the right VRayDirt is little tricky and sometimes needs to take several render test to find the best values. Here I am going to use another way to find the best parameters for my model. Instead of applying VRayDirt to reflection color, I am going to apply it to Diffuse map. set it up and at end, copy this map on reflection map slot. So temporarily change Reflect color to black. Canceling reflection will help to have faster render test. Apply VRayDirt map to Diffuse map slot.

Step 4

In VRayDirt Parameters, Change occluded color to red and unoccluded color to green. Make a render test. Now you can clearly see the effect of VRayDirt map.

Step 5

Reduce radius to 1. Render again. Now red color is mostly in inner parts. You can try different values according to your model.

Step 6

Change occluded color to black and unoccluded color to your metal color. In my case I change to copper color. Increase subdivs to 16 to have better quality.

Step 7

Let’s go back to VRayMtl and replace VRayDirt from Diffuse slot to Reflect slot.

Step 8

There is one more thing that you can do to increase darkness in inner areas. Right click on the Reflect map slot and choose Copy. We are going to copy this map inside VRayDirt map itself.

Step 9

Go to VRayDirt map parameters. At the bottom, find unoccluded color map slot. Right click and choose Paste. Render again.

Step 10

This is nested VRayDirt map. You can continue to get darker effect. In the below photo, I compared a 2times nested VRayDirt with a 4 times nested VRayDirt map.

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Scatter Compound Object – 3D max Tutorial

Scatter Compound Object

Scatter is a form of compound object that randomly scatters the selected source object either as an array, or over the surface of a distribution object.

  • Select an object. > Create panel > (Geometry) > Compound Objects > Object Type rollout > Scatter
  • Standard menu: Select an object. > Create menu > Compound > Scatter
  • Enhanced menu: Select an object. > Objects menu > Compound Objects > Scatter

The plane of the hill is used to scatter the trees and two different sets of rocks.

Procedures

To create a Scatter object:

  1. Create an object to be used as a source object.
  2. Optionally, create an object to be used as a distribution object.
  3. Select the source object, and then on the Object Type rollout, click Scatter.
    Note: The source object must be either a mesh object or an object that can be converted to a mesh object. If the currently selected object is invalid, the Scatter button is unavailable.

    Results of scattering source object with distribution object visible (left) and hidden (right)

    You now have two choices. You can either scatter the source object as an array without using a distribution object, or use a distribution object to scatter the object. See the following procedures.

To scatter the source object without a distribution object:

  1. Choose Use Transforms Only in the Scatter Objects rollout Distribution group.
  2. Set the Duplicates spinner to specify the desired total number of duplicates of the source object.
  3. Adjust the spinners on the Transforms rollout to set random transformation offsets of the source object.

To scatter the source object using a distribution object:

  1. Make sure the source object is selected.
  2. Choose the method by which you want to clone the distribution object (Reference, Copy, Move, or Instance.)
  3. Click Pick Distribution Object, and then select the object you want to use as a distribution object.
  4. Make sure that Use Distribution Object on the Scatter Object rollout is chosen.
  5. Use the Duplicates spinner to specify the number of duplicates. (This is not necessary if you’re using the All Vertices, All Edge Midpoints or All Face Centers distribution methods.)
  6. Choose a distribution method in the Scatter Object rollout Distribute Object Parameters group under Distribute Using.
  7. Optionally, adjust the Transform spinners to randomly transform the duplicates.
  8. If the display is too slow, or the meshes too complicated, consider choosing Proxy on the Display rollout or decreasing the percentage of displayed duplicates by reducing the Display percentage.

Most of the spinner values are animatable, so you can animate things like the number of duplicates, their transformations, and so on.

Scatter objects (the grass) with a high number of duplicates

Interface

Pick Distribution Object rollout

Contains the options for selecting a distribution object.

Object
Displays the name of the distribution object selected with the Pick button.
Pick Distribution Object
Click this button, then click an object in the scene to specify it as a distribution object.
Reference/Copy/Move/Instance
Lets you specify how the distribution object is transferred to the scatter object. It can be transferred either as a reference, a copy, an instance, or moved, in which case the original shape is not left behind.

Scatter Objects rollout

The options on this rollout let you specify how the source object is scattered, and let you access the objects that make up the compound Scatter object.

Distribution group

These two options let you choose the basic method of scattering the source object.

  • Use Distribution Object Scatters the source object based on the geometry of the distribution object.
  • Use Transforms Only This options doesn’t need a distribution object. Instead, duplicates of the source object are positioned using the offset values on the Transforms rollout. If all of the Transform offsets remain at 0, you won’t see the array because the duplicates occupy the same space.
Objects group

Contains a list window showing the objects that make up the Scatter object.

[list window]
Click to select an object in the window so that you can access it in the Stack. For example, if your distribution object is a sphere, you can click Distribution: D_Sphere01, open the Stack list, and select Sphere to access the sphere’s parameters.
Source Name
Lets you rename the source object within the compound Scatter object.
Distribution Name
Lets you rename the distribution object.
Extract Operand
Extract a copy or an instance of the selected operand. Choose an operand in the list window to enable this button.

Note: This button is available only on the Modify panel. You can’t extract an operand while the Create panel is active.
Instance/Copy
This option lets you specify how the operand is extracted: as either an instance or a copy.
Source Object Parameters group

These options affect the source object locally.

Duplicates
Specifies the number of scattered duplicates of the source object.

This number is set to 1 by default, but you can set it to 0 if you want to animate the number of duplicates, beginning with none. Note that the Duplicates number is ignored if you’re distributing the duplicates using either Face Centers or Vertices. In these cases, one duplicate is placed at each vertex or face center, depending on your choice.

Base Scale
Alters the scale of the source object, affecting each duplicate identically. This scale occurs before any other transforms.
Vertex Chaos
Applies a random perturbation to the vertices of the source object.
Animation Offset
Lets you specify the number of frames within which each source object duplicate’s animation is offset, at random, from the original. So, for example, if you set Animation Offset to 10, each duplicate will start animating at a random frame between 0 and 10. At the default setting of 0, all duplicates move identically.
Distribution Object Parameters group

These options affect how the duplicates of the source object are arranged, relative to the distribution object. These options have an effect only when a distribution object is used.

Perpendicular
When on, orients each duplicate object perpendicular to its associate face, vertex, or edge in the distribution object. When off, the duplicates maintain the same orientation as the original source object.
Use Selected Faces Only
When on, limits distribution to the selected faces passed up the Stack. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to use the Instance option when picking the distribution object. You can then apply a Mesh Select modifier to the original object and select only those faces you want to use for the distribution of the duplicates.
Distribute Using
These options let you specify how the geometry of the distribution object determines the distribution of the source object. These options are ignored if you’re not using a distribution object.

  • Area Distributes duplicate objects evenly over the total surface area of the distribution object.

    Objects distributed over a spherical surface with Area turned on

  • Even Divides the number of faces in the distribution object by the number of duplicates, and skips the appropriate number of faces in the distribution object when placing duplicates.
  • Skip N Skips N number of faces when placing duplicates. The editable field specifies how many faces to skip before placing the next duplicate. When set to 0, no faces are skipped. When set to 1, every other face is skipped, and so on.
  • Random Faces Applies duplicates randomly over the surface of the distribution object.
  • Along Edges Assigns duplicates randomly to the edges of the distribution object.
  • All Vertices Places a duplicate object at each vertex in the distribution object. The Duplicates value is ignored.
  • All Edge Midpoints Places a duplicate at the midpoint of each segment edge.
  • All Face Centers Places a duplicate object at the center of each triangular face on the distribution object. The Duplicates value is ignored.
  • Volume Scatters objects throughout the distribution object’s volume. All other options restrict distribution to the surface. Consider turning on Display rollout Hide Distribution Object with this option.

    Objects fill a spherical volume with Volume turned on

Display group
Result/Operands
Choose whether to display the results of the scatter operation or the operands before the scattering.

Transforms rollout

The settings in the Transforms rollout let you apply random transform offsets to each duplicate object. The values in the transform fields specify a maximum offset value that’s applied randomly with a positive or negative value to each duplicate. Thus, if you set a rotation angle of 15 degrees, duplicates are rotated randomly from –15 to +15 degrees. For example, one duplicate might be rotated 8 degrees, another –13, another 5, and so on. You can use the Transform settings with or without a distribution object. When there is no distribution object, you must adjust the Transform settings in order to see the duplicates.

Rotation group

Specifies random rotation offsets.

X, Y, Z deg
Enter the maximum random rotational offset you want about the local X, Y, or Z axis of each duplicate.
Use Maximum Range
When on, forces all three settings to match the maximum value. The other two settings become disabled, and the setting containing the maximum value remains enabled.
Local Translation group

Specifies translation of the duplicates along their local axes.

X, Y, Z
Enter the maximum random movement you want along the X, Y, or Z axis of each duplicate.
Use Maximum Range
When on, forces all three settings to match the maximum value. The other two settings become disabled, and the setting containing the maximum value remains enabled.
Translation on Face group

Lets you specify the translation of duplicates along barycentric face coordinates of the associate face in the distribution object. These settings have no effect if you’re not using a distribution object.

A, B, N
The first two settings specify the barycentric coordinates on the surface of the face, while the N setting sets the offset along the normal of the face.
Use Maximum Range
When on, forces all three settings to match the maximum value. The other two settings become disabled, and the setting containing the maximum value remains enabled.
Scaling group

Lets you specify the scaling of duplicates along their local axes.

X, Y, Z %
Specifies the percent of random scaling along the X, Y, or Z axis of each duplicate.
Use Maximum Range
When on, forces all three settings to match the maximum value. The other two settings become disabled, and the one containing the maximum value remains enabled.
Lock Aspect Ratio
When on, maintains the original aspect ratio of the source object. Typically, this provides uniform scaling of duplicates. When Lock Aspect Ratio is off, and any of the X, Y, and Z settings contain values greater than 0, the result is non-uniform scaling of duplicates because the values represent random scaling offsets in both positive and negative directions.

Display rollout

Provides options that affect the display of the Scatter object.

Display Options group

These options affect the display of the source and destination objects.

  • Proxy Displays the source duplicates as simple wedges and speeds up viewport redraws when manipulating a complex Scatter object. This has no effect on the rendered image, which always displays the mesh duplicates.
  • Mesh Displays the full geometry of the duplicates.
Display %
Specifies the percentage of the total duplicate objects that appear in the viewports. This has no effect on the rendered scene.
Hide Distribution Object
Hides the distribution object. The hidden object does not appear in the viewport or in the rendered scene.
Uniqueness group

Lets you set a seed number upon which the random values are based. Thus, altering this value changes the overall effect of the scattering.

New
Generates a new, random seed number.
Seed
Use this spinner to set the seed number.

Load/Save Presets rollout

Lets you store preset values to use in other Scatter objects. For example, after setting all of your parameters for a specific Scatter object and saving the settings under a specific name, you can then select another Scatter object and load the preset values into the new object.

Preset Name
Lets you define a name for your settings. Click the Save button to save the current settings under the preset name.
Saved presets window
Displays saved preset names.
LOAD
Loads the preset currently highlighted in the Saved Presets list.
SAVE
Saves the current name in the Preset Name field and places it in the Saved Presets window.

Note: Animated parameter values subsequent to frame 0 are not stored.
DELETE
Deletes the items selected in the Save Presets window.
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Quick Tip: How to Setup Units & Use the Tape Tool in 3D Studio Max

Quick Tip: How to Setup Units & Use the Tape Tool in 3D Studio Max

In this quick tip, Alex Martin introduces you to two features of 3D Studio Max that many new artists overlook, a correct unit setup and the ever handy tape tool. Working with a correct scene scale is extremely important, especially when it comes to multiple artists working on the same scene, or when recreating accurate lighting for a project. This quick tip will give you a few tips for setting up your units system correctly, and provide a practical example for measuring the distance between objects using the tape tool and how this applies when working with Z-Depth.

Whenever we create a primitive object in 3ds Max, it shows its dimensions without any proper unit by default. For example, I have created a box in the viewport and you can see there is no unit setup defined for its dimensions (Length, Width and Height). However these dimensions have some values, but we don’t know what exactly these are; meter, feet, inches, centimeters or something else?

The majority of 3ds Max users just start working this way, and this is indeed a fatal tendency. If you’re working on an architecture or industrial project, or anything which requires a correct unit setup, then you must take care of it.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_1

Not working with a correct unit setup can create lots of other problems. Let’s look at it through an example. Say, there are two users A and B, working in 3ds max on two different machines and both are working without setting up the correct unit order. User A has created a biped (scene 1) and user B has made a car (scene 2).

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_2

Now, after merging both projects together (scene 3), it shows the real problem. In scene 3, you can see the ratio mismatch clearly. The biped is too big for the car. This happened, because both users were working without setting up the correct unit order. If they had used the unit setup before, this problem could have been avoided.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_2a

Now, let’s see how to work with the correct unit setup. Open 3ds Max and first of all go to the Customizemenu. Here click on the Units Setup… option.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_3

This opens Units Setup window. Here click on the System Unit Setup button to open the System Unit Setup window. By default, it shows 1 unit = 1 inch.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_3a

This means if you draw a box in the viewport, its dimension values are in inches by default. So in this example, a Length value of  40.0 means 40 inches and so on.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_3b

Now let’s go back to the Units Setup window. You can choose here a metric unit system also. Just turn on the Metric radio button and select any of the available units (meters, centimeters, kilometers etc). Then click on the OK button.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_4

Now create a new Box in the viewport, and you’ll see its dimension values are in meters now.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_4a

You can change the unit system to US standard also. You can see I have changed the system unit to Feet/ Inches and now the same box’s dimension values are displaying in feet/ inches. So this is the way to get a correct measurement in 3ds Max.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_4b

Now let’s see how we can use unit setup in a different case. I have created a biped in the viewport. The question is, how to determine the exact height of the biped? Since the biped doesn’t have any dimension values, we need to apply a trick to know the height of the biped.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_5

There is a simple trick to set the proper height of the biped. Create a Box of the same height beside the biped. Now check the height value of the box. It shows 16 feet and 5 inches. This means the biped has the same height as well. So this is the trick to determine and setup the proper height of a biped.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_5a

Now let’s see how to determine the proper distance between two objects in 3ds Max. I have created two objects in the viewport, and now we have to get the exact distance between the two.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_6

To know the distance between objects, we’ll use Tape tool. Click on the Helper icon and then select theTape tool.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_6a

With the Tape tool selected, first click on the starting point, don’t release the mouse button and then click on the end point. The starting point of the tape tool is called the head/ tape and the end point is called the tail/ target. The connecting line in green between the head and tail represents the current distance.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_7

If you select the head of the Tape tool, you can see the exact length or distance between the head and tail points.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_8

If you turn on the Specify Length option, you’ll see the Length value gets changed and the green line of the tape tool exceeds a bit.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_9

You can easily set it correctly by the spinner for the Length parameter.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_10

Let’s see through an example, how the tape tool helps in Z-Depth channel extraction. Press the F10 key on the keyboard to open the Render Setup window. Here go to the Render Elements tab and click on Add. This opens the Render Elements sub-window. Here select Z Depth and then click on OK.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_11

Inside the Z Depth Element Parameters, there are two options, Z Min and Z Max. If you want the correct Z Depth value, then you must know the correct Z Min and Z Max values, which are actually the distances from the camera focus to the target objects.

Max_Tape_Tool_QT_12

So you can see how important the measuring tools are in 3ds Max. I hope you have enjoyed this quick tip tutorial.

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Creating a Dynamic Wrecking Ball Simulation Using Mass FX and Constraints in 3ds Max

1. Creating the Chain

Open 3ds Max. Go to Shapes > Splines > Ellipse and draw an oval shape in the front viewport.

Draw an oval shape
Draw an oval shape

With the oval shape selected, open the Rendering rollout tab. Turn on Enable In Renderer and Enable In Viewport options. Increase the Thickness value to 7.

Rendering rollout
Rendering rollout

Right click on the oval shape and turn it into Editable Poly.

Editable Poly
Editable Poly

With the oval poly shape selected, click on Hierarchy panel. Enable Affect Pivot Only option and drag the pivot of the oval poly shape to the extreme right.

Don’t forget to turn off the Affect Pivot Only option after that.

Hierarchy
Hierarchy 

Make a copy of the oval poly shape and rotate it. Both objects must not intersect each other.

Make a copy of the oval poly shape
Make a copy of the oval poly shape

Make several copies of the oval shapes to form a chain link.

Make several copies
Make several copies

With the chain selected, go to Mass FX toolbar and select Set Selected as Dynamic Rigid Body option.

Set Selected as Dynamic Rigid Body
Set Selected as Dynamic Rigid Body 

With the first oval poly shape from the left side selected, go to Constrains > Create Universal Constraint.

Constrains Create Universal Constraint
Constrains > Create Universal Constraint

It creates a UConstraint at the pivot point of the oval poly shape.

UConstraint
UConstraint

For the first oval poly object, its parent would be the next oval poly object.

Click on Parent tab and select the next oval poly object as the parent of the first oval poly object. Turn onFree radio buttons of Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties.

Swing Y Swing Z and Twist properties
Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties

You can lower the UConstraint icon size also. Put a smaller value in Icon Size.

UConstraint
UConstraint

Following the same way, with the next oval poly object selected, go to Constraints > Create Universal Constraint.

Constraints Create Universal Constraint
Constraints > Create Universal Constraint

It creates a UConstraint at the pivot point of the oval poly shape.

UConstraint
UConstraint 

For this oval poly object, its parent would be the next oval poly object. So, click on Parent tab and select the next oval poly object as the parent of the selected oval poly object. Turn on Free radio buttons of Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties.

Swing Y Swing Z and Twist properties
Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties

Following the same way, keep making constraints for each oval poly object one by one. After a couple of minutes, you will have the completed chain.

The completed chain
The completed chain

Create a sphere. Put it at the end of the chain link. This will act as the wrecking ball.

Create a sphere
Create a sphere

Put the pivot of the sphere at the edge of the sphere as shown in the following image.

Put the pivot of the sphere at the edge
Put the pivot of the sphere at the edge 

Make this sphere as a dynamic rigid body.

Make this sphere as a dynamic rigid body
Make this sphere as a dynamic rigid body

Apply Universal Constraint to the sphere.

Universal Constraint
Universal Constraint

For this sphere object, its parent would be the first oval poly object. Click on Parent tab and select the first oval poly object as the parent of the selected sphere object. Turn on Free radio buttons of Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties.

Swing Y Swing Z and Twist properties
Swing Y, Swing Z and Twist properties

Create a small low poly sphere at the extreme right end of the chain.

Create a small low poly sphere
Create a small low poly sphere

This time, make this sphere as a Kinematic Rigid Body.

Kinematic Rigid Body
Kinematic Rigid Body

With the indicated oval poly object selected, apply Universal Constraint to it.

Universal Constraint
Universal Constraint 

Select the low poly sphere as the parent of it. Turn on Free radio buttons of Swing Y and Swing Z. Keep the radio button of Twist turned off.

Turn off Twist button
Turn off Twist button

With the wrecking ball sphere selected, click on Mass FX Tool icon. Inside the Mass FX Tool window, go toMulti-Object Editor tab and put the Mass value as 5.

Multi-Object Editor
Multi-Object Editor

Click on Start Simulation icon. You will see a fine simulation of chained wrecking ball in the viewport.

Start Simulation
Start Simulation

Go to scriptspot.com and download Fracture Voronoi script.

Fracture Voronoi
Fracture Voronoi 

Save the script in the 3ds Max Scripts folder.

Scripts folder
Scripts folder

Create a box in the viewport to make a wall.

Create a box
Create a box 

With the wall selected, go to Max Script > Run Script.

Max Script Run Script
Max Script > Run Script

It opens the Choose Editor file window. Select the Fracture Voronoi script and click on Open.

Fracture Voronoi run

It opens the Fracture Voronoi script window. Click on Pick Object button and then select the wall in the viewport.

Fracture Voronoi script window
Fracture Voronoi script window

I have set the Nb parts as 40 since I want the wall to be broken into forty different chunks. I’ve selected theUniform color option as I want all the chunks in a same color.  

Nb parts as 40
Nb parts as 40

Click on Break in 40 button. It breaks the box wall into 40 pieces.

Break in 40
Break in 40

You can further break each broken piece into several more chunks. Select a broken piece and then repeat the process from Steps 2 to 6.

repeat the process from Step 2 to 6
repeat the process from Step 2 to 6

With all wall chunks selected, make them as Dynamic Rigid Body.

Dynamic Rigid Body
Dynamic Rigid Body

With all wall chunks selected, go to Multi-Object Editor tab and put the Mass value as 5. Turn on Start in Sleep Mode option.

Multi-Object Editor
Multi-Object Editor

Click on Start Simulation button. You will see the wall shattering simulation in the viewport.

Start Simulation
Start Simulation

Once you are satisfied with the simulation result, click on Bake All tab to bake all simulation.

Bake All
Bake All

Mass FX is a great dynamics tool in 3ds Max. It has replaced Reactor and has more controls over the dynamic simulation than ever.

Categories
Articles Learning Tutorials

Create A 3D Floor Plan Model From An Architectural Schematic In Blender

Create A 3D Floor Plan Model From An Architectural Schematic In Blender

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a 3D floor plan model from an 2D architectural drawing. Karan Shah will show you some simple, yet effective techniques for constructing the walls, windows and doors following a basic interior schematic in Blender. With the model complete we’ll add materials and textures, and do a final render of the scene.

Floor Plans are simply a drawing or a diagram showing a top view of a site layout. You can see the picture to understand the meaning of some basic symbols used. More can be found
here (pdf).

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

In a new file, select all objects with the ‘A’ key and press ‘Del’ to delete them. Press ‘N’ to bring up our View properties. In the Background Image Panel, add your reference image. Here I have used image courtesy ofLiamKeiranCooper Ltd who kept the picture in public domain.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Press ‘7’ on the NumPad to get into the Top view. Here you can see the background image. The view must be set to ‘orthographic’ in order to see the image. You can toggle between the ortho and perspective views with the ‘5’ key on the Numpad. Press Shift+A and add a Plane.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

With the Plane selected, press ‘TAB’ to get into ‘Edit’ mode. Select all the vertices with the ‘A’ key, or press ‘B’ to drag select them. Press ‘G’ and move them to the top left corner. You toggle the viewport shading between solid and wireframe with ‘Z’ key. Press ‘S’ and move the mouse to scale them down to fit the width of the wall (as shown below.)

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will cover all the black solid areas i.e. the walls. This will include the windows as they are part of the walls and will be added later. Any type of door whether it’s a slider or normal, is to be left out. Select the bottom two vertices (press ‘B’ to drag select or Hold ‘Shift’ and Right click for multiple select.) And move them down just before the wall turns left. Press ‘E’ and extrude the wall again until you reach the edge.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Select the right two vertices and press ‘E’ to extrude, and match the reference.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now, in order to extrude out a face from the middle, we need to add an Edge Loop. Hover your mouse over the face, and press ‘CTRL+R’ and Left Click to confirm. Move the mouse up and down and then Left click again to confirm its position.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Create another edge loop just below the previous one using the same method, matching the width of the wall to be extruded.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Select the two vertices and extrude the wall.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Create another edge loop on the corner and extrude the right edge.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Using the techniques above (extrude and edge loop division) fill all the solid black lines of the reference image with the mesh.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

To start a new separate wall, duplicate the last edge and then start extruding it. Select the last edge and press ‘Shift+D’ to Duplicate it, and left click to confirm. Move it with the Move control widget or press ‘G’ key of the keyboard. And continue extruding the mesh along to match the reference.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Complete the walls with the techniques you learned from above steps.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

After completing the wall, select all the vertices and then press ‘E’ to extrude them along the Z axis. Now we see that the structure is taking shape. The height should be equivalent to a door.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Press ‘Ctrl+TAB’ and select ‘Edge’ in the mesh select mode menu. Select the top two corner edges of a door (hold shift + right click to multiple select) and press ‘F’ to make a Face between them. Do this for all doors. Refer to your image and always check from all views.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Press ‘3’ on the Numpad to get into side view, and Press ‘Z’ to get into wireframe view so that we can see all the vertices behind are visible and can be selected. Press ‘B’ to drag select all the top vertices or edges, then Press ‘E’ to extrude them. This will reach the final height of the wall.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will place the windows. Press ‘TAB’ to get out of the Edit mode, and in object mode, press ‘Shift+A’ and add a ‘Cube’. In the Top view, size (press ‘S’ to scale) and place it where the window is on the reference image.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

In the side view, the top part of window should align to the top of door. Press ‘TAB’ to enter into the edit mode to adjust the vertices. Adjust the bottom height of the window too. The width of the cube should be such that it should be half inside and half outside. See image below.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Select the Wall mesh with Right click, and in the Properties button window, click on ‘Object Modifiers’.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Click on ‘Add Modifiers’ and select ‘Boolean’.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

In the Boolean modifiers panel, select ‘Cube’ in the Object, and ‘Difference’ under ‘Operation’.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

To see the effect – Select the cube and press ‘H’ to hide it. You will see that there is a “hole” in the wall the size and shape of the cube. Press ‘Alt+H’ to ‘Unhide’ the Cube.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now select the Cube (window) and in the ‘Edit’ mode, select all the vertices and press ‘Shift+D’ to make a duplicate. Place this new cube in the location of the next window.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now press ‘Tab’ to get out of ‘Edit’ mode, and select the Wall mesh and press ‘Apply’ in the ‘Boolean’ Modifier panel. The holes are now part of the geometry.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Move the Cube to see the windows.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Similarly create all the needed windows with this Boolean modifier. Try doing them one by one, adjust the size and position of the cube according to the specific window.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will create the Floor. In ‘Object’ mode and in the Top view, press ‘Shift+A’ and add a ‘Plane’. Press ‘Tab’ to get into ‘Edit’ mode and adjust the vertices accordingly so that it covers the walls. Create Edge Loops or Extrude the edges where necessary.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Make sure that there are no gaps between the edges of the floor and walls. Also in the Side view, move the floor down so it’s aligned with the bottom of the walls.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

To make doors, add a new’Cube’. And in ‘Edit’ mode, press / on the Numpad for Local view (this will show only the selected object.)  In the Top view, Move or Scale the vertices to give it a nice shape. Refer to the image for the height and width.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

In the Top view, and in ‘Edit’ mode. Move all the vertices of the door along the Y axis, so that the center point of the object (orange dot) should be at the corner (see image.) This will set the transform orientation of the object from that corner. Press ‘TAB’ to get out of edit mode and then press’R’ to Rotate and see the difference.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

While in the edit mode, add a new ‘Cylinder’. Rotate and scale it down to create the doorknob (you can add more details if you like.) Press ‘TAB’ to get out of edit mode.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

With the help of the reference image, place the doors in the correct positions (press ‘Shift+D’ to make duplicates.)

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will create the window frame. Start with another new ‘Cube’, and press ‘TAB’ to enter into ‘Edit’ mode. Press the ‘Z’ key to toggle wireframe view, so that we can select the back vertices too. Press ‘3’ on the Numpad to get into side view and then extrude the faces as shown in the image to make the window frame. Press ‘TAB’ to exit out of edit mode, and press / on the numpad again to get back to the scene.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Scale and place the window frames on the walls. Make duplicates and place them according to the image.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will add a texture to the floor. Right Click on the Floor object to select it. And in the Properties window, click on the ‘Materials’ Icon. Add a New material and name it ‘Floor’, increase the ‘Diffuse’ intensity and reduce the ‘Specular’ intensity.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Next we will add an image to the floor. (I got mine from Here.) Click on the ‘Texture’ icon next to the Material icon, and then Click on the ‘New’ button. Select ‘Image or Movie’ for the Type and in the Image panel, click on “Open’ and browse for the image.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

You can preview the texture in the 3d View. Press ‘N’ to bring up the ‘View Properties’ and in the ‘Display’ panel, select GLSL in the ‘Shading” menu (you’ll need to add some lights in the 3d view to see the texture.) Now press ‘N’ again to hide the view properties panel.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Back to the Image Texture properties, scroll down to the Mapping Panel and increase the Size of X and Y to5 or 6 depending upon your image file.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now to add a separate floor to the Bathrooms, we will add a new ‘Plane’ and adjust it’s dimensions and place it just above the wooden floor so that it’s hidden.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Apply an image, just like we did on the floor (I got mine from Here.) Duplicate the Plane and adjust it’s geometry by scaling and extruding for the second bathroom.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Select the walls and add a New material to them. Choose any color and Increase the ‘Diffuse’ intensity and set the ‘Specular’ to 0.0

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Similarly assign the materials to the windows and doors. You can assign the same material to any object by selecting the material from the list.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Now we will prepare the scene for rendering. Make sure you are Not in ‘Edit’ mode (press ‘TAB’ to toggle Edit mode on/off.) Press ‘7’ on the Numpad to get into the Top view, then press ‘Shift+A’ to add a camera.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Rotate and place it however you like. Press ‘0’ on the Numpad to get into camera view.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Click on the ‘World’ settings and change the ‘Horizon Colour’ to white, then turn on ‘Ambient Occlusion’ and in the ‘Gather’ panel, increase the samples to 16. In the 3D view delete any lights if they exists.

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic

Click on the ‘Render Settings’ button in the property window, and change the Dimensions (resolution) to your desired size. Down in the ‘Output’ panel, choose the file format for your render.

Step 1 Image

Press ‘F12’ or click on the ‘Image’ button in the render panel. Press ‘F3’ or click on ‘Image > Save image as‘ to save the image.

Your 3D Floor map is now ready!

Free Blender Tutorial Create A 3D Floor Plan From An Architectural Schematic
Categories
Articles Learning

WHAT IS 3DS MAX? AN INTRODUCTION …

WHAT IS 3DS MAX? AN INTRODUCTION …

Introduction to 3ds Max for beginners:

This awesome piece of software consists of 3D modeling design, realistic animation, and renders of 3D models. There is a free 3ds max trial version to try out (See the 3ds Max download below). You can purchase the software at the link below. Also, students get to

 

Introduction to and history of Autodesk 3ds Max

Developed and produced by Autodesk Media and Entertainment, Autodesk 3ds Max is software for rendering 3D animation, models and imagery. It was originally called 3D Studio and was created by the Yost Group of Atari for work on the DOS platform, and development started in 1988. It later was adopted for Windows NT with 3D Studio DOS release 4 and was subsequently renamed 3D Studio MAX. 3D studio MAX, also developed by the Yost group was produced by Kinetix, which was then the media and entertainment division of Autodesk. It was the release 8 of the original 3D Studio, which was renamed Autodesk 3ds Max which was made available to the public in 2009. 3ds Max offers much functionality targeted towards ease of use and faster image and animation rendition.

Major Applications of Autodesk 3ds Max

The software is used in developing CGI as well as applications ranging from academia to game development. Each use of the software requires the use of a different set of tools available in the software and as plug-ins. 3ds Max is available free of cost for students. However profession packs are available for sale.

Major Features of Autodesk 3ds Max

Autodesk 3ds Max is primarily, although not completely, based on polygon modeling. Polygon modeling is used more extensively in game design than in other animation application as it offers a highly specific control over individual polygons that make up the model. This feature of polygon modeling also allow for greater optimization of the model.

Usually, the design process begins at the selection of a primitive model bundled with 3ds, which is then further refined as per need. The current versions have a simplified mesh editing interface and using the ‘edit poly’ modifier which moves the tools available in the primitive model, higher in the modifier stack, allowing them to be used on top of other modifications.

In the 3ds Max software various unique primitive shapes such as teapots, cones, pyramids and cubes are available which can be used as a base for model development.

Although polygons are the method of choice for model building, surfaces are easier to define using other methods. 3ds Max’s subdivision surface support allows for smoothened surfaces and with the use of tools like Soft Selection, which allows manipulation of vertex clouds into the desired shape without distortions from unwanted shapes and displaying smooth surfaces. The sculpting brush feature allows smooth surfaces to be drawn by hand, if polygons give a distorted image, although functionality is limited.

The NURBs feature of Autodesk 3ds allows smooth surface rendition by use of mathematical formulae and is of greatest use to in accurate simulation of mechanical parts. This is of greatest use in applications such as automobile design and instrument design.

3ds Max allows the use of custom lighting and shadows and highlights can also be ‘burned’ into the image rendered. These settings are mostly used for game imagery, since pre-fit values of shadows and highlights allows the game engine to process less data thereby improving game speed and performance as the model is already painted with the required modifications.

This also means that for constant lighting conditions during play, especially if motion is involved, the images do not falter and give a constant, regular image, free of improper shadows and bad graphics.

For life like character models, 3ds Max includes simulation for hair, skin, cloth and fur, all requirements for simulation of living beings. These inbuilt add-ons reduce the time required for model development and improve the detail for each frame.

It also includes rigid body dynamics which means that simulation of hard bodies such as wood or bricks, is easy to perform. This software is also equipped with features like shatter effect to recreate the dynamics of shattering rigid objects. However, soft body dynamics, which allows for the motion simulation of deformable objects, is not supported by 3ds Max, which makes simulation of such objects difficult.

A very useful feature of this software is the support for Inverse Kinematics and Forward Kinematics. Inverse Kinematics or skeleton modeling allows the user to create a model and fit it with a skeleton, which can then be animated as per the requirements of the animator. This skeleton can then be placed inside the model, making the animating the model easier.

 

Tools available in Autodesk 3ds Max

* MAXScript: It is a scripting language which is built into the software and can automate repetitive tasks, give varying combinations of present features and developing tools and user interfaces. MAXScript can also be used to build plug-ins for 3ds Max.

* Scene Explorer: Scene Explorer provides an orderly, hierarchical view of scene data. It allows categorical editing of data, to achieve simplicity in editing complex sets and can also manage code in .NET.

* Character Studio: Initially a plug-in character studio is a tool for help in animating virtual characters, the Character Studio allows using stock skeleton animation to quickly and easily modify characters for a project which work on the ‘biped’ skeletal system.

* General keyframing: There are two keying modes; auto key and set key which provide support for separate workflows. The keyframing controls given help in easing the animation by providing simple, but important features like cut, copy and paste.

* Constrained animation: It allows animation of objects placed inside the constraints of their shape. This tool allows the animation of objects along curves with controls provided for smoothness, velocity, alignment, banking etc. and along surfaces.

* Skinning: Using with the Physique or Skin, a fine control of movement can be achieved and can be used in the most tricky of places.

* Integration with Autodesk Vault plug-in: The Autodesk Vault is a plug-in which is shipped along with 3ds Max and is used to integrate user data and assets on to one location, thus tracking progress on projects. Also, managing work in progress is an easier task. The plug-in enables users to safely and easily design, find, reuse and share 3ds Max models for a team production effort.

 

Conclusion

All in all, Autodesk 3ds Max is a useful software for learning and practicing animation and developing the skills required for 3D modeling and animation purposes. Along with having a very user friendly interface, it also can be used for managing professional projects in animation. One of the best features is added plug-in functionality which increases its features by a wide margin.

Categories
Articles Learning

How to learn Blender 3D in under 24 hours

How to learn Blender 3D in under 24 hours

Until the day when desktop holography becomes a reality, 3D will remain the wholly grail of the graphics world. But 3D can be a very technical craft. And each 3D program has its own idiosyncrasies, making it all a bit daunting.

I cut my 3D chops on many programs that are now long dead and forgotten. Blender is one program I’ve wanted to learn for many years. I’ve even downloaded and installed it a few times, but fell short on the follow-through to learn it. Writing this article is my personal impetus to finally get to learning it. Perhaps it can be your impetus as well. Let’s see where we can take this in just 24 hours.

Why choose Blender?

Blender has many qualities that include years of steady development, a prized commodity in either commercial or open source projects. This has netted a broad range of capabilities, beyond even its full range of 3D modeling and animation tools.

For example, Blender has video editing, camera tracking, compositing, and even game creation tools all built right in. The fact that it’s open source and completely free is also an unbeatable perk! (Though donations to the Blender Foundation are a good idea.) With all this power, Blender’s toolset is often directly compared to top programs in the 3D field costing thousands, like Mayaor 3ds Max.

Naysayers may complain it lacks centralized support, since there is no commercial publisher with a help staff. However there is ample support onlineon many sites, and even a real time IRC chat option. This means nights and weekend support too! Plus, the Blender community can be uniquely generous with its help.

The other knock is Blender’s much smaller market share, which means there are perhaps fewer companies looking to hire Blender artists. Having said that, know that this is changing and there are sites like the Blender Network that specialize in matching Blender artists with employers. And even mainstream job sites are getting more Blender savvy every day.

None of this is even an issue if you run your own shop or are just doing your own thing. Then all that matters are the final renderings. And few clients know or care about all this techno-geek talk.

Blender’s own jobs website, and it’s gaining ground on other job boards as well

My first hour with Blender: installing and learning the interface

I went up to Blender’s website , clicked on the ‘Download’ link, and chose between the installers available for Mac, Windows, Linux and even FreeBSD. (And made a small donation while there!) Installation was almost crazy-easy, and fast. Which is common for most open source programs.

Blender splash page

Once installed, I booted it up like a kid on Christmas morning. The splash page had a number of links, including one to the official Blender manual online. The manual is an excellent resource, but perhaps a bit better suited to those that already have an introduction to both 3D and Blender.

Blender’s official online manual

Upon first viewing, Blender’s interface can be overwhelming. But it isn’t as complicated as it first looks. Once you understand the logical thought process it becomes much less daunting. Logic-wise it’s rather similar to Adobe programs like Photoshop or InDesign.

Blender’s default user interface. See the text for a quick explanation of its UI

The default Blender interface is made up of four areas. (A) in the image above is called the Toolbar, a collection of the most commonly used tools. (B) is the 3D Viewport, or work window. (C) is a vertical stacking of many control/preference/properties interfaces, which again, is just like Adobe products you know. (D) is the timeline, for animation work. You might be familiar with this from programs like After Effects.

Understanding these basics makes Blender all the more approachable. Although not necessarily more useable. Before looking at any instructions, I felt compelled to muck about with the buttons, doodads and doohickeys, and hoped to find my way around. But I’ll admit that I wasn’t too successful. I began to realize that Blender wasn’t quite as intuitive – at least for me – as I had hoped.

So I started to explore what alternative ways I could go about learning it, beyond the button-poking. I quickly found out there are quite a few learning options out there.

An extreme example of multi-monitor support

Hours two-four: organizing my education

Starting my second hour with Blender, I began hunting for ways to learn it. I started out the way many of you would, by looking online for books. A quick search turned up dozens of books which included titles such as ‘Blender 3D Cookbook’ and ‘Blender Basics’ (both from PACKT Publishing), and ‘Blender for Dummies’ (John Wiley & Sons), all recently published as print and Kindle editions.

I ordered a few of these books for download. Which books best fit your learning style is up to you. As might be expected by the title, the ‘Dummies’ books take extra pains to make easing into a new subject as painless as possible, so are a good place to start. But they also tend to not go as deep as other offerings. All the books were well written and took me step by step.

And while I began learning from these books, I had to acknowledge that whether it’s our cultural evolution, or just me getting older, I found it harder to read this tech material than I used to. So I began looking for other ways to learn.

Hours four-10: video education, part one

Again, I didn’t do anything different here than most of you, I went trolling around YouTube with search phrases like ‘learn blender’, which gave a return of 157,000 videos. I’m sure most had more to do with making a good smoothie, but still, there were hundreds on Blender 3D.

An advanced subject: creating a city in Blender

Some of the most popular Blender tutorial channels included Blender for Noobswith over 27k subscribers, Blender Guru with over 153k subscribers (see the amazing architecture video!), and tutor4u with over 172k subscribers.

Pure fun: Minions in Blender!

Jacob Lewis offers a 2014 updated 10-part video series called ‘Blender Absolute Beginner Tutorial’ with about 380k subscribers. One video that is seriously worth a look is Max Coulfield’s great Blender sculpture timelapse.

‘Sculpting’ a young female head and shoulders

I spent time finding and then watching many videos, and at this point I had clocked in roughly 10 hours of working on the Blender project, across two or three days. Trying to do it all in one day would surely have exploded my tiny head.

Hours 10-15: video education, part two

After viewing YouTube tutorials for a bit, I will admit to a bias against any that begin with “Yo-yo fellas… wassup?” An experience that can leave you wanting more formally prepared material.

So I finally did something that many of you might not actually do. I contacted Ton Roosendaal, the original creator of Blender, and now the Chairman of the Blender Foundation. He was gracious and we exchanged a number of emails. At his suggestion, I got in touch with Jonathan Williamson, a co-founder and instructor at CG Cookie, an online computer graphics video education resource. CG Cookie has courseware for Blender, as well as other subjects like creative concepting and Unity game development.

CG Cookie offers online video courseware on Blender

CG Cookie offers what they call ‘Learning Flows’ for Blender, which contains 141 separate video installments. These are broken down into 9 sections, with topics like modeling, lighting, etc. The first module in the series is ‘Blender Basics’, which they make available at no cost. It contains six videos that run about a half hour total. Over the next few days I watched the intro videos, and as many of the follow-up sections as I could. All the while popping back to Blender to try things out.

Hour 15 and beyond…

I also touched base with Anja, who runs the Blender Shop on blender.org. She provided a long list of Blender learning resources, which we have reprinted at the end of the article.

So by the time I was nearing my 18th hour with all of this, I was feeling like I was in a fairly good place. By that I mean I could navigate around the interface with aplomb, I could create, modify, and texture map models (with limits on complexity), light them, and render out basic animations. In other words, I could knock out basic day-to-day 3D work. No character modeling, video editing or compositing, I’ll leave that for another day.

If this was for myself instead of an article it would have gone faster. One book and one video series would have been fine. I’m sure you’ll keep things simpler.

So what are you waiting for? Download it now, and let us know how your learning curve goes!

Resources (from Anja at Blender Shop)

A good way to learn Blender if you don’t have experience with 3D
programs is to start with Blender’s own tutorials and manual.

You can find lots of free tutorials on the internet about learning Blender.

  • Here are some links with lots of information:
    http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Tutorials

    Links


    http://wiki.blender.org/
    http://cgcookie.com/blender/
    http://www.blenderguru.com/

  • Free book link: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Books
  • The Blender Art Magazine, free for download.
  • Free Blender Basics – Introduction for Beginners (video tutoiral)
  • Free Blender Basics Book for version 2.5/2.6 and 2.49
  • An Introduction to Blender 2.59 free eBook
  • Free Blender 3D Tutorials/e-books in PDF format
  • Free: A Blender Quickstart course, a tour of Blender’s modeling, uv mapping, rigging, animating, and rendering
  • Free Blender 3D Design Course
  • Free Blender tutorials & training
  • Free video tutorials 2.5
  • Free video tutorials
  • Blender hotkeys:
    http://www.foreverblender.com/2010/02/blender-25-all-hotkeys.html
    http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/useful-keyboard-shortcuts.php
    http://blendertips.com/hotkeys.html

If you have questions about using Blender you can always place them on the forums.

Words: Lance Evans

Lance Evans is creative director of Graphlink Media.

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Introduction To Auto desk AutoCAD | DAY 21

Learn AutoCAD basics: DAY 21

We have hit the last DAY of the series, and we hope we have provided you with some insight and that those will help you and give you more confidence to walk further toward your being a Pro AutoCAD user.

In this session we will rush a little bit, and learn few things you need to learn before closing.

Things we are going to be pushing forward in the following lines, are

  • How to you write a text in AutoCAD
  • Working with Layers in AutoCAD
  • How to annotate in AutoCAD

All will be covered just from the basics point of view, but the most important will be covered.

 

LEARNING AUTOCAD BASICS

ANNOTATION IN AUTOCAD

learn-AutoCAD-basics-in-21days

Learn more about Annotation in AutoCAD

TEXT IN AUTOCAD

learn-AutoCAD-basics-in-21days

This can also be reached from the HOME tab

learn-AutoCAD-basics-in-21days

annotation

WORKING WITH LAYERS IN AUTOCAD

hey! If you have any confusion about this, Just leave a comment below. Let me know what is confusing about this, I will make it clear for you

The following image will serve as an exercise.

learn-AutoCAD-basics-in-21days

This is nothing but the image we worked on DAY 19, Now the task will be to create 5 Layers, and place each of the part of this project in its appropriate layer.

Layer 1: the Object itself
Layer 2: The Dashed lines
Layer 3: The center line
Layer 4: HATCH pattern
Layer 5: Annotations

Your layer properties manager window should look like the following.

learn-AutoCAD-basics-in-21days

Learn more about creating LAYERS in AutoCAD

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Articles Learning

Introduction To Auto desk AutoCAD | DAY 20

Learn AutoCAD basics: DAY 20

Nothing new under the sun. Here we come again with a bushy one.

Today, you will need the ARRAY command, the FILLET command and the OFFSET command (we made an extensive use of the OFFSET command in DAY 7). There is no need to mention that you will need the LINE command, the CIRCLE command, may be the ROTATE command too.

LEARN AUTOCAD BASICS

FIGURE 1

learn-AutoCAD-Bacis

FIGURE 2

The following image provides some additional information needed to perform the exercise with success.

learn-AutoCAD-Bacis

For the sake of exercising with the HATCH command, you can HATCH the above project at the end if you wish.