Table Of Contentcheat
HOW TO
IN
3ds Max
2011
Get spectacular results fast
Michele Bousquet
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bousquet, Michele, 1962-
How to cheat in 3ds Max 2011 : get spectacular results fast / Michele Bousquet.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-240-81433-9
1. Computer animation. 2. 3D studio. 3. Computer graphics. I. Title.
TR897.7.B6838 2010
006.6'96--dc22
2010017975
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
For information on all Focal Press publications
visit our website at www.elsevierdirect.com
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Printed in the United States of America
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Contents
How to cheat, and why . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Interlude: How to make a mess
with modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
How to use this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Playtime: Secrets of the spline . . . . . . . 44
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 Character modeling . . . . . . . . . 46
Making a scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Character references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
A selection of selections . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Character modeling process . . . . . . . . 50
Zoom, pan, display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Chop shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Organizing objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Nip and tuck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Transforms and coordinates . . . . . . . . 12 Polygon building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Facial modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Interlude: Organizing objects:
a matter of choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Hair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Subdivision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Playtime: Roger’s top 10 reasons . . . . 16
Poly modeling in practice . . . . . . . . . . 64
1 Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Interlude: Making animatable
Modeling tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Reference images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Playtime: Practice without pixels . . . . 68
Virtual studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3 Materials and mapping . . . . . 70
15-minute building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Modeling around maps . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Material editor basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Modeling from a plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Mapping coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Curvy curtain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Preparing textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
BYO weapon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Applying a decal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Modeling a gorge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 People, trees, and cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Custom engraving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Multiple maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Importing models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Background maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Procedurally speaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
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Gradual mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 5 Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132
Unwrapping the mapping . . . . . . . . . . 90
Reflecting on reflections . . . . . . . . . . .134
Normal mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Bling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136
Mapping a character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Mirror, mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .138
Basic mental ray materials . . . . . . . . . 96
Custom mental ray materials . . . . . . . 98 Interlude: Dude, where’s my
reflection? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Interlude: Lumps, bumps, and
dainty curly stuff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 6 Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142
Exterior daytime windows . . . . . . . . . .144
4 Lighting and shadows . . . . . .102
Interior daytime windows . . . . . . . . . .146
1-2-3 lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 Nighttime and dusk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148
Exterior lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .106 Glass bottle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
Interior lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108
Interlude: Fun with physics . . . . . . . . . . 152
Bright sunshiny day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7 Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154
Space scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112
Mental ray lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114 Animation 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .156
Good lighting made better . . . . . . . . .116 Spinning your gears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .158
Daylight savings time . . . . . . . . . . . . .118 Following a path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .160
Look-a-here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .162
Interlude: How to waste time
with lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Jumping beans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .164
Pick your shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122 Linktopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .166
Shadow timesavers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .124 Linking to multiple objects . . . . . . . . .168
Where’s the shadow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . .126 Chains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170
Troubleshooting shadows . . . . . . . . . .128
Interlude: Super-duper tools . . . . . . . . . 172
Interlude: Shadow and wireframe
presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
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8 Character animation . . . . . . . . 174 10 Parameter wiring . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Character animation workflow . . . . . . 176 Wiring 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
CAT 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Follow me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Biped 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Telling time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Skeleton fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Interlude: Spinning wheels . . . . . . . . . . 216
Skinning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
11 Special effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Walking in your footsteps . . . . . . . . . . 186
The alternative skeleton . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Cracks in a surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Bouncing and flexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Rotoscoping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Raindrops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Interlude: CAT vs. Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
In the jungle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
9 Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Cigarette smoke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Rendering basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Interlude: Morphing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Mental ray rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
12 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Depth of field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
A shift of perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Rendering large images . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Website files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Interlude: What is mental ray,
anyway? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
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How to cheat, and why
The truth about cheating
The word cheat has an interesting history. In its original meaning, it described
the passing of an inheritance to someone other than one’s heirs. This definition has
come up through the ages to mean getting something dishonestly, or getting things
by tricks or good luck.
In this book, you’ll learn shortcuts to make 3ds Max do amazing things without
having to learn it all from scratch, and thus make your own good luck as an artist.
There are some very thick books out there that cover every possible tool in 3ds
Max—in fact, I’ve written a few of them myself—but this is not one of them. If you
want to get the job done in the least possible time, then this is the book for you.
The “cheats” in this book were all gleaned from real-world jobs and projects,
where the client wanted something done in three days, not three months or even
three weeks. I learned most of this through trial and error, and eventually developed
my own bag of tricks. With this book, I’ve opened the bag and spilled out the
contents.
Enjoy your inheritance.
Workthroughs and examples
Each workthrough in this book is designed as a double page spread. This allows
you to prop the book up next to your monitor as you work with the files from
the website. Many of the examples pertain to real-world companies, and show
techniques used for a recent job.
In nearly every chapter is an Interlude with a discussion of a relevant topic.
Think of it as advice from the shopworn.
vii
What’s on the website?
On the website shown below are starter scenes and maps for many of the cheats
in this book. Feel free to try out the techniques on the included files, or use your
own scenes instead. I’ve also included final scenes and animation so you can see the
end result. The names of files that pertain to the cheat appear under the globe icon
on the right page of the spread.
Download the file and its textures into the same folder on your hard disk. When
you load a scene file for the first time, you might get a message telling you that
3ds Max can’t find the maps. Just browse to the folder where you stored the maps
and add the path to that folder, and all the maps for that chapter should load
without further messages.
There are a few images and scenes that couldn’t be included on the website due
to copyright constraints. In most cases, you can visit the website of the company
that provided the imagery and see plenty of their work there.
www.howtocheatin3dsmax2011.com
viii
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Acknowledgments
Although I’m no stranger to authoring, this book is a departure from my usual style. I am
grateful to my Series Editor, Steve Caplin, for developing the Cheat Series and making it so easy
to create such a lively book.
I had a wonderful team of people to assist me in creating this revision. Mark Gerhard, my
technical editor and colleague from my Autodesk days, offered up invaluable insights based on
his long career as both a 3ds Max user and instructor. Beau Perschall and Mike McCarthy, both
longtime users of 3ds Max, provided useful input on new features and cheats for 3ds Max 2011.
Proofreader Anne McGee cleaned it all up with her unflagging attention to spelling, grammar,
and layout.
Many individuals and companies allowed me to include photos and samples of their work, and
each of them are credited on the appropriate page. I am especially proud of my CGSociety.org
students whose work is featured in the Appendix.
Of course, no book would exist without its editors. Laura Lewin at Elsevier somehow got me
through the first edition of this book, and Katy Spencer got me to finish this revision in record
time. I don’t know how these amazing people put up with authors like me, but they do, and
always with a smile. Thanks, guys.
Michele Bousquet
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