Architectural Visualizations MASTERING Explore the New ... · COMPUTERS/CAD-CAM $69.99 US $83.99...

30
SERIOUS SKILLS. Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 MASTERING Mark Gerhard Jeffrey M. Harper Jon McFarland Create Compelling Visualizations for all of Your Architectural Projects Master Key Techniques and Improve Your Productivity ® ®

Transcript of Architectural Visualizations MASTERING Explore the New ... · COMPUTERS/CAD-CAM $69.99 US $83.99...

Page 1: Architectural Visualizations MASTERING Explore the New ... · COMPUTERS/CAD-CAM $69.99 US $83.99 CAN SERIOUS SKILLS. Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 MASTERING Mark Gerhard Jeffrey M.

MASTERING

Autodesk

® 3ds Max

®

Design 2010

GerhardHarper

McFarland

Turn Your Ideas into High-Impact Architectural VisualizationsTransform fl at drawings and concepts into impressive 3D models with 3ds Max Design 2010 and the comprehensive instruction in this in-depth guide. The expert authors use their real-world experience to show you how to get the most out of Autodesk’s powerful visualization tool with this in-depth reference and tutorial.

You’ll fi nd pages of professional workfl ows and examples of projects that pros work on every day, such as retail spaces, small offi ces, and residential devel-opments, and learn techniques you can apply immediately to your own work for striking results. Whether you’re a visualization veteran or new to 3ds Max Design, this book offers the step-by-step instruction you need to master this indispensable visualization and validation tool.

COVERAGE INCLUDES:

• Creating complex shapes with surface modeling tools• Simulating lighting effects accurately• Using the Exposure feature to analyze sustainable design features• Staging a virtual walk-through of your room designs for clients• Enhancing models with texture, materials, and displacement maps• Understanding camera motion, keyframes, and function-curve editing• Using mental ray to achieve the most realistic renderings with Global

Illumination and Final Gathering

Take Advantage of the New 3D Visualization Tools

Explore the New Exposure Lighting Analysis Tool to See How Lighting Factors Affect Your Design

Seamlessly Import Data from the Revit Family of Products into 3ds Max Design

Gain Access to a New Library of Manufacturer-Related Building Materials

Produce Stunning, Photo-Realistic Imagery through More Effi cient Workfl ows

Render Drawings Faster and Better with mental ray® 3.7

ABOUT THE AUTHORSMark Gerhard is a 3ds Max Design guru and application engineer. He was one of the fi rst artists hired by Autodesk to test the fi rst version of this software in 1990, wrote many of the tutorials that ship with 3ds Max, and continues to train 3ds Max users. Jeffery M. Harper uses 3ds Max to create architectural and civil engineering visualizations as well as models, stills and animations used in Computer Based Training Programs. Jon McFarland uses 3ds Max Design to create visualizations of proposed facility construction and expansions and teaches 3ds Max Design courses at the university level. He has written six books, including AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD LT 2010: No Experience Required.

www.sybex.comwww.sybex.com/go/mastering3dsmaxdesign2010

ISBN 978-0-470-40234-4

CATEGORYCOMPUTERS/CAD-CAM

$69.99 US$83.99 CAN SERIOUS SKILLS.

Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010

MASTERING

Mark GerhardJeffrey M. HarperJon McFarland

Create Compelling Visualizations for all of Your Architectural Projects

Master Key Techniques and Improve Your Productivity

®®

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MasteringAutodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2010

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Mastering Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2010

Mark Gerhard

Jeffrey M. Harper

Jon McFarland

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Senior Acquisitions Editor: Willem Knibbe

Development Editor: Denise Santoro Lincoln

Production Editor: Liz Britten

Copy Editor: Kathy Grider-Carlyle

Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan

Production Manager: Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley

Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde

Book Designer: Maureen Forys and Judy Fung

Compositor: Jeffrey Lytle, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: Word One, New York

Indexer: Ted Laux

Project Coordinator, Cover: Lynsey Stanford

Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed

Cover Image: © Pete Gardner/Digital Vision/Getty Images

Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-40234-4

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy-ing, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior writ-ten permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or com-pleteness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular pur-pose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional ser-vices. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recom-mendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McFarland, Jon. Mastering 3ds max design 2010 / Jon McFarland. -- 1st ed. p. cm. Summary: “The only comprehensive tutorial/reference exclusively devoted to Autodesk’s robust architectural visualization software 3ds Max Design is a powerful real-time 3D design, modeling, and animation tool for architectural visualizations. This book covers all the software’s crucial features, including how to simulate and analyze sun, sky, and artificial light-crucial factors for sustainable design-and how to define and assign real-istic materials and work with AutoCAD and Revit files. You’ll quickly learn how to get the most from this powerful software’s 3D modeling, anima-tion, and rendering capabilities. McFarland is an Autodesk Authorized Author with professional experience in creating complex visualizations for a large property development company. His real-world focus means workflows and instructions are professional and proven, and projects will include those that pros work on every day. Uses actual examples from the author’s experience, including retail spaces, small offices, residential develop-ments, and more Concise explanations, focused examples, step-by-step instructions, and hands-on tutorials teach the basics and fine points of the software Covers all the essential features, such as how to simulate and analyze sun, sky, and artificial light Demonstrates efficient use of the inter-face; how to work with Revit and AutoCAD files; using data, scene management, and solid modeling tools; rendering real-world surfaces; and setting up animated walkthroughs Mastering 3ds Max Design 2010 provides a practical education in using this powerful architectural visualization tool”--Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-0-470-40234-4 1. Architectural design--Data processing. 2. Computer-aided design. 3. 3ds max (Computer file) I. Title. NA2728.M426 2009 720.2840285’536--dc22 2009025051

TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Autodesk and 3ds Max are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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Dear Reader,

Thank you for choosing Mastering Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift for teaching.

Sybex was founded in 1976. More than 30 years later, we’re still committed to producing consis-tently exceptional books. With each of our titles, we’re working hard to set a new standard for the industry. From the paper we print on, to the authors we work with, our goal is to bring you the best books available.

I hope you see all that reflected in these pages. I’d be very interested to hear your comments and get your feedback on how we’re doing. Feel free to let me know what you think about this or any other Sybex book by sending me an email at [email protected]. If you think you’ve found a technical error in this book, please visit http://sybex.custhelp.com. Customer feedback is criti-cal to our efforts at Sybex.

Best regards,

Neil Edde Vice President and Publisher Sybex, an Imprint of Wiley

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This book is dedicated to my wife Rhonda, who puts up with me; to my four children, Kai, Sakina, David, and Sam, who bring me so much joy; and to my grandson Mateo, may he enjoy the future. And to my mother and father who gave me the encouragement to do whatever I wanted, no matter how wacky it seemed at the time. —M.G.

This book is dedicated to my family and friends, for always encouraging me in my endeavors, providing their emotional support, and for their understanding when I had to miss events or disappear from the face of the Earth to finish projects such as completing this book on schedule.

I would also like to dedicate this to Mr. Gil Moscatello, for introducing me to AutoCAD back in 1989 in his Architectural Drafting classes, for tolerating my enthusiastic investigation and critiquing of the software, and for his guidance and encouragement which has and will continue to help me throughout my career. —J.H.

To my wife Lucy and our two sons, Zach and Jacob —J.M.

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AcknowledgmentsThanks to everyone at Wiley/Sybex for their continued support over the years. Big thanks to Tom Hudson for pursuing his dream that turned into this software, and Gary Yost, Dan Silva, Rolf Bertteig, and Jack Powell for creating a program that has turned into my life’s work. I’d like to acknowledge Frank Moore, for getting me into this mess by hiring me at Autodesk in 1990. And my gratitude goes to Gary Rackliff for hiring me exactly at the right moment in my life. Thanks to Jeff Harper for incredibly hard work under the gun. And double thanks to my wife Rhonda, for keeping me sane when my computer was driving me otherwise.

—Mark Gerhard

I would like to acknowledge the support of Mark Gerhard in recommending me for editing and updating the Mastering Autodesk VIZ 2008 book to make it appropriate for the new 3ds Max Design 2010 software, and for his help in updating the content. I would also like to acknowledge Willem Knibbe, Denise Lincoln, Pete Gaughan, Liz Britten, and everyone else on the Wiley/Sybex Team who helped keep me on schedule, assisted with graphics and figures, and made the edits and corrections.

Thanks go out to Jon McFarland, Scott Onstott, and George Omura, who worked on the previous editions of Mastering Autodesk VIZ. They provided a very thorough framework on which to build. I would also like to thank Scott Onstott for allowing us to use his models as examples for a number of chapters of this book. Thanks also go out to Michael Clamp for the use of his wonderful photo-graph of Notre Dame de Haut in Chapter 4 and to Brian P. Skripac, former Architectural Consulting Expert at IMAGINiT Technologies, for the Revit model used in Chapter 15.

I have to thank my family and friends again for all their love, support, encouragement, faith, and patience.

—Jeff Harper

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About the AuthorsMark Gerhard is a 3ds Max Guru. He has devoted the past two decades to this software in all its forms. Mark was one of the first artists hired by Autodesk in 1990 to test the first version of 3D Studio on MS-DOS. In his 14-plus years at Autodesk he worked as an instructor, product manager, demo artist, application engineer, and technical writer. He wrote many of the tutorials that shipped with 3ds Max from versions 3 to present. He has been an ATC instructor, teaching 3ds Max to countless individuals at high schools, community colleges, and universities around the world. He has been the technical editor on numerous books on 3ds Max for New Riders, Wiley/Sybex, Friends of ED, Apress, 3DATS, and Focal Press. He has been co-author of several books as well.

Currently Mark teaches 3ds Max to architects and engineers across the United States and Canada. He is also a Forum Assistant on The Area, Autodesk’s forum for all things 3D.

Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in Practice of Art from University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on painting and sculpture. He is the author of the children’s book “The Elf of the Shelf Sees Himself” (Push Press, 1983). He is also a trained musician, proficient in the tradi-tion of North Indian Classical Music, having studied tabla with Ustad Shankar Ghosh and Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh of Calcutta. He has also studied vocal music with Ustad Ali Akbar Khansahib. He is also a student of Indian folk music, having studied and performed with the Bauls of Bengal (Babukishan Das Goswami Baul).

Jeff Harper started using Autodesk products (initially AutoCAD 9) in his architectural draft-ing classes when he was high school. Jeff was very excited to see AutoCAD add 3D modeling to its toolset and starting thinking cinematographically, creating renderings of his CAD files with AutoShade. Soon he began using 3D Studio R3 (for DOS) to help visualize his projects while he studied Architecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He upgraded to 3D Studio Max 1.0 for Windows when it was released, and he has used every version since, he also used LightScape 3.2 and a few versions of Autodesk VIZ.

He has used 3ds Max to create architectural and civil engineering visualizations from a com-bination of aerial and terrestrial LiDAR, USGS NED data, high-resolution digital orthophotog-raphy, stereo-compiled mapping data, and CAD files from different packages and disciplines. Jeff has also used 3ds Max to create models, stills, and animations used in Computer-Based Training programs for aircraft maintenance. Jeff has even used 3ds Max to create an STL file used to create a rapid-prototyped form from which he hand-pressed ceramic tiles used in the backsplash for a kitchen remodeling project.

As a CADD Manager and Data Manager for a large multistate, multidiscipline engineering firm, Jeff wrote a number of workflow/training documents to assist users with certain CAD and GIS functions and assisted users with AutoCAD, Revit Structure, Civil 3D, MicroStation, InRoads, Adobe Photoshop, and ArcGIS.

Jon McFarland lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He manages a design department at a property devel-opment company, where he uses AutoCAD and 3ds Max to create visualizations of proposed facility construction and expansions. He has authored five books and teaches AutoCAD and 3ds Max courses at the university level.

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxi

Chapter 1  •  Getting to Know 3ds Max Design 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2  •  Introducing 3ds Max Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Chapter 3  •  Creating Shapes with Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Chapter 4  •  Editing Meshes and Creating Complex Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Chapter 5  •  Creating AEC Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Chapter 6  •  Organizing and Editing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Chapter 7  •  Light and Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Chapter 8  •  Enhancing Models with Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Chapter 9  •  Using the 3ds Max Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Chapter 10  •  Working with External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Chapter 11  •  Using mental ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Chapter 12  •  Understanding Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

Chapter 13  •  Creating Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Chapter 14  •  Atmospheres, Effects, reactor, and Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

Chapter 15  •  Using Other Autodesk Applications with 3ds Max Design 2010. . . . . 723

Appendix A  •  The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Appendix B  •  Modifiers and Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

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Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxi

Chapter 1  •  Getting to Know 3ds Max Design 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Introducing the New 3ds Max Design 2010 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Touring the Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5The Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7The Information Center Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8The Main Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Docked and Floating Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Toolbar Flyouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13The Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Tools for Working with the Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Getting to Know the Command Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Understanding 3ds Max’s Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Working with Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Selecting and Moving Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Rotating and Scaling Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Copying an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Selecting Multiple Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Naming Selection Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Editing Named Selection Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Getting the View You Want . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Understanding the Perspective Viewing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Using Multiple Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50Changing the Viewport Display and Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Working with the Custom UI and Defaults Switcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter 2  •  Introducing 3ds Max Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65Understanding Standard Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Adjusting an Object’s Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Accessing Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73Introducing the Standard Primitive Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Modeling Standard Primitives with Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Adding a Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78Accessing Modifier Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Placing Modifiers Where You Want Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Using the Modifier Stack Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

How 3ds Max Sees Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

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xII | Contents

Making Clones That Share Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Creating an Instance Clone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89Creating a Reference Clone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91Scaling and Rotating Objects with Transform Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Making a Clone Unique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Cloning a Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Introducing Extended Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Modeling a Couch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Working with Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Grouping the Components of the Couch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108Working Within Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110Disassembling Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Chapter 3  •  Creating Shapes with Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Drawing with Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Drawing Straight-Line Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Constraining Lines Vertically and Horizontally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Drawing Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Lathing a Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Modifying a Shape Using Sub-object Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124Adjusting the Lathe Axis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125Flipping Surface Normals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127Smoothing Spline Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128Adjusting Tangent Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Creating Thickness with a Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Outlining and Extruding Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138Drawing Accurate Line Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138Giving Walls Thickness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140Using Grids and Snaps to Align Objects Accurately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142Adjusting a Wall Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Combining and Extruding Primitive Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152Combining Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Joining Closed Splines with Boolean Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158Creating a Solid Form with Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161Introducing the Spline Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165Editing Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169Placing and Beveling Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Chapter 4  •  Editing Meshes and Creating Complex Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177Creating Openings in a Wall with Boolean Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Hiding Shapes That Get in the Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178Creating the Shape of the Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180Subtracting the Opening from the Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181Creating Multiple Openings in a Single Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184Making Changes to the Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Tracing a Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

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Using a Bitmap Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188Scaling the Image Plane to the Model’s Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191Tracing the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194Building Objects from Traced Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Editing Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205Creating a Tapered Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206Converting the Spline to a Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209Moving a Single Mesh Vertex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213Tapering the Top of the Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Using Instanced Clones to Create Symmetrical Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222Adding a User Grid to Aid Tracing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223Building the Tower Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224Adding the Vaulted Ceiling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228Creating the Smaller Towers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235Drawing the Remaining Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Attaching Objects to a Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243Smoothing Meshes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Smoothing within a Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246The Smooth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Creating Objects Using Box Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251Preparing a Box for Box Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251Using the Transform Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Creating Clones with Array and Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261Creating a Column Grid With Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261Creating a Multitransform Polar Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265Creating Multiple Clones Using Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Chapter 5  •  Creating AEC Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271Creating a Parametric Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Creating a Parametric Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272Adjusting the Wall’s Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Adding Doors and Windows to Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274Changing the Door’s Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277Adding Doors to Existing Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278Creating a Parametric Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Changing Elevations with Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283Setting Boundaries with Railings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288Adding Foliage to a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Chapter 6  •  Organizing and Editing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297Naming Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Renaming the Ceiling Fixtures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302Organizing Objects by Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Setting Up Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304Assigning Objects to Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305Assigning Color to Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

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Understanding the Icons in the Layer Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312Lofting an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Setting Up the Shapes to Form the Pedestal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313Lofting an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316Using Different Shapes along the Loft Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318Fine-Tuning a Loft Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321Using the Instance Clones to Edit the Loft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Using the Noise Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330Modeling with Soft Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Extruding with the Sweep Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338Aligning Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Chapter 7  •  Light and Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347Lighting Your Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Understanding the Types of Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347Adding a Spotlight to Simulate the Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349Moving a Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351Editing a Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353Changing the Light Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Rendering a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356Ambient Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Faking Radiosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361Adding a Highlight with an Omni Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365Looking at Omni Light Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Adding Shadow Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373Softening Shadow Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374Understanding Shadow Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375Using Ray-Traced Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379Using Advanced Ray Traced Shadows and Area Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Playing in the Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382Using Two Suns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383Adding a Second Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385Using Unseen Objects to Cast Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387Using a Clone to Cast Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Using the Light Lister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391Using Scene States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Chapter 8  •  Enhancing Models with Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .397Understanding Bitmap Texture Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Diffuse Color Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398Surface Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402The Physical Qualities Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403The Special Effects Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Adding Materials to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

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Adding a Map Path to Help 3ds Max Find Bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406Understanding Material Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411Editing Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Using Bump Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413Creating a New Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415Adding Material Mapping Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Understanding Mapping Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422What Happens When You Add the Mapping Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422Adjusting the UVW Mapping Gizmo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Using the Standard Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430Map Scalar Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432Adding Entourage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Hiding Unwanted Surfaces with Opacity Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435Adjusting an Object to a Bitmap Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Assigning Materials to Parts of an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442Creating a Multi/Sub-Object Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442Applying a Submaterial to an Object’s Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Exploring the ProMaterials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447Adjust the ProMaterial Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448Using the Material Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

The Material Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451Modeling with Displacement Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Using the Displace Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455Using the Material Editor to Create Displaced Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457Converting a Displacement Map into an Editable Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461Creating an Editable Mesh from a Displacement Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Chapter 9  •  Using the 3ds Max Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .467Understanding the 3ds Max Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Adding a Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4683ds Max 2010 Viewport Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473Editing the Camera Location with the Viewport Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Setting Up an Interior View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478Creating an Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Making Adjustments to the Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482Immersive Environments for Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Creating a Believable Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488Using a Texture Map and Hemisphere for the Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Using Render Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494Render Elements for Compositing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496Matching Your Scene to a Background Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Setting Up the Model and the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499Adding the Background Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500Adding the Camera Match Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502Aligning the Camera Match Points to the Background Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

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Fine-Tuning a Camera-Matched View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506Matching the Design Image Quality to the Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Chapter 10  •  Working with External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511Gaining Access to Materials and Objects from Other Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511Arranging Furniture with XRefs and the Asset Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519Replacing Objects with Objects from an External File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Substituting Objects for Faster Viewport Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523Importing Files with the Asset Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Arranging Furniture with XRef Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529Using the Rendered Frame Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Printing Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535Opening Multiple RFWs for Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535Zooming, Panning, and Controlling Channels in the RFW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536Obtaining Colors from External Bitmap Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Using the Asset Browser on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538Tracking and Locating a Scene’s Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541Creating Panoramas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543Publishing a DWF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

Chapter 11  •  Using mental ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .553Understanding mental ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Setting Up mental ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556The Material Editor and mental ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Using Photon Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563Testing the Photon Map Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Final Gathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579Reviewing the Basic mental ray Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

Contour Renderings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583Using the mr MultiMap Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587Skylight Global Illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

Image-Based Lighting and Skylight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593Using High Dynamic Range Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596Using mr Proxy Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598Using Lighting Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607

Chapter 12  •  Understanding Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .609Understanding the World of Video Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609Creating a Quick-Study Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 610

Adding Camera Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611Adjusting the Camera Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613Viewing the Camera Trajectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 614Controlling the Camera Trajectory Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 616Creating a Preview Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617

Understanding Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618

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Increasing the Number of Frames in an Animation Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621Accelerating and Decelerating the Camera Motion Smoothly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 623Editing Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 625Adding More Frames for Additional Camera Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627

Adding Frames to the End of a Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627Adjusting the Camera Motion Through a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 629Compressing and Expanding Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634Adjusting the Camera Trajectory Using the Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639Increasing the Number of Frames Between Selected Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 644Speeding Up the Preview Rendering Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645

Adding Frames to the Beginning of a Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646Other Options for Previewing Your Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648Moving the Camera Target over Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650Controlling Lights over Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654

Chapter 13  •  Creating Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .655Rendering the Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655

Creating a Study Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 655Creating a Quick Overall Study Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658Adding a Moving Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659

Automating Output of Multiple Still Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663Setting Up a Camera for Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664Setting Up the Four Elevations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 665

Rendering a Shadow Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670Adjusting for True North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 670Changing from IES Sun to a Standard Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Creating a Walkthrough . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673Fine-Tuning the Camera’s Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674Adjusting the Camera’s Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676Adjusting the Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678

The Animation File Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678True Color vs . 256 Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681File Naming in Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682Choosing an Image Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682The AVI Codecs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 684

Chapter 14  •  Atmospheres, Effects, reactor, and Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .685Adding Atmospheres Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 685

Creating a Volume Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686Adjusting the Volume Light Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689Adding Fog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690Adding a Fire Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

Using Hair and Fur to Add Grass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700Adjusting the Hair and Fur Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701Refining the Ground with the Hair and Fur Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702

Using reactor to Animate Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704

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Assigning Properties to Simulation Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705Assigning Simulation Objects to a Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 706Setting Up and Running the Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707Refining the Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 709

Using Particle Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 710Creating the Initial Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711Adding and Editing the Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713 Adding Materials and Space Warps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715Adding Deflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

Chapter 15  •  Using Other Autodesk Applications with 3ds Max Design 2010 723Creating Topography with Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

Updating Changes from an AutoCAD File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 728Exploring Terrain Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

Setting Up an AutoCAD Plan for 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732Importing AutoCAD Plans into 3ds Max Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

Extruding the Walls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740Extruding Exterior Wall Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741Extruding the Mullions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742Creating Interior Wall Headers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743Adding Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745Creating a Floor with Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

Exploring the File Link Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752Editing Linked AutoCAD Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753Understanding the Block Node Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755Understanding the File Link Manager Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757Understanding File Link Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759Using the Substitute Modifier with Linked Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

Importing a Truss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767Importing Revit Files into 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770

Export the Revit File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770Link the Exported File in 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772

The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Appendix A  •  The Bottom Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .775Chapter 1: Getting to Know 3ds Max Design 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775Chapter 2: Introducing 3ds Max Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777Chapter 3: Creating Shapes with Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780Chapter 4: Editing Meshes and Creating Complex Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 782Chapter 5: Creating AEC Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785Chapter 6: Organizing and Editing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788Chapter 7: Light and Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 794Chapter 8: Enhancing Models with Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796Chapter 9: Using the 3ds Max Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800Chapter 10: Working With External Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 802

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Contents | xIx

Chapter 11: Using mental ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805Chapter 12: Understanding Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809Chapter 13: Creating Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813Chapter 14: Atmospheres, Effects, Reactor, and Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 817Chapter 15: Using other Autodesk Applications with 3ds Max Design . . . . . . . . . . . . 819

Appendix B  •  Modifiers and Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .823Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

Selection Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823World-Space Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824Object-Space Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

Materials and Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844Materials (Blue Spheres) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844Maps (Green Parallelogram) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

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Introduction

A significant portion of your work as a designer will involve sketching and drawing throughout the design process. These visual explorations will not only help convey your ideas to others, but they will also help you see problems with a design and help you refine your ideas. 3D computer modeling and animation take design visualization beyond hand-drawn sketches and foam-core models, by allowing you to create a complete replica of your design and study it from any point of view in any lighting condition.

With 3ds Max Design 2010, you can apply color, texture, lighting, and other effects to see how variations of these elements affect your design. You can get a realistic look at your design to help you make better decisions as you progress through the design process.

Mastering 3ds Max Design 2010 is intended to help architects, designers, and visualization art-ists present their designs through 3D models, rendered stills, and animations. This book focuses on the use of 3ds Max Design 2010 as a modeling and presentation tool. Because Mastering 3ds Max Design 2010 is focused on design issues, you will not find information about character ani-mation or advanced special effects. You also not find descriptions of every single tool or func-tion available in 3ds Max Design 2010.

In this book you will find step-by-step tutorials covering the primary functions of the soft-ware that you will use in the process of visualizing designs. These tutorials are based on years of experience using 3ds Max on real projects with real requirements and deadlines. By complet-ing the tutorials, you will learn how to construct complex geometric forms and how to apply realistic textures and lighting to study a design. You will also learn how to create effects to help emphasize parts of your design for presentations.

How to Use This BookThe goal of this book is to give you the appropriate skills to produce professional-level pre-sentations of your ideas, from conceptual designs to finished renderings and animated walkthroughs. Once you have mastered those fundamental skills, you will be equipped to confi-dently explore 3ds Max Design 2010 and its robust set of tools and options on your own.

To get the most value from this book, you should read the chapters sequentially from front to back, doing all the exercises as you go. Each chapter builds on the skills you learned in previous chapters, so you can think of this book as your personal, self-paced course on 3ds Max Design 2010. As you are doing the exercises, don’t be afraid to try things not in the tutorials. 3ds Max Design is too robust and complicated a piece of software to completely teach in one volume.

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xxII | IntroductIon

The first three chapters of this book will help you become familiar with how 3ds Max Design 2010 works and how it is organized. If you are already familiar with 3ds Max, 3ds Max Design, or Autodesk VIZ, you may want to skim these chapters to become accustomed to the new user interface and to be introduced to the some of the new features of 3ds Max Design 2010. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 will show you how to build fairly complex geometry using a variety of tools. These chapters introduce you to the more common methods of constructing and modifying objects in 3ds Max Design 2010. Chapters 7 through 10 show you how to use lights, materials, and cam-eras. Chapter 11 covers the mental ray rendering system. Chapters 12 and 13 introduce and then expand on animation topics. Chapter 14 covers using the built-in particle effect and dynamics systems in 3ds Max for enhancing your visualizations. Chapter 15 covers bringing data from other Autodesk programs into 3ds Max.

At the back of the book there are a set of appendices that offer general reference information on some of the more common tools used in 3ds Max Design 2010. Once you have completed the first few chapters of the book, you can use the appendices as an aid in your own exploration of 3ds Max. You can then refer to the appendices as you continue to work through the rest of the book.

Before you start going through the tutorials in this book, you need to go to the Sybex website (www.sybex.com/go/Mastering3dsmaxDesign2010) and download the compressed files with the content. You must extract the chapter archive files to a folder on your computer that you will use to complete the tutorials in the book. You will need those files to complete the exercises in the book.

Connecting 3ds Max to the Chapter Files

It is important that you configure 3ds Max Design 2010 to recognize the location of the tutorial files from the Sybex website (www.sybex.com/go/mastering3dsmaxdesign2010). Make sure that you perform the instructions given in the section titled “Adding a Map Path to Help 3ds Max Find Bitmaps” in Chapter 8. If you like, you can set up 3ds Max as described in that section right after you have extracted the files.

What You’ll FindTo give you a better idea of what you’ll find in this book, here is a summary of the chapters and their contents.

Chapter 1: Getting to Know 3ds Max Design 2010 In Chapter 1, you will get an introduc-tion to 3ds Max Design 2010 and the new User Interface, and you’ll get a first look at 3ds Max objects and how they are created. Toward the end of Chapter 1 you will be introduced to the different ways you can view your designs in 3ds Max Design 2010.

Chapter 2: Introducing 3ds Max Objects Chapter 2 delves deeper into the workings of 3ds Max objects. You’ll learn about the different types of objects available in 3ds Max Design 2010 and how you can use them to create the shapes you want. You will learn how to manipulate 3ds Max’s core set of shapes, called primitives, and turn them into more complex shapes. You will also learn about the different methods you can use to duplicate shapes, and how these methods can help you quickly complete your design.

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IntroductIon | xxIII

Chapter 3: Creating Shapes with Splines In Chapter 3 you will look at how you can cre-ate complex forms from simple lines. Here you will learn how to manipulate a basic type of object called a spline shape and turn it into a wineglass. You will look at creating walls and 3D text objects as well.

Chapter 4: Editing Meshes and Creating Complex Objects Chapter 4 introduces you to object and editing methods that are common to architectural projects. You will start model-ing a well-known building, using a hand-drawn sketch as a template. You will also focus on drawing objects that have unusual shapes.

Chapter 5: Creating AEC Objects Chapter 5 will introduce you to the parametric AEC (Architectural, Engineering, Construction) objects included with 3ds Max Design 2010, such as walls, windows, doors, stairs and railings, and foliage objects.

Chapter 6: Organizing and Editing Objects In Chapter 6 you will continue working on the main scene from Chapter 5 by exploring ways to organize the components of the design. You will learn how to use object names and layers to help identify parts in the design. You will also continue your exploration of modeling complex forms by creating additional objects and modifying existing objects to add detail and depth to the scene.

Chapter 7: Light and Shadow Chapter 7 uses another well-known building to introduce you to the concepts of lighting and rendering your digital models. You will also learn about the different types of lighting and shadows and how to use them together. In addition, you will learn how you can create more realistic renderings by the careful placement of addi-tional lights in strategic locations.

Chapter 8: Enhancing Models with Materials In Chapter 8, you will continue to build on what you learned in Chapter 7 by exploring materials. You will experiment with the many properties of materials and maps in 3ds Max Design, such as diffuse color, bump map textures, and reflections. You will learn how to align a texture to a surface, and you will be introduced to methods for adding entourage, such as trees and people, to scenes.

Chapter 9: Using the 3ds Max Camera Chapter 9 discusses placing cameras in your model and creating environments to surround your models. You will learn how to control the back-ground to affect the mood of your renderings. You will also experiment with rendering only selected portions of your scene to save time.

Chapter 10: Working with External Files Chapter 10 shows you different ways to use 3ds Max files. You will learn how to combine different files efficiently to allow you to work collaboratively with other members of a design team. You will discover ways to share data between project files. You will also see how you can share your models on the Internet.

Chapter 11: Using mental ray In Chapter 11 you will use the mental ray rendering system. The mental ray system offers you the capability to create incredibly realistic renderings. You will learn how to set up and use global illumination, create and use mr Proxy objects, the Multi-Sub-map material, create contour renderings with the Material Override feature, and perform Lighting Analysis on your projects.

Chapter 12: Understanding Animation Chapter 12 offers you an introduction to animation in an architectural context. You will learn to create and control the animation of a camera to create a flyby of one of the buildings you worked on in earlier chapters. You will also learn how to edit an animated object’s motion, create previews of your animation, and control lights over time.

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xxIv | IntroductIon

Chapter 13: Creating Animations Chapter 13 continues your look at animation by explor-ing the options for outputting your animations to files, creating shadow studies, adding other animated elements to add to the realism of your visualizations, and creating effective walkthroughs of your designs.

Chapter 14: Atmospheres, Effects, reactor, and Particles In Chapter 14 you will learn how to use the built-in particle systems, effects, and dynamics system to add atmosphere to your visualizations.

Chapter 15: Using Other Autodesk Applications with 3ds Max Design 2010 Chapter 15 shows you how to take advantage of files created in other Autodesk products, capitalizing on their unique strengths to reduce the time and effort you need to expend to create high-quality finished models in 3ds Max Design 2010.

In addition to the main chapters in this book, there are two appendices.

Appendix A: The Bottom Line Appendix A has the solutions for the Master It exercises found at the end of each chapter.

Appendix B: Modifiers and Materials Appendix B is a reference for the Modifiers and Materials found in 3ds Max Design 2010.

System RequirementsThis book assumes that you already have Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 and a PC that can prop-erly run the software. Additionally, you should perform a complete installation of 3ds Max Design 2010, including the optional tutorials and plug-ins. Many of the extra and demonstration plug-ins are not covered in this book; however, you should experiment with them on your own. The follow-ing list shows you the minimum system requirements necessary to run 3ds Max Design 2010; you should exceed these values whenever possible for better system performance and stability.

Intel Pentium®4 or AMD-based equivalent processor•u

1GB of RAM (4GB recommended)•u

1GB of swap space (more recommended)•u

3GB of free disk space after 3ds Max Design 2010 software installation•u

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher•u

Graphics card supporting 1024 •u × 768, 32-bit color display, 128MB

DirectX 9.0c (included on the 3ds Max Design 2010 DVD)•u

DVD-ROM drive•u

A three-button mouse with the appropriate driver software•u

Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2 and higher) 32-bit or 64-bit, •u

or Microsoft Windows Vista

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IntroductIon | xxv

Autodesk does not support running 3ds Max Design 2010 on Windows Me, NT 4.0, 98, or prior versions.

You can find the complete system requirements for 3ds Max Design 2010 on the Autodesk website, www.autodesk.com/3dsmaxdesign.

The 3GB of free disk space includes space for the sample files and general workspace for your projects. For later chapters, you may want to have AutoCAD 2007 or later installed and Adobe Photoshop CS or later. You can obtain a trial version of Photoshop from the Adobe website. You can also download a 30-day trial version of AutoCAD 2010 from the Autodesk website. These additional software applications are not crucial to have, but you may find them to be useful companions to 3ds Max Design 2010.

What’s on the Book’s WebsiteYou will want to make sure that you have downloaded and extracted the sample files from the Sybex website (www.sybex.com/go/mastering3dsmaxdesign2010/) that are mentioned through-out the book. The website includes the *.max and support files necessary to complete the exer-cises in this book in archive files.

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Chapter 1

Getting to Know 3ds Max Design 2010

Welcome to Mastering Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010. Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 replaces Autodesk VIZ 2008 and benefits from the development of its sister product, 3ds Max, to give architects and other design professionals an indispensable design and visualization tool. Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 gives designers cutting-edge rendering technology, easy-to-use architectural materials, improved communication with other related software, enhancements to modeling and animation tools, and better viewport interactivity than ever before.

This chapter introduces some of 3ds Max Design 2010’s special features and then gets you started working with the 3ds Max interface. In this chapter, you will learn to:

Navigate and configure the viewports •u

Dock and float toolbars•u

Copy objects and use the Transform tools•u

Create a named selection set•u

Introducing the New 3ds Max Design 2010 Features3ds Max Design replaces Autodesk VIZ 2008 as Autodesk’s 3D modeling and visualization tool for the architectural industry. It is comparable to 3ds Max and is essentially the same product without the Software Developers Kit (SDK), which is used to develop plug-ins that give the pro-grams additional functionality. In addition to having all the features that 3ds Max has, 3ds Max Design offers a new Exposure lighting analysis tool, which is used to help meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 8.1 certification standards. The program is referred to as either 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design throughout the text.

Each new version of 3ds Max incorporates fresh and exciting tools to enhance your capabili-ties and workflow while also increasing the performance of the program on your computer system. Utilizing these new features is key to improving your skills and decreasing the time it takes to complete your projects. To help you find information, the 3ds Max Design 2010 Learning Movies dialog box (see Figure 1.1) includes links to essential skills movies, which teach many of the basic skills for using 3ds Max, as well as links to movies that explain the new features and additional 3ds Max–related tutorials.

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2 | Chapter 1 GettinG to Know 3ds Max desiGn 2010

New Features and Essential Skills Movies/What’s New and Learning Path The new fea-tures and additional skills movies are located on the Autodesk website, and an active Internet connection is required to view them. When you no longer want the dialog box to appear as 3ds Max opens, simply uncheck the Show This Dialog at Startup option in the lower-left corner. The dialog box can then be opened by choosing Help Learning Movies from the menu bar.

Graphite Modeling Tools The new Graphite Modeling tools provide over 100 new model-ing features for organic sculpting, texture painting in the viewports, and advanced polygon modeling. They are available on the new Graphite Modeling Ribbon. These tools bring a new level of interactivity to modeling in 3ds Max.

Containers Containers are a new toolset within 3ds Max designed to improve project col-laboration and workflows by aggregating multiple objects into containers. Similar objects in a scene can be added to a container so you can interact with them as one unit. Containers can be loaded and unloaded from the viewports as necessary to improve the performance of 3ds Max Design 2010.

Material Explorer The new Material Explorer is a hierarchical display that allows you to review and manage all materials in a scene. Unlike the Material Editor, the Material Explorer does not suffer from a limitation of how many materials it can display at one time.

Exposure lighting validation When architectural or engineering visualizations are being created, accurate simulation of lighting conditions can be vitally important to a project’s suc-cess. The Exposure feature, only available in 3ds Max Design, allows you to create more sus-tainable design projects by analyzing the interaction of artificial lighting, sun, and skylight directly in your models. This information can be studied right in the viewports. Although the Exposure name is trademarked by Autodesk, you won’t actually find “Exposure” any-where in the Help file or 3ds Max Interface.

xView Mesh Analyzer The xView Mesh Analyzer feature allows you to check your mod-els in the viewport for common mesh errors such as overlapping UV coordinates, isolated

Figure 1.1 The new Learning Movies dialog box

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