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3ds Max Maya
 
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3ds Max 2018 Essential Training

June 5, 2017

Learn what you need to know to use 3ds Max 2018 to create professional 3D models, animations, and motion graphics. This essential training course covers spline and polygonal modeling, as well as texturing, lighting, and rendering.

3ds Max is best known for its modeling and rendering tools. These strengths come into play in architecture, manufacturing, game development, industrial design, and motion graphics. There are dozens of features and techniques to master, from sculpting and texturing to lighting and rendering. This course covers 3ds Max from the ground up, providing an overview of the entire package as well as essential skills that 3D artists need to create professional models and animations.

Learn how to get around the 3ds Max interface and customize it to suit your production pipeline. Discover how to model different objects using splines, NURBS, polygons, subdivision surfaces, and tools such as Paint Deform. Then, find out how to construct hierarchies, add cameras and lights to a scene, and animate with keyframes. Author Aaron F. Ross also takes an in-depth look at materials and texture mapping as well as the rendering options, including an introduction to Arnold, the new production renderer.

Topics include:

Customizing and configuring the interface
Selecting, duplicating, and editing objects
Working with sub-objects in the modifier stack
Performing polygonal and subdivision surface modeling
Freeform modeling and sculpting
Modeling with splines and NURBS
Linking objects in hierarchies
Framing shots with cameras
Creating and editing keyframes
Controlling lights and shadows
Building materials
Mapping textures
Rendering sequences


3ds Max 2018 New Features

April 12, 2017

3ds Max 2018 includes several new features for content creation and visualization. Most notably, the Arnold renderer replaces mental ray as the high-end global illumination render engine. In this course, take a first look at materials, lighting, and rendering in Arnold. Examine the new features introduced in 3ds Max 2017 updates, such as the Data Channel Modifier and the Blended Box Map. Additionally, see how easy it is to customize the user interface. By the end of this course, you’ll have an overview of what’s new in 3ds Max 2018.

Topics include:

Interactively customizing the interface
Processing mesh information with Data Channel
Projecting textures with Blended Box Map
Editing position animation with Motion Paths
Configuring Arnold for performance and compatibility
Optimizing render time with Arnold settings
Lighting with Arnold
Applying a filter to an Arnold light
Shading with the Arnold Standard Surface material


3ds Max Cinematography

January 17, 2017

3ds Max offers a full suite of powerful 3D camera features for design visualization, animation, and visual effects. This course covers core topics in camera rigging, animation, and special effects such as motion blur and depth of field. You’ll apply the principles of live action cinematography using the tools of 3D computer animation. Along the way, you’ll learn best practices, both technical and aesthetic, in virtual cinematography. These techniques save time and effort by streamlining the camera animation process. The goal of this course is to help you more quickly and easily achieve professional results from the 3ds Max camera tools.

Topics include:

Improving productivity in the viewports
Interactive walkthrough with keyboard shortcuts
Customizing display and camera options
Rigging a camera for animation
Controlling and keyframing rotations
Prioritizing pan, tilt, and roll Axis Order
Keyframing camera movement such as pan and dolly
Keyframing compound camera movement
Animating a camera crane or jib arm
Animating a walkthrough with Path Constraint
Projecting an isometric view
Defining Motion Blur parameters
Blurring by distance with Depth of Field


Maya: Rendering with Arnold 4

January 9, 2017

Arnold is the new high-quality rendering engine in Maya 2017. Realistic rendering in Maya is easier than ever with this brute force Monte Carlo ray tracer. Arnold’s physically-based rendering accurately simulates light in the real world, but allows breaking physical laws to achieve artistic styles. This course is an overview of features for lighting, materials, and rendering in Maya with Arnold core version 4.

Topics include:

Arnold rendering concepts
Lighting with Maya and Arnold lights
Controlling exposure
Filtering light with Barndoor and Gobo
Light attenuation with Decay
Image-based lighting with Skydome
Exterior daylight with Physical Sky
Arnold Standard material attributes
Mapping material attributes
Rendering refractions
Mesh Subdivision and Displacement at render time
Shading effects such as Ambient Occlusion and Vertex Color
Camera effects such as Fisheye and Depth of Field
Animation image sequence rendering


3ds Max: Advanced Lighting

January 5, 2017

Realistic lighting is easier, faster, and better than ever in 3ds Max. Photometric lighting and a choice of rendering options gives you the power to create a convincing illusion. This course focuses on architectural visualization, but the techniques apply to other applications such as motion picture production. Author Aaron F. Ross provides a conceptual overview of advanced lighting and rendering, then demonstrates how to construct various lighting scenarios in 3ds Max. He shows how to render scenes with exterior and interior daylight, practical artificial lighting, and manufacturer photometric data. The course includes a chapter on special effects such as light exclusion and lens effects. By the end of the course, you'll have seen how to control the powerful lighting tools in 3ds Max to achieve photorealistic results.

Topics include:

Photometric lighting and gamma correction
High dynamic range and exposure control
Global illumination
Exterior and interior daylight
Image-based lighting
Atmospheric effects
Practical artificial lighting
Studio lighting techniques
Importing photometric data
Light and shadow exclusion
Mapping light with Projector Map
Lens Effects


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