Dg7162 - 3ds Max Certification Prep

Transcript

DG7162 - 3DS Max Certification Prep Steven Schain Tod Stephens DG7162 Benchmark yourself with Autodesk 3ds Max Certification. Certification Prep takes you through a review of the certification process. Experience questions similar to those in the exam, and learn about the materials available to help you be successful in obtaining 3ds Max Certification. Learning Objectives At the end of this class, you will be able to: • Practice questions similar to those in the exam • Review the certification preparation roadmap • Map learning objectives to study materials • Use our tips and tricks to prepare for the exam About the Speaker Steven is a graduate of the R.I.T. film/animation program and recently, the AB Tech Entrepreneurship program. He started Spectralight Images in 1989 delivering 3D software training and computer animation. He moved to Orlando, Florida from New York in 1990 to pursue a future in the computer graphics field. In 1995, he was vice president of Computer Animators Plus, and began teaching 3D animation at several local schools including Seminole Community College. His love of art brought him to open Gallery 611 in 1997, and helped to form the Orlando Visual Artists League (OVAL) in 2000, serving as president until 2004. Steven became a Kinetix/Discreet®/Autodesk® training specialist in 1998, and has contributed to the development of Autodesk certified training material for nine releases of 3ds Max®, the Autodesk Certified Instructor Program, and the Autodesk 3ds Max® fundamental standards (MEIS) Documents. In 2007, he took Spectralight Images, LLC full-time, sharing with others his love of teaching and computer graphics. [email protected] 3DS Max Certification Prep Contents Learning Objectives....................................................................................................................................... 1 About the Speaker ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Animation...................................................................................................................................................... 4 Differentiate Dope Sheet from the Curve Editor ...................................................................................... 4 Create a path animation and evaluate an object along the path ............................................................. 5 Analyze the animation of an object using the Curve Editor ..................................................................... 5 Explain how to edit tangents with the Curve Editor ................................................................................. 6 Change interpolation methods ................................................................................................................. 6 Identify Controller types ........................................................................................................................... 7 Identify playback settings ......................................................................................................................... 8 Identify the constraints used for an animation ........................................................................................ 9 Locate the value of keys in the Time Slider ............................................................................................ 10 Cameras ...................................................................................................................................................... 11 Differentiate camera types ..................................................................................................................... 11 Compositing using Autodesk Composite .................................................................................................... 15 Compositing multiple layers together .................................................................................................... 15 Remapping the color output for an image............................................................................................. 17 Data Management/Interoperability ........................................................................................................... 18 Create layer renders and import into Composite ................................................................................... 18 Differentiate common file types and usages .......................................................................................... 20 Use the import feature to import model data ........................................................................................ 21 Dynamics/Simulation .................................................................................................................................. 22 Flex Modifier ........................................................................................................................................... 22 Cloth Modifier ......................................................................................................................................... 22 Effects ..................................................................................................................................................... 24 Atmosphere effects................................................................................................................................. 24 Space Warps............................................................................................................................................ 24 2 3DS Max Certification Prep Particle systems ...................................................................................................................................... 26 Lighting ........................................................................................................................................................ 27 Differentiate light functions in a scene ................................................................................................... 27 Lighting Settings ...................................................................................................................................... 27 Use the Daylight System ......................................................................................................................... 29 Light Lister ............................................................................................................................................... 30 Materials/Shading ....................................................................................................................................... 30 Use the Material Editor ........................................................................................................................... 30 Modeling ..................................................................................................................................................... 34 Differentiate reference coordinate systems ........................................................................................... 34 Differentiate workflow............................................................................................................................ 35 Rendering .................................................................................................................................................... 44 Differentiate Renderers .......................................................................................................................... 44 Identify pass types .................................................................................................................................. 45 Identify rendering parameters................................................................................................................ 46 Use Render to render an effect pass ...................................................................................................... 49 Rigging/Setup .............................................................................................................................................. 52 Describe common Biped features........................................................................................................... 52 Identify Bones ......................................................................................................................................... 55 Identify Controller usage ........................................................................................................................ 57 Identify IK Solvers.................................................................................................................................... 58 Use Weight Table .................................................................................................................................... 59 Scripting ...................................................................................................................................................... 60 Describe common use of scripts ............................................................................................................. 60 Apply (run) scripts ................................................................................................................................... 61 UI/Object Management .............................................................................................................................. 64 Describe and use object transformations ............................................................................................... 64 Identify Selection Regions....................................................................................................................... 65 3 3DS Max Certification Prep Animation Differentiate Dope Sheet from the Curve Editor You have two Graph Editors in 3ds max, the Track View - Curve Editor and the Track View - Dope Sheet. These editors allow you to fine-tune the animation of objects using curves and key information. Curve Editor is a Track View mode that allows you to work with motion expressed as function curves on a graph. You can see how an object’s motion transforms between keyframes. You are able to view and modify the motion and animation of the objects in the scene using tangent handles on the curves. The Curve Editor interface consists of a menu bar, a toolbar, a Controller window, and a Key window. There is also a time ruler, and navigation and status tools at the bottom of the interface. An alternative Track View mode is the Dope Sheet, which lets you work directly with keys instead of curves (as the Curve Editor does). The Dope Sheet editor uses tracks to display animation keys over time. The graph is horizontal and allows you to adjust animation timing. The Dope Sheet is very useful because you can see all the animation keys at once. 4 3DS Max Certification Prep In the Dope Sheet, you can work directly with the keys, rather than with the objects in the viewport. The Dope Sheet provides tools that allow you to select, cut, copy, paste, and insert and reverse time using the tools on the Time menu. Like the Curve Editor, the Dope Sheet has both a menu bar and toolbars to provide you quick access to tools. Create a path animation and evaluate an object along the path A path animation is created by constraining an object to follow a spline. A spline for the path can be drawn to create a walkthrough animation through a building, or the trajectory of a plane or vehicle. Once the spline is drawn and the object created, you can apply the Path Constraint, which is an animation controller. This is accomplished by selecting the object, selecting Animation > Constraints > Path Constraint, then attaching the constraint (which displays as a dashed line) by selecting the spline. You can also add keyframes as needed to modify the object’s position, rotation or scale. The path animation can be viewed in the Track View – Curve Editor or controlled through the Motion panel. Analyze the animation of an object using the Curve Editor The Curve Editor displays object animation as function curves, displaying the animation controllers' changes of value over time. To open the Curve Editor, you select an animated object, right-click in the viewport and choose Curve Editor from the menu. The function curves for the object's animation are displayed in the Key window of the Function Curve Editor. Highlighting a controller on the left side of the Editor displays keys for that controller as vertices on the function curve. You can then highlight keys and change their values. You can also add keys to function curves. When you add a key to a function curve, a controller is created for that track. 5 3DS Max Certification Prep Explain how to edit tangents with the Curve Editor By default, all key tangents are set to Auto and Show Tangents is on. The tangents are drawn as blue dashed handles that display when keys are highlighted. If the Move tool is active, you can adjust the shape of a function curve near the key by dragging the handle endpoints. When you move the handle of an Auto tangent, the tangent type is automatically changed to Spline, (the handle color changes to black). You can change the tangent type for all highlighted keys at any time with the controls on the Key Tangents toolbar. Tangent handles can be either continuous (unified) or discontinuous (broken). When you move a Continuous handle, it moves as a single lever with its pivot at the key location on the curve. Moving either end of a handle also moves the opposite end. To make a key's handles continuous, click on the key and click Unify Tangents on the Tangent Actions toolbar. When you move a Discontinuous handle, each end moves independently of the other. To make a key's handles discontinuous, click on the key and click Break Tangents on the Tangent Actions toolbar, or hold down the Shift key when you move a handle. By holding down the Shift key, you can edit the tangents handles separately. Change interpolation methods In the Curve Editor, you can adjust the interpolation between keyframes to create particular animation motion effects. By changing tangent types, you can make an object speed up, slow down, or stand still. Each key has two tangents: one to define the interpolation before the key, and a second to define interpolation following the key. 6 3DS Max Certification Prep There are many types of tangents to choose from in the Curve Editor. You can create a Smooth interpolation through a key, or a more Linear interpolation. The Step interpolation acts as a sharp change between two values. The value of one key abruptly jumps to the value of the next key. Use this tangent when you want to animate something by switching it On/Off. Tangents are set as an In tangent (the left curve of a key) or an Out tanget (the right curve of the key). The Slow In tangent decelerates as it approaches the key. A Slow Out tangent begins slow and accelerates as it leaves the key. There is also a Fast In and Out tangent that works the opposite way, speeding up as it approaches a key, and beginning fast and decelerating as it leaves a key. Identify Controller types Controllers, like Animation Constraints, control the animation tasks in a scene. They store animation key values and they interpolate between animation key values. Once an object is animated, it receives a controller. As soon as you modify a parameter with Auto Key on or insert a key, 3ds Max assigns a controller to the parameter. 3ds Max chooses a default type for the controller, depending on the animation. You can change the default controller to another type in the Motion Panel or in Track View. A controller handles the storage and interpolation of all animated values. The default controllers are: Position: Position XYZ, Rotation: Euler XYZ and Scale: Bezier Scale. 3ds Max has a many different types of controllers, but the Bezier controller is very useful in animation. Bezier controllers are used whenever you want fully adjustable interpolation between keys. Bezier is the 7 3DS Max Certification Prep only controller that supports the ability to drag tangent handles, contains Step tangents for abrupt changes from one key to the next and has constant velocity controls Bezier controllers interpolate between keyframes in a smooth curve. You can adjust the key interpolation on the track bar or in Track View. This is how you can control acceleration, hesitation and other types of motion. For fast access to Key information or controller parameters, double-click on a controller track name on the Motion panel or in the Track View window. Identify playback settings The frame rate of an animation is expressed in frames per second (FPS). This is the number of frames 3ds Max displays and renders for every second of real time. You can change the frame rate for your animation at any time without affecting your animation timing. For example, if you create two seconds of animation using the NTSC video frame rate of 30 FPS, you will have a 60-frame animation. If you also need to output to PAL video (which is 25 frames per second), you can switch to that frame rate, and your animation is now set to 50 frames of output. There is no change in the timing of your animation, only the number of frames that 3ds Max will display and render has changed. The frame rate and playback settings can be modified in the Time Configuration dialog. 8 3DS Max Certification Prep You can choose from four frame rates. NTSC, the U.S. and Japanese video standard, is 30 frames per second. PAL, the European video standard, is 25 frames per second. Film, the movie standard, is 24 frames per second. You can also set the frame rate to Custom and set your own. Under Playback, the Real Time setting plays the animation at the selected playback speed, skipping frames, if necessary, to maintain the correct speed. If Real Time is turned off, the animation will play every frame without trying to maintain the correct speed. Also when Real Time is off, you have the option to change the direction of the animation playback to Forward, Reverse or Ping-pong (start to end, then end to start). Active Viewport Only can be turned off and the animation will play in all four viewports at once. The Speed can be changed by multiplying the frame rate by 1/4x, 1/2x 1x, 2x or 4x. Loop can be turned off and the animation will play once and stop. Identify the constraints used for an animation Animation constraints are special types of controllers that automate the animation process. Constraints can be used to control position, rotation, or scale of an object through a binding relationship with another object. For example, you can use a Path constraint to bind a camera to a spline to create an architectural walkthrough animation. A target object (the spline in this example) imposes specific animation limits on the constrained object (the camera). Even though the animation limits are in place, you still have the ability to use keyframe animation to influence the constraint’s binding relationship with the target object over a period of time. There are many useful animation constraints in 3ds max. The Attachment constraint is a position constraint that attaches an object's position to a face on another object. A Link constraint is used to animate an object linking from one target object to another. The LookAt constraint controls an object’s orientation so that it’s always looking at another object. An Orientation constraint causes an object’s orientation to follow the orientation of another object. A Path constraint restricts an object's movement along a spline. A Position constraint causes an object to follow the position of another object. The Surface constraint restricts an object to the surface of another object. To identify the type of animation constraint on an object, you can select the object and open the Motion panel. You will see the type of animation constraint listed under Assign Controller. 9 3DS Max Certification Prep Locate the value of keys in the Time Slider To locate the value of keys in the Time Slider, as well as the key tangent type, you can Select an object and right click over the keyframe you are interested in. The right-click menu will show each available keyframe value for the object. When you select the value you would like to see, the Key Info (Basic) rollout will open. You can use the arrows in the upper-left corner of the dialog to select another key, or choose a tangent type for the selected key from the In or Out tangent flyouts. 10 3DS Max Certification Prep Cameras Differentiate camera types Target and Free cameras There are two types of camera in 3DS Max, the Target camera and the Free camera. A Target camera is attached to a target, so it views the area around the target object. When you click and drag in a viewport and create a Target camera, you will create a two-part icon. The first icon represents the camera and the second icon produced is the camera’s target (displayed as a white box). The camera and the camera target can be animated independently. A Free camera is a free-standing object that views the area in the direction that you have aimed the camera. When you click in a viewport and create a free camera, you see a single icon. This icon represents both the camera and its field of view (FOV). Once the camera is located in your scene, the icon for the camera will look the same as a Target camera, but the Free camera does not contain a separate target. Free cameras are useful when you need to animate a camera along a path. The image below shows both types of cameras in a typical scene. 11 3DS Max Certification Prep Edit FOV (Field of View) A camera’s Field-of-View (FOV) is a camera parameter that allows you to adjust how much of a scene is visible in a viewport and the amount of perspective shown. The FOV setting can be found in the General parameters of both Target and Free cameras. The effect of changing FOV is similar to changing the lens on a real-world camera and is also similar to using a Zoom command. The difference between a Zoom command and changing a camera’s FOV is that the FOV setting actually changes the amount of perspective. If you were using a wide angle lens in a real-world camera, you would see more of your scene. In 3DS Max, as the camera FOV setting gets larger, the angle of the camera gets wider. Too wide of an angle will cause the perspective to become distorted. 12 3DS Max Certification Prep If you were using a telephoto lens in a real-world camera, you would see less of your scene (you would be zooming in) and the perspective flattens. In 3DS Max, the camera FOV setting gets smaller to simulate a telephoto lens. In a Perspective viewport, Field-of-View defines the width of your view as an angle with its apex at your viewpoint and the ends at the sides of the view. In a Camera viewport, Field-of-View controls the width of the area a camera views, and represents the arc of the camera's horizon in degrees The images below show the effect of changing a camera’s FOV setting. Near and Far Clip Planes The Clipping planes of a camera allow you to exclude some of the scene’s geometry based on its distance from the camera. It allows you to view only certain portions of a scene. Each camera (either Target or Free) has a near and a far clipping plane. Objects in your scene that are closer than the near 13 3DS Max Certification Prep clipping plane do not show in the camera view. Objects farther away than the far clipping plane also do not show in the camera view. The location of each clipping plane is measured along the camera's line of sight (its local Z axis) in the current units for the scene. Clipping planes are useful when you want to render only a selected portion of a scene that contains a large amount of complex geometry. You can also generate cutaway views of a scene. Clipping planes are part of a camera’s general parameters, and Clip Manually can be checked so you can visually see the location of the Near and Far Clip range in the viewports. The images below show the effect of changing the Far Clip value. 14 3DS Max Certification Prep Compositing using Autodesk Composite Compositing multiple layers together When you’re rendering a scene using render passes (Render Elements), you will need a compositing application to composite the multiple layers together to create a final image. Using Autodesk Composite, you can composite multiple layers of images using the Blend & Comp tool. One example of compositing layers together would be a project that had an animated logo that was rendered as an image sequence that needs to be composited over a background image. The first thing you need to do is import the image sequence. From the file menu in Composite, choose the import option and navigate to the image sequence that you rendered out of 3ds Max. You simply highlight the files and then click the import button on the lower right side. Then, use the same procedure to import the background image. Now we need to add the Blend & Comp tool to the Schematic view. Right-click on the Schematic View and select Add from Pick List > Compositing > Blend & Comp. Now, we need to connect all the nodes. Left-click and drag from the output of the image sequence (the right side) and drag and connect to the topmost input node (called Front) of Blend & Comp (the left side). Notice there are four input nodes on Blend & Comp: Front, Back, Matte, and Masking. We want the animated sequence in front and the background image in the back. Left-click and drag from the output of the background image and drag and connect to the Back input node (the second from the top) of the Blend & Comp tool. That now connects the two footage nodes to our blend and comp node, and uses the Alpha channel of the render sequence as a transparency channel. Now we still don’t see anything in the composition output window. 15 3DS Max Certification Prep That’s because our blend and comp node is not connected to the output. Left-click and drag from the output of Blend & Comp and drag to the input node of Output. Now you can see the final composition in the composition output window. If you drag the timeline you’ll see the animation play in the composition output window. To neatly organize the schematic view and make it a lot easier to work with, right click in the schematic view, and select Layout All from the right click menu. Now you will want to output this to a final sequence that can be converted to an AVI or MOV file. To do this, you need to render the sequence out of Composite. First you need to set your render preferences. Click on the output node, click on the render tab, and in the format options click and hold the left mouse button and select PNG from the format options. You’ll notice there are quite a few options that you can choose from, however, no AVI or QuickTime file format. That’s because Composite is really designed around a sequence based production pipeline and relies on other tools to convert sequences to animation files. From the file menu, click render and verify your range of frames, file format, frames per second, pixel aspect and click the start button. This will render your sequence down to the hard drive. To convert this file sequence to an AVI file, you can use 3ds Max to view the image sequence with the RAM player then save it to an AVI file. 16 3DS Max Certification Prep Remapping the color output for an image You can use the Remap Color tool in Autodesk Composite to remap an image's color output using either the interactive histogram display or the color curve tools. First, import an image file into Composite (File > Import). To remap the color output of the image, rightclick on the Schematic View and select Add from Pick List > Color Management > Remap Color. The Remap Color tool shows in the schematic view. Left-click and drag from the output of the image (the right side) and drag and connect to the input node of Remap Color (the left side). Then, left-click and drag from the output of Remap Color (the right side) and drag and connect to the input node of Output (the left side). 17 3DS Max Certification Prep Now, select the Remap Color tool and look at the settings at the bottom of the screen. You can control the color settings of the input image in the Histogram/Curve viewer. Controls on the left side of the histogram/curve viewer let you control how you want to view the histogram. You can view the source or result histogram, or a combination of the two at the current time. Controls on the right side of the Histogram/Curve viewer let you control how you want to view the color curve. You can view and set values for the red, green, or blue histogram channels individually or have the curve represent all three channels (RGB). Three curves can be displayed in the histogram/curve viewer: the basic curve, adjusted curve, and final curve. The basic curve shows as a dashed line shows the mode you selected. The adjusted curve (displayed as a white line) can be directly manipulated and shows you any changes you made to the curve itself. The final curve (displayed as a heavy white line) is a combination of the basic and adjusted curves. By default, the final curve is always displayed, but you can view the basic and adjusted curves individually by selecting the controls on the right side of the viewer. Once you have remapped the color, you can then select Output, right-click and Render, set your render settings and format, and render and save the new image file. Data Management/Interoperability Create layer renders and import into Composite Compositing is a time saving rendering technique. Compositing allows you to create your 3D production using layers of visual information. These layers can then be superimposed over each other to build up a 18 3DS Max Certification Prep final completed image. Or they can be used to overlay elements on top of a finished production, such as titles and call outs. Compositing can help us simplify the overall production process. Let’s say we have a scene that has lots of complex objects in it, lots of complex lighting, and then text that’s going to have the company’s name and logo flies into the scene at the end of the scene. If we created the animation all as one scene, the overall rendering time could be fairly long and if we had to edit any particular aspect of the animation it would be a fairly difficult task. The Autodesk Composite software package that is integrated into 3ds Max can accomplish this kind of compositing. Autodesk Composite is a powerful yet easy to use compositing application that provides the tools you’ll need to composite the images and animations that you render from 3ds Max. When you look at most feature films that are created today, nearly all of them use some sort of compositing. Especially when you’re talking about special effects heavy movies, you may be talking about 40, 50, even 100 or more layers for one shot. When you’re rendering a scene that you know is going to be composited using a program like Autodesk Composite, render using render passes (Render Elements). Render Elements allow you to separate image elements and can provide an efficient way of creating a final image. If you’ve never used render passes, you may be wondering what they are, and how they can be used. 3ds Max contains several pass types that have a wide variety of uses in both the direct visual composition of the scene, and non visual components that can be used by the composite program. For example, the diffuse pass renders out only the colors visible on the surface of objects in the scene. This can be rendered with or without shading depending on your requirements. This image is a diffuse pass with no shading incorporated into it. 19 3DS Max Certification Prep Another pass is the specular pass. The specular pass displays and only the specular component of the surface textures of objects in the scene. The lighting pass can be used to capture both direct light and indirect light, as well as shadows. However, you can render three separate lighting passes capturing direct light, indirect light and shadows separately. Other passes can include passes in that create masks for objects, show object IDs or material IDs, as well as passes that can be used to simulate motion blur and depth of field. In general using render passes allows for a very flexible compositing pipeline. Separating out the elements of an image allows you to make changes to separate parts of the image. For example if you have a reflection pass, and you notice in your final rendering that the reflection is too pronounced, you can edit the reflection pass separately and reduce the amount of reflection. You can even go as far as masking the reflection in specific areas. Editing individual passes not only gives you more flexible compositing, but it can provide you a way of creating a finished image that looks completely different than the original complete rendering. In the end, rendering passes allows you to reduce the need to re-render complex scenes, providing a more efficient production workflow and allowing for the development of rich cinematic images. Autodesk Composite is a node based compositing program that allows you to import footage and use that footage for image compositing. The footage can come from 3ds Max or it can come from a variety of other sources. The power of this software it is that allows you to use both standard files, such as PNG image sequences, or you can use more advance files, like the multi channel OpenEXR image format, with high dynamic range capabilities. Using Composite, the first thing you need to do is import the footage. From the file menu in Composite, you choose the import option and navigate to the image sequence that you rendered out of 3ds Max. You simply highlight the files and then click the import button on the lower right side. It’s very important that you only click the import button once, which will import these sequences into the schematic view using what is called a footage node. Then other files can be imported and composited using the tools available in Composite. Differentiate common file types and usages The Import and Export commands in 3ds Max let you share both 2D and 3D geometry with other 3D modeling programs. 3ds Max can import and export an enormous variety of file formats. Importing of 3D model data can be accomplished with industry standard formats such as 3D Studio mesh files (3DS, PRJ) from the DOS-based predecessor to 3ds Max, text-based (ASCII) Wavefront format 20 3DS Max Certification Prep OBJ files, AutoCAD DWG files, DXF CAD files, Google Sketchup (SKP) files, SAT solids, native Autodesk Inventor file formats for parts (IPT) and assemblies (IAM), FBX files, and XML and DEM files from civil engineering projects. 3ds max objects can also be exported to Shockwave 3D format and 3D DWF. 2D geometry can be imported from native Adobe Illustrator files as well as AutoCAD DWG linework. For post-production and compositing, 3ds Max supports RPF (Rich Pixel Format) output, which can be used with the Autodesk Combustion software application. While setting up a file for output, you can select RPF Image File from the list and specify what image channels you want to write out to the file. RPF files are a good choice for rendering animations requiring further post-production or effects work. Another format supported by 3ds Max is IFL (Image File List). An IFL file is an ASCII file that constructs an animation by listing single-frame bitmap files that can be used for each rendered frame. When you assign an IFL file as a bitmap, the rendering process steps through each specified frame, resulting in an animated map. Use the import feature to import model data For the Architectural industry, the native DWG file format of all the AutoCAD products can be directly imported into 3ds Max. If an external link to the DWG file is required, the File Link Manager should be used to link to the file. This link allows the model geometry to be updated in 3ds Max as the AutoCAD drawing is changed throughout the design process (similar to an XREF in AutoCAD). When you use the Import command, the DWG file will bind immediately, and does not allow the DWG file to be updated. The Import command is used when the model geometry from the AutoCAD file is complete and all future changes to the geometry will be made in 3ds max. If you are using Autodesk Revit, the native RVT file format is not supported by 3ds Max. You must be in a 3D or Camera View in Revit and export the model geometry in the DWG file format. Google Sketchup (SKP) files can be also be directly imported into 3ds max and maintain the material/textures and lighting applied in Sketchup. FBX files are another format used in the Architectural industry that can be imported directly into 3ds Max with the Import command. Autodesk MotionBuilder, Maya, Softimage, and Composite (previously known as Toxik) can also use the FBX format, making it a bridge among all these applications. One advantage of exporting from Revit as an FBX file is that all the materials, lighting and one camera are exported along with the model geometry. All the Revit lighting and materials are then available for modification in 3ds Max when the model is imported. The SAT file format can also be imported into 3ds Max. The SAT format works with precise geometric boundary representation (BREP) data, which are ACIS Solids. The model data is intended for solid models and assemblies and are converted into 3ds Max Body Objects when the file is imported. Autodesk Revit and Inventor, as well third party software such as Rhino and Catia, can export SAT files. On the manufacturing side, Autodesk Inventor IPT and IAM files can be directly imported into 3ds Max to import all parts and assemblies. Animation settings in Inventor are lost on import. 21 3DS Max Certification Prep Dynamics/Simulation There may be times where your animation calls for the realistic motion of objects and how they react to other objects in an environment. This is known as dynamics, it calculates the realistic interaction of objects and forces in order to simulate a more natural object motion. There are three main types of objects that can be used with in a simulation. Static objects become part of the simulation that are locked in place and unable to move. Dynamic objects are objects that will be acted on during the simulation. These objects like static objects can have various properties including mass, and other physical properties. However the dynamic object will move with realistic motion during the simulation and will interact with static objects as well as kinematic objects. Kinematic objects, like dynamic objects, are objects that are acted on during the simulation. However, kinematic objects can have key frame animation applied to them and be used to affect the motion of dynamic objects. Using a combination of the three types of objects, you can now effectively combine dynamic simulation and key frame and procedural animation all at the same time. In addition, a dynamics simulation can involve forces such as gravity, wind (with turbulence), drag, friction, and bounce. Dynamics engines can also simulate soft bodies such as cloth and rope, fluids such as water and oil, and jointed bodies (Rag-dolls). Flex Modifier The Flex modifier can be used to simulate soft-body dynamics. The Flex modifier simulates virtual “springs” between the vertices of an object. You have control over the stiffness of the springs (how strongly vertices are kept from coming close to each other), as well as the amount of stretch (how far apart the vertices can move). The simplest simulation causes vertices to lag behind an object as it moves. More advanced simulations also control the sway (how much the angle of the spring can change). Flex works with NURBS, patches, polygon and mesh objects, shapes, FFD space warps, and any plug-inbased object types that can be deformed. You can also use space warps such as Gravity, Wind, Motor, Push, and PBomb to add realistic, physically based animation to an object that has a Flex modifier. You can also apply deflectors to the soft-body objects to simulate collisions. Cloth Modifier Another form of dynamics built into 3DS Max is the ability to perform cloth simulation. The Cloth modifier can be used to simulate soft-body dynamics and can turn just about any 3D object into clothing. It also allows you to build garments from scratch. Cloth simulation allows you to create a realistic simulation of both loose cloth, and clothing. For example you can simulate the tablecloth lying down on the top of the table, and you can also simulate a character wearing a shirt and dress. The cloth simulation within 3DS Max provides controls and parameters to allow for the simulation of multiple fabric types. And you can adjust the parameters to get any fabric you need. Built in stitching makes it easy to create complex clothing from simple clothing patterns. The biggest benefit of cloth simulation is the ability to simulate complex interactions with other objects in the scene. This allows for the application of clothing on characters, as well as the creation of scene elements like curtains. 22 3DS Max Certification Prep To make cloth simulation work, first you need a cloth object, such as a tablecloth or a pair of pants. Next, you need something for the fabric to interact with. This can be a collision object such as a table top or character’s leg, or a force such as wind or gravity. The images below show the effects of adding a Cloth Modifier onto a Plane and creating a realistic tablecloth. 23 3DS Max Certification Prep Effects Atmosphere effects Atmospheric effects can be rendered in 3DS Max using both mental ray and the scan-line render. Atmospheric effects include lights that have a volume fog on them as well as the fire effect. An atmospheric apparatus, or gizmo, is a Helper object that is required to contain the fog or fire effect in your scene. There are three types of atmospheric apparatuses: BoxGizmo, CylGizmo, and Sphere Gizmo. The shape of the gizmo constrains the shape of the volume fog or fire effect. The image below shows the Fire Effect. Space Warps Space warps are unique types of objects that act as "force fields" that affect other objects in a scene. Space warps are not renderable objects and are designed only to affect the appearance or action of other objects. You can deform object geometry such as meshes and patches by using Geometric/Deformable space warps that generate ripples, waves, or explosions. 24 3DS Max Certification Prep There are additional types of space warps that work with particle systems and simulate natural effects such as wind blowing snow or rain or the effects of Gravity on specific objects. PBomb, Wind, Motor, and Push space warps work on particle systems. The position, rotation, and scale of a Space Warp object can be modified in the same manner as other objects on a scene. To have a Space Warp affect an object, you need to bind the object to the space warp using the Bind to Space Warp command on the main toolbar. If objects are not bound to a Space Warp, they will not be affected at all. Once you have bound an object is to a space warp, you will see the warp binding appear at the top of the object's modifier stack (a space warp is always applied after any transforms or modifiers). On the Create panel, each space warp has a rollout labeled Supports Objects Of Type that lists the kind of objects you can bind to the selected warp. 25 3DS Max Certification Prep Particle systems Particle effects are one aspect of 3DS Max that has evolved along with the program and now are available as non-event driven and event driven systems. Particle effects can be used for a wide variety of purposes, ranging from rain and snow, all the way to complex particle systems like realistic rotor wash from helicopter blades over the water, or animated flocks of birds flying in the sky. Essentially, particle systems allow you to animate a large number of objects using a procedural method. Particle Flow/Events Particle flow (PFlow) is an event driven particle system that gives the ability to test a particles property and direct that particle to a new event based on the results of the test. This provides an enormous amount of flexibility and greatly expands the capabilities for particle effects within 3DS Max. For example, you can easily create a swarm of bees flying from one beehive to another using multiple particle flow events. Another advantage of particle flow is that it is a node based, schematic style creation environment. The main dialog for editing particle flow events is called the particle view. Here you use nodes, called operators to define the properties of the particles. These properties include the shape, speed, direction and rotation for each particular event. Test nodes can be added to each event to test particles and for various parameters. Including the age of the particle, the speed and whether it has collided with an object are not. Based on this test, a particle is then sent to another event that redefines that particle based on the parameters within the event. This process of connecting events provides for an extremely flexible particle creation tool. 26 3DS Max Certification Prep The image below shows a non-rendered particle system. Lighting Differentiate light functions in a scene Lighting can really defined the depth of your scenes. Today the final output from 3ds Max can be both for two dimensional display, and for three dimensional cinema or video display. You can think of lighting almost as a painting. Traditional painting relies on a combination of both light areas and dark areas in the image to define the depth of that image. Perspective which is inherent in the modeling process and in the camera itself is a very important part, but lighting can make a tremendous difference in your scene. Lighting consists of two primary components. The first being direct light. This is light that comes directly from a light source, for example, the sun, a light bulb in your scene, or from any object that creates light directly. Direct light emits from the light and travels to the surface. Photometric lights are another type of direct light. Daylight can be a photometric light. Photometric lights are lights that work very well with the mental ray rendering engine. They’re able to simulate highly realistic light properties. The other form of light is called indirect light, in a global sense, remember we’re looking at the overall picture at this point. Indirect light is the light that comes from bounced light off of other objects. Direct light comes directly from the light source itself, it strikes the surface directly. Indirect light is reflected off of a surface that essentially adds additional light sources. mental ray uses final gather to calculate indirect light from surfaces. Lighting Settings When light rays strike a surface, the surface reflects them, or at least some of them, enabling us to see the surface. The appearance of a surface depends on the light that strikes it combined with the properties of the surface material, such as color, smoothness, and opacity. The intensity of light at its point of origin affects how brightly the light illuminates an object. A dim light cast on a brightly colored object shows only dim colors. The light an object reflects can illuminate other objects. The more light a surface reflects, the more light it contributes to illuminating other objects in its environment. 27 3DS Max Certification Prep Reflected light creates ambient light. Ambient light has a uniform intensity and is uniformly diffuse. It has no discernible source and no discernible direction. Color temperature describes a color in terms of degrees Kelvin (K). This is useful for describing the color of light sources and other color values that are close to white. Compare Attenuation and Decay When we look at the world around us light gradually fades away over distance. The farther objects are from a light source, the darker they appear. Objects located closer to a source of light appear brighter. This natural effect is called attenuation. Light attenuates at an inverse square rate (called the decay), which means that the light intensity diminishes in proportion to the square of the distance from the light source. Through clouds and fog, light is dispersed and diminishes more quickly (the attenuation is greater). The light sources in 3ds Max allow you to set the Near and Far attenuation values. This gives you direct control over how lights fade in or fade out. The Far attenuation value sets the distance at which the light drops off to zero. The Near attenuation value sets the distance at which the light "fades in." Photometric lights always attenuate at the inverse square rate. Identify parameters for modifying shadows If you are using Standard lighting (with the exception of Skylight and IES Sky), you can modify the shadows through the Shadow Parameters rollout in the Modify panel. The Shadow parameters allow you to set shadow colors and adjust the density of shadows. You can also assign a map to the shadows to enable the map's colors to blend with the shadow or set the light's color to blend with the shadow color. 28 3DS Max Certification Prep All shadow types (Advanced Ray-Traced, mental ray Shadow Map, Area, Shadow Map and Ray-Traced) have a Shadow bias setting. Shadow bias moves the shadow toward or away from the shadow-casting object (or objects). When the Bias value is too low, the scene may have shadows that leak through places they wouldn’t normally cast shadows in the real world. If the Bias value is too high, shadows can move too far away from an object and appear detached. The higher the Bias value, the further away the shadow is cast away from the object. Use the Daylight System The daylight system is used to light exterior scenes or interior scenes that are illuminated by daylight as the name would imply. There is a direct light as part of the system. We’ve talked about direct light as being light that comes directly from a light source and traveling to a surface. Direct light is certainly part of this system. But in this case the direct light were referring to is a type of light, it’s a light that casts light rays that are parallel from a circular source. This light is a component of the daylight system. Another component is the skylight. To envision what the skylight does, imagine you walk outside before the sun comes up over the horizon. You can still see clearly, that there’s light that allows you to see where you are and what’s going on. That’s because part of natural daylight is light that is reflected and scattered by the atmosphere, from dust and water vapor, coming from the sun that is below the horizon. Another component that isn’t part of the light directly is a positioning control for the sunlight. This is the compass. This object allows us to determine the position of the sun based on the time of day, the date, and the location on earth. Now there are other activities that occur because of the fact that we’ve placed the daylight system in our scene. One of them is the inclusion of a physical sky map in the environment. This is a texture that gets placed in the background of our scene and generates the illusion of a physically accurate sky background. This can simulate a blue sky and a hazy sky. For example, if it’s early in the morning and the sun is just coming up you’d have a pinkish horizon. That is a component of the physical sky that gets created automatically when you place a daylight system in your scene. Another important component that gets activated when you use a daylight system is the photographic exposure control. Think of it as photography, where you’re actually taking a photograph inside of 3ds Max. If you’re taking the photographs in bright daylight you need to adjust your exposure and your shutter speed so that you have a properly exposed rendered image. You have to close the iris of your camera to reduce the amount of light that striking the film plane. 29 3DS Max Certification Prep You’re doing the same thing here; you’re controlling the amount of light that the mental ray rendering engine is exposing the camera. That’s all done with photographic exposure control. All of this is part of the daylight system in 3ds Max. Light Lister The Light Lister is a dialog that lets you view and control several parameters of the lights in a scene. You can also make global settings that affect every light in your scene. The Light Lister allows you to control the Intensity, Color, Shadow type, and Bias values of each individual light. Materials/Shading Use the Material Editor Once you’ve begun creating your model, it doesn’t have to be complete before you start creating your materials. At some point, you have to start working on the materials, or the surface properties of the geometry in your scene. Materials are extremely important; you can have a model that has been poorly created and make it look good by applying properly created materials. You use the Material Editor to create and modify materials and maps. The material on an object describes how the object reflects or transmits light. There are two ways to access materials: the Compact Material Editor and the Slate Material Editor. The Compact Material Editor has been used in all previous versions of 3ds Max (prior 3ds Max 2011). It is a convenient interface to use to view previews of materials and assigning materials that have already been designed. 30 3DS Max Certification Prep The Slate Material Editor is a visual material editor that provides a way of working with materials in a schematic editing mode. In the slate material editor you create materials by wiring together maps and shaders that graphically display the structure of your material while you create it. 31 3DS Max Certification Prep Identify standard materials Standard materials are not photometric, so they would not be used for physically accurate lighting models. There are several types of Standard materials that have specific functions and are suitable for use in games and animation where physically accurate lighting is not required. The Standard material type allows you to start with a single uniform color, and then gives you the ability to add separate maps to add Diffuse Color, Glossiness, Opacity, Self Illumination, Bump, Displacement and other properties to an object. The Raytrace material is a surface-shading material that creates fully raytraced reflections and refractions. It also supports fog, color density, translucency, fluorescence, and other special effects. When a Matte/Shadow material is applied to an object, the entire object (or selected faces of the object) turns into a matte object that allows the current background color or the scene’s Environment map to show through the object. The Ink 'n Paint material adds a cartoon effect to the appearance of objects (the objects will have flat shading with inked borders). The Multi/Sub-object material is a material type that is actually a container that holds other materials. By default it contains 10 sub materials. However, you can actually use up to 1000 materials within a multi sub object material container. Those sub materials are assigned with a material ID number to an individual face or polygon, or multiple faces or polygons within your model. So the geometry needs to be configured so that the placement of these materials makes sense. For example if you have a wall that’s going to have two materials assigned to it; one on the lower half and the second on the upper half. You would need to have the geometry split at the point in which the materials will change. And this has to be done in order to be able to assign the appropriate polygons the material ID numbers that corresponds to the materials that will get applied to that portion of the wall. However you use the material, it is a very 32 3DS Max Certification Prep good production tool that allows you to apply many different materials to different pieces of a single object. Identify Shader parameters The material is what gets assigned to the objects in the scene. The Shaders are elements of a material that accept some form of input to generate some form of output. It may simply be a color or it may be patterns, there are lots of options. A Shader is an algorithm that calculates how a surface responds to light. In mental ray, the term shader is used in a more general sense, but is still a function that calculates light effects. There can be shaders for lights, cameras (lens shaders), materials and shadows. mental ray materials have specific components that allow you to assign a shader. Standard materials that are not photometric also allow you to assign shaders in the mental ray Connection rollout of the material. If you are using the Default Scanline renderer, mental ray shaders are not supported and typically appear as black or white surfaces, or are completely ignored. You use the Material/Map Browser to assign a mental ray shader the same way you do a map. Use Blending Modes with a Composite Map The Composite map type is made up of other maps, which you lay one on top of each other using the alpha channel and other methods. For this type of map, you can use overlay images that already contain an alpha channel, or use built-in masking tools for overlaying only certain parts of a map. You can blend the maps together, similar to blending layers in Adobe Photoshop. 33 3DS Max Certification Prep The drop-down list shows the available Blending modes that control how the pixels in one layer interact with those in an underlying layer. The blending modes allow you to blend layers by adding or subtracting pixels, darkening or lighting pixels, and also using functions such as Linear Burn, Color Dodge, Overlay, Soft and Hard Light. Hue, Saturation, Color and Value can also be blended between layers. Modeling Differentiate reference coordinate systems The Reference Coordinate System in 3ds Max becomes important when you are modeling objects. The coordinate system controls the direction and orientation of objects in each view of your scene. A coordinate system influences the direction of object transformations such as Move, Rotate, and Scale. There are several coordinate system options: View, Screen, World, Parent, Local, Gimbal, Grid, Working, and Pick. You can change the reference coordinate system from the drop-down on the main toolbar. In the default View coordinate system, the X, Y, and Z axes use the active viewport screen as the coordinate system. It’s the same in all orthographic viewports (non-perspective views). X is horizontal, running in a positive direction toward the right. Y is vertical, running in a positive direction upward. Z is the depth, running in a positive direction toward you. In a perspective view, the View coordinate system uses the world coordinate system, which displays as a 3D axis tripod labeled X, Y and Z. X runs in a positive direction to the right, Y runs in a positive direction away from you and Z runs in a positive direction upward. 34 3DS Max Certification Prep In the Screen coordinate system, all views (including perspective views) use the viewport screen coordinates. This system uses the active viewport screen as the coordinate system. The World coordinate system option displays as a 3D axis tripod labeled X, Y and Z. X runs in a positive direction to the right, Y runs in a positive direction away from you and Z runs in a positive direction upward. You can find the axis tripod in the lower-left corner of each viewport. The world axis colors are red for X, green for Y, and blue for Z. The Parent option uses the coordinate system of the parent of any selected object. If the object doesn’t have a parent, this option is the same as the world coordinate system. The Local option uses the coordinate system of the selected object, which is based on its pivot point. You can adjust the position and orientation of the local coordinate system by using the options on the Hierarchy command panel. The Gimbal option is a specialized option for use with the Euler XYZ Rotation controller. It is similar to Local, but its three rotation axes are not necessarily perpendicular to each other. With the Gimbal coordinate system, rotation about one axis changes only that axis's track and does not affect other axes. When the object does not have an Euler XYZ Rotation controller assigned, Gimbal rotation is the same as Parent rotation. The Grid Option uses the coordinate system of the active grid. The Working option uses the coordinate system of the working pivot. You can use this coordinate system at any time, whether or not the working pivot is active. When Use Working Pivot is on, this is the default coordinate system. The Pick option uses the coordinate system of another object in the scene. Differentiate workflow Use object creation and modification workflows Objects can be modeled in 3ds Max by starting with a 2D Shape or a 3D object. 2D shapes are accessed from the Create panel. 35 3DS Max Certification Prep There are two types of Shapes you can work with. When drawing shapes, you can easily create open shapes. These are lines in the scene that have no connections at either end. Closed shapes can be created using one of the many shape primitive objects (such as Rectangle or Circle), you can draw a closed shape, or you can create an outline from an open shape. However you create it, a closed shape is a continuous shape with no visible beginning or ending. Shapes are 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional spline curves. These curves are made by connecting vertices together with segments, forming a spline. It is the vertex type that determines the shape of the curve at each vertex. When working with two dimensional shapes, one way to use them as efficiently as possible is to use a single spline in order to create and outline object. This simplifies drawing a complete outline, by allowing you to offset a single spline and create a complete closed spline object. Two dimensional shapes are also very helpful when used as the basis for 3 Dimensional objects. Open and closed splines can be used to generate complex 3 Dimensional shapes by using modifiers such as bevel and sweep. They can also be used to create lofted objects, which provide even more flexibility and simplify the creation of more complex 3 Dimensional objects based on shapes. Editing splines, or shapes, can be done in a lot of different ways. You can access the spline editing tools in the Modify panel. 36 3DS Max Certification Prep An example of a best practice in spline editing would be using the trim and extend commands. These commands simplify the process of editing open ended splines by allowing you to use a second spline to cut back or add to the spline you’re editing. This saves a number of steps and creates an efficient workflow. Vertex welding, when used properly, can be a very handy tool for cleaning up complex shapes. Cleaning up complex shapes not only makes for cleaner models, but it can also help reduce the polygon count when those shapes are turned into 3 Dimensional models. This also has the result of helping to reduce render time. Using the fillet tool to create rounded corners creates a uniform and consistent result. It also reduces the number of steps needed to create a rounded corner when editing splines in 3ds Max. In addition to modeling with shapes, you can model with 3D objects. Modeling with 3D objects is one of the primary workflows you will have in the scene creation process. The two primary forms of 3D objects used for modeling are editable poly and editable mesh objects. There are other types of 3D objects; however these are the two primary types of geometry within 3ds Max and will be the geometry you’re working with in most situations inside of 3ds Max. Editable mesh objects are composed of connected triangular faces; there is a good set of sub-object editing tools available in the Modify panel that allow for quite a bit of flexibility in the 3D editing process. 37 3DS Max Certification Prep There are also editable poly objects. The major difference between editable mesh and editable poly is that editable poly objects can be made up of multi-sided polygons. Editable poly objects have a much more advanced set of editing tools available to you that make 3D poly modeling considerably more advanced than the editable mesh. Another modeling workflow in 3ds Max is combining 2D shapes with 3D polygon objects. This is a class of objects called Compound objects (accessed through the Create panel). Compound objects are a set of objects in 3ds Max that are created from multiple objects in order to create new objects or edit existing objects. There are several compound objects that are extremely useful when working with 3ds Max in order to build more complex shapes that require the combination of more than one object. They can be accessed from a dropdown in the Create panel under Geometry. For example the ProBoolean compound object gives the ability to use one object to subtract from another 3D object. Another compound object that is very handy inside of 3ds Max is the Loft object. The loft object works with at least two 2D shapes, and gives you the ability to extrude one shape along the second shape and modify the profile of that shape along the way. A best practice in modeling is to start using 3D primitives as the basis for constructing models. 3D primitives provide a very flexible means of building complex objects more simply, while also giving you the ability to modify those objects after they are created. Standard Primitives include geometry such as boxes, spheres and cylinders and can be accessed through the Create panel. 38 3DS Max Certification Prep Identify Clone types There are three clone types that are available to you in 3ds Max, and each type provides a different functionality and is used for different purposes as you develop your scenes. Copy is the most common method of cloning an object. It creates a completely separate and unique object based on the original. A copy can be edited independently of the original without affecting it. This allows you to make a working copy of an object, while maintaining the original in its unedited state. An instance is essentially a live version of the original object placed at a different location in the scene. That means, when you edit the original the instance will change as well. Also, if you edit the instance, the original will change. Instances are useful if you have many of the same objects in a scene, if you edit one, they will all change to reflect the edit. A reference allows you to instance a base level of an object and then continue editing that object independently of the instanced components. For example, we can reference a shape object, and then add a modifier to the reference. If we change the original shape, the referenced shape will also change. And, that change will be reflected in whatever modifiers have been added to the reference. Identify Vertex types Shapes are 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional spline curves. These curves are made by connecting vertices together with segments, forming a spline. It is the vertex type that determines the shape of the curve at each vertex. There are four vertex types, when you are working with shapes: Bezier Corner, Bezier, Corner and Smooth. Right-clicking on a vertex displays the menu that allows you to choose the vertex type. 39 3DS Max Certification Prep The corner vertex type creates a sharp corner condition with a predefined look for the vertex that is dependent on the vertex before it and the vertex after it. This vertex can be used in a situation where you want to hard corners, but do not need a curve in or out of the vertex. The Bezier corner is similar to the corner vertex in that it creates a sharp or hard corner. The advantage of a Bezier corner is that you are able to adjust control handles to change the shape of the curve as it comes into the vertex and as it leaves the vertex. Bezier corner handles are independent of each other, allowing you to control the shape of the curve on either side of the vertex independently. A Bezier vertex creates a smooth curve through the vertex, and it also provides handles that allow you to edit the shape of the curve as it flows through the vertex. This vertex type will always try to maintain a smooth curve, but you can adjust how loose or tight that curve is depending on your modeling needs. The smooth vertex type also creates a smooth curve as it passes through the vertex. However, a smooth vertex, like to corner vertex type, has no handle to control the curve as it passes through the vertex. This vertex type can be useful when you want to create a flowing curve, and do not want to have to manually adjust the handle for each vertex. Use polygon modeling tools There are good reasons to work with 3D polygon objects or 3D poly objects. One reason is that they can use multi-sided polygons, so a polygon can have four or more sides. For several modeling techniques, using four sided polygons will allow you to create very smooth and clean models. You also have very good control over polygon density. Essentially you’re creating each polygon independently. This makes it a lot easier to create low polygon models with the editing tools available to you. The only major issue with the editable poly geometry is that it gets converted to triangular mesh at render time. As a matter of fact all geometry gets converted to triangular mesh at render time. So there is a small amount of overhead associated with using the editable poly object. However, it’s probably not something you will need to worry about when you’re using 3ds Max Working with the editable poly object provides a great deal of flexibility. Polygon objects can be used to create nearly any model that you would want inside of 3ds Max. They can range from low poly models for game development all the way to high definition models for major Hollywood feature productions. 3ds Max offers several ways of the editing polygon objects. One method is to use the tools within the editable poly object themselves (the parameters in the Modify panel) to work with the sub object levels. While these tools are extremely useful and offer a wide range of editing options, they do not offer the range of options available in the Graphite modeling tools. 40 3DS Max Certification Prep The Graphite modeling tools are built into a ribbon just below the main toolbar. You will notice there are several tool panels that have a down arrow next to the title of the panel. This indicates that there are additional options within that panel. If you want to keep those options open for that panel you can click the pin panel button and those options will remain visible while you’re editing using the graphite modeling tools. In order to access tools specific to each sub object level we need to be in the Modify panel. Then you can click on the sub object level you’ll be editing in the graphite modeling tools. 41 3DS Max Certification Prep The Freeform tab provides advanced tools for building and modifying topology of your 3D polygon object. This includes the ability to draw splines on a surface for instance, or create branches that grow off of 3D geometry. The Selection tab works in conjunction with the sub object that you currently have active to allow you to perform more advanced sub-object selection. This gives you tools that allow you to perform complex selections using a variety of selection options. The Object Paint section allows you to sculpt the topology of your model using a brush to push and pull the polygons in order to deform the surface. This is useful for creating simple landscapes. Object paint is a fully interactive 3 Dimensional object painting system built into the viewport of 3ds Max. For instance, if you want to paint trees on your landscape you could use the object paint option to fill your landscape with trees. Another option available through the Graphite modeling tools is the Conform paint tool. This tool is part of the poly draw tools available on the Freeform tab of the graphite modeling tools ribbon. The Conform paint tool lets you use a paint brush in order to mold an object to the shape of another object. This can be used to create a low polygon object based off the surface topology of a high resolution model. Another polygon modeling technique is the use of modifiers (accessed from the Modifier List in the Modify panel for an object). Modifiers are discreet operations that get applied to objects to perform certain functions. Some of the modifiers allow you to simply edit geometry. There are some that allow you to perform certain editing on materials and others that help in adjusting map patterns within materials. Several modifiers give you a way of applying patterns to your objects and editing how those patterns are applied. There are modifiers called Object Space modifiers that work directly on the object itself and use the objects’ XYZ coordinate system to determine how they will function. For example, if we apply a Bend modifier to an object it bends the same no matter where the object is in space. Modifiers are very efficient because they only perform a certain set of functions and there is not a lot of overhead associated with most modifiers. They’re very flexible because they have their own set of parameters and they can be removed from the object at any time. Sometimes Object space modifiers can create new geometry. For example if you’re creating a picture that’s going to be hanging on a wall in your scene and you need a frame you can use a sweep modifier applied to a 2D rectangle to create the 3D geometry of the picture frame. There are also World Space modifiers. These get applied based on the world coordinate system. They function by warping the space or changing the space in which an object exists. So if we put a world space bend modifier in the scene and apply it to an object, as we move the object around through space in the scene, it’s going to bend differently depending on its relative location to the world space modifier. Another important concept in polygon modeling is the Modifier stack view. This is in the Modify panel and it is the window where you access the sub-object level for the 2D shape and editable poly objects. This stack view is where we will see the history of modifiers of our object. As you apply a new modifier it appears in the stack view. This gives you the ability to navigate your stack view and make changes to your object through the modifiers. 42 3DS Max Certification Prep Use ProBoolean Many objects we build on a regular basis can be built by putting together various 3D primitives. In other cases you may have some 3D primitives that you’ve done some basic modeling to and would like to use it as the starting point of a more complex 3D model. One way to accomplish this is to use a tool called ProBoolean. ProBoolean is a compound object that takes a base object and allows you to perform Boolean functions, such as union, subtraction and intersection in order to create a more complex object. The ProBoolean tool is accessed through the Create panel under Compound objects. . ProBoolean works in a much different way than the original 3ds Max Boolean command. ProBoolean allows you to incorporate multiple objects in a single Boolean command. Each object within the proboolean may use a different Boolean type, providing a complete result from one proboolean operation. The typical operation of the ProBoolean tool is to select the first object in your scene, select the operation needed (such as Union, Intersection or Subtraction), select Start Picking, then select all objects that you want to add, subtract or intersect to the original object. 43 3DS Max Certification Prep Rendering Differentiate Renderers Creating Photo realistic renderings is a goal for many artists across a large number of industries. 3ds Max has always been able to create very high quality 3D renderings whether it’s through creative use of the traditional scan-line render, mental ray, iRay or Quicksilver. You can choose a rendering engine from the Assign Renderer category on the Common tab of the Render Setup dialog. The Default Scanline Renderer is the original 3ds Max rendering engine. It renders the scene as a series of scanlines that are generated from top to bottom and has advanced lighting options such as the Light Tracer and Radiosity. The Light Tracer generates color-bleeding and soft shadows for brightly-lit scenes. Radiosity provides a physically accurate model of the lighting in a scene. The scanline renderer is an older technology and does not support the mental ray materials and photometric lighting that have been added to 3ds Max in recent years. The mental ray renderer from mental images can generate physically correct simulations of lighting effects. It can generate physically accurate reflections and refractions by ray tracing, which traces the path of rays sampled from the light source. Mental ray generates caustics, which are the effects of light cast onto an object through reflection or refraction through another object (such as light passing through a glass of water). To achieve photorealistic lighting, the mental ray renderer uses photon tracing and final gathering for global illumination calculations. Photon tracing originates at the light source, and calculates light bouncing off surfaces as it makes it way towards the final lighting target. Final Gather works in the opposite way as it calculates light starting from an illuminated surface and then back toward the light source. You can use either photon tracing or final gather in a scene, or combine them both for best results. Compared to the default scanline renderer, the mental ray renderer doesn’t require you to manually simulate complex lighting or generate a radiosity solution. The mental ray renderer renders rectangular blocks called buckets (the default scanline renderer renders from the top of the image downward). 44 3DS Max Certification Prep iRay is a photo realistic render that is built into 3ds Max that is both simple to use and can create very high quality photo realistic renderings. Like mental ray, iRay is able to handle a variety of lighting conditions, that includes daylight, night-time indoor lighting, and the use of self illuminated objects and materials. One of the greatest advantages that IRay has over other renderers, is it provides the end user with a very simple adjustments. The main adjustment is how long you want the rendering to be calculated. The longer you let it calculate the higher the quality the image. Beyond the length of time you want to render, you don’t have to make it any other changes to the render settings. iRay looks at whatever scene you’re rendering and uses physically correct light calculations in order to generate a highly photo realistic rendering. One of the advantages of this type of rendering, especially when using area lights, and object based lights, is that soft shadows are calculated as a byproduct of the illumination. This allows for very accurate calculation of the area lights and their related soft shadows. Depth of field is also a byproduct of this type of rendering, so if you use a camera with depth of field enabled there are no adjustments that you need to make other than the camera settings. Like shadows depth of field is rendered with a very high level of accuracy. iRay is a GPU enabled rendering process, even though it will use your CPU to do its rendering. However if you have a graphics card that supports Nvidia CUDA capabilities, you can dramatically improve the performance of the iRay renderer, providing higher quality results in much less time. The last rendering option available is the Quicksilver hardware renderer, which uses graphics hardware to generate renderings. Its main advantage is speed. Quicksilver hardware renderer accelerates rendering by using both the CPU (Central Processing Unit) and the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The more often you use the Quicksilver renderer, the faster it will become, since the CPU only has to compile the shaders used in the scene once. Quicksilver also has built-in non-photorealistic rendering styles such as Ink, Color Ink, Acrylic, Tech, Graphite, Color Pencil, and Pastel. Identify pass types 3ds Max contains several pass types that have a wide variety of uses in both the direct visual composition of the scene, and non visual components that can be used by the composite program. For example, the diffuse pass renders out only the colors visible on the surface of objects in the scene. This can be rendered with or without shading depending on your requirements. This image is a diffuse pass with no shading incorporated into it. Another pass is the specular pass. The specular pass displays and only the specular component of the surface textures of objects in the scene. The lighting pass can be used to capture both direct light and indirect light, as well as shadows. However, you can render three separate lighting passes capturing direct light, indirect light and shadows separately. Other passes can include passes in that create masks for objects, show object IDs or material IDs, as well as passes that can be used to simulate motion blur and depth of field. In general using render passes allows for a very flexible compositing pipeline. Separating out the elements of an image allows you to make changes to separate parts of the image. For example, if you have a reflection pass and you notice in your final rendering that the reflection is too pronounced, you can edit the reflection pass separately and reduce the amount of reflection. You can even go as far as masking the reflection in specific areas. 45 3DS Max Certification Prep Editing individual passes not only gives you more flexible compositing, but it can provide you a way of creating a finished image that looks completely different than the original complete rendering. In the end, rendering passes allows you to reduce the need to re-render complex scenes. This provides a more efficient production workflow and allows for the development of rich cinematic images. Render passes can be set up in the Render Elements tab of the Render Setup dialog. Select the Add button to see a list of available render elements. Identify rendering parameters The Common tab of the Render Setup dialog lists the rendering parameters that are the same across all the different rendering engines available. These parameters are the main controls for the rendered image and allow you to render a still image or animation, set the resolution of the render and the file formats for rendered output. 46 3DS Max Certification Prep 47 3DS Max Certification Prep The Time Output parameters allow you to select which frames of an animation you want to render. Selecting Single will render the current frame only. Selecting Active Time Segment will render the range of frames that are currently shown in the time slider and selecting Range will allow you to specify the beginning and ending frame numbers. The Frame option renders non-sequential frames separated by commas or ranges of frames separated by hyphens. The Area to Render parameters on the Render Setup dialog allow you to specify the portion of the scene that will be rendered. Selecting View renders the entire active viewport. The Selected option renders only currently selected objects. Selecting Region will render only a rectangular region that you set within the active viewport. Crop allows you to specify the size of the output image using the same region box that appears for the Region option. The last option, Blowup, renders a region within the active viewport and enlarges it to fill the output display. Output Size parameters allow you to select pixel Width and Height of the rendered output file by selecting one of the predefined sizes or entering a custom size. The predefined sizes in the drop-down list include industry standard sizes such as 35mm and 70mm film, NTSC, PAL and HDTV. This controls the image's aspect ratio, which is usually expressed either as a ratio of width to height (for example, 4:3) or as a real value relative to 1 (for example, 1.333). For example, pre-1950s movies and non-HD TV shows have an aspect ratio of 4:3. The most important aspect to rendering to still images is the resolution, which is the number of pixels horizontally and vertically in the final rendered image. This option is set at render time prior to rendering your image. There are presets available for still rendering, 640 x 480, 1024 x 768. These are some of the more common file sizes that you’ll see. These resolutions are also related to creating presentations and can be used quite effectively for that purpose. When rendering from 3ds Max to animations the resolution is a bit different than for still images. There are many presets for many different formats of animation output that change the resolution of the rendered image. One thing to keep in mind is that many of these presets are formats, and not specific resolutions. For example HDTV is an image format; this format happens to be becoming much more popular because of the proliferation of HDTV in the marketplace. However, it does not specify any one particular resolution of image since there are multiple resolutions associated with the HDTV format. Another aspect of rendering to an animation is something called the pixel aspect ratio. This is something that you need to be concerned with when rendering certain formats of animation. The pixel aspect differs from the image aspect in that the image aspect ratio is the format of the overall picture that you're looking at onscreen. The pixel aspect ratio is the difference in the width vs. the height of the actual pixel on the screen. For example formats like HDTV, web and print all use a pixel aspect of one. That means that the actual image pixel is one unit high by one unit wide so essentially the pixel is square. For the NTSC video format, for example, if you're creating a DVD or other broadcast animations, the pixel aspect ratio is a value of 0.9. This means that the rendered pixel out of 3ds Max will be shrunk in height as compared to the width and will look more like a rectangle as opposed to a square. Other important render parameters on the Render Setup dialog include the Render Output settings which allow you to browse to a folder location to save a still or animation file as well as choose a file type. 48 3DS Max Certification Prep To speed up render times, there are check boxes that allow you to turn off Render Effects and Atmospheric effects. There is also a Net Render check box to that allows you to set up network rendering. Use Render to render an effect pass Rendering Effects enable you to add post-production effects such as Film Grain, Lens Effects, Motion Blur, Depth of Field and the Lighting Analysis Image Overlay. You can access the various effects through the Effects tab on the Environment and Effects dialog. Selecting the Add button lists the available rendering Effects. 49 3DS Max Certification Prep Once the Effect is selected, the unique parameters for that effect will display on the Effects dialog. 50 3DS Max Certification Prep Once all the parameters are assigned, the Update Scene button is selected to render the scene with the post-production rendering effect. 51 3DS Max Certification Prep Rigging/Setup Describe common Biped features Biped is a two-legged skeleton in 3ds Max where each bone on the skeleton is set up as a linked hierarchy that is designed for character animation. Biped is access through the Create panel under Systems. You simply click and drag in any viewport to create the skeleton. The biped skeleton is designed as a human structure. The body has joints that are hinged using an inverse kinematics (IK) hierarchy which allows for natural human movement. If you move a hand, the wrist and elbow will move in the same way a human arm moves. If you rotate the spine, the arms behave like human arms and pivot accordingly, and the head remains looking forward. The skeleton can also be customized for non-human characters, such as an animal with four legs. 52 3DS Max Certification Prep After a Biped is created, you have a series of controls located on the Motion panel that let you modify the bones on the character and animate the motion of the figure. The biped skeleton is rigged so you can start posing and animating the character right after you have created it. 3ds Max character studio is a set of tools that allow you to animate Bipeds and interchange motion files (saved in the BIP format) and characters. In Figure mode, you work with poses of the skeleton. In Freeform mode, you animate the skeleton itself. The motions you create for one Biped can be saved and loaded onto other Bipeds, even if the characters are different sizes. Motion capture files can also be loaded and attached to a Biped skeleton. A Biped can be animated with typical keyframe animation techniques or a Footstep mode can be used that allows you to design walk cycles by having the Biped follow a set of pre-defined footsteps. The animation technique is selected through the Motion panel by choosing either the Footsteps method or the Freeform method. Footsteps are biped sub-objects that display in your scene as footstep outlines that look like the diagrams used for ballroom dancing. The position and rotation of each footstep controls how the foot of the Biped is placed for animation. 53 3DS Max Certification Prep If you want to animate your character outside of a walk cycle, you can use the Freeform animation controls (accessed through the Motion panel when Footstep mode is not active). In freeform mode, you do not have to be limited by the location of footstep location and you can pose every joint of your character. This mode allows you to animate with typical keyframe animation techniques. You can plant keys to lock hands and feet in specific locations as well as animate pivot points to create rolling motions. You can convert animation between the Footstep and Freeform methods, or you can combine both in a single animation. 54 3DS Max Certification Prep Biped motion files can be used with Motion Flow (accessed from the Motion panel). Motion Flow mode lets you graphically arrange motion clips and create and edit transitions between clips for animating one or more bipeds. The Motion Mixer (accessed from the Motion Panel under Biped apps) allows you to mix motion files for any biped. The Motion Mixer works like an audio mixer and allows you to place motion files on tracks that can be layered, stretched and cross-faded. The 3ds Max Crowd tool can also be used to animate crowds of bipeds. Identify Bones Keyframe animation has its roots in the traditions of cell animation. You can create complex animations by only keyframing various parts of an animated object. This method is what is known as forward kinematics, where you animate one joint at a time by rotating it and positioning it where it’s needed at a specific frame. Animating complex structures, such as characters or mechanical systems, can quickly 55 3DS Max Certification Prep become a near impossible task using forward kinematics. This is where inverse kinematics becomes an invaluable tool in the animators tool kit within 3ds Max. Inverse kinematics, or IK for short, simplifies the animation process of complex hierarchical structures. It does this by allowing the animator to move only the child of the hierarchy, while the IK figures out how to move the rest of the chain. There are two key components of the IK system. Bones provide a framework and a low resolution visual representation of the hierarchical structure of the model that you’re going to be animating. Bones are especially useful for animating characters as well as complex mechanical systems. Bones are accessed through the Create panel under Systems. Biped is composed of a series of Bones. 56 3DS Max Certification Prep The second component of a Bone system is the IK solver itself. This creates an inverse kinematic solution that rotates and positions the links or bones that make up the IK chain. The combination of using bones with IK solvers is known as rigging. Rigging has a variety of uses; one of the more common uses is to create character rigs. The character is designed to make it easier for animators to animate the position of the character and its limbs and other parts. The Biped is a character rig. The second use for rigging is for mechanical systems. For example the arm of a backhoe can be set up with bones and an IK chain to allow an animator to easily animate all the parts of the arm in a very simple way. If you watch any 3D animated film put out by major production company, chances are that all the characters and major animated structures have some form of rig developed to animate that structure and make it easier for the animator. Identify Controller usage 3ds Max character studio lets you add animation controllers to Biped object tracks. This allows you to mix the biped animation with standard animation techniques utilizing controllers. You typically add controllers to biped body parts so you can create character animation movement that may be difficult using the Footstep or Freeform modes. You could use a Scale controller to animate a cartoon character’s arms and legs to stretch in a dramatic way. A character could be made to shake by using a Noise controller for an arm or leg rotation. You could use a Scale controller on a Biped spine to make it look like it is breathing or coughing. You could use an Audio controller to synchronize character movement with sound or music. Controllers can be added in the Animation Workbench (accessed from the Motion panel under Biped apps) using the Controller button to display the controller list. Different controllers can be added together, blended or sequenced in a list called a Biped SubAnim. By animating the controller weights you can increase or decrease the effects of the different controllers. You can enable, disable or collapse the list controller animation tracks. SubAnims are best used when combined with freeform animation. 57 3DS Max Certification Prep Identify IK Solvers There are four types of IK Solvers in 3ds Max. An IK solver creates an inverse kinematic solution to rotate and position links in a chain. An IK Controller is applied that controls the transforms of children in a linked hierarchy. You apply an IK solver using commands on the Animation menu. First, select an object in a hierarchy, choose an IK solver, and then click another object in the hierarchy to define the end of the IK chain. Each of the four types of IK solver works in its own unique way and has a unique workflow. The controls and tools for an IK Solver are located in the Hierarchy and Motion panels. The HI (History-Independent) Solver is the preferred IK method for character animation. With HI Solvers, you can set up multiple chains in a hierarchy, such as a character’s leg or arms. HD (History-Dependent) Solver is the preferred method for animating machines, especially ones with sliding parts. It lets you set up joint limits and precedence. The IK Limb Solver operates on only two bones in a chain and is designed to animate the arms and legs of a character. The Spline IK Solver uses a spline to determine the curvature of a series of bones or other linked objects. Vertices on the spline are called nodes and can be moved and animated to change the curvature of the spline, which determines the movement of the bones. The number of spline nodes can be fewer than the number of bones, so an animation movement could be simplified by selecting nodes instead of individual bones. 58 3DS Max Certification Prep Use Weight Table In character animation, a Skin modifier is applied to a character model (either a Mesh, patch, or NURBS object) and the bones of a Biped are assigned through the Skin modifier so the “skin” modeled for the character can be deformed by the bones of the Biped. The Biped is animated though the character studio tools and the animation motion is then used by the Skin modifier to deform the mesh of the character. Applying the Skin modifier to a Biped allows you to assign capsule-shaped envelopes around the bones. Vertices of the character mesh within these envelopes move with the bones. Where envelopes overlap (such as elbows and knees), vertex motion is a blend between the envelopes. 59 3DS Max Certification Prep By default, each vertex that's affected by a single bone is given a weight value of 1.0, which means it's affected by that bone only. Vertices within the intersection of two bones' envelopes have two weight values: one for each bone. The Weight Table for the Skin modifier is used to change vertex weights for several vertices and bones at a time. This table appears when you click the Weight Table button in the Modify panel of the Skin modifier. This dialog allows you to select vertices and assign them weights. You can also copy, paste, and blend weights between vertices. Scripting There are many ways to extend the capabilities of 3ds Max. You can write custom plug-ins using C++, or you can write a MAXscript. MAXscript is a built in scripting language that allows you to extend the capabilities of 3ds Max through an easy to learn scripting language. Describe common use of scripts There are a wide variety of uses for Max script within 3ds Max. MAXscript provides a way of building custom modeling tools that allows you to extend the standard object types beyond what ships by default with the program. This gives you the ability to write a script to create a specific type of object, such as a customizable brick wall. Scripts can also be written to extend the animation capabilities of 3ds Max and automate the animation process of complex or repetitious animation tasks. Other ways scripts can be used to extend 3ds Max’s capabilities are to create scripted materials for example. You can also build custom scripts that are designed for a specific production task. For 60 3DS Max Certification Prep example, a script can be written that determines the length of a spline, then bases the speed of an animated object on the calculated length so that multiple objects animating on different length splines will move at the same speed. While this can be animated traditionally, a MAXscript written for this task can greatly simplify the animation process. Apply (run) scripts The MAXScript menu in 3ds Max contains commands for creating and working with scripts. Script files have a .ms file extension. If you want to write a custom script, you would select New Script from the menu. The MAXScript Editor window opens and script commands can be entered. Selecting Open Script from the menu allows you to open an existing script in the MAXScript Editor and view and edit the commands. 61 3DS Max Certification Prep Selecting Run Script from the menu allows you to browse to a script file and then the file is read and executed. Any output is printed to the MAXScript Listener window. The Listener window can also be accessed from the MAXScript menu. The MAXScript Listener window interprets MAXScript commands for you. You can enter MAXScript commands in this window, and when you press Enter they are executed immediately. You can use the Listener to test scripting commands and develop small pieces of code. The MAXScript menu also gives you access to the Macro Recorder. The Macro Recorder captures the actions you are performing in your scene, such as moving an object, then generates the MAXScript commands that correspond to those actions. Output from Macro Recorder is displayed on the upper pane of the MAXScript Listener window and in the MAXScript Mini Listener located in the lower left corner of the 3ds Max UI. 62 3DS Max Certification Prep The MAXScript menu also gives you access to the Visual MAXScript editor. With Visual MAXScript, you can quickly create UI elements such as custom dialogs and rollouts with check boxes, drop down menus and buttons. The last option on the MAXScript menu is the Debugger dialog. The Debugger allows you suspend the operation of a script, and view and edit variables that may not be operating properly and allow you to troubleshoot and debug the code. 63 3DS Max Certification Prep UI/Object Management Describe and use object transformations When working with objects, you often need to change an object’s position, orientation, or scale. You do this with the 3ds Max transform commands. There are three types of object transforms: Position, Rotation and Scale. You can access the transforms on the main toolbar or on the shortcut menu when you right-click over a selected object. When you want to move a single object, you can click on the Select And Move button on the main toolbar, click on an object, hover over the desired axis on the gizmo, and then drag the mouse to move the object. The direction of the movement is determined both by the selected axis and by the current reference coordinate system. When you want to rotate a single object, the process is similar to the Select and Move command. You can click on the Select And Rotate button, click on an object, hover over the desired axis on the circular gizmo, and then drag the mouse to rotate the object. Rotating the mouse movement does not result in a rotation around the object. Simply move the mouse straight up or straight down. Moving up rotates around the axis in one direction, and down rotates in the opposite way. The center of rotation is determined by the Transform Center setting. When you want to scale a single object, you use the Select And Scale button on the main toolbar. The Select and Scale button is a flyout that gives you three different ways to scale an object. The three types are Select and Uniform Scale, Select and Non-Uniform Scale and Select and Squash. When the Select And Uniform Scale button is selected, it allows you to scale objects by the same amount along all three axes, and maintains the object's original proportions. When the Select And Non-Uniform Scale button is selected, it allows you to scale objects in a nonuniform way according to which axis constraint is selected. 64 3DS Max Certification Prep The Select And Squash button is used to simulate the “squash and stretch” style of animation used in cartoons. You select an axis on the gizmo to Squash, and the object will scale down on one axis while simultaneously scaling up uniformly on the other two axes. You can select an axis on the gizmo to Stretch, and the object will scale up on one axis while simultaneously scaling down uniformly on the other two axes. The volume of the body of the cartoon character stays the same; it is just squashed or stretched in a certain direction. Keyboard shortcut key R activates the Smart Scale command. The Smart Scale command starts the Select and Scale tool and, each time you press the R key, cycles through the three scaling methods. Identify Selection Regions When you need to select several specific objects at a time, you have several Region Selection tools to choose from. These tools allow you to use your mouse to select objects by defining an outline or area. You can select by Rectangular, Circular, Fence, Lasso or Paint selection. The shape of the object selection region you define when you drag the mouse is set by the Region flyout button (this button is located to the right of the Select By Name button on the main toolbar). The Rectangular region setting is the default, so when you drag your mouse, the object selection region will be a rectangular shape. By default, when you release the mouse all objects within and touched by the region are selected. When the Circular region button is selected, the object selection region changes to a circular shape, which may make it easier to select objects in certain scenes. The Fence region option allows you to click and drag straight lines to define a region. The Lasso region allows you to draw a curved outline by dragging the mouse in a continuous path and then releasing the mouse to create the object selection region. The Paint region also allows you to drag the mouse along a path to select objects but does not display a dashed outline like the other selection options. After some objects are selected, you can hold down the Ctrl key to add additional objects to the current selection. Holding down the Alt key removes objects from an existing selection set. An important part of object selection is the setting of the Window/Crossing button located on the main toolbar next to the Region Selection flyout. This button specifies if the region you are selecting includes objects touched by the region border (the dashed line that is drawn as you select a region), or if only the objects located inside (enclosed by) the region are selected. The default setting for the button is Crossing. This will select all objects that are enclosed by your object selection region AND all objects crossing the boundaries of the region (intersected by the dashed line of the region). When the button is selected and toggled to the Window setting, only objects that are completely within the region are selected. 65 Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Autodesk Certification Exam Preparation Roadmap ® ® Autodesk certifications are industry-recognized credentials that can help you succeed in your design career—providing benefits to both you and your employer. The certifications provide reliable validation of skills and knowledge, and they can lead to accelerated professional development, improved productivity, and enhanced credibility. Autodesk highly recommends that you structure your examination preparation for success. This means scheduling regular time to prepare, reviewing this exam preparation roadmap, using the Autodesk Official Training Guide, taking an assessment test, and using a variety of resources. Equally as important, actual hands-on experience is recommended. The Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Associate exam consists of 30 questions that assess your knowledge of the tools, features, and common tasks of Autodesk 3ds Max 2012. Question types include multiple choice, matching, and point-andclick (hotspot). The exam has a 1-hour time limit. (In some countries, the time limit may be extended.) Autodesk offers the choice of two Professionallevel exams for 3ds Max 2012: Models to Motion or Surface and Look Development. The 3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional exams are performancebased tests. The exams are each comprised of 20 questions. Each question requires you to use 3ds Max 2012 to create or modify a data file, and then type your answer into an input box. The answer you enter will be a text entry or a numeric value. The exam has a 90-minute time limit (In some countries, the time limit may be extended.) To earn the credential of Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional, you must also pass the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Associate exam. You can pass the exams in any order. To recertify from Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 Professional to Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Professional, you need only pass the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Associate exam. Assessment Tests Autodesk assessment tests will help identify areas of knowledge that you should develop in order to prepare for the certification exam. At the completion, you will be able to review the items you missed and their correct answers. Contact an Autodesk Certification Center for more information at http://autodesk.starttest.com. Autodesk Official Training Guides The Autodesk Official Training Guide for the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certification exams is Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Essentials from Wiley Publishing. This guide is available from booksellers and online booksellers worldwide. ATC Instructor-Led Courses The Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC®) program is a global network of professional training providers offering a broad range of learning resources. Visit the online ATC locator at http://www.autodesk.com/atc. Recommended Experience Levels for the Autodesk 3ds Max Certification exams Actual hands-on experience is a critical component in preparing for the exam. You must spend time using the product and applying the skills you have learned. 2012 Certified Associate exam: Introducing Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 course (or equivalent) plus 100 hours of hands-on application 2012 Certified Professional exams: Introducing Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 course (or equivalent) plus 400 hours of hands-on application Why are we offering two Professional exams? Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 is used throughout the production cycle in film, video game, design visualization, and television development. Creating two different Professional exams allows you to focus on the subject areas that relate to your career path, or to add additional skills in new areas. If you are interested in early stages of the production process, such as creating and animating digital models, the Models to Motion exam would be a good choice. If you are interested in defining the final look of digital models and their environment, Surface and Look Development is the right choice. If you pass both Professional exams, you will earn two certificates: Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional Models to Motion and Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional Surface and Look Development. Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Exam Topics and Objectives We recommend that you review the topics and objectives during your preparation for certification. The Autodesk Official Training Guide for the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Associate exam is Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Essentials from Wiley Publishing. That guide—which covers the topics and objectives listed below—is available from booksellers and online booksellers worldwide. Please note that not all objectives will be tested during your certification exam. Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Associate Topic Objective Animation Change interpolation methods Differentiate Dope Sheet from the Curve Editor Explain how to edit tangents with the Curve Editor Identify Controller types Identify playback settings Cameras Differentiate camera types Explain Near and Far Clip Plane for your camera Compositing Demonstrate how to composite multiple layers together Dynamics / Simulation Use modifiers for soft body simulation Effects Identify an atmosphere effect Identify an event Identify particle systems Identify Space Warp types Lighting Compare Attenuation and Decay Identify parameters for modifying shadows Materials / Shading Use the Material Editor Modeling Differentiate reference coordinate systems Differentiate workflow Identify Clone types Identify Vertex types Use object creation and modification workflows Use polygon modeling tools Rendering Differentiate Renderers Identify pass types Identify rendering parameters Rigging / Setup Describe common Biped features Identify Controller usage Identify IK Solvers Scripting Describe common use of scripts UI / Object Management Identify Selection Regions Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Exam Topics and Objectives We recommend that you review the topics and objectives during your preparation for certification. The Autodesk Official Training Guide for the Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional exams is Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Essentials from Wiley Publishing. That guide—which covers the topics and objectives listed below—is available from booksellers and online booksellers worldwide. To earn the credential of 3ds Max 2012 Certified Professional, you must also pass the 3ds Max 2012 Certified Associate exam. You can pass the exams in any order. Please note that not all objectives will be tested during your certification exam. Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 Certified Professionals Topic Animation Cameras Models to Motion Surface and Look Development • Analyze the animation of an object using the Curve Editor • Create a path animation and evaluate an object along the path • Identify the constraint used for an animation • Locate the value of keys in the Time Slider • Use animation passes and animation editors • Differentiate camera types • Compositing Data Management / Interoperability Demonstrate how to composite multiple layers together • Demonstrate how to remap the color output for an image • Create layer renders and import into Composite • Differentiate common file types and usages • • Use the import feature to import model data • Differentiate light functions in a scene • Use the Daylight System • Use the Light Lister • Identify Shader parameters • Identify standard materials • Use Blending Modes • Use the Material Editor Materials / Shading • Use object creation and modification workflows • Use polygon modeling tools • Use ProBoolean (Max) / Boolean (Maya) Rendering Rigging / Setup Edit FOV (Field of View) • • Lighting Modeling Objective • Identify rendering parameters • Use Render to render an effect pass • Identify Bones • Use Weight Table Scripting • • Apply (run) scripts UI / Object Management • • Describe and use object transformations For more information http://www.autodesk.com/certification Find an Autodesk Certification Center http://autodesk.starttest.com Autodesk and 3 ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2011 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Autodesk Professional Certification The power to be remarkable Gain a powerful advantage with Autodesk Certification In today’s complex marketplace having the ability to prove your skills is very valuable. That’s the thinking behind Autodesk Certification, an accreditation that can boost your career and credibility, and even benefit an existing or potential employer. When you become remarkable, your employer becomes remarkable too As a design professional, Autodesk Certification demonstrates your aptitude. But you are not the only beneficiary. For an employer, your Certification means that they get the most out of their software investment, strengthening their own competitiveness. Immediate diagnostic feedback from Autodesk experts Whether or not you pass the exam, you receive immediate feedback on the areas where you can improve your Autodesk application skills. Your score report with feedback is available anytime through your Autodesk online testing system profile. Make your mark on your industry As an Autodesk Certified professional, it’s important to be able to demonstrate your achievements in a meaningful way. You’ll receive an electronic certificate that can be printed and framed, or attached to your CV. In addition to this you will get the official Autodesk Certification logo that you can use on your business card, CV or letterhead to identify you as certified, as well as the opportunity to list your details on the Autodesk’s publicly available database of Certified Professionals. Performance-based testing – proving your experience Autodesk Professional-level Certification includes performance-based testing. That means you are tested in your ability to perform tasks, rather than on answers to questions about how they might be accomplished. Performance-based testing is widely accepted as a better way of ensuring that you have the skills needed for that application. Whether you’re in manufacturing, civil engineering or architecture, Autodesk Certification signifies your experience and expertise to employers and clients around the world and, as such, is a very powerful asset for design professionals. Assess your knowledge of your Autodesk application before Certification Autodesk assessment tests will help determine your general knowledge of specific Autodesk applications. These online tests assess your know­ledge of the tools, features, and common tasks in an Autodesk application. This means you can measure your readiness, boost your confidence and identify areas of knowledge that should be developed prior to Certification testing. Bring yourself up to speed with Autodesk Official Training Guides Preparation is everything. Autodesk Official Training Guides and the comprehensive Exam Guides enable you to review the knowledge and skills covered in the certification exams. Each book includes lessons covering the main sections of the exam, as well as exercises for most of the performance tasks that you will be required to complete during the examination. Autodesk Professional Certification How to become remarkable To earn Certification you need to pass an Autodesk Certification Exam, or a series of exams, and follow some simple steps Your five-step guide to getting started 1 2 3 4 5 Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 ® Select the Certification that’s right for you: Choose the level and the Autodesk application that is best for you. Certification is available for many Autodesk applications. Learn what to expect by reviewing the comprehensive Exam Guide detailing the skills you need. ® In recognition of their commitment to achieving professional excellence, this certifies that has successfully completed the program requirements of This number certifies that the recipient has successfully completed all program requirements. Date Autodesk and Revit are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. © 2009 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Carl Bass President, Chief Executive Officer Assess your readiness: Take an assessment test to measure your knowledge of the application, and to identify areas for further study and preparation. AutoCAD 2010 ® Get the training you need: Enhance your skills with Autodesk Official Training Guides, or take classes at an Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC®) site. In recognition of their commitment to achieving professional excellence, this certifies that has successfully completed the program requirements of This number certifies that the recipient has successfully completed all program requirements. Date Autodesk and AutoCAD are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. © 2009 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Carl Bass President, Chief Executive Officer Apply your training: Practice what you have learned to gain experience. Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 ® Take the required exam: ® In recognition of their commitment to achieving professional excellence, this certifies that has successfully completed the program requirements of This number certifies that the recipient has successfully completed all program requirements. Register for your exam online. Autodesk and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. © 2009 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Learn more about Autodesk Certification by visiting www.autodesk.com/certification Date Carl Bass President, Chief Executive Officer Examples of Official Autodesk Certificates Why choose Autodesk Certification? Validate your skills and knowledge reliably Accelerate your professional development Enhance your credibility within your field Strengthen your CV with an Autodesk Certificate and logo List your details in Autodesk’s Certified Professionals Database Autodesk and ATC are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. © 2009 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved. Summary of Certification Exam Information 2012 Certification Exams Exam AutoCAD 2012 Associate AutoCAD 2012 Professional AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 Associate AutoCAD Civil 3D 2012 Professional Autodesk Inventor 2012 Associate Autodesk Inventor 2012 Professional Revit Architecture 2012 Associate Revit Architecture 2012 Professional 3ds Max 2012 Associate 3ds Max 2012 Professional Models to Motion 3ds Max 2012 Professional Surface and Look Development Maya 2012 Associate Maya 2012 Professional Models to Motion Maya 2012 Professional Visual Effects and Simulation # of items 30 20 30 20 30 20 30 20 30 20 20 30 20 20 Time allowed 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 90 min Passing score 72% 76% 80% 80% 72% 75% 80% 80% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% # of items 30 20 30 20 30 20 30 20 30 20 30 20 20 30 20 20 Time allowed 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 90 min Passing score 73% 74% 80% 80% 70% 75% 80% 80% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 70% 2011 Certification Exams Exam AutoCAD 2011 Associate AutoCAD 2011 Professional AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Associate AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 Professional Autodesk Inventor 2011 Associate Autodesk Inventor 2011 Professional Revit Architecture 2011 Associate Revit Architecture 2011 Professional 3ds Max Design 2011 Associate 3ds Max Design 2011 Professional 3ds Max 2011 Associate 3ds Max 2011 Professional Models to Motion 3ds Max 2011 Professional Surface and Look Development Maya 2011 Associate Maya 2011 Professional Models to Motion Maya 2011 Professional Visual Effects and Simulation 2010 Certification Exams Exam # of items 30 20 30 20 30 20 30 20 30 20 AutoCAD 2010 Associate AutoCAD 2010 Professional AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Associate AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Professional Autodesk Inventor 2010 Associate Autodesk Inventor 2010 Professional Revit Architecture 2010 Associate Revit Architecture 2010 Professional 3ds Max Design 2010 Associate 3ds Max Design 2010 Professional Time allowed 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min 60 min 90 min Passing score 77% 80% 73% 75% 77% 80% 83% 85% 77% 75% Assessment and Practice Tests Exam AutoCAD 2011 and 2012 Assessment AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011 and 2012 Assessment Autodesk Inventor 2011 and 2012 Assessment Revit Architecture 2011 and 2012 Assessment 3ds Max Design 2011 Assessment 3ds Max 2011 and 2012 Assessment Maya 2011 and 2012 Assessment AutoCAD 2010 Assessment AutoCAD 2010 Professional Practice AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Assessment AutoCAD Civil 3D 2010 Professional Practice Autodesk Inventor 2010 Assessment Autodesk Inventor 2010 Professional Practice Revit Architecture 2010 Assessment Revit Architecture 2010 Professional Practice 3ds Max Design 2010 Assessment 3ds Max Design 2010 Professional Practice # of items 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 65 20 55 20 59 20 67 20 59 20 Time allowed 90 min 90 min 90 min 90 min 90 min 90 min 90 min 90 min 135 min 90 min 135 min 90 min 135 min 60 min 135 min 90 min 135 min Notes: There is no passing score for assessment tests. 1/3 time is added in countries where English exams are delivered, and where English is not the first language. This happens automatically and will appear when the candidate starts the test.