Digital Tutors - Introduction to 3ds Max 2015

Duration 12h 35m Project Files Included MP4

This in-depth tutorial is designed to help you get a solid understanding of the core features found in 3ds

Max, and help you to ease your transition into this very powerful program. So during the course of these

lessons, you'll have a chance to learn about different aspects of 3ds Max from several of our instructors here

at DT.

Digital-Tutors is the worlds largest resource for Autodesk training, and over the years, we've had the honor

and the privilege of teaching some of the top artists and studios all around the world. And for the next

several hours, we'll be giving you the most structured, well-rounded, and easiest to follow 3ds Max training

that you'll be able to find anywhere.

In the first portion of this tutorial, we'll be getting you familiar with some of the vocabulary and

foundational skills that you'll need in order to begin moving around and working in 3ds Max. From there, we'll

move into exploring some of the modeling features found in 3ds Max, and we'll begin building the mech that

will be our central project for the remainder of this course.

From there, we'll take you through the entire process of adding textures and materials to the mech, adding

animated movement and animation controls, adding dynamics, and finally we'll learn how to add lights, shadows,

and output our final animated sequence.

This training is designed for new 3ds Max users, so our goal is not to weigh you down with a lot of technical

information. Instead, we want you to form some really good habits and workflows ? getting to see the entire

start-to-finish pipeline for this project ? and by the end of this tutorial, we want you to be at a point

where you can feel very comfortable using 3ds Max.

1. Introduction and project overview

2. Interface overview

3. Viewport navigation

4. Creating a 3ds Max project folder

5. Selecting and viewing objects

6. Creating and manipulating geometry

7. Accessing sub-object modes

8. Grouping and parenting

9. Modeling overview

10. Setting up reference images

11. Modeling the hull

12. Beginning the helmet

13. Smoothing the splines

14. Finishing the helmet

15. Modeling the pelvis

16. Modeling the shoulder mount

17. Modeling the shoulder socket

18. Modeling the upper arm

19. Modeling the elbow joint

20. Modeling the arm cannon housing

21. Modeling the arm cannon interior

22. Modeling the gun barrel

23. Mirroring the arm

24. Modeling the upper leg

25. Finishing the upper leg

26. Modeling the middle leg link

27. Modeling the lower leg

28. Modeling the front foot piece

29. Modeling the back foot piece

30. Modeling the mid sections

31. Modeling the jet pack tank

32. Modeling the jet pack exhaust

33. Modifying the hip to function

34. Modeling a hose

35. Adding the final elements

36. Using smoothing methods

37. Smoothing the shoulder pieces

38. Smoothing the arm pieces

39. Smoothing the accessory pieces

40. Smoothing the lower body of the mech

41. Adding the final details of the helmet

42. Materials and texturing overview

43. Material editor overview

44. Modifying the basic parameters of a material

45. Adding multiple materials to a single object

46. Using procedural maps

47. Unwrapping UV basics

48. Exploring the unwrapping tools

49. Using substance materials

50. Outputting a UVW template

51. Adding file textures

52. Adding a bump map

53. Rigging overview

54. Preparing our model to be rigged

55. Creating groups in 3ds Max

56. Finishing the grouping process of our model

57. Creating a global control

58. Building a control object for the mech's upper torso

59. Creating a control for the mech's lower torso

60. Controlling the lower back

61. Adding a control for the mech's center-of-mass

62. Building your first bone chain

63. Finishing our initial bone chain

64. Setting up bone chains for the mech's toes.

65. Mirroring bones in 3ds Max

66. Connecting the mech's legs to follow the rig

67. Skinning objects in 3ds Max

68. Deforming the fueling line's envelope object

69. Controlling the fueling line

70. Deforming the mech's mid section

71. Attaching the mid section to follow our rig

72. Creating the mech's arm bones

73. Connecting the arms to our rig and adding inverse kinematics to the limbs

74. Controlling the mech's legs

75. Finishing the leg controls

76. Creating custom attributes and wiring parameters

77. Arm controls

78. Rigging with the Reaction Manager

79. Making our scene animator-friendly

80. Animation overview

81. How to create and edit keyframes in 3ds Max

82. Managing keyframes in the Curve Editor and cycling animation infinitely

83. Working with Auto Key and creating simple expressions in the Curve Editor

84. Creating expressions

85. Path animation

86. Creating crowds with Populate

87. Starting on our final project

88. Animating the mech's platform

89. Blocking in the mech's performance

90. Finalizing our blocking pass and starting on our polishing stage

91. Finishing the mech's polishing pass

92. Adding a shot camera

93. Wrapping up the animation and previewing animations in real-time

94. Dynamics overview

95. Creating particles in 3ds Max

96. Modifying the particle system behavior

97. Using space warps

98. Creating the fog material

99. Finalizing the fog material

100. Finalizing the particle system

101. Lighting and rendering overview

102. Understanding light types in 3ds Max

103. Basic light parameters in 3ds Max

104. Understanding diffuse and specular components

105. Utilizing the Object Properties window in 3ds Max

106. Changing the rendering engine used by 3ds Max

107. Setting up image-based lighting in 3ds Max

108. Working with additional light sources in 3ds Max

109. Optimizing render speed in 3ds Max

110. Fine-tuning particles and other materials

111. Adding motion blur and improving rendered image quality

112. Outputting our final animation from 3ds Max

113. Converting an image sequence to a movie file in 3ds Max