This course covers the major areas of the latest version of 3ds Max and their application for exterior scene creation, lighting and rendering. Using 3d lighting design with advanced illumination features such as radiosity, Sun and Daylight Systems and light tracer solutions, photometric lights and HDRI files, a range of external scene setups are explored.

Also covered is how to setup, understand and use the Mental Ray and VRay rendering engines to produce global illumination, radiosity and realistic lighting solutions, and how to optimize these advanced technologies for easy setup and rendering.

Beyond lighting, some of the advanced, powerful and flexible features within the 3ds max modeling, dynamics, visual effects and animation toolset are utilized specifically to meet the needs of today's architectural or design visualization professional.

Also covered are tools such as PFlow, Reactor, ProBooleans, Cloth, Hair and even Character Studio, traditionally used in the film and visual effects sectors are now being utilized more and more to realize the vision of designers and modern architects, rapidly bringing powerful solutions to modeling and scene population needs within a fully procedural 3D environment.

A look at the importing and handling of traditional CAD assets using Scene Management and Asset Tracking tools will also enable 3ds max to be conveniently incorporated into the architectural or design visualisation artist's daily working pipeline.

Pre-Requisites
3ds Max Fundamentals: Overview, Materials, Lighting & Rendering or equivalent level of knowledge.
Prior knowledge of 3ds Max interface and navigation is assumed.
A working knowledge of PC's and the Windows operating environment is assumed.

Features and techniques covered in this course:

Scene Management:

1. The use of the Xref tools in 3ds max to utilize the collective network resources of your team's production environment.

2. How to use Asset Tracker to view external resources and how to substitute low and high resolution alternative assets at appropriate build, lighting and render stages of a project.

3. Importing and linking to industry standard CAD file formats for 3ds Max pipeline integration.

4. Using Scene States to store multiple scene versions within the same 3D scene file for easily accessed alternative setups.

Lighting and Rendering:
1. Creating and editing Standard and Advanced lights to produce realistic natural exterior lighting effects.

2. Use of the Sun and Daylight Systems for accurate geographic exterior shadow studies.

3. Using and optimizing alternate Mental Ray render settings to produce rapid test renders, and a balance between quality and render speed for production output.

4. Setting up and using the VRay render engine for rapid industry standard exterior solutions.

Modeling and Materials

1. Use of the powerful polygon and procedural modeling toolsets within 3ds Max, including Edit Poly, Paint Deformation, ProBoolean / ProCutter and Modifiers to easily produce building exteriors and natural and man-made landscape features that accurately meet your design requirements but can be easily updated in the latter stages of a project to satisfy the ever changing needs of clients or updated briefs.

2. Advanced creation tools and tips to populate exterior environments, including the use of ParticleFlow, Hair and Fur, as well as Reactor Dynamics for procedural object placements such as rocks, grass, trees and plants, easy Cloth dynamics for flags, banners or hangings, even easy 3D character placement and animation with Character Studio to add an extra touch of realism to your stills or animations.

3. Traditional and Advanced 3ds Max material creation and UVW Mapping to maximize the impact of stylized or realistic exterior scene renders

4. Animation techniques for simple and advanced camera walk- and flythroughs.

Cost
$2750

Duration
5 days or 10 nights : 35 hours

Dates : Sydney
days : Feb 4-8, 2008

Dates : Melbourne
days : Feb 18-22, 2008

Dates : Adelaide
days : Jan 21-25, 2008


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