How do you use 3dsmax?!?!?
 

Just asking but, how do you use the 3D Studio Max program? I just want to get a head start into learning it. Also, are there any tips I should be aware of?

read the book, ya?

Seriously, There is soooo much stuff out there on the web its crazy. Your best bet, however, is to find a project(think it up beforehand) and then do it. If you don't know how to do something, look it up. If you really want to learn fast, get someone to teach you. I have found it almost impossible to actually sit down and read through one of the ref books for longer than like 10 mins so you need to do something that will keep you interested.

Just find a project. Its how I've learned every single program I know to date. It's the only thing reasonably guaranteed to hold your interest. You can't really systematically go through all the file menus and such and expect to get a good understanding of it b/c you will have no idea how it all goes together. Ditto with the books.

I have found the printed books sent with the earlier versions of 3DStudio to be very helpful. (I'm learning on 2.5, I gave all the newer versions to students) The nice thing about a book is you can have it in your lap while working on the screen. You don't have to keep swaping windows.

The on-line tutorials that came with the software were useless. It doesn't hurt to have a CAD background. I create stuff in AutoCad and then import it to add motion.

This is the first year we have tried doing anything with animation, I'm interested to see how it comes out.

Look in Help>Tutorials. I think that's where it's at. Those are excellent tutorials to learn you the basics (and even more advanced stuff). Just read everything and don't skip steps even if you think you are beginning to get the grasp of it.

I agree with all of the above... However, the best of the best is at:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/index/0...123112,00.html

Go to the online tutorials section. You will find 3 absolutely superb streaming video tutorials by Ted Boardman. These tutorials were made expressly for FIRST teams to use.

I strongly suggest you check it out...

Mike Betts
Bobcat Robotics

Autodesk Resources for FIRST Teams

I would say poorly if you haven't read the book.

I never really thought anyone could teach 3dsm better than yourself. Just play around with it and start with something is the best advice I can give.

TRASH
 

Stay away from 3dsmax at ALL COSTS, it as absolute trash, i spend countless hours working with computer graphics, and have used around half a dozen 3d programs and i can tell you that 3dsmax is by far the WORST OUT THERE!!!!!

Re: TRASH
 

Can you back up your talk?? List programs that are better if you know of them, just don't come in here and state your opinion with no fact. At the moment your opinion is worthless.

I've used 3DS MAX and Lightwave, and I'd say I like MAX better. I hate Lightwave's separate modeling and animating programs system and MAX's modify panel seemed more intuitive than LW's multiple tabs interface.

Ya i can
 

Every program i've used on a Mac kicks max's #%#%#% hardcore, especialy Pixels3d http://www.pixels3d.com

On a PC Lightwave is better because it dosent crash as much as max and it isnt as buggy as max

Maya is by far the best 3dprogram on pc, absolutely no comparison what so ever

Gee... to compare the quality of MAX and Pixels3d, I took a look at the galleries on the sites. The images on the Pixels3d gallery,here , suggest that its renderers and shaders aren't too powerful. If you take a look at a MAX gallery here , you can see what I mean. So I woudn't want to bash the quality of MAX so much. I've played with Maya, but I don't like the interface and tool set too much (I havn't run it since Maya 2.5), though it may be more powerful.

I'd say the best way to start with MAX would be to start at page 1 of the tutorials book if you're not familiar with the interface, and then doing most of the tutorials in the book starting with the still life, even though they may seem so easy as to be worth skipping. The order that the skills are taught seems pretty good to me.

number of users
 

you also have to compare the number of users max has an incredible number of users, while pixels3d has a very small number and it hasnt been around near as long so you can't expect the same quality of work from the users.

btw....ever see starship troopers? alot of the effects in that, like the mass bugs sceenes were done in an early version of pixels3d, i believe 2.5







any1 use bryce?i love how easy it is, makes great backgrounds for complex scenes

Re: TRASH
 

I've been searching in reference sites and so far it looks like 3dsmax is the best. Or at least one of the best.

Blizzard uses MAX for all the cinematics.

If you wanted to go even farther back in the dark ages, I still have 3D studio r4 from '97 ;-)

As far as the main question, just one tutorial or book isn't going to make you an expert, or even proficient. The best way to learn 3D studio is to practice, read, practice, read, and practice 10 times more.

As far as whether 3d studio max is the best software out there, the answer should be a question asking for what purpose.

Remember that almost all movies with affects were done using custom software and/or custom plugins. To compare what is availible to students and to movie studios isn't fair, even if the software is similar.

Max is the best, there is no explaining what it can do. It is very powerful, if you know how to use it.

Re: TRASH
 

So what? You have to use it for your animation. That prohibits staying away from it. :rolleyes:

That said, it looks good to me, not that I have used anything else.


Wetzel
~~~~~~~~~~
Opinion stated above

It seems like 3dsmax is the most popular for modeling for 3d games and Maya is the most popular for movies. I'm almost positive Pixar uses Maya is some way, heavily modified though. I'm also pretty sure the final fantasy movie was made in maya. And Blizzard uses 3dsmax. I also saw a screenshot of the GTA3 map open in 3dsmax on rockstar's website so I assume they use 3dsmax for everything as well.

Either way, both Maya and 3dsmax are great and very popular. I guess lightwave is fairly popular as well, but anything else you learn chances are when you look for a job the companies won't be using what you learned.

Max5 is real purdy... Hopefully we will get copies of that and this will end this silly debate. We must use max, and max5 is definately better than 4 (in my humble opinion)

Dude....this entire debate on which 3d program is the best is totally moronic. Its entirely based on personal preference and what programs you have used in the past/what you are used to and how well the interface works for you. Try them all out, theyre all decent, but the major players in this are 3dSMAX, Lightwave, and Maya. They all have their Strengths and Weaknesses and none can be claimed to be above the rest. Theyre all tools that one can use to reach one goal, its just the one that fits best in your hand. They are all extremely powerful and they have most of the capabilities of each other.

Web LInk
 

Thought I'd post a link to our local colleges 16 week intensive course for animation. http://www.mmdclab.com/ They use Maya for their course. If you are interested in 3D animation I understand that this is a first rate course with a high rate of placement in the industry. Have fun

Ken

Ok. I think I have enough references now. I found a few other websites by searching and I found the following: www.3dlinks.com, www.3dcafe.com, www.raph.com/3dartists, and www.zoomorphix.com. Thanks for all of your help guys.

I personaly prefer Lightwave. The control panels are simply arranged MUCH better than MAX's and I like Lightwave's animater/renderer a bit more.

i cant wait to learn max
 

:D i cant wait to learn max ... it looks like such a flexible rpogram..

Well, I've finally completed some things. To see some of my work, although I'm still gradually getting better, go to www.turbosquid.com and search for Hailfire in the main screen. There, you'll find some of the things that I've made. You can download them at your will since I made them free for download. Others, however, place a price on their work. Search around and you'll be able to find lots of great examples.

I like your choice of subjects to model :D . You seem to have learned enough to exhaust the possibilites of simple-poly modeling... I'd strongly reccomend you do the MAX 5 tutorials starting on Pg. 47(you can skip this) and Pg. 221... Meshsmooth NURMS models are fun :)

Yeah, I would but, one of the other team members has the 3dsmax5 tutorials. So unfortunately, I can't look at the tutorials just yet.

Well, what can I say? I love Star Wars. I'm currently working on the Blue Guard's Rifle but I still need to look at some tutorials to figure out how to make it.

Humn... Well, if you did a full installation of MAX, when you open MAX and go to Help>Tutorials... , you get a window showing all the tutorials in the book. The page numbers I mentioned are for "Modeling a Chess Set" and "Modeling a Low Polygon Character" :)

The others are good too...