3ds Max® 2012 Bible

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I: Getting Started with 3ds Max

Quick Start: Laying Siege to the Castle Wall

Breaking the Walls—Planning the Production

Setting Up the Scene

Tutorial: Building a wall

Tutorial: Gathering models

Tutorial: Adding a ground plane

Adding Materials and Lights

Tutorial: Adding materials

Tutorial: Adding a Sun & Sky system

Tutorial: Rendering a preview

Creating a Dynamic Animation with MassFX

Tutorial: Running a simulation

Tutorial: Rendering the final animation

Summary

Chapter 1: Exploring the Max Interface

Learning the Interface Elements

Using the Menus

Using the Toolbars

Docking and floating toolbars

Using tooltips and flyouts

Using the Quick Access toolbar

Learning the main toolbar

Using the Ribbon

Using the Viewports

Using the Command Panel

Working with rollouts

Increasing the Command Panel's width

Tutorial: Rearranging the interface for lefties

Using the Lower Interface Bar Controls

Interacting with the Interface

Gaining quick access with the right-click quadmenus

Using Caddy controls

Understanding the button color cues

Using drag-and-drop features

Controlling spinners

Understanding modeless and persistent dialog boxes

Getting Help

Using the InfoCenter toolbar

Viewing the Essential Skills Movies

Using the online reference guides

Using the rest of the Help menu

Summary

Chapter 2: Controlling and Configuring the Viewports

Understanding 3D Space

Learning Axonometric versus Perspective

Learning Orthographic and Isometric views

Discovering the viewports ...