Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2012 Essentials: AUTODESK OFFICIAL TRAINING GUIDE

The Essentials and Beyond

This chapter introduced you to both Max’s non–event-driven particle systems. Using particles, thousands of seemingly random or purposeful objects can be animated by effectively manipulating the particle system’s parameters. Particles can appear as primitive shapes, interconnecting blobs, or any instanced geometry object from the scene. Particle systems can be affected by external forces, such as gravity, wind, or vortex, and they can bounce off many types of deflectors positioned within the flow of particles.

For additional practice:

• Set up particle systems expressing weather: Rain, Snow, and Wind. Model objects that you can use as instance geometry, like a snowflake or a leaf.
• Model a simple fountain and use particles ...