So you may be wondering what you will learn in this tutorial series. Some of the topics that will be covered in these 18 lessons are the overall work
flow of producing an animation in 3ds Max. Many people take the time to learn 3ds Max very well, but do not understand the overall work flow of 3D
animation production, in order to make it a cost effective process it’s important to understand how to quickly move through the various stages of
animation production. Pre-production planning is a very important aspect of the overall process of 3D animation production. During this phase of the
process sketches are created for the client so the client is able to sign off on the project prior to any production work. This sketch is called a storyboard;
it outlines just what is expected of the animation so that everyone understands what the final product should look like. If you don’t want to model in 3ds
Max, it’s not a problem, however you do need to understand how to model in order to correct problems you’ll have when you import models from
other programs. This is why it’s important to learn the fundamentals of modeling. We’ll cover some of the common workflow techniques, the interface, the
major concepts of how to model in 3ds Max. One very important point that I’d like to stress is that you have to work efficiently. For example, if you’re
bringing in a file in from Revit or inventor there’s good chance that a lot of information will come into the scene that you don’t need for the animation or
image you are producing. That extra information is just a waste of time and computer resources. So it’s important to be efficient in modeling no matter
which program you use. Applying materials and lights is in many ways what 3ds Max is all about. This is where developing your skills can really
contribute to the visual quality of your final production. It is entirely possible that you can take a poorly made 3D model and make it look
fantastic just by adding well created materials and properly setup lighting. On the other hand, you can take a meticulously crafted model and make it look
bad fairly easily. So we’re going to go through an overview of how to apply materials, how to create lights and how that fits into the production process.
Does your production include animation? If it does it’s important to realize that animation can be very difficult and time consuming to create properly. In
these lessons you’ll learn how to animate effectively using the most efficient methods. We’ll discuss this and we will look at the process of animating a
camera and objects in the scene. One of the biggest issues with 3D animation production is long render times. Long render times are not cost
effective in any production, unless the client is willing to pay for long render times; however those clients are few and far between. Because of this,
it’s important to be able to minimize your render times. We’re going to take a look at several options dealing with modeling, materials, lighting
and compositing that will go a long way to reducing your render times. Once you’ve rendered all your images, in order to be able to play them back and
develop the story line that was formed in the pre production planning stage, you’ll need to assemble the sequences together into a completed
production. This is accomplished both inside of 3ds Max and outside using a program like Autodesk composite to add animation layers to the
final production. This aspect of production is probably the most difficult to really get a good understanding of. If you study feature film and
animation you’ll notice that editing is critical to the success of the film. In order to make your final production one that people will want to watch again
and again it’s good to learn some of the techniques used in feature film production. By