3D Studio MAX R3

Table of contents

CHAPTER 1: CUSTOMIZING MAX RELEASE 3: Creating customized menus, icons and floaters (for new MAX Release 3 users), the Macro-recorder Function

CHAPTER 2: LIGHTING BASICS REVISITED: A studio setup -- key lighting, fill lighting, and rim lighting; lighting a room interior: duplicating radiosity effects

CHAPTER 3: CREATING REALISTIC MATERIALS: A PRIMER: Natural and industrial materials creation; creating your own realistic materials

CHAPTER 4: MAX RELEASE 3?S NEW RENDERING AND ANTIALIASING MODES: Using MAX?s new AA filters and Supersampling. Models include a high-res ?retro-futuristic? room interior

CHAPTER 5: MATERIALS, PART I: PHONG, BLINN AND METAL: Creating realistic metals by using custom bitmaps; creating realistic metals by blending different shading types

CHAPTER 6: MATERIALS, PART II: FALLOFF AND REFLECTION MAPS: Refining reflective metal textures with MAX Release 3?s new Falloff Map features; creating custom materials with Falloff, including Iridescence, X-Ray and Pearlescent effects. Models include a room interior with vase, a robot hand, and a high-res human skull

CHAPTER 7: MATERIALS, PART III: OREN-NAYER-BLINN AND MULTI-LAYER: MAX Release 3?s new shading types, and creating ?rocky? surfaces, both wet and dry; using Glossiness and Specular Strength Maps to create water dripping effects; creating ?car paint??realistic lacquered finishes using MAX Release 3?s Multi-layer material

CHAPTER 8: MATERIALS, PART IV: ANISOTROPIC, RGB MULTIPLY AND DISPLACEMENT: Creating enhanced materials with the Anisotropic shader and the Multi-layer map; punching up your material saturation with RGB Multiply; using Displacement on polygonal geometry. Models include a futuristic sports car and architectural displacement maps

CHAPTER 9: ANIMATED MATERIALS AND OPTICAL EFFECTS, PART I: Disintegration effects: using the Cellular map and Blend materials to create lightning; creating glowing edges with Noise Masks and Maps; creating and using animated opacity maps to ?eat away? your geometry

CHAPTER 10: ANIMATED MATERIALS AND OPTICAL EFFECTS, PART II: A ?deconstruct the effect? chapter for MAX Release 3 beginners; a breakdown of an explosion sequence; creating an exploding asteroid with Particle Array to create glowing chunks of debris

CHAPTER 11: BENDING LIGHT: EFFECTIVE RAYTRACING TECHNIQUES: Introducing MAX?s raytracing Map and Material type; creating realistic reflections and refractions; creating metals, glass, translucency, fluorescence, and rubber effects

CHAPTER 12: MESHSMOOTH, PART I: POLYGONAL MODELING: Using MAX?s MeshSmooth modifier to build a futuristic fighter plane. Rocket plane model included on CD-ROM

CHAPTER 13: MESHSMOOTH, PART II: NURMS, SKIN AND FLEX: Using a cartoony dragon head model to demonstrate MeshSmooth?s NURMS features; animating the Dragon head using the Skin modifier; adding supplementary animation via the Flex modifier. Dragon head and body models included on CD-ROM

CHAPTER 14: THE MORPHER CONTROLLER: Creating simple facial animation with MAX Release 3?s new Morpher modifier; pose-to-pose and weighted target morphing

CHAPTER 15: SPLINE MODELING WITH SURFACE TOOLS: Creating an SR-71 spy plane model and an alien head, by using drawn templates and Release 3?s Surface Tools features. Final SR-71 and alien head models included on CD-ROM

CHAPTER 16: AN INTRODUCTION TO MAXSCRIPT, RELEASE 3: Introducing MAXScript for new artists; creating script interfaces for specific tasks

CHAPTER 17: A MAXSCRIPT GRAB-BAG: Using MAXScript utilities, including Flip Normals, Unify Normals, Multi-Modifiers, List Objects, Camera Info, Light Info, Batch Rendering, Poly Data Export, and SRT (Scale, Rotation, Translation) Export (all included on CD-ROM)

CHAPTER 18: FUN WITH PLUGINS: BLUR, TERRAIN AND GREEBLE 1.5: Using Tom Hudson?s Greeble 1.5 plug-in (revised and updated for MAX Release 3); creating heat distortion effects using Johnny Ow?s Blur plug-in; creating landscapes using Johnny Ow?s Terrain material. Greeble 1.5, Blur and Terrain (plug-ins for Release 3 only) included

THE CD-ROM

The CD-ROM contains almost 600 megabytes worth of data ? all the scene files and texture maps needed for each of the book?s tutorials, as well as 250 megabytes of new textures, models from both the 3D Studio MAX f/x: Creating Hollywood-Style Special Effects and 3D Studio MAX R2.5 f/x and Design books, and bonus special effects scenes.