How to Cheat in 3ds Max 2009: Get Spectacular Results Fast,

Description

Need to solve problems quickly to develop creative projects within your time and budget? Want to hone your 3ds Max skills so you can concentrate on your modeling, lighting, texturing, and animation? Then How to Cheat in 3ds Max is for you! Michele Bousquet shows how to work from the problem to the solution - from the viewpoint of a CG artist who has been commissioned to create a job and is working to a deadline.

With her in-depth knowledge of the little-known secrets used by the pros to produce creative, professional artwork and animation, Michele is THE go-to guru for designers and animators who want to create great effects fast.

This accessible, practical book and CD package is such a goldmine of artistic inspiration, timesaving practical tips, tricks and step-by-step workthroughs that you'll wonder how you survived without it. Written for 3ds Max 2009 and backwards compatible with 3ds Max 2008.

-Author is well-respected Max authority - she shares her secrets on little-known tools that save a bundle of time

-Concise, step by step, focused, examples with everything on CD so that artists and designers can start toying right away.

-New title in proven How to Cheat series: solution-oriented, quick results.

-No need to learn the entire program to look like a pro - info is quick, task-oriented, with real-life creative solutions.

CONTENTS:

How to Cheat in 3ds max
Outline by Michele Bousquet

Introduction
Memory hogs - shadows, polygons, refraction
Seven tools you will need to know

Logo Treatments
Reflective surface
Video screen with animation or video on it
Video image then turn to the side to show 3D logo
Hiding something against the background (camera map)
Shadow with white background (matte shadow surface)

Animation
Bouncing Ball
Squash n stretch popping onto the screen (staggers)
Animated shapemerge slice (for pump)
Animating to music and sfx and VO
Random Wiggle (Noise constraint)
Perspective trick (change FOV and zoom at same time)
Affect Region (ball on trampoline)
Linked XForm (ball on trampoline)
Path Deform WSM as opposed to OSM

Architectural
Quickie fly-through
   Putting people in it
   Trees - different levels of detail
  Cheap Shadows - negative light, projection shadows
Dissolve from live photos to 3D
2D picture becomes cardboard cutouts
Grass from Hair

Character Animation
Reference images
Basic Rules for Polygons
MeshSmooth, TurboSmooth, and Polygons
Quick Character Fit
Characters - no feet if possible - Making a person look like they're walking from the waist up by making the trajectory go up and down
Changing a freebie character to suit you
Quick facial animation with 2D images
Bullet time
Crowds - Random scripts

Special Effects
Smoke
Still water
Running water
Spraying water
Fire
Dust

Materials
Making a stripe from a checker map
All kinds of procedural map tricks (cover XYZ mapping)
Bump mapping for all kinds of cheats