How to cheat in 3DS Max 2009: get spectacular results fast (Volume in the how to cheat in series) with CD-ROM

Need to get results with 3ds max fast? Why take months to learn every button in 3ds max when you can create great visuals with just a few key tools? Learn to create quick yet stunning logo treatments, special effects, and animated characters with the fastest techniques possible. Need convincing grass, trees, water, shadows? You can use the memory-hogging methods that choke your display and take forever to render, or you can get it done bing-bang with this book. When you need an animated character you can spend days fiddling with polygons, or you can use this book to put it together in minutes and get the entire project done in a day. How to Cheat in 3ds max includes a host of time-saving techniques as well as little-known tools that will make you look like an expert in no time flat. This book is for busy professionals who need to get it done right, but also need it done fast. The CD includes scene files and bitmaps used to illustrate the cheats. Also potentially Camtasia (video) files showing some of the trickier techniques that are better explained visually than on paper. Music files, organizational samples (i.e. dope sheets) or other files that are referred to in the book.-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.

How to Cheat in 3ds max. IntroductionMemory 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 in stretch popping onto the screen (staggers). Animated shapemerge slice (for pump). Animating to music and sfx and VORandom 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 OSMArchitectural. 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.

Computer graphic (CG) artists including animators, 3d artists, game designers, motion graphics artists, and broadcast designers, web artists, compositors and visual effects artists working on video and film-based productions.

Level: Intermediate to Advanced