ResPower Education Center: 3ds Max, Part I - Rendering a Simple Scene

Overview

ResPower seeks to be an active member of the community of artists and programmers that develops and uses 3d software. To this end, we have decided to start a sort of journal through the process of learning each 3d application. These journals are intended to be a complete step-by-step record of the learning process for a person with no prior experience in the 3d computer graphics world. Each journal will build on the knowledge and experience gained in the previous journals, and will thus increase in complexity as time passes. This first journal will take you through the process of opening 3ds Max, and modeling and rendering a very simple scene.

A Simple Scene

The first step is to start up 3ds Max. I'll be using version 8 until further notice. Once it is open, you should get the default 4 views with perspective on the bottom right. On the right side of the screen, you should see a dropdown that says "Standard Primitives" with some extra stuff below that, something like the image to the right. We are going to create a box, so go ahead and click the button that says "Box". It will turn yellow, and you will see some more options appear below.

After you select the box button, move your cursor into the persective view and get ready to draw your first primitive in 3ds Max. Move the cursor to a point on the grid where you want one corner of the bottom of your box to be. Now, left click the mouse and hold it down. Drag the cursor to wherever you want the other corner to be, and you will notice a rectangle is drawn in between the two points you are defining. When you are satisfied with the "base" of your box, let go of the left mouse button. Now move your cursor up and down to define the height of the box. Once you are satisfied, left click the mouse to finalize. Congratulations, you made a box. Mine looks like the image to the left in the perspective view inside 3ds Max.

Your box may not look exactly like mine. The size will almost definitely be different, and the color may as well. 3ds Max automatically assigns a base color to all primitives you add into a scene so that they can be easily identified. This color can be changed at any time, so let's do that and make another small improvemt.

Organization

With just one simple object in your scene, keeping track of what's what is no issue. But as your scene grows in complexity it becomes of vital importance to be able to look at a list of names and be able to tell which name corresponds to which object. 3ds Max assigns names automatically to all objects, but they are generic and rarely of much use. We will now change the name and color of the box we just created.

At the top of the screen, you should see several tools for maniputing objects. Select the "Select Object" tool so that it is highlighted yellow and looks like the image to the right. Now, move back into your scene and select your box by left clicking on it. You will see white corner lines and an axis pop up on your box.

With your box selected, look again at the right side of the screen to see the name and color that 3ds Max automatically assigned to your object. To change the name, simply delete the name in the text input and type a more appropriate name. To change the color, click the color swatch and select a new color. An example is provided in the image to the right.

Render

3ds Max has dozens of options for rendering but we will save those for later. For now, make sure the "Perspective" view is selected. It should be highlighted with a yellow rim, but if it is not, simply right click inside the Perspective view to select it. Now you need to find a small button in the upper right portion of the screen. It looks like a teapot with a small arrow just below it and to the right, and it is pictured to the left. If you hover over this button, a tooltip that says "Quick Render (Production)" pops up. Select this button to start a render. A window much like the one to the right will pop up after a few seconds with your beautiful box. Congratulations.

Conclusion

This has been an admittedly simple introduction to 3ds Max. There is nothing in this journal entry that your average individual could not figure out with a few minutes of experimentation with 3ds Max, but this provides a base on which to build with future entries. Thanks for reading, and check back for new entries very soon.

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