Advanced to Expert 3ds Max book

[Brian Smith]

Hi everyone,

As some of you may know, 3DATS is in the planning stages of creating an Advanced to Expert level 3ds Max book to compliment the other two recent printings. In June, I posted a thread asking for help in picking topics suitable for such a book and got a lot of great replies. Thanks to everyone that replied. Below is a list of topics that we developed with the help of the thread and we are asking for final comments/input/suggestions before moving forward. There will be approximately 25 topics with a chapter of about 20 pages dedicated to each. The chapters will be self-contained, meaning that they will not require the reader to read in any particular order. They will also be the some of the most complex topics available. Some of the suggestions that were made may not be shown because they don't warrant an entire chapter, but they may still be incorporated into those listed. For example, proxies will be discussed in the chapter on 'Managing Large Scale Projects'. Also some of the comments from the previous thread are already discussed in one of the other two books. The table of contents from the other two books can be found at the following links.

 

http://3dats.com/images/3ds_Max_Book-1.pdf

http://3dats.com/images/3ds_Max_Book-2.pdf

 

Some time in the near future we will be advertising a ‘call for authors’ to help make this book a reality. If anyone is interested in being a part of this project, please check back sometime next week for more details and a look at the final list of the selected topics. In the meantime, we would love to hear thoughts on the list below. Thanks!

 

Creativity

• Composition
  
• Color Management
  
• Photography for Visualization
  

 

Materials

• Normal Mapping
  
• Advanced Unwrapping
  
• Material Shaders
  

 

Lighting

• Linear Work Flow
  
• Lighting Analysis
  
• Advanced mental ray techniques
  
• Advanced V-Ray techniques
  

 

Rendering

• Render to Texture
  
• Network Render Methods
  
• Render Elements
  
• Rendering Moving Objects
  

 

Animation

• Reactor
  
• Forces and Deflectors
  
• Particle Systems
  
• Rigging
  

 

Workflow

• Revit Integration
  
• Managing Large-scale Projects
  
• Systemic Workflow Problems
  

 

Post production

• Motion Capture
  
• Green Screening
  
• Compositing
  
• MAXScript
  

Edited November 7, 2008 by Brian Smith

[Ernest Burden III]

Below is a list of topics that we developed with the help of the thread and we are asking for final comments/input/suggestions before moving forward.

 

Brian

 

I confess that I never read the previous thread. Having a look at your list I do wonder about a few points:

 

What about 'camera mapping' and 'image-based modeling' (these can be the same thing or different things depending on method used).

 

And most importantly, what about 'knowing how to proceed'? Landing the project can be the easiest part. Knowing what methodology to employ actually come before anything on that list. You may mean to cover that with the 'managing large projects', of course, but being able to assess your project from the start and pick the right approach (for you/your skills/your business) is how you get off on the right foot. Or the wrong one.

 

On the other hand, the book is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to all aspects of creating arch-vis and running an arch-vis business. There is only so much you can effectively cover.

[Brian Smith]

Ernest,

Can you take a look at the attached pdf and tell me if this is what you are talking about. This is a few pages from the Intermediate to Advanced book.

[John Dollus]

I would put maxscripting as it's own section instead of a subset of post-production, greensceen process is part of compositing and would suggest an entire chapter on particles instead of lumping it in with animation as there is a lot more you can do with particles than just moving bits around (especially for an advanced level book). If the goal is leading someone to an expert level, I would remove some of those like normal mapping, network rendering methods and render elements as those are well covered in the help files.

I also think Ernest's points have been addressed in the two other books pretty well though camera mapping is a good one and though it's been covered through AU and DMVC before, it would be worth including for those who don't have access to those course notes.

[Brian Smith]

I would put maxscripting as it's own section instead of a subset of post-production

 

John,

We're not really sure where to put MAXScript but we know 1 chapter is all we want to dedicate to it...just don't have enough room for more. When you say a 'section', I'm not sure what you mean.

 

greensceen process is part of compositing

 

Green screening is a part of compositing, however, we have to maintain a fairly consistent chapter length. It wouldn't make sense to have almost all the chapters be around 25 pages in length and then one be close to 50 pages just because green screening is a tool that can fall under the heading of green screening. As I mentioned, each topic is a chapter of about 25 pages and each will be designed to be self contained.

 

would suggest an entire chapter on particles instead of lumping it in with animation as there is a lot more you can do with particles than just moving bits around (especially for an advanced level book)

 

again, each topic is a chapter...we already have particles as an entire chapter.

 

If the goal is leading someone to an expert level, I would remove some of those like normal mapping, network rendering methods and render elements as those are well covered in the help files.

 

well I would certainly love to hear what others think about this way, but i believe that very few people even at the advanced level know much at all about normal mapping. would love to know if others disagree. as far as network rendering and render elements being covered well in the help files, I would have to disagree big time on that one. if i thought much of anything were covered well in the help files (arch vis flavored or not) i never would have started writing anything. even if the technical side of it were covered, the intent is to talk about the things you would never find in help files, ie, how network rendering is handled in a real production environment. one of the most common questions we're asked in classes is, 'do you maintain all maps on each computer, or have one central sever that each computer accesses'. that is the sort of thing that we hear all the time from all skill levels.

 

I also think Ernest's points have been addressed in the two other books pretty well though camera mapping is a good one and though it's been covered through AU and DMVC before, it would be worth including for those who don't have access to those course notes.

 

I like the camera mapping thing also, but we can't let what has been discussed at past AU and DMVC conventions drive the content of a book.

[Billabong]

Hi Brian,

 

Just out of curiosity. Have you given any thought to instead of a book, make a complete DVD tutorial Series. The process would be a lot faster. Just a thought. IM not knocking books I have your intermediate to advanced one. I was just wondering if you thought about that

[Brian Smith]

Hi Brandon,

 

Yes, I wish I could, but unfortunately, it's not possible for me to do all by myself. The int/adv book was written in part by 9 people including myself and there is no way to create a video/dvd series with so many people involved. Especially when half of them don't speak English

[Billabong]

Completely understandable Brian

[John Dollus]

Well, it sounds like it will be a great book. Myself, I can't imagine more than a few pages on greenscreen methodology but i guess after doing this for so long, I take a lot for granted in that respect. I'm sure it will be very successful.

[Brian Smith]

Well, it sounds like it will be a great book. Myself, I can't imagine more than a few pages on greenscreen methodology but i guess after doing this for so long, I take a lot for granted in that respect. I'm sure it will be very successful.

 

well that's the kind of opinion i'm trying to find out...if a chapter on greenscreening is justified.

[John Dollus]

you know, I was thinking about this on the drive in this morning and the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. After all, others have spent 700 pages describing how to create a rendering of a simple house so 25 pages on greenscreen technique is probably about right.

[Brian Smith]

you know, I was thinking about this on the drive in this morning and the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. After all, others have spent 700 pages describing how to create a rendering of a simple house so 25 pages on greenscreen technique is probably about right.

 

ha ha...are you referring to your old company's incredibly, insanely, over-the-top large book on building a house in 3D with ArchiCAD (I think it was)? I came across it in my attic a few weeks ago as I was cleaning the house.

[John Dollus]

I thought you'd get a kick out of that.