15 Tips and Trick for 3Ds Max

[heartscool]

Tip 1

Did you know that "architectural materials" and "self illuminated" materials are light emitting (for Mental Ray & Vray) ? If you apply them on a box you will get a similar effect as a "photometric area light" or a "Vray light".

Tip 2

Try to use always soft shadows in your renderings if possible. Hard shadows are looking always very fake. In "Mr Omni/Spot" scale the size of the light in the area light parameters (mental ray).

 

In Mental Ray you have to use the "RAYTRACED shadows" !

 

In Vray enable in the Omni/Spot the "area shadow" and scale the size of the light. Soft shadows will take more render time !

Tip 3

To have perfect shadows it is necessary to create all objects with real dimensions.

Tip 4

How to decrease render time for test-renderings:

 

a) The main setting to decrease the render time is the image size. Normally I use 150x112 pixels as size. It is too small to see the object's details but it’s perfect to understand the light conditions.

 

b) Lower the Shadow quality !

 

c) Reduce the polygon number of the objects (try to use the optimize modifier if you don't have any mesh smooth modifier on the objects)!

 

d) Reduce the photon number or/and the "sample" settings in the render engines. Vray/MentalRay/Brazil RS/FinalRender/ etc.

 

e) Be careful with the amount of lights (too many lights will make the rendering very slow)!

Tip 5

Do not use editable MESH but ALWAYS editable "POLY".

 

Editable Poly is optimized for advanced modeling , creates less errors than editable mesh and has many more settings than editable mesh.

 

If you were working on a object with editable mesh , you can without problems convert it into an editable Poly object.

Tip 6

Instead to mesh smooth a box, use from the "extended primitives" a "chamfer box"... the result is the same, but the chamfer box" has less polygons !

Tip 7

Sometimes all your Vertexes disappear during modeling of an object. To fix this bug try this options:

 

a) Convert your object again to an editable poly.

b) Convert your object to an editable mesh and then to an editable poly.

c) Save the file, Exit from 3Ds max and open again the file.

d) Save the file, Exit from 3Ds max and merge the object in a new file.

Tip 8

The best light to create Highlights is the Omni light (or MR Omni).

Tip 9

Do not use "area shadows" in Mental Ray, they are very slow and not optimized for Mental Ray.

 

The best/fastest result is visible when you use Raytrace shadows.

 

If you are working with the "light-tracer" than you can use "area shadows". The result is the same as in MentalRay with Raytrace shadows.

Tip 10

(For beginners) When you are working sometimes you can't anymore move your object.

 

Probably you have pressed the key X. Press again X to enable the move tool (GIZMO).

 

Similar problem: You can select only one object, all other objects can't be selected anymore: probably you have pressed SPACE and locked the object. Press again SPACE to unlock it.

 

Tip 11

When you create a "loft" object it can happen that the end or beginning of the object has an error.

 

To fix the problem you should choose "CORNER" vertex on the first and last vertex of your spline.

Tip 12

Download ALWAYS the last service-pack for your 3Ds Max version. It will fix important bugs.

Tip 13

There can be only 2 mistakes when your extruded (spline + extrude modifier) object has an error:

 

a) you have overlapping segments in your spline.

 

b) the shape is not closed-check where you did not weld the vertexes.

Tip 14

If you use splines to create shapes, try to use a very small number of vertexes.

 

If you convert the vertexes in smooth/bezier/bezier-corner you can create very organic and round shapes without a too high number of vertexes (same tip for loft in deformations-scale-panel).

Tip 15

If your interface/panel disappeared you have this options to fix the problem:

 

a.) Maybe You are in the "expert" mode...press CTR+x...

b.) Customize > Customize User Interface > Toolbars Tab > Reset!

c.) "Start" button on windows > Autodesk > 3Ds Max > change graphics mode !

d.) There should be a 3dsmax.ini file in ur max folder...delete it and start 3Ds Max again...

e.) Customize > load custom UI scheme.

[JonRashid]

Some good tips there. However I will stand up and defend edit mesh. As a veteran of 3DS max I don't usually use edit poly except on occasion, but to dispense with edit mesh seems a bit hard. I have produced many game assets with edit mesh and they have to be the most demanding platform. Never had a problem with edit mesh, the errors aren't caused by the modifier but the user.

[Professor]

Tip 7 - Also, go into Customize-Preferences-Viewports and change the "Show Vertices as Dots" Size and/or Handle to a different number. This usually works for me.

[BrianKitts]

A few good tips in there, but a few are incorrect or misleading.

 

I agree with the editable mesh comment. It should be noted that the editable mesh creates a smaller file size than the exact same geometry as an editable poly. For proof...... I created 150 teapots with 12 segments, the file as editable mesh saved out to about 60MB, converted to editable poly the exact same file was almost 100MB.

 

Editable poly has some great tools, but when you're done with your edits... convert it back to an editable mesh.

 

Keep in mind that at render time all objects are converted down to their raw mesh, basically the equivillant to collapsing any modifier stacks and converting objects to mesh. So if you keep all your objects as editable mesh, that's one less step at render time. (ever see the long pause where it's "calculating vertex's" at render time?) ..... which leads to the next point.....

 

An editable spline using bezier handles doesn't necessarily lead to less vertices. It all depends on the interpolation value of the spline. if it's high you'll end up with more vertices in the object as a mesh at rendertime which will require more ram. It's less vertices in the spline, but that's not what really matters.

 

Also it should be mentioned that the best lighting practices are to use the lighting for the engine you are using. Omni isn't the best solution if you're using Vray. Vray and MR lights are optimized to work with their own engines, so it's always a better bet to use the lights that match your rendering engine. (and that also goes for material types)

Edited June 29, 2010 by BrianKitts

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

(ever see the long pause where it's "calculating vertex's" at render time?) ..... which leads to the next point.....

 

Hmmm... never thought about it like that before.

[BrianKitts]

yup..... my mistake though it actually says "transforming vertices" ..... just checked, I was speaking from memory and was wrong, but you get the point

[Dave Buckley]

Doesn't tip 9 contradict tip 2?

 

With regards to edit mesh/poly debate. I agree but some instances where imported geometry comes through as an edit mesh can go horribly wrong if you convert to poly