[coconutmonkey]

I've been working with 3d studio for about a year now, 3d cafe is great but doesnt tell the absolute basics like you said, hmmm a good line of books are the Inside 3d Studio MAX books, they have ones on animation basics and advanced modeling techniques. If you have any BIG questions just ask i could probably help.

[Beast1284]

well just messin around i can do some basic shapes...

a souple questions might be like how you add backgrounds or backdrops, and how to add textures...

probably too long to explain here but thanx for the response

[coconutmonkey]

It took me forever to figure those out but here it goes:

To have a background go into material editor and click a sphere then go down to diffuse and click the blank square then select bitmap, now go and select your image you want as your background. Ok...now go to the top of your current panel you're in (the one for bitmap) and click on envir then in the drop down list choose screen. Go to rendering-enviroment (at the top of screen)now where it says enviroment map click on that then click on material editor circle on the left now choose your bitmap! render and whamo!

textures are a little harder, are you wanting to put a bitmap on a model like a skin or just know how to put your texture/color on a certian object?

[Beast1284]

i will try a bacground in a minute but as for the textures, i would like to know how to do both you explained

thanx a lot fo rthe help

[coconutmonkey]

ok here we go

lets say you have a uh...box and you want to put a wood texture on the box, well you do exactly what i said before to load a bitmap as a material except you dont make it an enviroment map, ok make your box and add the modifier UVW MAP, select box mapping, now drag that sphere to your box and there ya go. when you get to more complicated objects you have to use other types of mapping and the modifier unwrap UVW

[Beast1284]

WOW talk about a crash course...

hehe thanx a lot for all your help

[Guy]

well ive been using it for 4 years now.

im guessing you didnt get the "legal" version, because the books that come with it have all that info. im sure there must be some books that have that info.

my advice, just explore the program. get to know it, so what if your stuff doesnt have that "toy story" quality to it at first. just take it a step at a time. get used to working it 3d. then learn how to do effective lighting and materials. takes time.

ive been done 3d stuff for 4-5 years and theres still a lot i can learn.

but ill try my best to show you where you can get backgrounds.

first. go up to "rendering"

then go down to "evironment"

a window should pop up. at the top you see the background properties. theres "colour" and "Environment map"

if you just simply want to change the background colour, just click the black box and change it to whatever you want, but if you want to change it into an image, then click on the box that says "none"

another window should pop up. its the "material/map browser", now if you have any materials that came with your copy you should see a list of them, if not. i would suggest putting the images you want, into your "map" folder in you Max directory

once you've selected your material. and clicked on "ok" and all that stuff. the name of the material you picked should be displayed in the box where it had said "none" before. now all you have to do is render it.

there are more and better ways of doing this, but id have to go into more detail, plus i cant post any pics to help show you better. hope that helps somewhat.

[Guy]

damn some one beat me to it :P

oh well

[Beast1284]

i guess you could say that it is a legal version...

i guess you could say i "borrowed" it from school..

shhhhhh dont tell....

hehe

[coconutmonkey]

Guy, i started on 3d Studio VIZ at school in my drafting class it was the educational version which meant no help files no books no documentation what so ever soo...doesnt have to be illegal to not have documentation

[Guy]

my highschool has the education version.. they had all the books and everything. i think you got jipped.

the thing with the educational version is that your not alowed(sp?) to do comercial work with it. you should still get all the books... it is for education purposes. one would think in order to learn the program, that you would need the books.

and what i ment by when i said "the legal version", is. is it pirated.

[blup]

Get a book, 3dsmax 3 fundamentals from new riders should do the trick.

[coconutmonkey]

i dont think we got a book w/ viz although we did get one big ass book for Autocad R14

[Beast1284]

i havent found any tutorials yet that are for EXTREME beginners...

i have looked at 3dcafe and a few others but havent had any luck...

can someone post come links?