Book Image

3ds Max Speed Modeling for 3D Artists

By : Thomas Mooney
Book Image

3ds Max Speed Modeling for 3D Artists

By: Thomas Mooney

Overview of this book

Production of 3D art is an exciting medium, but the task of modeling requires intense attention to detail, so speed and efficiency are vital. This book breaks down speed modeling workflow in 3ds Max into stages you can easily achieve, with a focus on hard surface modeling and methods you can apply to your own designs."3ds Max Speed Modeling for 3D Artists" will help level up your 3D modeling skills. It focuses on hard surface modeling, and shows the range of tools and techniques in 3ds Max 2013.This book shows content creation methods aimed at 3ds Max modelers preparing to show their skill to the industry. The key feature of modeling that artists must exhibit is speediness while preserving technical accuracy. The author helps you follow set project guidelines while pushing creativity and outlines the entire workflow from concept development to exporting a game-ready model.The book begins with introductions for new users to the interface and modeling tools, and progresses to topics aimed at users already familiar with 3ds Max, who want to improve their content creation process. You'll also see ways 3ds Max content is used with other applications, like sculpting software and game editors, and learn features of speed modeling, efficient workflow, re-use of content, and tips on getting more done, more quickly.By the end of this book you will have learned key topics in modeling, ready to face professional level work with elan.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
3ds Max Speed Modeling for 3D Artists
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Testing the animation and making a preview


This isn't a book about animation, but once you add an Absolute animation layer

to the CAT Layer Manager rollout in the Motion panel, and press N to turn on the Autokey mode, you can readily start setting key poses at different frames in the timeline; you'll find it's not hard to get underway.

The provided \Packt3dsMax\Chapter 10\Creature_Walk.max scene shows the skinned model ambling along in a 40 frame loop, and even with the medium-resolution creature model the playback is pretty nice. The model in the provided scene has the Turn to gPoly modifier added to it, below the Skin modifier, which doubles the frame rate for playback.

Still, playback in the viewport is subject to the performance of the computer you're using, and you will want to be able to at least view the real-time playback via a preview. In the viewport, go to the + label and from the drop-down list select Create Preview | Create Animated Sequence File.... In the dialog that pops up...