March 10, 2020
Learn how to create procedural content tools in the Bifrost Graph
Explore the Bifrost graph, a powerful new procedural content creation framework from Autodesk. Instructor Aaron Ross covers the Bifrost Extension, a free Maya plugin for creating tools to accelerate almost every aspect of 3D production. Using the Bifrost visual programming environment, artists and technical directors in all 3D disciplines can automate complex processes and generate assets without writing a single line of code.
Learning objectives:
Core concepts of proceduralism
How Bifrost integrates with Maya
Navigating the Bifrost Graph
Loading example graphs from the Bifrost Browser
Simulating atmospheres and combustion with the Aero solver
Building a graph from scratch
Deforming polygon geometry
Using Bifrost in production
Assigning materials
Converting a Bifrost shape to a Maya shape
Caching a simulation to disk
Rendering an atmosphere in Arnold
December 18, 2019
Learn how to shade, light, and render with the Arnold renderer in Maya
Arnold is the high-quality rendering engine in Maya. Realistic rendering is easier than ever with this brute force Monte Carlo ray tracer. Arnold’s physically-based rendering accurately simulates light in the real world, but allows breaking physical laws to achieve artistic styles. This course is an overview of Arnold’s core features for lighting, materials, and rendering in Maya using Arnold core version 6.
Learning objectives:
Arnold rendering concepts
Lighting with Maya and Arnold lights
Controlling exposure
Light attenuation with Decay
Image-based lighting with Skydome
Daylight simulation with Physical Sky
Arnold Standard Surface material attributes
Mapping material attributes
Rendering refractions with Transmission
Mesh Subdivision and Displacement at render time
Shading effects such as Ambient Occlusion and Vertex Color
Camera effects such as Fisheye and Depth of Field
Animation image sequence rendering
3ds Max: Rendering with Arnold (2020)
November 15, 2019
Learn how to shade, light, and render with the Arnold renderer in 3ds Max
Arnold is the high-quality rendering engine in 3ds Max. Realistic rendering is easier than ever with this brute force Monte Carlo ray tracer. Arnold’s physically-based rendering accurately simulates light in the real world, but allows breaking physical laws to achieve artistic styles. This course is an overview of Arnold’s core features for lighting, materials, and rendering in 3ds Max.
Learning objectives:
Arnold rendering concepts
Controlling Sample Quality and Ray Depth
Rendering on an NVIDIA GPU
Arnold lights such as Quad, Spot, and Distant
Modifying Arnold object properties
Image-based lighting
Daylight simulation with Physical Sky
Arnold Standard Surface material parameters
Diffuse, opacity, and bump mapping
Rendering refractions with Transmission
Building an Arnold shading network
Test rendering with Utility Map
Mesh Subdivision and Displacement at render time
Rendering a spherical environment
September 23, 2019
Learn to render professional quality product shots in Maya
3D visualization is a crucial aspect of 21st century product design, manufacturing, and marketing. Autodesk Maya is an ideal tool for bringing product designs to the screen and print media. The deep and powerful feature set of Maya provides almost limitless potential for effective and imaginative product visualization. This course illustrates a standard workflow for product viz, from importing a CAD model to rendering photorealistic imagery. We'll leverage the advanced tools of Maya and the Arnold renderer to bring product designs to life in the production phases of scene layout, materials, lighting, and rendering. Then we'll employ Adobe After Effects to composite and adjust render passes, giving us the ability to art-direct lighting without needing to re-render in 3D. The combination of Maya and After Effects empowers artists and designers to render product visualizations with greater efficiency, flexibility, and creativity than ever before.
Learning objectives:
Importing a CAD model
Laying out the scene
Framing a camera shot
Physically-based materials
UV projection and file textures
Layering materials
Image-based lighting with an environment map
Flood lighting with Area lights
Studio lighting with Spot and Point lights
Light decay and exclusion
AOV component render passes
Optimizing Arnold render settings
Layering render components in After Effects
Rendering a technical illustration
August 20, 2019
Learn to render professional quality product shots in 3ds Max
3D visualization is a crucial aspect of 21st century product design, manufacturing, and marketing. Autodesk 3ds Max is an ideal tool for bringing product designs to the screen and print media. The deep and powerful feature set of 3ds Max provides almost limitless potential for effective and imaginative product visualization. This course illustrates a standard workflow for product viz, from importing a CAD model to rendering photorealistic imagery. We'll leverage the advanced tools of 3ds Max and the Arnold renderer to bring product designs to life in the production phases of scene layout, materials, lighting, and rendering. Then we'll employ Adobe After Effects to composite and adjust render passes, giving us the ability to art-direct lighting without needing to re-render in 3D. The combination of 3ds Max and After Effects empowers artists and designers to render product visualizations with greater efficiency, flexibility, and creativity than ever before.
Learning objectives:
Importing a CAD model
Laying out the scene
Saving and loading Xrefs
Camera framing and exposure
Physically-based materials
Procedural textures
Image-based lighting with an environment map
Flood lighting with Area lights
Studio lighting with Spot and Point lights
Light decay and exclusion
AOV component render passes
Optimizing Arnold render settings
Layering render components in After Effects
Rendering a technical illustration
May 17, 2019
Learn the basic foundations of 3ds Max 2020
Known for its versatility and ease of use, 3ds Max is a leading digital content creation package. Whether you're visualizing computer aided designs, building game assets, or animating motion pictures, 3ds Max has the power and flexibility to meet the creative needs of your production. Learn to leverage the strengths of 3ds Max in modeling, animation, and rendering in this introductory training course. Author Aaron F. Ross leads you through the basics of the interface, core concepts, and techniques. After completing this course, you'll have a firm foundation upon which to build further skills in 3ds Max.
Learning objectives:
Application workspace and preferences
Navigating in viewports
Modeling with primitives and modifiers
Editable Poly modeling tools
Lighting with photometrics and daylight
Shading surfaces with materials
Mapping textures
Scene organization with Layers and Groups
Linking objects in hierarchies
Creating keyframes
Editing animation function curves
Rendering an image sequence
3ds Max: Tips, Tricks, and Techniques weekly series
June 19, 2017
3ds Max is a powerful, deep, and multifaceted program, so there's always more to learn. This weekly series aims to keep you on top of the latest tools and techniques, and introduces fresh perspectives on traditional methods for architectural and product visualization, animation, visual effects, games and virtual worlds, and motion graphics.
Instructor Aaron F. Ross presents a new topic every week, spanning the full range of 3D graphics tasks, including modeling, rigging and animation, shading and lighting, camera operation, and rendering. He gives special attention to streamlining workflows, such as automation of time-consuming tasks, so your productions run more smoothly and efficiently. Come back every Wednesday for a new tutorial to expand your 3ds Max knowledge and skills.
3ds Max 2020 Essential Training
March 27, 2019
Learn the key features and techniques of 3ds Max 2020
3ds Max is best known for its modeling and rendering tools. These strengths come into play in architecture, manufacturing, game development, industrial design, and motion graphics. There are dozens of features and techniques to master, from sculpting and texturing to lighting and rendering. This course covers 3ds Max from the ground up, providing an overview of the entire package, as well as essential skills that 3D artists need to create professional models and animations. Learn how to get around the 3ds Max interface and customize it to suit your preferences. Discover how to model different objects using splines, polygons, subdivision surfaces, and freeform modeling. Instructor Aaron F. Ross also shows how to construct hierarchies, add cameras and lights, animate with keyframes, and more.
Learning objectives:
Customizing the interface
Duplicating and collecting objects
Modeling with splines
Parametric modeling with modifiers
Polygon and subdivision surface modeling
Freeform modeling
Framing shots with cameras
Daylight and artificial lighting
Building materials
Mapping textures
Linking objects in hierarchies
Creating and editing keyframes
Rendering an image sequence
3ds Max 2019: Advanced Lighting
December 18, 2018
Learn advanced lighting techniques for 3ds Max 2019 and Arnold 5
Realistic lighting is easier, faster, and better than ever in 3ds Max. Photometric lighting and a choice of rendering options gives you the power to create a convincing illusion. This course focuses on architectural visualization, but the techniques apply to other domains such as motion picture production. Author Aaron F. Ross provides a conceptual overview of advanced lighting and rendering, then demonstrates how to construct various lighting scenarios in 3ds Max. You'll see how to render scenes with exterior and interior daylight, practical artificial lighting, and manufacturer photometric data. The course includes a chapter on special effects such as light decay and atmospheres. By the end of the course, you’ll have seen how to control the powerful lighting tools in 3ds Max to achieve photorealistic results.
Topics include:
Physical lighting and gamma correction
High dynamic range and exposure control
Global illumination
Exterior daylight
Image-based lighting
Advanced environment options
Geometric backdrops and material emission
Interior daylight
Importing photometric data
Studio lighting
Spot light image projection
Atmospheric effects
3ds Max 2019: Advanced Materials
December 18, 2018
Learn advanced material techniques for 3ds Max 2019
Physically-based rendering (PBR) simulates the way light works in the real world. It achieves greater realism with less effort than traditional 3D rendering. This course is updated for 3ds Max 2019, and focuses on PBR shading techniques. The Physical Material simulates surfaces such as stone, glass, and metal. Author Aaron F. Ross also looks at building shading networks, and combining and adjusting maps in interesting ways. Procedural maps such as Substance deserve special attention, and you'll also see how to bake them out to bitmap files for cross-application and renderer compatibility. By the end of the course, you'll have a firm foundation in advanced shading workflows in 3ds Max.
Topics include:
Streamlining material editor workflow
Managing assets
Referencing materials with Xrefs
Rendering the Physical Material
Controlling highlights with Roughness
Directing reflections and refractions
Simulating translucency and scattering
Building a shading network
Combining and color correcting maps
Baking maps with Render to Texture
Procedural mapping
Using relief maps: bump, normal, and displacement
Product and Architectural Visualization Techniques
April 24, 2018
Learn the essential techniques to present computer aided designs in print, video, and the web.
CAD has revolutionized the design process, and computer graphics empowers designers and artists to visualize their work in ways never before possible. Design visualization applies to many different fields, including architecture and interior design, manufacturing, engineering, science, media, and entertainment. In this course, you'll learn the core concepts and methods for presenting computer aided designs in their best light. We'll take an overview of aesthetic and technical best practices for visualizing 3D designs in print, video, and the web. The course covers general techniques of computer graphic imaging relevant to design visualization, including lighting, virtual photography, image manipulation, and animation. You'll see how to present 3D models effectively and with aesthetic appeal, helping your designs stand out in presentations, reviews, marketing or advertising materials.
Topics include:
Choosing a visualization app
Managing assets
Shading with materials and textures
Daylighting, practical lighting, and studio lighting
Lightbox and macro photography
Vehicles and large scale objects
Architecture and interior design
Technical illustrations
Rendering passes and light groups
Rendering for print, prepress and broadcast
Animating turntables and orbits
Rigging and animating a walkthrough
See earlier posts...