In 3ds Max 2011 Essential Training, author Aaron F. Ross demonstrates how to use this top-tier application for digital content creation, widely used in diverse industries such as architecture, industrial design, motion pictures, games and virtual worlds. This course covers modeling with polygons, curves, and subdivision surfaces, defining surface properties with materials and maps, setting up cameras and lights, animating objects, and final output rendering. Exercise files accompany the course.

Course Topics:

• Getting familiar with the 3ds Max interface.
• Creating shapes and splines.
• Modeling Loft objects.
• Creating motion graphics.
• Modeling with polygons and subdivisions.
• Modeling with NURBS.
• Shading objects with materials and maps.
• Setting up camera and scene layout.
• Lighting basic scenes.
• Animating objects with keyframes.
• Editing keyframes in the Curve Editor.
• Constructing and animating hierarchies.
• Using animation Constraints.
• Animating particle systems.
• Rendering animations to disk.