Post Description

Description 
Need to solve problems quickly to develop creative projects within your time and budget? Want to hone your 3ds Max skills so you can concentrate on your modeling, lighting, texturing, and animation? Then How to Cheat in 3ds Max is for you! Michele Bousquet shows how to work from the problem to the solution - from the viewpoint of a CG artist who has been commissioned to create a job and is working to a deadline. With her in-depth knowledge of the little-known secrets used by the pros to produce creative, professional artwork and animation, Michele is THE go-to guru for designers and animators who want to create great effects fast. This accessible, practical book and CD package is such a goldmine of artistic inspiration, timesaving practical tips, tricks and step-by-step workthroughs that you'll wonder how you survived without it. Written for 3ds Max 2009 and backwards compatible with 3ds Max 2008.

Audience 
Computer graphic (CG) artists including animators, 3d artists, game designers, motion graphics artists, and broadcast designers, web artists, compositors and visual effects artists working on video and film-based productions. Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Contents 
How to Cheat in 3ds max Outline by Michele Bousquet Introduction Memory hogs - shadows, polygons, refraction Seven tools you will need to know Logo Treatments Reflective surface Video screen with animation or video on it Video image then turn to the side to show 3D logo Hiding something against the background (camera map) Shadow with white background (matte shadow surface) Animation Bouncing Ball Squash n stretch popping onto the screen (staggers) Animated shapemerge slice (for pump) Animating to music and sfx and VO Random Wiggle (Noise constraint) Perspective trick (change FOV and zoom at same time) Affect Region (ball on trampoline) Linked XForm (ball on trampoline) Path Deform WSM as opposed to OSM Architectural Quickie fly-through Putting people in it Trees - different levels of detail Cheap Shadows - negative light, projection shadows Dissolve from live photos to 3D 2D picture becomes cardboard cutouts Grass from Hair Character Animation Reference images Basic Rules for Polygons MeshSmooth, TurboSmooth, and Polygons Quick Character Fit Characters - no feet if possible - Making a person look like they're walking from the waist up by making the trajectory go up and down Changing a freebie character to suit you Quick facial animation with 2D images Bullet time Crowds - Random scripts Special Effects Smoke Still water Running water Spraying water Fire Dust Materials Making a stripe from a checker map All kinds of procedural map tricks (cover XYZ mapping) Bump mapping for all kinds of cheats