8

4 Chapter 1: Getting Started with 3ds Max
controllers, or edit motion curves for your
animated effects. The Lip Sync tutorial covers
Track View usa ge.
Rendering
Rendering adds color a nd shading to your scene.
The renderers available with 3ds Max include
features such as selective ray tr acing, analytical
antialiasing , motion blur, volumetric lighting, and
environmental effects. See
Rendering Your Scene
(page 1–9)
.Thetutorialscanhelpyoulearnabout
rendering.
When you use the default scanlin e renderer,
a
radiosity solution (page 3–50) can provide
accurate light simulation in renderings, including
the ambient lighting that results from reflected
light. When you use the mental ray renderer,
acomparableeffectisprovidedby
global
illuminat ion (page 3–92)
.
If your workstation is p art of a network, network
rendering can distribute rendering jobs over
multiple workstations. See
Network Rendering
(page 3–169)
.
With
Video Post (p age 3–307) ,youcanalso
compositethescenewithanimationsstoredon
disk.
A Typ ical Pr oj ect Wor k f low
These topics explain the basic procedures for
creat ing scenes:
Setting Up Your Scene (page 1–4)
Modeling Objects (p age 1–5)
Using Materials (page 1–6)
Placing Lights and Cameras (page 1–7)
Animating Your Scene (page 1–8)
Rendering Your Scene (page 1–9)
Setting Up Your S cene
You start with a new unnamed scene when you
open the program. You can also start a new scene
atanytimebychoosingNeworResetfromthe
File menu.
Choosing a Unit Display
You choose a system of unit display on the Units
Setup dialog (page 3–891)
.ChoosefromMetric,
Standard US, and Generic methods, or design a
custom measuring system. You can switch between
differentsystemsofunitdisplayatanytime.
Note: For best results, use consistent units when
you are going to:
•
Merge scenes and objects (page 3–469) .
•Use
XRef objects (page 3–406) or XRef scenes
(page 3–416)
.
Setting the System Unit
The System Unit setting, in the Units Setup dialog
(page 3–891)
,determineshow3dsMaxrelatesto
distance information you input to your scene. The
setting also determines the range for round-off
error. Consider changing the system unit value
only when you model very large or very small
scenes.