Review of Autodesk 3D Max
What is 3D?
3D means three-dimensional, i.e. something, that has width, height and depth (length). Our physical environment is three-dimensional and we move around in 3D every day. Humans are able to perceive the spatial relationship between objects just by looking at them because we have 3D perception, also known as depth perception. As we look around, the retina in each eye forms a two-dimensional image of our surroundings and our brain processes these two images into a 3D visual experience.
Navigation and Display
• Coordinate Systems & The Home Grid
Grids are two-dimensional arrays of lines similar to graph paper, except that you can adjust the spacing and other features of the grid to the needs of your work.
Using the home grid to position houses
Grids have these primary uses:
• As an aid in visualizing space, scale, and distance
• As a construction plane where you create and align objects in your scene
• As a reference system for using snap
The home grid is the basic reference system, defined by three fixed planes on the world coordinate axes . The home grid is visible by default when you start 3ds Max, but
can be turned off with an option in the right-click viewport menu. You can use any view of the home grid as a construction plane or you can create a grid object and use that as a construction plane instead.
• Orthogonal vs. Perspective Views
“Orthogonal” is a term used to describe two vectors that are perpendicular (at 90 degrees) to each other. In 3D space, when the X, Y, or Z-Axes are not perpendicular, they are considered “nonorthogonal” and the FBX plug-in does not support their representation as a matrix.
Because the FBX plug-in assumes that there is always a 90-degree angle between the X, Y, and Z axes, it can support only orthogonal matrices. Any transformed axes that have non-orthogonal TRS matrices are ignored by the FBX plug-in, so it does not import or export effects created when axes are not orthographic.
Perspective Views:
most closely resemble human vision. Objects appear to recede into the distance, creating a sense of depth and space. For most 3D computer graphics, this is the view used in the final output that the client sees onscreen or on the page. Perspective view of the ice-cream shop There are three ways to create a perspective view in a viewport perspective view, camera view, and light view.
A perspective viewport, labeled Perspective, is one of the default viewports. You can change any active viewport to this eye-like point of view by pressing the keyboard shortcut P.
A camera view requires that you first create a camera object in your scene. The camera viewport tracks the view through the perspective of that camera. As you move the camera (or target) in another viewport, you see the scene swing accordingly. If you alter the camera's field of view on the Modify command panel, you see the changes as they are applied.
Creating Objects & Selecting Objects.
With some variations, the steps shown in the following images apply to creating any type of object on the Create panel. For specific examples, see the Procedures section in any object's topic.
1. Radius defined 2. Height defined
3. Sides increased 4. Height Segments increased
A number of buttons appear on the Object Type rollout.
To choose an object type:
• Click the button for the type of object you want to create.
√ The button highlights, showing that it is active. Four rollouts appear Name and Color, Creation Method, Keyboard Entry,and Parameters.
√ To choose a creation method (optional):
√ You can accept the default method and skip this step.
• Choose a method in the Creation Method rollout.
√ To preset the creation parameters (optional):
√ You can adjust all creation parameters after you create an object.
• In the Parameters rollout, you can set parameters before you create an object. However, the values of parameters you set by dragging the mouse (for example, the Radius and Height of a cylinder) have no effect until after you create the object.
To create the object:
1. Put the cursor at a point in any viewport where you want to place the object, and hold the mouse button down (do not release the button).
2. Drag the mouse to define the first parameter of the object; for example, the circular base of a cylinder.
3. Release the mouse button. The first parameter is set with this release. In some cases, such as Sphere, Teapot, and Plane, this completes the object. You can skip the remaining steps.
4. Move up or down without touching the mouse button. This sets the next parameter; for example, the height of a cylinder.If you want to cancel: Until you complete the next step, you can cancel the creation process with a right-click.
5. Click when the second parameter has the value you want, and so on.
The number of times you press or release the mouse button depends on how many spatial dimensions are required to define the object. (For some kinds of objects, such as Line and Bones, the number is open-ended.)
