Mental Ray method of wireframe overlay rendering without the need for post processing.   more »

I'm not finished with the Small Building tutorials yet, but they'll be a slight break in the action while I catch up on some other things around the office and shake a small cold.   more »

In this tutorial you'll learn to reuse extracted 2D shapes to create custom windows and doors. Again, it's not what we're creating in this exercise, but the process that's important. Use your imagination to come up with creative uses of the lessons presented.   more »

Sometimes it is convenient to extract 2D data from existing 3D models as a basis for accurately creating new 3D geometry. For example, you might extract the edges from a landscape mesh to create an loft path or animation path. In this lesson you learn to apply a Edit Mesh modifier, extract the edges from an existing wall, and prepare the new shape as the basis of new windows. While this particular example could be accomplished in several ways the technique is an important weapon in your arsenal of productivity tools.   more »

In this tutorial you'll place parametric windows and doors in the openings of the front wall and learn about the importance of cloning objects for maximum efficiency and flexibility. The built-in parametric windows in 3ds Max and VIZ have enough options to be useful for many of the doors and windows you'll use on a day-to-day basis.   more »

In Small Building tutorial04 you learned to create a fairly complex hip roof with all its trim with just two 2D shapes. Now, to mimic typical real-world situations, you have to quickly edit the roof to satisfy the client's current needs and wishes. Luckily, we've set are seen up to be both flexible and efficient and the changes are easy to make.   more »

With this video it like to illustrate a potential problem. In the previous tutorial I extracted 2D geometry from a 3D wall that will be used to create a custom window. The 3D geometry had been created by excluding a 2D shape. If you should create your walls by excluding floorplans and then using Boolean operations to cut the window openings you made run into problems that this tutorial will show you how to correct.   more »

In this video tutorial you will learn to use to simple 2D shapes in conjunction with the Bevel Profile modifier, initially, to create a mansard roof with the trim. However, you'll quickly learn to edit the 2D profile to change it to a hip roof by moving one vertex.    more »

In this third installment of the small building tutorial you will learn to clean up the corners of the wall intersections to avoid problems with coincident faces when applying materials and lighting. Also remember that efficiency and flexibility are a primary goal of this workflow.   more »

In this video tutorial your review of the Align to View tool and then use the Align tool to place wall objects in position on the floor. Efficient use of Align is very dependent on your knowledge of the Reference Coordinate Systems in 3ds Max and VIZ. This exercise puts the lessons learned in previous videos into practice in a typical workflow that aligns the bounding boxes of objects. Always keep in mind that most Reference Coordinate systems are dependent on the currently active viewport and with a little practice Align will become a tool you'll use constantly.   more »

With this tutorial I'll start a short series that ties together some of the lessons covered in previous tutorials. I'll keep the exercises simple so that you can see how the various concepts might be applied in the real world to increase your day-to-day production. I encourage you to view these short videos even though you may be experienced with 3ds Max or VIZ as I'll introduce some workflow appropriate for all user levels.   more »