3ds Max 2009 Architectural Visualization (Intermediate to Advanced)

Who is this Book For?

This book is the follow-up companion to the book entitled book 3ds Max 2008 Architectural Visualization – Beginner to Intermediate. That book was written primarily for beginners and was designed to take 3ds Max users to an intermediate level and provide the basics needed to land a job with a visualization company. 3ds Max 2009 Architectural Visualization – Intermediate to Advanced takes the next logical step and is designed to take intermediate 3ds Max users to the advanced level, not just by teaching more advanced features but also by teaching practical application and time-saving techniques of the tools covered in our Beginner to Intermediate title.

Having taught 3ds Max for many years now, we (3DATS) can say with some degree of authority that one of the biggest problems 3ds Max users have when seeking instruction in the visualization industry is gauging their own skill level accurately enough to find an appropriate class. An even greater problem, however, is that there is just not much real-world instruction to be found at the intermediate and advanced levels. One of the goals of this book was to help with this last problem.

Like the Beginner to Intermediate title, this book has been published by 3DATS, which gave us complete control over every facet of its design and structure. We spared no expense in printing the highest quality book, both in terms of physical appearance and technical instruction. Just as we did with our other title, in this book we went to great lengths to simplify the instruction. But unlike our other title, which focused on explaining the technical side of 3ds Max, Intermediate to Advanced is geared towards teaching great techniques to use with the program. It is assumed that by choosing this title, you have progressed beyond the fundamentals and are at least familiar with a large majority of the tools that top production firms use everyday. Although this book should provide insight to a wealth of new features that you may not yet have stumbled upon, it will also build upon many of the features that you should already be familiar with by teaching great techniques with which to
implement those features in a production environment.

Finally, this book is written for the 2009 version of 3ds Max; however, with the exception of some critical mental ray upgrades and the occasional change in interface, this book is completely suitable for use with 3ds Max 9 and 3ds Max 2008. All files are provided in the 3ds Max 9 format, with the exception of some mental ray files that were necessary to provide as 3ds Max 2009. Although it’s impossible to gauge what lies ahead for the program, we believe that this book will be completely relevant for many years to come.