You may be familiar with the general layout of 3ds Max 8's user interface, but a few of version 8's interface features aren't readily apparent to new users. They are, however, critical if you want to navigate quickly in 3D space. The goal of this chapter isn't to show you the nuts and bolts of the interface, but rather to introduce you to a few of these fundamental features that will enhance your productivity.
Setting up shadows takes just as much time and attention as setting up lights. You can think of all of your illumination as one half of your lighting design, and shadows as the other, equally important half. Shadows can add richness to the tones and shading of your image, tie elements together, and improve your composition. Besides their artistic importance, rendering shadows is a key technical area to master. This chapter will explore both the visual and the technical sides of shadows and...
In terms of training, few actually get the "right" training. They go to a crash course program like Mesmer f/x (which teaches you about brand X software in 3 short weeks), put together a rather weak demo reel in the same timeframe, and then hit the streets looking for a job. These people, in my opinion, have no training at all because they know nothing of the art of animation, nothing about lighting, nothing about story telling. They just "think" they know the software. The majority of the...
3D systems for movies using polarized light cause a loss of screen brightness due to the inherent filter absorption. The polarization filter in front of the projector blocks half of the projecting light, reducing screen brightness. However, as half of all other ambient and reflected light in the theater is also reduced by the viewing lenses, the perceived contrast does not suffer excessively. The overall effect is that of wearing a pair of slightly darkened glasses in a standard movie theater,...
RealD 3D cinema technology uses circularly polarized light to produce stereoscopic image projection. Circular polarization technology has the advantage overlinear polarization methods in that viewers are able to tilt their head and look about the theater naturally without a disturbing loss of 3D perception, whereas linear polarization projection requires viewers to keep their head orientation aligned within a narrow range of tilt for effective 3D perception; otherwise they may see double or...
