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4 Chapter 1: Getting Started with 3ds M ax
animated effects. The Lip Sync tutorial covers
Track View usage.
Rendering
Rendering adds color and shading to your scene.
The renderers available with 3ds Max include
features such as selective r ay tracing , analytical
antialiasing , motion blur, volumetric lighting, and
environmental effects. See Rendering Your Scene
(page 1–9). The tutorials c an help you lear n about
rendering.
When you use the default scanl ine renderer,
a radiosity solut ion (page 3–51) can provide
accurate light simulation in renderings, including
the a mbient lig hting that results from reflected
light. When you use the mental ray renderer,
acomparableeffectisprovidedbyglobal
illumination (page 3–93).
If your workstation is part of a network, network
rendering can distribute rendering jobs over
multiple workstations. See Network Rendering
(page 3–173).
With Video Post (page 3–311),youcanalso
compositethescenewithanimationsstoredon
disk.
A Typi cal Pr oject Workf low
These topics explain the basic procedures for
creat ing scenes:
Setting Up Your Scene (page 1–4)
Modeling Objects (page 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 Scene
You start with a new unnamed scene when you
open the program. You can also star t a new scene
atanytimebychoosingNeworResetfromthe
File menu.
Choosing a Unit Di splay
You choose a system of unit display on the Units
Setup dialog (page 3–848).ChoosefromMetric,
Standard US, and Generic methods, or design a
custom measuring system. You can switch between
differentsystemsofunitdisplayatanytime.
Note: For b est results, use consistent units w hen
you are going to:
• Merge scenes and objects (page 3–463).
•UseXRef objects (page 3–394) or XRef scenes
(page 3–407).
Setting the System Unit
The System Unit sett ing, in t he Units Setup dialog
(page 3–848),determineshow3dsMaxrelatesto
distance information you input to your scene. The
setting also determines the range for round-off
error. Consider chang ing the system u nit value
only when you model very large or very small
scenes.