3ds max 6: Animation and Visual Effects Techniques has been thoroughly updated to cover the enhancements and new features of version 6. The book provides an organized and thorough process for integrating the features of 3ds max 6 into your own projects. Everything taught throughout the book is based on the creation of a film project that was done completely with max, including all of the visual effects and animation techniques. Beginning with a review of the essentials, you‚ll learn the key features used in animation and visual effects. You‚ll learn about the fundamentals of animated filmmaking, and you‚ll work through detailed tutorials covering modeling of buildings, environments, humans, and aliens. Once you‚ve created the models, the animation techniques are explored, including character setup with bones, lip sync, facial expression, and walk cycles. >From there the process moves to scene animation, visual effects, materials and textures, and lighting and rendering. The book ends with detailed chapters on character studio® 4 and combustion® 3, and the Shag Hair plug-in.

Features

• Uses the latest features of 3ds max 6 to teach particle effects, including rain and Hollywood explosions and details the changes from version 5 to 6
• Teaches how to use character studio 4 to animate crowds of people, and how to do physics- based animation using reactor 2
• Explains facial animation and how to record dialog and sound effects
• Details lighting and rendering features, including
• Radiosity and Global Illumination, Skylight and Light Tracer, visual effects lighting, and network rendering

Table of Contents

Introduction; Chapter 1: Essentials of 3ds max 6 for Animation and Visual Effects; Chapter 2: Computer Animated Filmmaking; Chapter 3: Modeling Environments, Buildings, and Aliens; Chapter 4: Finishing the Alien Vampire Character; Chapter 5: Constructing the Generic Man Character; Chapter 6: Finishing the Dr. Quin/Generic Man Patch Model; Chapter 7: Character Setup with Bones; Chapter 8: Preparing for Character Animation; Chapter 9: Character Animation; Chapter 10: Scene Animation; Chapter 11: Visual Effects; Chapter 12: Advanced Animation; Chapter 13: Materials and Textures; Chapter 14: Lighting and Rendering; Chapter 15: Character Studio 4; Chapter 16: Combustion 2.1 Compositing and Visual Effects; Chapter 17: Plug-Ins; Appendix A: About the CD-ROM; Appendix B: References; Index

On the CD

• Original, full size figures from the book
• All the files needed to complete the tutorials from the book
• Extras folders that contain color images, animations, 3ds max materials libraries, and texture maps
• An animated scene from Homing Instinct, the movie used to illustrate the techniques in the book

Sanford Kennedy (Los Angeles, CA), is an author, animator, and designer. He has worked in Hollywood special effects since 1977, and computer animation since 1994. He has worked on 54 movies and numerous commercials, and recently began working on games, including Graystoke: The Temple of Ultimate Evil. He has written over 100 articles and co-authored a variety of books on 3D computer animation, most recently 3ds max 6 Animation and Visual Effects Techniques (Charles River Media, 2003).