by John Swanson

Product Name: 3ds Max 2010 Architectural Visualization – Advanced to Expert
ISBN-13: 978-0-9792811-2-9
ISBN-10: 09792811-2-1
Published: 2009
Author: dozens of industry experts
Level: Advanced
Current Pricing: US $119.90
Site: www.3dats.com

From the website: “Brimming with tutorials and practical production techniques from dozens of experts in multiple fields of 3D, this book is arguably the finest collection of 3D talent ever assembled under one title. Written for advanced users in any field, but flavored for those in visualization, this book is a collection of 20 independent chapters containing some of the most sophisticated learning material ever written for 3D. The goal is to take readers from an advanced level to an expert level by providing a straight-forward, production-oriented discussion of difficult subject matter not available anywhere else…”

I am interested in all the capabilities that 3ds Max has to offer. Modeling, animation, rendering, etc but everything in that paragraph above excited me. Here is a book with Max and architectural visualization in the same title aimed at someone at about my level. Wow! (As part of my day job I do architectural visualizations in Max based on AutoCad drawings)There are not many instructional products like this available. Over 50 talented experts working to produce 20 independent chapters, I hoped that Brian Smith and Brian Zajac would not let me down, They did not.

There are many things about this book I like. If I had to choose one it would probably be that it is filled with lots of techniques, ideas, tips and tricks many of which I have never read, or heard for that matter, anywhere else. Page after beautifully laid out page I was delighted that the two Brians pulled it off. They managed to produce a book that contains information that the long time Max user might not have been exposed to. 3DATS is Autodesk Authorized Publisher and the design visualization training arm of their parent company 3DAS located in Florida. I think that the fact that 3DATS provides services that include customized training and 3D design consultation and are instructors at the Vizmasters events keeps them in touch with what this book’s target audience needs. I don’t know if you can really call this the third book in a ‘trilogy’ but there were two other books that are logically related. - ‘3ds Max2008 Architectural Visualization – Beginner to Intermediate’ and ‘3ds Max 2009 Architectural Visualization – Intermediate to Advanced. I have not had the opportunity to read those two books but I do plan to do so as they are definitely companion books.

I think it’s important to know that this book would be helpful to any advanced 3ds Max user. I know it’s called ‘3ds Max 2010 Architectural Visualization – Advanced to Expert’ but the topics covered are easily usable in many more 3d related disciplines. Do yourself a favor and download the PDF with 20 sample chapters from the site to get an idea of the large scope of topics covered. I think you’ll agree it is not only for architectural visualizing types.

If this book was to be compared to a well paced movie that starts out with a bang then the foreword by none other than Tom Hudson would justify that analogy. I’m someone who is interested in the history of 3d Studio and 3ds Max so, although it was satisfying, it was too short for me (never thought I would feel that way about a ‘foreword’). This slice of history from ‘the father of 3ds Max’ was a nice way to start a book that takes us into some very sophisticated uses of a program that had such a humble beginning.

This book assumes that its reader is at an advanced level in his or her knowledge of Max and the level of instruction reflects this. No hand holding here. Only occasionally was I surprised by at what I thought was beginner explanations. I guess it is sometimes necessary to verbalize simple concepts when explaining something complicated in order to get some point across. I must admit there were a few bits of information flying right over my head the first time I encountered them in the book. These were topics I have been aware of, but had little experience in using. The whole section on Post Production was challenging, but the authors on those topics helped me get a much better understanding of those techniques. Just because a program like 3ds Max is complicated it does not mean that instruction, even at this advanced level, has to be complicated. If the right author, or authors are assigned the job as they were in this case, then what you end up with is a clear, well thought out set of topics taught in a way that brings everything into sharp focus, I now have a better view of the big picture, and that is part of what becoming an expert in this field is about.

I'd like to mention that there is a link given in the book to where you can download the chapter's exercise files so you can follow along if you want.

Part 1 is all about Color and Composition and Chapter 1 covers the important topic of color management quite well. Jeff Mottle knows the subject and presents it in an easy to follow way. Starting at what it is and why we need it he takes us all the way through the process ending up with final output with tips on viewing the results. Profiling displays, scanners, and printers are subjects covered in this over 50 page chapter with plenty of illustrations on hand. I finished this chapter with not only a better understanding of the ‘how’ of color management but also the all important ‘why’. This was a great way to start the book – if the reader uses good color management throughout his/her pipeline then the techniques acquired from this text will be that much more impressive

I think one of the paths to compelling architectural visualization is in the composition and that is where we land next. Many, if not all of the different facets that make up good composition are outlined here by Ernest Burden. I think most of us who view an architectural rendering can identify a well constructed composition from a poor one. Throughout our careers we pick up tricks like the golden ratio, the rules of thirds or the off center placement of our subject, etc. Here we have a well thought out and presented instruction of all the elements that we might find in an illustration with impact.

Materials are the subject of Part 2 and we start off with a look at advanced mental ray shaders written by Joep van der Steen. This illustrates one of the strong points about this book. Max and its tools are treated fairly but we are told what works and what doesn’t work. We benefit from the authors’ trials and tribulations and end up saving time. This chapter we are presented with a number of interesting tutorials. Below I share some of my efforts. It took me a while to figure out how to get the sun to appear in my rendering but I was happy with the results. The tips I got for compositing the provided car model with the background will come in handy I’m sure.

The advanced unwrapping chapter I found very useful as unwrapping is not my strongest skill in Max. By the way, none of the authors are shy about suggesting outside plugins and stand alone utilities if they think they will do the job better or at least faster than Max. In this Chapter 4 Lukas Dubeda suggested a small separate program for UV layouts that I downloaded to try myself. It does seem to be quite capable at getting the job done. The following sums up this section pretty well:

“…After completing these exercises, you should be familiar with Multiple UVW spaces, Multiple Map channels, working with Material IDs, their usage and purpose. You should be familiar with Pelt Mapping techniques as well as with some 3rd party solutions regarding this matter. You have learned what Normals and Normal Maps are and how to obtain them directly inside 3ds Max and, in the end, how to apply these maps for rendering purposes Remember this was just scratching the surface…”

That “…just scratching the surface” seems to be the sentiment of many of the experts in this book. Believe me that they are all making some pretty deep scratches, providing us with an in-depth look at their chapter’s topic.

Leigh van der Byl’s “Texture Painting’ in Chapter 5 starts off with good advice on observing the world around us and the effect of the world on textures we see. We are taken on a tour of what almost is, but isn’t, the Material editor in 3ds Max. I say this because we look at color/ diffuse, secularity and reflection, bump and displacement, transparency, and finally incandescence – all the things we adjust in Max when working in the editor. This chapter has a great deal on the role of Photoshop in texture painting. We are shown in detail how to make use of the tools in Photoshop to come up with believable textures.

I was interested in Chapter 6 on Physically Based Material by Pierre-Felix Benton because I had the privilege of attending a Masterclass by Mr. Benton at Siggraph2008. This chapter is similar to that class, but the information found here in the ‘Advanced to Experts’ book goes in to so much more detail. Here we deal with how to make our materials provide the ‘correct’ reflectance information. We do this with the use of a number of tools. I was thankful to have the opportunity to have this info laid out in text. A very well done chapter that gives you not only a lot to think about when photographing material samples to be used in your digital creations, but solid instruction of how to go about getting the best results when doing so. My renderings have improved after having read these techniques

This takes us to Part 3 – Lighting with Tod Stephens writing about ‘Exposure Lighting Analysis Tools’. A passage from the beginning of this chapter says it best:

“The Lighting Analysis Assistant is a tool in 3ds Max Design that gives a simple, step-by-step approach to setting up all the requirements for lighting analysis. This chapter will discuss each step of the process and give suggestions for settings and procedures that will simplify the use of the Assistant. A model and all necessary files are included on the book's website, allowing you to work through the entire process.”

We are in good hands tackling this highly technical topic with Tod Stephens. You won’t get lost following along as he gives us such information as where to obtain weather data, how to use functions in Google Earth to view these files. Particularly interesting is his explanation of just what LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) means and its importance in today’s construction industry. Through the use of the Lighting Analysis Tool in 3ds Max Design, data can be generated to support your documentation for LEED IEQ Credit 8.1 which is the Indoor Environmental Quality Credit 8.1 that improves the percentages of indoor and outdoor light. It’s amazing what our Max programs can do…

Chapter 8 with Louis Marcoux is all about ‘Render to Texture’ which helps reduce overall render calculation time. He explores the different types of render to texture and how they are put to use. Like the other experts in this book, Louis knows how to instruct. His well thought out order of the procedures presented on this topic make it easy to grasp the many concepts involved when we render to texture. There is a lot to keep track of and we are shown those tools in Max. We even have a little MAXScript thrown in to help. Like the other chapters in the book, the beautiful color illustrations make the whole process easy to follow.

Darren Brooker’s Advanced mental ray Lighting Chapter/tutorial is one of the best I’ve read on the subject of lighting in mental ray. This chapter covers a lot of ground and offers a lot of useful information. He touches on everything from caustics, to HDRI. I tried following along his “Exterior match lighting” exercise and had no trouble getting good results. Below is a jpeg of my efforts. This whole chapter is filled with useful information.

Mir Vadim’s Chapter entitled ‘reactor” opens up Part 4 of the book. Right at the start he states: “… one small chapter is not enough to cover all of reactors capabilities. However after reading this chapter, you should have the basic skills needed to do many of the things veteran reactor user do in their most sophisticated animations…” Cool – I was ready to dive in. I really like the way the information in this chapter was presented. First a preliminary explanation of Havok’s Reactor is given. The Utilities panel, where to find it in the helpers part of the Create panel, the Reactor toolbar and the submenu of the Animation Menu are all explained. After an in depth look at the reactor panel in the utilities area we go right on to an exercise of knocking a plate of fruit into a water filled pool. It’s not one long exercise, instead we do a set up then there is more explanation of concepts, then back to the same exercise to put this knowledge to work. Then back to explanations – then back to the exercise, and so forth until we get to the finished animation of plate of fruit sinking to the bottom of a shallow pool. I followed along, I did the preview, and the animation worked perfectly. Whenever I can, I like to visit the authors’ site. When I went to Mir Vadim’s site http://www.mirvadim.com/ I was so impressed with his ‘RayFIre Tool’ by watching his video tutorials on the site, that I downloaded the demo version and plan on doing a review of it in the near future.

I like the way Pete Draper starts off Chapter 11 which deals with Particle Systems. (The node based, event driven, particle system namely Particle Flow’ in Max). He states that this is not a rewrite of the ‘excellent 3ds Max manual but instead he will cover areas that will be more beneficial to our work, as well as ‘quirks’ the software has that are not mentioned in the manual. (most of the authors in this book approached their topics in a similar fashion – that is one of the values or strengths of this book.) After a tour of Space Warps relevant to Particle Flow we are given a break down of the Particle View window. This tour is handled very well. In someone else’s hands this can be very confusing but Pete gets us through it. Just when I was wondering how this ties into architectural visualization he starts a tutorial exercise entitled ’Designing a Tree Population System’ which illustrates just one of the many ways Particle Flow can be put to use. We end up with a simple but convincing example of a group of trees spread out realistically in a small ‘forest’ – definitely something that can be put to use. ‘Designing a Modern Fountain System’ and ‘Designing an Animated Bird Flocking System’ are two more uses of the system you may want to explore.

Rigging is one of the last topics I thought I’d find in a book with this title. Written by Michele Bousquet, Chapter 12’s Rigging topic does fit in nicely with the theme of the book. As Brian Smith pointed out in the Introduction the reason rigging is included in the book:

“….. I have always believed that the skill level of any particular area of 3ds Max workflow is not determined by the complexity of the subject matter alone, but also by the user's need….. Michele Bousquet's chapter on Rigging is certainly not any more difficult than any of the chapters in our Intermediate to Advanced title. Yet we believe that Rigging is an advanced subject because it is usually not until 3ds Max users reach an advanced level in their career that they need to worry about Rigging. Before reaching an advanced level, there are far more important fish to fry than Rigging. Nevertheless, if you are at an advanced level in your career, we believe you should explore some of the other tools in 3ds Max that can really separate your work from your competition. Rigging is just another tool that you can have in your bag of tricks to do things that users at lower skill levels wouldn't (or perhaps shouldn't) even attempt.”

Having read the chapter on rigging I have to agree that this is good information that can be put to good use. Michele starts of with basic mechanical rigging concepts and builds from there. Getting into mechanical rigging using bones and even more advanced rigging concepts utilizing dummies and IK chains. Character rigging is also covered in this chapter. Her bias towards the Skin modifier as opposed the Physique modifier is apparent and appropriate. After all Physique is much older and Skin just has more features. Physique has not been updated in a while and its age shows. Before the chapter is over she brings us through a number of good exercises on rigging a character, skinning and even how to correct the very basic biped walk cycle. Good stuff here.

Part 5 of the book is all about workflow. Chapter 13 by Scott Rosenbloom is on Revit integration. As a somewhat devout AutoCad user I was, at first, a bit taken aback by Scott’s statement “Why Revit will become the standard”. But I must admit he makes a good case. Over the years I have downloaded trial versions of Revit and done their tutorials to see what it’s about. I liked it a lot, but since my organization does not want to use Revit in production, I continue to use AutoCad. That said this is a very interesting chapter. He goes over the old method of importing from Revit into Max and the new method. While going through the exercise we learn about the FBX Import Dialogue Box. We import an exterior and interior model into Max. ProMaterials are covered as well as rendering. This chapter is very thorough in it coverage of the Revit to Max topic and all the methods and work arounds needed for a successful workflow.

Advanced Poly Modeling is covered in Chapter 14 by Todd Daniele. Even if you were using this modeling method for years you are sure to find some tips in here that you can put to good use. We start off with the simpler stuff, eliminating those annoying tris and five sided polygons. We go on from there covering some of the tools in the new graphite ribbon as well as the shift and drag method of poly modeling. I particularly like the simple but effective exercise on modeling a somewhat ornate desk leg and desk drawer handles. The handles were challenging to say the least but hey – this IS an Advanced to Expert book. I just wished there was room in the text to go through modeling the whole desk – the pictures of his complete model were beautiful. I guess I’ll have to get my own reference and try it on my own…

Chapter 15 brings us to Spine 3D covering the topic of large-scale project management. From the notes in the ‘About the Authors’ section Spine 3D is Mauricio Osorno and Ronald Alvarez. There’s plenty of information jammed into this sixteen page chapter. Sometimes managing relatively small projects can be a hassle you know or you can imagine what it’s like being involved in a BIG project. Here we are taken through the process right from that all important kick-off meeting ending up at the delivery of the final ‘package’. Good stuff here. Set up and good communications seems to be what helps a big project get through its ups and downs. The people at Spine 3D elaborate these and many more elements of project management at this level. I especially enjoyed the parts on the ‘creative kick-off meeting, the brainstorming concepts and the storyboarding. Much food for thought is served up in this chapter, and this is no appetizer, this is the main course.

Markus Boos does a great job in Chapter 16 showing us MAXScript. From the beginning of this chapter and in answer to “Do I really need to learn to program with MAXScript?”

“…The following sections will demonstrate that MAXScript programming, with its relatively straightforward design, is easy to comprehend--even for people with a non-technical background—and that it is unjustified to think of it as a "three-headed monkey" that is difficult to tame. I will introduce you to MAXScript by describing what it can do for you, after which you will start writing your first lines in the context of simple practical examples. Next, I will explain the most commonly used language features. After that, you will create your own little toolset to automate the setup of ambient occlusion ...”

This was followed by a few pages of a bulleted list, with explanations, of the benefits of MAXScript. I guess the ‘Hello World” of MAXScript is the modification of objects – and that is where we begin. We start off slowly and using the technique I like most when learning a new set of procedures – that is building on concepts learned in a logical order. When the foundation is strong there are no limits, at least not within site. In the next 56 pages we have the time to go pretty deep into the subject from the fundamentals into advanced concepts like creating a user interface for your scripts. Markus shows us how to make a number of useful tools as well as where to find free resources for MAXScripts like the one from Jon Seagull and Christian Bauer – the procedural window blinds object – that I’ve used on occasion. And the Greeble plugin – it’s amazing what can be doe with this MAXScript tool. If you’ve ever wanted to learn MAXScript but, for whatever reason did not, here’s a very good opportunity.

Post production is a topic not usually covered in an architectural visualization book – at least not to the extent found in Part 6 here. Mike Merron’s Camera matching is tackled first in Chapter 17. Camera matching whether with a still image or a moving is a relatively complicated topic with many things to take into account. Mike Merron starts off with some photography basics, terminology, formats, etc then relating it to what’s happening in Max. It was interesting to see how camera matching is accomplished in an aerial image. Working on a street scene we are shown Max’s Camera Matching Utility. Next we are given a good rundown on the use of some film industry tools like ‘PFTrack’ used in an architectural visualization. It is recommended that you down load an educational version and follow along.

Smoothe’s Green Screening topic is found in Chapter 18. Ben Haworth and David Macey are from the London based Smoothe – a visualization firm. Mixing two images or frames into one – typically a foreground and a background is accomplished using the green screen method. After a brief history lesson we are told about the importance of setting up a scene by careful planning and story boards, choosing a chroma color and lighting the screen. After these set-up steps we are shown everything that goes into creating a key – the footage preparation, masking, pulling and refining a key, etc. I have never done green screening but I get the idea from this chapter that success lays in the preparation phase of the project. This topic’s techniques are presented in such a way that you should be able to apply what you find here in a real world project should it become necessary.

Compositing is up next in Chapter 19 written by Gary Davis currently with the Media and Entertainment Division of Autodesk. One of my personal current interests concerns learning more about compositing so I looked forward to this chapter. While not being disappointed at all I was amazed at the kinds of topics covered that help the user work efficiently in the compositing process. Named selection sets, hiding and un hiding objects, object properties, layers, etc – all tools we know and love but here we use them with the intention of doing digital compositing. This part of the book is presented in a straight forward manner. Gary points out that one of the benefits to compositing in is speeding up the pipeline especially when it comes to those inevitable changes that are often required. This chapter like the others found in this text is beautifully illustrated in full color making the concepts presented easy to follow. I got a lot out of this section.

The last chapter – Chapter 20 in Part 6 is Kim Lee’s Video Editing. The way the topic is approached here, will make the people inside AND outside the architectural visualization field happy. I'm not talking about the humor peppered throughout the text, I'm referring to the content - the descriptions of the responsibilities of those in this profession. Editing is the kind of thing that plays a big part in animated visualization but it is also a big part of commercials, movies and TV show - examples of which are some times sited in the text here. This just proves my point that this book is more than what the title says it is. This is a tied into the strengths of the book not a weakness. Kim starts off with a very good review of different video formats before getting into the hardware used for video editing. Then on to the editing process it self. In this 30 page chapter you get the idea that Kim has a lot of respect for editors from his knowledgeable explanation of their job. Having never done any kind of editing at the level described here, I was amazed at the skills necessary to get this job done right.

I’m not sure why a small chapter covering Cloth and written by Danny Jones is in appendix A but there it is. I'm glad it was included. I'm guessing that it just didn't fit in any of the main sections in the book. This part includes three exercises that you can follow along with. One on creating a realistic table cloth on a round table top, a second one on creating a flag with Cloth, and the last one, appropriately, on curtains. Below is the results of my following along with the last exercise.

Contents at a Glance

Part I - Color and Composition

Chapter 1 - Color Management - Jeff Mottle
Chapter 2 – Composition - Ernest Burden
Part II - Materials

Chapter 3 - Advanced mental ray Shaders - Joep van der Steen
Chapter 4 - Advanced Unwrapping - Lukas Dubeda
Chapter 5 - Texture Painting - Leigh van der Byl
Chapter 6 - Physically Based Materials - Pierre-Felix Breton
Part III - Lighting

Chapter 7 - Lighting Analysis tools - Tod Stephens
Chapter 8 - Render to Texture - Louis Marcoux
Chapter 9 - Advanced mental ray lighting - Darren Brooker
Part IV - Animation

Chapter 10 – Reactor - Mir Vadim
Chapter 11 - Particle Systems - Pete Draper
Chapter 12 – Rigging - Michele Bousquet Part V - Workflow

Chapter 13 - Revit Integration - Scott Rosenbloom
Chapter 14 - Advanced Poly Modeling - Todd Daniele
Chapter 15 - Managing Large-scale Projects - Spine 3D
Chapter 16 – MAXScript - Markus Boos Part VI - Post production

Chapter 17 - 3D Tracking - Mike Merron
Chapter 18 - Green Screening - Smoothe
Chapter 19 – Compositing - Gary Davis
Chapter 20 - Video Editing - Kim Lee
Appendix A - Cloth Modifier - Danny Jones
Appendix B - Gallery