For some time now www.joegunn3d.com has always been a great source for free 3ds Max tutorials as well as offering commercial quality downloadable training videos.

One of the things that makes all of Joe Gunn's training videos stand out is the fact they are based on real production and not fiction. When the successful commercial video "Hair 3ds Max...out of the box" was first launched, we were promised another video dealing with Mental Ray. Well it's out now and "Mental Ray Studio Car Rendering" is worth a look.

I like the fact that to keep costs down, and to get to quick access to the training materials, each title is available as a digital download. For those who prefer training they can hold in their hands - I was told that digital training DVDs will be available soon via TurboSquid as a hard disc DVD.

May I suggest that you visit the site. www.joegunn3d.com provides more information and a video sample for these products. While there you find that you have access to approximately 20 free training videos and a number of useful Scripts. These free videos do not appear to be geared towards the complete beginner, but more towards those who want to dig a bit deeper into the tools that 3ds Max provides. Some of the topics included are 'Hair lighting tips', 'Pflow and Mocap controller' and 'Pflow for landscaping'. No matter what level you consider yourself to be at, I think you will find a number of workflow hints in the variety subjects available.

Now for a quick overview of the latest commercial offering.

"Mental Ray Studio Car Rendering"

Learn how to make this photo real studio car render as seen in the highly acclaimed "Elemental 3" book from Ballistic Publishing.

• Introduction (Overview)
• Customizing the UI & Resources/Scripts
• Environment setup
• Basic Car Shader tool-kit
• Studio Lighting Setup
• Bounce cards/reflectors
• mr render settings & mr Photographic Exposure Control

BONUS TUTORIAL
"Adding HDRI for the bling"

Over 2 hours of instructional video not including bonus tutorials

For those interested in Hair in 3ds Max:

"Hair 3ds Max...out of the box"

• Introduction (Overview)
• UI Setup - Maxscripts - Workflow
• Hair Modifier
• Grooming Pipeline
• Styling Hair Part 1 & 2
• Materials & Maps
• Dynamics & Creating Collision Objects
• Lighting & Rendering

BONUS TUTORIALS
"Cloth Driven Hair Dynamics"
"The making of the cover art"

Over 5 hours of instructional video not including bonus tutorials.

By the way, for those who may not know, Joe Gunn is an active core member of our New York City 3ds Max User Group. He joined us a few years back when he came to New York by way of the Midwest to become the 3ds Max Application Specialist for the East Coast for Autodesk. Some of you may remember him at the helm of many of our meeting while he was in that position. He is now living in New York making a living as a freelance artist dealing with 3D, compositing, visual fx and, of course, producing some great training for the 3D community.