UpClose with Ted Boardman is a monthly column written by Ted Boardman for VIZ and MAX users. Ted is an Authorized Discreet 3ds max Training Specialist and Autodesk 3D Studio VIZ Trainer, as well as a respected author of many of the VIZ and MAX books that have been written to date.
  

    Architectural Glass

One of the most frequently asked questions is “why can’t I make good glass material in max and VIZ?” The answer is more about perception than reality and the fact that most people have trouble describing what they think they want is much of the problem. 		 
         
    Maps and Mapping

I'm going to spend some time in this column covering the Gradient Ramp map. While everyone knows what a gradient ramp is, and might even use the Gradient Ramp map occasionally themselves, most users don't take advantage of the substantial power and flexibility the map offers. 		 
         
    Back Online

There are a few default settings in both max and VIZ to do not always lend themselves to high productivity and are settings that in "the heat of battle" we don't often get around to changing, even though they could be slowing us down significantly. 		 
         
    Tips

How many of you are using the Numerical Expression Evaluator that has been in max and VIZ for many, many releases. It can be extremely handy and is easy to use once you get a handle on the syntax.		  
         
         
    Edge Editing
Speaking of “edginess”, I’ve had a few client recently who had buildings with greenhouses attached as skylights or entry roofs and they agonized over the modeling during the design phase and were very disappointed when they had to make changes.		  
         
    Chain Link Fences and Slicing Planes

In this column I’ll cover chain link fences and slicing objects at a given plane.

  
         
    Mostly Materials

This month I’m going to work a little with materials to show a method of applying road stripes to lofted roads. The reason I’m using the lofted road is to illustrate the extremely flexible workflow that is possible when working in VIZ or max with parametric objects and parametric maps in materials. 		 
         
    VIZ 2005

The program is now very similar to Discreet 3ds max 6; minus sub-object animation, particle systems, reactor dynamics, and a few other features that rely on these major areas to function properly. 		 
         
    Inverse Kinematics

I’ll take a look at some fundamentals of using several tools in Autodesk VIZ and 3ds max that allow you to set up relationships between objects in the scene that can make animations and the movement of objects easier 		 
         
    Running Water

You’ll often hear it said that you need 3ds max to create running water effects with Particle Systems and it can’t be done in VIZ. Well, true enough that VIZ doesn’t have Particle Systems, but that’s only one type of running water and the method I’ll cover in this months column is valid in any version of both max and VIZ.		  
         
    Materials and Lighting Tips

In this months column I’m going to walk through the creation of a snowy mountain landscape that took less than 20 minutes and illustrates a couple of points in modeling and materials that could come in handy.		  
         
    More Tips and Tricks

In this column I’ll look at a couple of options for distorting mesh objects. I recommend using Bump maps when possible, but there are times when the effect just doesn’t work well enough for close views or clarity and you actually need physical geometry to represent the surface distortions.		  
         
    More Tips and Tricks

Someone on the Autodesk®VIZ forum recently was asking what equipment would be the best value for increasing rendering speed, new CPU, more RAM, or a new graphics card. The graphics card is not in the rendering loop at all so there is nothing you can do there to increase rendering speed. 		 
         
    Mapping

No, radiosity and translucency is not the topic of this month’s column. What I’ll cover is the process of applying multiple mapping coordinates to a single object and aligning the mapping to the various planes of an object. 		 
         
    Trains, Boats, Planes

This month I’ll address a couple of topics that have come to my attention in the form of questions from users lately. One is the animation of train cars. I developed a solution a few years ago that is simple and quite flexible. While it is applied to train cars here the same method could be used to animate all sorts of mechanical devices the follow similar tracks. 		 
         
    Tips

I’m going to use this column to cover some tips and tricks and little things that don’t always fit in columns with a specific theme and are sometimes overlooked. The screen captures will be from 3ds max 5, but VIZ 4 will be the same or similar screen while the same functionality should be found in VIZ 3.
 
         
    Lofting III

This month we will look at one possible solution to a problem that came up on in the VIZ forum recently. It will illustrate an unusual modification to lofting that I seldom see anyone use but one that really adds lots of flexibility to an already powerful tool.		  
         
    Workflow

This is a synopsis of my presentation in Copenhagen on general workflow in a visualization or animation office. During my presentation I could see plenty of heads nodding in agreement as I mentioned various issues that I have seen in my travels while training 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ. 		 
         
    Animation

Adding an animation controller or constraint is easy and can be done in either Motion panel for the transformation controllers or in Track View for any of the animatible parameters of either VIZ or max. 		 
         
    Spring Foliage
With spring being a time for foliage, we may as well take a look at a quick method I use to create relatively low polygon foliage that looks fine in the distance and from directly above and casts inexpensive shadows.		  
         
    Miscellaneous Topics
I’m going to try to cover a few topics this month that have been coming up on the support forums and from inquires I’ve gotten recently. I’ll give you my views on the topics and some exercises that will get you started on solutions you might able to utilize in production.		  
         
    Modeling with the Snapshot Tool

Snapshot was a tool that was an extremely powerful way to create complex arrays of objects and I still find it useful in that roll. Simply put, if you have an animated object you can take snapshots of the object at frames of it’s animate to create clones. 		 
         
    Combustion

There are a number of ways that Combustion can be applied to a typical architectural or engineering office to enhance productivity. I mentioned that it was a compositing tool with major differences that work to Autodesk VIZ and discreet 3ds max users advantage. 		 
         
    Exterior Radiosity

In this column you will learn some the concepts and practices of using the new Autodesk VIZ 4 Radiosity or 3ds max 5 lighting and rendering for an exterior scene with sky mapped to a dome. Use of the Exposure Controls will also be covered as well as mixing Standard lights with Photometric lights. 		 
         
    Controlling Animation Velocity

"My perception of most "walkthrough" presentations is that someone has placed me in a shopping cart with a plastic bucket on my head from the veterinarian's, and then is running me through the project, flailing around corners."		  
         
    Material Masking

"This column will introduce you to the process of masking at both the map and the material level in 3ds max or Autodesk VIZ, both programs share the same capabilities. We will start with the simple applications to see how masking functions, then work into more complex examples including animated masks." 		 
         
    Coordinate Systems

"Have you ever wanted to place an object on top of an inclined surface of another object and ended up spending much too much time moving and rotating in all four viewports and still only getting the object approximately in place? Or have you tried the Align command only to abandon it in frustration? "		  
         
    Material Libraries

"A question that is posted quite often on the various VIZ and max support forums is “why can’t I have more than 24 materials?” so I thought I would ramble through some of the tools and concepts available for storing and locating materials while covering some more general materials issues along the way." 		 
         
    Lofting Part II

"This month we will investigate lofting a little deeper. You will learn how to apply a handicap ramp to the sidewalk by lofting multiple shapes along the same path. Remember there is no limitation to the number of shapes on any given path or the number of vertices in each shape."		  
         
    Lofting Part 1

"The topic of Lofting in 3ds max or Autodesk VIZ has come up fairly often in the VIZ support forums lately so I thought I would use the bulk of this months column to touch on the process. To me, it is the most powerful modeling tool in max and VIZ, but one that is often underutilized because of some seemingly "strange" behavior when using it." 		 
         
    Introduction

"The subject matter will vary widely, but will not stray to far from topics that I feel are important to the vast majority of users. In my travels I find that there are several areas that VIZ and max users either don't know about or don't realize the potential in day to day production"