3ds Max Learning Channel

In this movie, you create the arrow that travels and deforms along a the path. With the help of a simple sphere, you get the illusion that the arrow bounces are causing the water ripples.

In this movie, you create the ripple effect using the Flex modifier. The Flex modifier uses a dynamic simulation to create the effect, which is easier than manually animating ripples using other options like the Ripple modifier.

In this movie, you add materials to the various objects to bring the scene to life. You mostly make use of mental ray materials as this is what works best with the mental ray rendering engine, especially when it comes to reflections and refractions.

In this movie, you add lights to improve the final render. You will use simple mr lights as they are easy to set up and work well in many non-physically accurate circumstances.

In this movie, you animate rings to appear under the ripples. You will synchronize the animation to coincide with each arrow bounce. In a later movie, you'll also need to animate "connectors" going from one ring to another.

In this movie, you animate the lines that connect the rings together. There are different ways you can go about that, some more complex than others, but you will use a simple approach as it works well enough in this scene.

This last movie is an addendum, and shows that the flex modifier used in the trailer can be used equally well to create other interesting effects. Here, you will use flex to create wake effects like those created by boats or other marine vehicles.

In this tutorial, you learn to integrate 3D objects into real-world imagery. You learn to match the perspective of your 3D camera to that of the background picture used as an environment map.

In this movie, you add a lighting scenario that works with the Scanline Renderer.

In this movie, you use the Mental Ray renderer to render the same scene you used previously. Mental Ray is the renderer of choice for many 3D artists and you will set it up to use the same Daylight System you used earlier.