AVAILABLE CLASSES

Creating Onyx Trees - January 16, 2008 (11am EST / 4pm GMT) - FREE!

In recent years, many procedural tree and plant generators have been introduced with varying levels of quality and public acceptance. One company has stood out as a forerunner in the 3D visualization industry with an incredibly successful and highly respected product line. With its first product released in 1992, Onyx Computing has a long track record of providing the industry with high quality tree and plant generators, and their software suite has steadily grown to be arguably the best choice for high quality 3D vegetation.

This webinar demonstrates the use of the Onxy Storm plugin that runs within 3ds Max, as well as the very powerful line of tree and plant generators that feed this plugin. Here you will learn how to craft vegetation, apply realistic materials and animate your creations to suit your project needs. Vegetation is one of the most difficult, if not the most difficult type of visualization content to create realistically. Just like poor lighting can ruin a perfectly modeled and textured scene, poor landscaping can ruin a perfectly illuminated exterior. Landscaping is rarely ever a focal point of a project, however, when not created realistically, it quickly becomes the most distracting component of a visualization.

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An In-Depth Look at the V-Ray Proxy - January 23, 2008 (11am EST / 4pm GMT) - FREE!

When the V-Ray proxy was introduced by the Chaos Group a few years ago, it completely revolutionized the workflow of many 3ds Max users. Suddenly users were able to render literally billions of polygons without having to worry about running out of memory or bringing their computers to a grinding halt. This is all because of the unique way the V-Ray proxy is handled as dynamic geometry rather than the typical static geometry that users were previously forced to work with.

This webinar provides an in-depth look at this incredibly powerful feature that many 3ds Max users would now say they simply couldn’t work without. During the discussion, you will learn the difference between static and dynamic geometry, you will see the best ways to quickly generate and manipulate proxies, you will be shown how to control the memory consumption of proxies, and you will learn how to alter materials placed on a proxy. All objects and are not created equal, and proxies are no exception!



The Many Ways of Building Walls - January 30, 2008 (11am EST / 4pm GMT) - FREE!

It seems that since the first days of 3D visualization, no other architectural element has garnered more attention than the ‘wall’. One of the most commonly asked questions between fellow 3D visualization artists is, “How do you create your walls in 3D?” The question is bound to be answered a number of different ways depending on who you ask and their experience level, but the question is so important to so many of us because walls are usually the first part of a building that we create and arguably the most important. It is, in some ways, the real foundation on which other building elements are added. It’s no wonder then why so many 3D artists are interested in the techniques with which others create these critically important object types.

But the creation of walls is not only of great interest because of their importance to a scene and the attention to detail that’s needed to make them, but also because of the time needed to make them properly. Depending on the type of building being created, walls may consume more than half of the modeling time needed to complete an entire building. So the various techniques available to create this type of object is, and probably always will be, of great interest to others. This webinar is dedicated to illustrating the many different ways of creating walls as well as the building features that are incorporated into the typical wall, such as windows, doors, and trim. After the webinar, viewers will have a solid understanding of the differences in speed and efficiency that come with each creation type.