Introduction to 3ds Max 2011

Let's get started by just taking a quick look at the interface in 3ds Max, and just getting a feel for where everything is located. So as we open up 3ds Max for the first time, let's start to take a look at actually how these things are grouped as far as the interface and the options that we have here. So that once we get started we'll have a little bit better idea of where things are, and how to get to those. And so the first thing that we'll look at is upper left corner. We're going to take a look at the Application button, and this is basically kind of the File menu here. You can see we have our recent files, we have the ability to create new files, open files, saving, importing, and exporting. All those options are available here. We have right next to that, the quick access toolbar which will enable us to real quickly Undo, Save, Create, new scenes and so forth. Moving over here, we'll have our scene file. The name of the scene file will be located up here. Then we have an info center, which will give us a little bit more information. And some information about our subscription, we can do search, have some favorites, and so forth. So we'll get more information there, access to the help. Right underneath that we'll see the menu bar OK. So this is going to stay static and we'll have the ability to come in here under, for instance, edit. We can access some of our Transform tools, some of our Selection tools. We've got the Tools menu item, which we can come down here and rename objects, go to the viewport canvas, access some of those different tools. We have grouping options here. We have the ability to set some different things with our views. Active viewport, viewport configuration, things like that. We can go under Create, to actually create our different objects and to help with things. Also working with our modifiers, which we'll talk about a little bit later. Items for animation, for working with our different types of editors. Menu dedicated to rendering, customizing our user interface and then working with MAX Script, a help menu item. And then here, we have a GoZ, a menu item because we have that installed. OK. Now moving down we have now under the menu bar, the main tool bar. So these are going to be instead of text, menu items. Obviously there are icons here. And so we can actually, if you can see this, on any part of this main toolbar, the cursor turns into a hand, and we can actually grab it and move it around. So we're not actually seeing all of those items here in our particular layout. Depends on what your screen size is. So here we have some options for binding, which we won't worry too much about right now. Then moving over to the right, we have some items for selection, different types of selection. Now you'll see some of these buttons. They get kind of highlighted as we move over these. Some of these have a little slash in the lower right hand corner, as you can see that. And these are flyouts. So what will happen is, when I click and hold on one of these buttons, it'll give me more options. So that's just telling us that there are more options within this button that we can choose. So then we can select one of these, and that's now the active button if I just click on that. If I click and hold, I can again choose a different one. So anywhere you see that little slash, keep that in mind. Next to those, we have the transform tools here. So moving, rotating, and scaling. So another option associated with that. We also have some snapping options here then we can select. And then things like mirror, a line, and then working with our layers. Moving over here we can access some of our editors, and finally some rendering options over here. Now right below the main toolbar, in this case we have the modeling ribbon. And so this is going to contain our graphite modeling tools, free form modeling tools, some new selection tools here, and an Object Paint as well, OK. And there are some items here that we can go ahead and modify, change the ribbon configuration and so forth. That's going to be located underneath the main toolbar. Now as we move down, and let's look over here on the right hand side, this is going to be a major item that we're going to be using a lot as we start to work in 3ds Max. And that's the command panel. The command panel is where you're going to create geometry, where you're going to modify that geometry, that's where you're going to work with your hierarchies, you can set up different deformers, work with the modifier stack. You're going to be doing a lot of work here in the command panel. And so this command panel is actually made up of a number of sub panels. So you've got right now from left to right, you've got the Create panel, the Modify panel, Hierarchy panel, Motion panel, Display panel, and Utilities panel. And you can kind of see that tab there. So if I bring any of these forward, you can see how everything underneath it changes. The different configuration. OK. From the Create panel we move down. We have the ability to create different pieces of geometry, different shapes, lights, all these different items here. And then we have a drop down which will let us select different objects in here, based on what we have selected above it. So just kind of think of this as working your way down. You're in Create, now you're creating a specific type of object. And then you're specifying even further underneath that. Now as we start to work with these panels, you'll notice underneath here, that we have these sort of collapsible menu items here. And these are called rollouts. And you're going to find these in any of these panels. And so basically you just click on that plus sign, and you'll open up all of the tools rather underneath a specific category. And so depending on the type of object that you have selected, and which panel you're in, your rollouts will look different. But the actual structure of the rollout will be the same. And we'll go into greater detail on working with the command panel little bit later on. As we move down to the lower right hand side of our interface, we can see the viewport navigation controls. So we have the ability to come in here, and pan around, orbit around our scene. OK? Zoom in and out, OK. We'll look at actually navigating our three views a little bit later. But that's what these tools are for. Again some of these are flyouts. Next to those-- to the left-- you'll see the animation playback control. So we have the ability to play our animation, move forward or backwards, go to the end and so forth. Moving again to the left, we will see the key framing options. So animation key frame controls over here. Turning on auto-key and so forth. Next to that, to the left, you'll see we have down here prompt line and also a listener associated with MAX Script which we can, I probably won't get into too much in this course. But it gives us a little bit more information about our scene. Now moving up, we have now the time slider, OK. Or this is actually the track bar, and then this is the time slider up above here. Both of these, obviously, are associated with our animation. So moving through our animation. And then this is, you can come down here and look at our keys. OK. Up here in the middle obviously, we've got our 3D viewports. So we've got our top view, our front view, left view, and perspective view. We'll take a closer look at the 3D viewports and how to actually navigate those, and what the different views are in the next lesson. But that's where the views are, OK. So just take a little time and familiarize yourself with the interface, OK. We've got the main Menu Bar up here where we can do all of our saving and opening, and we'll look at that specifically a little bit later. Then we have some of the major, basic tools that we'll be using on the main toolbar. Our modeling ribbon. We've got our 3D viewports here. Animation information controls down here, as well as viewport navigation. And then a really big part and component of our work in 3ds Max will be focused here on our command panel. And that's going to be located over here with all the sub panels. Create panel and Modify panel are going to be two of the big panels that we're going to be using, OK. So just kind of familiarize yourself with the interface. And in the next lesson we'll come in and take a closer look at the 3D viewports and how to actually navigate those, and switch those around. So let's take a look at that in the next lesson.