In this tutorial we will for the first time get into the animation process inside 3ds Max and create a changing advertisement using the tools available inside 3ds Max. The tutorial will start with creating the appropriated shapes for the actual advertisement board which is made from two main parts. The first part is just a frame which is holding the second part which are panels in a shape of a triangle on which are applied the actual images or advertisement. The main objects would be made using the poly-modelling technique and this part of the tutorial will be very quick and easy. After creating the shapes for the advertisement we will start the animating process. Here you have actually two options how to make it; either using the manual method where you would be moving and rotating the separate parts or using the inbuilt MAXScript language which will do the work for you. Of course we will choose the second option because the way how it’s made using the second option is much more interesting and even more challenging. The MAXScript allows you to code a set of instruction by which you can use all available tools, methods and options available in 3ds Max.

If you are a new user of 3ds max or an experienced one you know that if you want to improve your workflow you need to see inside the application a bit more. Every application can be used in a so called general way where you just use the basic functions for your purpose, but if you want to get from it the maximum you have to know something extra. With just some extra knowledge you can improve your viewport navigation, tools selection or optimize the time for test renders. There is a lot of ways how to improve your modelling or rendering skills but as by any other software you should first improve the skill needed to handle the application itself. I will focus on the default install of 3ds max which include also MentalRay and not on any third party tools, plugins or renderers.

3ds Max alone is powerful enough to fulfil most users’ demands on this software but there is still a lot space for improvements and add-ons which can improve not only the functionality of 3ds Max but also speed up your workflow. We could divide these add-ons into two parts; plug-ins and scripts. Plug-ins are generally intended to bring new functionality to 3ds Max or any other software and so enhance the functionally of the software itself. Thanks to 3ds Max SDK the developers are free to do literally anything and bring new features such as; new modelling tools, new renderers, and new primitives and so on. Most of the plug-ins are not free of charge but still there is plenty of them for free and some are more than useful. The scripts on the other hand are using a programing language called MAXScript which is available directly through 3ds Max interface.

In this tutorial for beginners I will show you how you can model and texture an American Football using 3ds Max. First we will prepare the scene for modelling by placing a reference picture inside the view of 3ds Max and so keep the proportion of the ball 1:1 to a real world object. The next step will be the choosing of the right primitive with which we will model our football and also choosing the right approach for this. By this I will show you a method how you can easily transform a box into our object using few tricks and poly-modelling technique. After the ball will get its shape we will start adding details and so transform it to the ball on the reference picture.