3ds Max Rendering, Materials, and Suggestions...

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King Icewind

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Hi,

I've been learning how to use 3ds Max the past few weeks, and well I still have a lot to learn. So of course I have quite a few questions...

Well, I made this scene of a house, with lighted windows, street lights, bushes, etc. Doesn't look to bad. I'll put some pics of it up tomorrow. I made a camera flythrough of it, and I went to render it. It was about 2000 frames, and was going to take a whopping 21 hours to render. That was with my computer at load. So, is there any way to speed up the rendering process? I tried shrinking the size of the scene down, but was still going to take about the same amount of time.

Also, I was wondering if any one had suggestions on how to make good materials, and any suggestions for downloads/tutorials.

A bit of an extra nooby question, but...I'm making another scene, and there's some boxes in it. I want part of the box cut out, so it will look a bracket [, however I can't figure out to do this. Any suggestions are great. ;)

Thanks in advance.
 
I believe with 3ds max you can use network resources to help the render process. Never used it though
 
If there are other computers at your disposal, you can break the scene into several parts and then just stitch them together at the end.

21 hours does seem crazy long for 2000 frames. But its impossible to say where the issue might be without more specifics.
 
Your rendering times are purely a result of the amount of detail and realism you want in the frame. My guess is that RayTracing is turned on and other special lighting effects. Materials and the like all contribute. I haven't worked with 3DSMax in a LONG time (not since '03) but most of the principles are the same. If you have more than one computer in your house or network, there's a free rendering engine that can be installed on each other machine and you can distribute the work out when no one is using them (usually in the middle of the night). It's called a "rendering farm". My guess is that your lighting is what's killing you. It's a very processor intensive ordeal -especially if it's a more realistic lighting system. Basic lighting doesn't take reflection and refraction into account, like shining a light on a red object will bounce shades of red around the area.

On a side note, depending on the type of animation your doing, realism may not be an actual advantage to your project. Usually, in cases where the animation is to convey a design or process, you will want the realism dialed down a bit or the viewer will miss the point while being dazzled by the fancy-looking "show" they're getting. From what you've mentioned (being a design "walk-through") you may want to either simplify or remove some of your non-essential textures, change the lighting method, and see how fast it renders...

Good luck and please share here if you can!
 
Backburner can help you reduce rendering time by designating frames to different computers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46UbrC403EM

This is a rendering I've done. The last 10 secs took the same amount of time to render as the first 60 secs. I think it has something to do with number of polygons and lighting. ;p
 
Yea I street lights, 2 lights on the garage, in 4 windows, and a light beside the door. It looks good, except the grass. Just recently learned how to make it better...looks like frozen mountain dew. :eek:

Learned how to make glass. Real cool. Working on another project, which I think would be really cool to have made + me getting some royalties or whatever :D. I'll post some pics up tomorrow of everything I've been messing around with.
 
Well here's a concept design that I've been working on. It's a computer case/desk all in one. Not really sure if there's anything out there like it already (havn't checked). The finished design will have water cooling. Still need to add that! :D Also need to add the cable management idea I have. Once it's finished I'm going to send it to see what Antec/Corsair think of it.

I didn't put any text or anything in desk video. So to explain it...

The CD/DVD drives are on the left side, there's enough room for 5. The black glass front panel, comes off and there is a sliding motherboard try. Alternately you could take the top clear glass off to access the motherboard. There are 3 smaller fans to the right of the motherboard, and 2 on the left, each underneath the hard drives. Taking the left black glass panel off, allows access to the CD/DVD drives and hard drives. The right black glass panel, is where the power supply and cable management box is. Underneath the desk is the curved tube that right below the power supply fan. It's supposed to help move the heat away. On the back there are 3 larger fans, the two on the right (looking at the backside) are by the CD/Drives and Hard drives, to help keep them cool.

I havn't decided if I should add fans to the black glass front panel.
There will be two radiators, one will be mounted on the right leg, and the left leg. Or both on right/left leg.

So tell me what you think of the case! :D

This text video is for my computer business. It is was my first attempt at a camera fly through.

I might them up on youtube later. Youtube is blocked. :(

I have yet to add the house video/pics. Takes awhile to render, and I'm reworking the grass.
 
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