Robbymrodriguez
Member
First note, if you are using 3ds Max for free then you can NOT earn any money from it. If you look at the box that pops up it is very clear that you need a commercial license to earn money.
Opening Max
This is what you'll see when you first open up 3ds max.
Things to note: the grid you see is a floor for you to work on BUT you can go through it anytime, this is the perspective viewport. To get a better idea of what both perspective and viewport mean lets use a shortcut ALT+W. Make sure you've left clicked in the window before hitting that.
You can now see four(4) viewports. Viewports are your windows in the virtual world, the computer always knows what your model looks like but you have to have a way to see it. First we'll learn what the viewports are looking at exactly and then how to manipulate them for fun and for profit.
Now you can see that I created a model and placed it in the center of the world(more on coordinates later). Now lets look at the viewports. The upper-left viewport is your top viewport. The top viewport looks down into the 3d world. Now this can be a little tricky since a model COULD be created upside down, but up is up regardless just like in the real world.
The lower left viewport is your left viewport. It looks from the left to the right of the world. On the upper right is the front viewport. It just looks from the front to the back of the world, giving you a head-on view.
On the lower right hand is the perspective viewport. This one is different from all the others. The top, right and left viewports are all wireframe which means they only show the polygons' edges(more on these later). Also they present orthogonal views, this means that if you look edge on a model you should only see the outline(in most cases). But neither of these are how you actually see things in real life. The perspective viewport both shows the surface(think of it as the skin) and puts perspective on the model(heh, didn't see that coming right?). When you see an object in real life the edges tend to flair due to the way your eye works.
Now to really get an idea of how manage your viewports we need to make an object. Lets start with a cube. First click box then click the cube option that appears below.
Now click in the center of your perspective viewport and drag out a bit. A cube should appear! Your cube does not need to be the same size as mine, but it should be the in the same ball park. If you don't like your cube you can either delete it with the DELETE key or use CTRL+Z to undo.
Now you can really see what's happening when you move a viewport around. First hit the Z key to center and zoom in on your box in all the viewports. Z will zoom out or in to include ALL objects you've made and center them. Now that's actually a little to close for me so lets zoom out. Hold down the CTRL+ALT keys and your MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON, now drag in and out. Play around with zoom in all 4 of the viewports for a second to get a feel for it.
Zooming in and is great but it's not all there is to know. Next lets pan, hold your MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON in your perspective viewport and drag around. Panning is basically just dragging, but note that you are dragging the world not your object. Sometimes if your not careful(or even if you are) you might lose your object, it just got too far away from you to see! To fix this use the Z command again to re-center on it.
Only one more way to look at things! That's rotate. To rotate hold the ALT key and your MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON and again drag around. Notice again that you're moving the world and not your object when you do this.
Hopefully you've been playing in your perspective viewport this whole but it's no big deal if you haven't. The top, right, and left viewports do not like getting rotated(see image below)! To fix them just click the word Orthographic in the view port you've "broken" and select what view you want. You'll notice you actually have more options to choose from but it's probably best to stick to the original ones for now.
Alright! Time to actually move objects! First reset all of your viewports. Or even better yet, reset 3ds max. To do this click on the giant M where file usually is on options and click reset. Click no and then yes.
Go ahead and build another box like the first one. Look at the following picture. See the buttons I boxed?
Opening Max
This is what you'll see when you first open up 3ds max.
Things to note: the grid you see is a floor for you to work on BUT you can go through it anytime, this is the perspective viewport. To get a better idea of what both perspective and viewport mean lets use a shortcut ALT+W. Make sure you've left clicked in the window before hitting that.
You can now see four(4) viewports. Viewports are your windows in the virtual world, the computer always knows what your model looks like but you have to have a way to see it. First we'll learn what the viewports are looking at exactly and then how to manipulate them for fun and for profit.
Now you can see that I created a model and placed it in the center of the world(more on coordinates later). Now lets look at the viewports. The upper-left viewport is your top viewport. The top viewport looks down into the 3d world. Now this can be a little tricky since a model COULD be created upside down, but up is up regardless just like in the real world.
The lower left viewport is your left viewport. It looks from the left to the right of the world. On the upper right is the front viewport. It just looks from the front to the back of the world, giving you a head-on view.
On the lower right hand is the perspective viewport. This one is different from all the others. The top, right and left viewports are all wireframe which means they only show the polygons' edges(more on these later). Also they present orthogonal views, this means that if you look edge on a model you should only see the outline(in most cases). But neither of these are how you actually see things in real life. The perspective viewport both shows the surface(think of it as the skin) and puts perspective on the model(heh, didn't see that coming right?). When you see an object in real life the edges tend to flair due to the way your eye works.
Now to really get an idea of how manage your viewports we need to make an object. Lets start with a cube. First click box then click the cube option that appears below.
Now click in the center of your perspective viewport and drag out a bit. A cube should appear! Your cube does not need to be the same size as mine, but it should be the in the same ball park. If you don't like your cube you can either delete it with the DELETE key or use CTRL+Z to undo.
Now you can really see what's happening when you move a viewport around. First hit the Z key to center and zoom in on your box in all the viewports. Z will zoom out or in to include ALL objects you've made and center them. Now that's actually a little to close for me so lets zoom out. Hold down the CTRL+ALT keys and your MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON, now drag in and out. Play around with zoom in all 4 of the viewports for a second to get a feel for it.
Zooming in and is great but it's not all there is to know. Next lets pan, hold your MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON in your perspective viewport and drag around. Panning is basically just dragging, but note that you are dragging the world not your object. Sometimes if your not careful(or even if you are) you might lose your object, it just got too far away from you to see! To fix this use the Z command again to re-center on it.
Only one more way to look at things! That's rotate. To rotate hold the ALT key and your MIDDLE MOUSE BUTTON and again drag around. Notice again that you're moving the world and not your object when you do this.
Hopefully you've been playing in your perspective viewport this whole but it's no big deal if you haven't. The top, right, and left viewports do not like getting rotated(see image below)! To fix them just click the word Orthographic in the view port you've "broken" and select what view you want. You'll notice you actually have more options to choose from but it's probably best to stick to the original ones for now.
Alright! Time to actually move objects! First reset all of your viewports. Or even better yet, reset 3ds max. To do this click on the giant M where file usually is on options and click reset. Click no and then yes.
Go ahead and build another box like the first one. Look at the following picture. See the buttons I boxed?