Little 3D Max
March 17th, 2009

Working on a quick 3D lighting tutorial that may come in handy one day. It's a pretty universal technique so you can follow along in Cinema 4D and other apps too. No special rendering engines required.

UPDATE: Here is another pic; 5 seconds to render (864 x 486).

Sci-Fi Reference Image

Andrew Kramer
POSTED:
16 years ago
109 Comments
Fabio Malveira
9 years ago
It is possible to get the same result with 3D Element V2.2:
Just watched it. Sweet and old school and repeatable in other software. I like it. This tutorial is also how I stumbled on your site.. and am glad I did.
- Niko
nicobn21
16 years ago
can't wait !....
Ray
16 years ago
I offer thousand camels and free run through my Harem for this tutorial!!!
Bill C.
16 years ago
>What font have you used in these images?

Looks like Bauhaus.
notsorealfx
16 years ago
Bring it!
16 years ago
Can't wait to see the tutorial, because I know that I always learn new things in your tutorials. One little question, What font have you used in these images?
Designer Plus
16 years ago
I was wondering the same thing? What ever happened to this tutorial...It seems rather intriguing and provides for very basic and essential lighting techniques for anyone with any skill level in 3ds..I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say, we would like to see the great Kramer's take on this....
16 years ago
Hey Everyone,

I am working on a project where I would like to use this technique. Is there anyone who could assist me in creating a material/scene to get this look? I have been messing with it and I am very close, but I have a few questions. Any assistance you could provide would be great. My email is steve(at)thediorama.com
16 years ago
Will this tutorial ever come to light andrew?

I 'ope so - bacon flavoured got my mouth watering...
eloi
16 years ago
I dont Know if you did this using a dome light or not. But for making domelights this is really a good script: e-light, really helpfull:

http://home.wanadoo.nl/r.j.o/skyraider/e-light.htm
eloi
16 years ago
Wow! At first time I saw that I was thinking that is not really amazing. With vray with prebake GI you can do this pretty easy. But when You put the 5 seconds per frame! I wan to see this tutorial!
Im experimenting also with dome lights.
16 years ago
Man, Andrew, anything you do looks and sounds awesome. Dude, you are so talented, I can only wish to follow in your footsteps. Can't wait to see your new products and short film.

Take care.
joe
16 years ago
i like it cool!
Elie
16 years ago
Speaking of which check this out http://nylon.la/
blain
16 years ago
sweet
yanack
16 years ago
@ Samujjal.....No need for a tutorial....all you need is this --------> www.mirvadim.com = Rayfire tool!!!

By the way? whens the tutorial gonna be published?
Alex
16 years ago
Amazing Typography !
Samujjal
16 years ago
Hi Andrew..
Can you find some time to teach the glass breaking effect in max...It woulld be great help...
Regards
Samujjal
Kadambari Creation
Romee
16 years ago
Andrew Kramer hello

nice work man
keep it up


from

Romee...!
Eric Harrison
16 years ago
Hey Andrew, yours looks great, I'm guessing you used the normal scanline renderer? Coz I don't see the readiosity/ Global illumination effect reflecting off of the font mesh.

Will you be handeling a plain version and a GI version?
16 years ago
@Nikolaus Hi! Awesome 3D. What font are you using in your test/example?
Muhammad Waseem Ata Attari
16 years ago
Hi,
this is looking very nice Andrew,
are you making a 3d Tutorial on any antic thing.i will be wait for that.,,,.....//.,.//,,/,//.
David W.
16 years ago
I thought I posted before, but I guess not. It looks very cool Andrew, thanks for sharing it.
Alex
16 years ago
hey andrew,
i was wondering if you could spare some time to do some kind of Blender 3d tutorial because its kinda hard to follow the max and 4d tutorials with the blender interface. Also good tutorials for blender are few and far between.

Sincerely,
Alex
Dayill
16 years ago
Any idea when you think this tutorial will be ready? I would love to use this for an internal ad that is coming up at my work
16 years ago
Hi Andrew.
Iâ??????m your fan.I'm from Curitiba Brazil
In my After effects Brazil Orkutâ??????s community we talk about you and your's tutorial.We learning so much with you.
We love you man.Keep doing this.

http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=65780
16 years ago
Hey anyone know how much cost Max 3d?
Dansoy frm the Philippines
16 years ago
Sir!

Thx 4 shrng the font...
nice artwork hope there will be a tuts 4 that artwork.
haha!

peace out!
pedro
16 years ago
what font is that?
Azzy
16 years ago
Wow cant wait!! all your work has been a huge help to me so far and your 3d tutorials ,only one so far though (3d vines) have given me the basics to do alot. For instance from 3d vines i was able to create most of the moving elements seen in the current sereis of T-pains videos ("Freeze", "cant beleive it" , e.t.c). Might even make a tutorial myself..nah im just kidding. Well this is just a big thank you to know your work is really appreciated.

Thank You!
Ian
16 years ago
Bauhaus dessau...

no occlussion on that?
Eric
16 years ago
I'm looking forward to the tut!

Thanks, Andrew.
limpmar
16 years ago
I can't wait to see the tutorial!!
Thank you!
16 years ago
I took a long hard look at that SyFy render when I first saw it. It's nice to see that you must have, too.
16 years ago
nice and clean, i like it, 'll just give it a try
16 years ago
Hope this tutorial comes out soon, I'm a 3d specialist, still trying to learn all I can about AE, but my lighting in 3d has always been a place I could improve. Usually I just use a photometric light and FG for night or artificial light scenes, or the skylight for day scenes, but they usually take forever to render.

*waits anxiously for tutorial while eating popcorn and doing random titles for work*
Modisana
16 years ago
YEEEESSSS...thank you thank you so much Mr Kramer...Ive been dying for 3D tutorials from you
Sandy
16 years ago
looks gr8 Andrew! awesome work!
Dee
16 years ago
Awesome work Andrew.

As Usual.

Thanks
Asri
16 years ago
this pic u render using Cinema 4D or 3ds max?
16 years ago
I think that motion graphics is not enough without 3DS Max
I wish you can post tutorials for 3DS Max & After Effects together.
it would be really nice
Thanks for sharing this
Nikolaus
16 years ago
hehe, one of my best days... thank you for compliment So, now i will finish for today! We see us in New York!
16 years ago
Yeah Radiosity. It makes the image look great and you get the light reflecting so nicely but of course it is very slow and animations can be flickery.

Again, nice job.
Nikolaus
16 years ago
and here without radiosity. took 3 sec. to render.

http://www.gimei.de/syfy5.jpg

So, sry for posting so much here You just inspire me with you post
Nikolaus
16 years ago
Hi Andrew,

what do you mean with GI? Radiosity? I use... And my rendertime was 1 min. and 12 sec. an a X9650 CPU.

Here is a new one using one of your greate textures.

http://www.gimei.de/syfy4.jpg
16 years ago
Really nice Nikolaus, although I'm trying to do it without GI. What was your render time?
Nikolaus
16 years ago
Thank you Andrew. At the mean time, i try something with my NewTek LightWave

Not the same font. But take a look please

http://www.gimei.de/syfy-test.jpg
David K.
16 years ago
nice
dkn
16 years ago
great, would definitely love seeing more 3d tutorials
slashcr
16 years ago
Cool..
16 years ago
Nikolaus, It's a little different, but it's called Bauhas or something like that.
Nikolaus
16 years ago
Can you tell us the name of the font you use? Looks like it is exactly the same from SyFy
16 years ago
Hmmm.. I'd love me some Bacon Flavored 3DSmax.
Bestia
16 years ago
Cool !
16 years ago
Looks great AK! Would like to see some Realflow Realwave fluids around it Tut idea haha!!

Cya
Llewellyn
16 years ago
Fantastic website. Always checking your blog page, to see if there is something new. I just have a quick question, not sure if you can help, but maybe. I've started learning Maya after loads of googling about which 3D app to go with. Most said that Maya was best for the Film / Video industry, but you seem to use 3D Max is there a reason for this. Do you just prefer using 3d Max?

Many thanks !!!!!
Grim
16 years ago
Looking forward to it, AK. It's definitely good lighting that in the 3D animation world separates the talented from the hacks. Good luck in NY.
Ryan
16 years ago
Hah, thanks, andrew, this looks like it'll be great!
16 years ago
You inspired me!
I went into blender for about five minutes with your picture in mind, and came up wit this.
http://www.therefuge.net23.net/image/The_Warlord_HD.jpg
Thanks!
nando
16 years ago
beautiful.....I rely tooo much on Vray...so I am exited to see what you come up with...mostly spot lights and omni's?
Lucas
16 years ago
Nice!
Arjun
16 years ago
we want tutorials !!!! we want tutorials !!!!!
please reaply me andrew ... Say hi to me plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz n my name s Arjun. m one of your big fan... i love Andrew...
Sunky Jay Pedro
16 years ago
Happy 2 see you goin into 3d cos i'm so addicted to ur tutorials i cnt learn frm anyone else. Dnt blame me most teachers are up tight. Your nigerian student hails thee keep up d good work
16 years ago
YES!YES!YES!YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!
i Always had a problem figuring out how to frikkin' Render and assign materials that will make a simple title look like a Million Bucks!! it shouldnt be That hard..but it seemed like that all the time for me! :\
dunno if it was made with Vray, or Mental Ray [which are quite complex] but if not, its even more amazing u managed to get this quality without using them, Andrew :]
Cant Wait for a Tutorial like this! THANX!!
16 years ago
that looks cool, my Cinema 4d lighting skills are poor.
Cool.
16 years ago
sweet.
illd
16 years ago
Looks a little bit like an ambient occlusion render...
rasta
16 years ago
first is better then this second xd
good work.
Josh
16 years ago
Bacon flavored Video Copilot: http://bacolicio.us/http://www.videocopilot.net
16 years ago
Yeah q3c, that's what I was going for, but without Global Illumination. I was thinking though, I'm not sure I would like the new name (syfy) if it weren't for the nice looking graphic that went with it
q3c
16 years ago
The top picture looks just like the render used for the re-branding announcement for the SciFi channel... or should I say SyFy.
Daniel
16 years ago
YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
16 years ago
Great, I'd love to see more tutorials in 3D Max.
16 years ago
Actually Jimmy, that's exactly the reason I'm making this tutorial. But shhh, I have a good joke in the tutorial about the Sci-fi network.
LGFN
16 years ago
Wow! Beautiful! Can't wait!

BTW, is this little artwork of yours inspired by the new SyFy (SciFi) logo?
Looks cool again!

What does 5 secs to render mean on a PC like yours?

If some guys really wont get it, someone has to do a 3DsMax to c4d,blender again.
Vladimir(Balakovo-Russia)
16 years ago
Fhanks for your tutorials
16 years ago
This is so funny. The Sci-Fi channel renamed their station to SyFy (totally stupid). But they have a new logo that looks just like this. I read about the name change yesterday and saw the new logo and thought, "Man that looks awesome, I should figure out how to do that."

Thanks Mr. Kramer. Now I don't have to figure it out myself.

Jimmy
zvi
16 years ago
@Vic, here's a site with lots of 3ds Max tutorials:
http://tinyurl.com/asb9pf
Vic
16 years ago
I'm really glad you show how to use 3DSMax. I have it and really don't know how to do much with it! Do you know of any websites that have tutorials on using 3DSMax?
Thanks for you time you put into videocopilot!
Vic
16 years ago
This might come in handy for the Meteor tutorial where you showed that you could also add Text into the scene
16 years ago
Looking forward to the day where I can choose to learn 3d Max or After Effects.
alex
16 years ago
that's nice.

I look forward to see it
16 years ago
I'm only making 1 tutorial in 3D max. You can do it with any app you want.
16 years ago
Cool. Don't forget the Blender headz!
pvsciteach
16 years ago
OOOOh... Cinema 4D! Thanks Andrew!
LifeType
16 years ago
im so glad your gonna do some 3dmax .. your the reason i bought 3dmax and now i love it . lighting is one of my worst areas .. i cant wait . thx
Galiano
16 years ago
I can't wait!!!!
16 years ago
Awesome! I've been trying to get lighting to work on my projects but either it doesn't look right, or it takes a while to render. This should defiantly help!!
16 years ago
Lighting Vray ?
Suvir
16 years ago
let me also try to arrive at something close to it.
Matt
16 years ago
Very Nice. Thanks for everything.
JAZOoR
16 years ago
Yehaaaa 3D
Sebastian
16 years ago
Hi Andrew,

Looks interesting.
I hope it will be cool

Have Fun!
Guten Tag from Germany
Jim
16 years ago
This is awesome! id love more 3d program based tutorial
and especially ones on how to properly light and texture things
16 years ago
That looks really cool
Can't wait to interepret into Blender!!
dan
16 years ago
We want more tutorials! come on andrew lol
G Man
16 years ago
where is the black background? hahaha

i really want to get into 3d programs
16 years ago
Wow i love it! Shadows are so soft and smooth...considering you didn't use any external renderer.
Can't wait for the tutorial to be out! Thanx Andrew.
Samuel C
16 years ago
^^ Awesome, as usual XD
Buccaneer Pete
16 years ago
Yaaaaaar.
sicu
16 years ago
Purdy!
everettoptions
16 years ago
Very nice!
Cityboy Studios
16 years ago
Cool. Anything Max is awesome! Looking forward to this.
16 years ago
Look very cool! Can't wait to see it
Fredrik
16 years ago
Cool!