The measures have a dramatic influence in combination with lights and their fall-offs as well as atm-FX. If an object is only a few centimeters (inches) in size, don't desgin it in meters (feet) unless necessarry.

Don't forget: you can zoom your viewports to dramatic values - in both directions.

Sources : Internet

The Graphic-Cards (GC) do render to screen with dramatic speed. You will wonder why this doesn't speed up rendering your image as well when using 3D Studio Max. This is because of how the (standard PC) hardware works and Max is not using a hardware-renderer.

Simplified: The CPU sends it's data from the System-RAM to the GC. The GC renders an image out of what it gets and sends it to the screen (at usually around 72dpi) - not back to your system's RAM, since the out-port of the GC is (mainly) a oneway-road. Therefore the system can't access the rendered image that is sent to the screen.

3D accelerators are usuefull to speed up the viewports. The faster the GC tells the screen what to do, the faster - and smoother - the handling of the viewports will become. You surely noticed the degradation that occures when handling certain views of certain models. Trying to (eg.) rotate a huge and complex scene in "shade and highlight" mode often degrades the display to wireframe or even to bounding box while rotating. Switching on "degradation override" may make the viewport behave somewhat stubborn to your commands. This is where a fast GC comes handy. Also doing previews of animations in viewports will benefit from an accelerated GC.


Sources : Internet

Some points about to enhance your modelling skills......
  • A shell with no soul? A lot of vehicles I see on the web are modeled out as just the body with wheels & tires. That's fine, but there is a lot more to a vehicle than just the shell and wheels. There is an interior, engine, transmission, drive line, wiring, tubes, hoses, bolts, and a whole other host of parts that make up the entire vehicle. For clarity, I am not putting down a vehicle model that consists solely of a body and wheels. For some applications, this is all that's required.

  • References: You will need a lot of references while tackling a project of this magnitude. Even if you are very familiar with the subject matter you will more than likely need photos to get most of the details down. www.google.com/images is a great source for images, and while I use Google a lot, there are plenty other places to find pictures or information. I for one, get magazines that pertain to the subject model. Magazines will give you pictures as well as information and write-ups about the subject. Don't over look the advertisements though; they usually have good pictures as well.

    A digital camera is a necessity for me, taking a picture of something specific is a very good way to gather references. A high mega-pixel digital camera can capture a lot of detail, even if you don't stick the camera intrudingly close-up. (but sometimes, you just have to) I go to car shows quite often to browse around the beautiful machines, and to take pictures (both for artistic photography, as well as reference photos). Sometimes I am forced to go to auto parts stores, and take pictures of the parts that way. I bring my college ID with me, and I never have any problems taking pictures inside the store. I even keep old parts off my car (or new ones that I have not installed yet) as reference. Just keep them in a box by the computer, and pick them up when it's time to model them.

    Having a dual monitor setup makes the process of modeling a lot easier. You can have a few reference pictures open on one monitor, and your 3d program on the next monitor. That, combined with magazines and parts strewn all around, should be plenty of reference.

  • Knowledge: Having a little knowledge about your subject matter usually helps out quite a bit. Being mechanically minded, I like to know how things attach to each other, and how they interact with each other. You don't have to know all this, but it sure does help. For instance, if you don't know how a particular part correctly attaches as it would be in real life, you can attach it convincingly enough using your knowledge of how other parts usually attach. That may be all you need.

  • Accuracy: Granted, most 3d programs are not geared to absolute real world accuracy; you can usually customize the units to SAE or Metric standards and get acceptably close accuracy. Most 3d programs are able to do this, but even then this is not enough to get perfect accuracy. Accuracy is being able to tell the distance and angle from one object to another, or the diameter of a bolt whole and angle in relation to the other holes, or bend angle and slope of a tube: and being able to do this quickly and easily. CAD programs and other mechanical design programs are more suited to accuracy, but for the most part, if you can make something believable, then it does not need to be absolutely accurate to the millimeter. Some jobs may require a higher degree of accuracy, but for the majority of models, being very close and believable is plenty good enough. I am not saying do not pay attention to accuracy, if you pay attention to accuracy as much as possible, there will be a lot less guess work and "eyeballing" to do.

    Sometimes, "eyeballing" is the only practical way around something. Here, it is important to know the size and placement of object in relation to their surrounding objects. For example, look at pictures and see: How many tires long is the car? (6 and 2/3 tires long, for example) How many headlights wide is the grill? How many bolts fit in-between two header pipes, how many valve cover bolt-heads wide are the valve covers? When you start thinking like this, any guess work you have to do, will be done much easier.

  • Starting the modeling process: Starting a vehicle can be a very daunting task, especially if you plan to make the vehicle from the ground up: frame, engine, body and all. I suggest that you don't look at the vehicle as a whole, and don't even look at is as "the engine" or, "the interior". Break it down even further, down to the individual parts.

    Think of it just as you would if you were to physically build or restore a vehicle in real life. If starting out with the engine, look at the block first, look to the next part attached, and the next part, and the next. Now model them out as you study them individually. All the while hiding parts that have been completed (except to get things aligned and scaled correctly). If you think of the engine as simply a set of parts, rather than a huge contraption, things will go a lot easier. This will ensure that you don't get mind boggled by the huge task, and also that you don't skimp over any details.

    Back to the "physically building or restoring" example, would a vehicle run without fuel lines to deliver the fuel? Or breaks without a break line? Would the hood stay open with out a prop or struts? Would a door open with out hinges? Would the seats stay put with out seat rails? Would all those parts stay on if there are no nuts, bolts or welds? I think you can see the pattern here. Think of it literally, however ridiculous or insane that might sound.

Sources : Internet

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