Boss man wants better rendering. What is your opinion?

Since you will most likely be building your site models in your CAD program, you really just need to learn about 3ds Max materials, lighting and rendering. I learned most of what I know about these subjects from the book in the link below. It's an older book though, for an older version of Studio Max, so probably not as relevant for newer versions of the program.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Rendering-mental-first-Steen-published/dp/B00EKYZW50/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1472842569&sr=8-14&keywords=rendering+with+mental+ray

 

There is a newer version of the book here, but still kind of old, 2009

 

https://www.amazon.com/Rendering-Mental-Ray-3ds-Author/dp/B010BG1ENY/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1472842768&sr=8-16&keywords=rendering+with+mental+ray

 

I have loads of video training from way back when I was learning the program, but most of the companies that made these videos are either gone or they have turned into subscription services. It seems that you can no longer just purchase the videos. You have to sign up with them and watch the videos in your browser.

 

Here's a good subscription service with a ton of good 3ds Max training.

 

Digital Tutors: http://www.digitaltutors.com/software/3ds-Max-tutorials

 

Hope that helps

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I don't see any of this stuff when I am outside of work. Thank you very much for the links CAD64! I actually started using the tutorials from this site and they were useful, dated, but useful. The mapping is insane! I have had one heck of a time with it hahaha. I tried to map some steps and it came out so wrong when I tried the vertical piece. The flat part (horizontal) came out great. I think I was using a brick type of material. For the life of me I could not get the grout lines to line up with the vert. and horiz.. I also spent a lot of time playing with the bumps and different features. As you stated before, the learning curve is quite steep. Thanks again for all the help.

I dont know how well they work for what you guys do but I use Solidworks visualize(stand alone) which is bunkspeed rebranded. Also Keyshot. Both powerful and user friendly but ive never done that kind of work. Mostly renders of concept vehicles I create. Both have 30day trials.

Thank you very much for the other ideas. I will be more than happy to take a look into these. Boss man probably will say that it's a no go but, ya never know. Maybe I can convince him

Here's a good subscription service with a ton of good 3ds Max training.

 

Digital Tutors: http://www.digitaltutors.com/software/3ds-Max-tutorials

 

Hope that helps

I actually worked on one of their free tutorials, after I registered. I did a dumpster from scratch in 3DS. It was a very good and detailed tutorial. The hard part for me was following along on some steps. Sometimes I didn't know where they were getting the steps they were taking. I guess I didn't know where they were choosing stuff like a sub-menu I couldn't find.

I actually worked on one of their free tutorials, after I registered. I did a dumpster from scratch in 3DS. It was a very good and detailed tutorial. The hard part for me was following along on some steps. Sometimes I didn't know where they were getting the steps they were taking. I guess I didn't know where they were choosing stuff like a sub-menu I couldn't find.

Good to hear you're moving along with this. If you have questions about how they're doing things in their tutorials, you can ask them in their forum or you can post your questions here, in the 3ds Max section, and I will try to answer if I can.