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Lesson I - Introduction to 3D Studio
Our first lesson shall be all about 3D Studio. We will discuss the various
aspects of the software itself and an introduction.
What is 3d Studio?
Well, it's a program by Autodesk Inc. used to design and create 3D graphics.
You can also make animations with it ranging from movie quality ala Toy
Story to animations for commercial purposes to professional architectural
animations.
Why 3D studio?
You might say that you could produce equally good animations with other
software such as TrueSpace and LightWave. Yes, that is true but what 3D
Studio has to offer is flexibility, ease of use and support. 3D Studio offers
the most effective interface - the tools available are similar to those
used by professional architects. With these tools almost any effect is achievable.
And with the aid of plug-ins which are widely available, anything is possible.
As for support, 3D Studio is compatible with most graphic formats such as
BMP, GIF, JPEG, TARGA, and so on. You can also import files from CorelDraw
and AutoCAD. Since most professionals use AutoCAD, you can import your files
into 3D Studio for rendering. As AutoCAD has become the industry standard
for architectural design, 3D Studio follows in suit as the standard for
PC 3D graphic design. Unless you can fork up enough money to obtain a Silicon
Graphics computer then you should stick to 3D Studio.
Which Version?
There are two main versions of 3D Studio in the market - those meant
to run in DOS (3D Studio release 1-4) and those meant to run in a Windows95/NT
setting (3D Studio Max). The difference? Well, 3D Studio Max offers easier
interface, better tools, more advanced modeling capabilities, faster rendering,
more impressive plug-ins and an integrated system. Unfortunately it only
runs on Windows95/NT and is prone to crashes in Windows95. So if you don't
mind the illegal operations dialog box popping up and causing 3D Studio
to shut down and in turn losing some of your work some of the time then
go for 3D Studio Max. The concepts used by both of these programs are basically
the same - the main difference is the interface. The online lessons taught
here will feature both versions.
What other software?
3D Studio can do 3D renderings and animation. But that is all that it
does (same goes for any other 3D program). You need other software to design
the other aspects of your 3D elements. Most important of all, you would
need a good 2D program to create the texture maps used by 3D Studio. For
this I would recommend programs like Adobe Photoshop and Paintshop Pro.
As for post animation processes like integration of audio effects and video
processing I would recommend programs like Adobe Premiere or Animator Studio
by Autodesk. You can also use CorelDraw to create shape files that can be
imported into 3D Studio.
What do I need to run 3D Studio?
Well, you can run 3D Studio even on a 386 (with a maths-coprocessor)!
If you have a 486, a 386 or a low end Pentium PC and you use DOS then you
should use 3D Studio Release 4. If you have a high end Pentuim or above
PC and you use Windows 95 or Windows NT then you should use 3D Studio Max.
However, if you prefer 3D Studio R4 it's more or less the same. The minimum
requirements for 3D Studio R4 is a 386 (with a maths-coprocessor), 8MB of
RAM and about 20MB free harddisk space for the program. As for 3D Studio
Max you will need at least a Pentium 100 with 16MB ram and lots of hard
disk space.
That concludes our first lesson on 3D Studio. Go on to the next lesson to learn 3D Studio's layout.
Back to Learning 3D Studio menu.
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