Derakhshani Dariush - Autodesk 3ds Max 2016 Essentials

Acquisitions Editor: Stephanie McComb
Development Editor: Clark David
Technical Editor: Jon McFarland
Production Editor: Joel Jones
Copy Editor: Kathy Grider-Carlyle
Editorial Manager: Mary Beth Wakefield
Production Manager: Kathleen Wisor
Associate Publisher: Jim Minatel
Proofreader: Kathryn Duggan
Indexer: Nancy Guenther
Project Coordinator, Cover: Brent Savage
Cover Designer: Wiley
Cover Image: Courtesy of Dariush Derakhshani; Back Cover Images: Courtesy of Randi L. Derakhshani

Copyright 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-119-05976-9
ISBN: 978-1-119-05990-5 (ebk.)
ISBN: 978-1-119-05989-9 (ebk.)

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Education is an all-important goal in life and should always be approached with eagerness and earnestness. We would like to show appreciation to the teachers who inspired us; you can always remember the teachers who touched your life, and to them we say thanks. We would also like to thank all of our students, who taught us a lot during the course of our many combined academic years.

Special thanks go to Stephanie McComb, David Clark, Joel Jones, and Mary Beth Wakefield, our editors at Sybex who have been professional, courteous, and ever patient. Our appreciation also goes to technical editor Jon McFarland, who worked hard to make sure this book is of the utmost quality. We could not have done this revision without their help.

In addition, many thanks to our son, Max, our motivation and our inspiration.

Having a good computer system is important with this type of work, so a special thank you goes to HP for keeping us on the cutting edge of workstation hardware by providing us with a fully decked-out EliteBook 8760w, which was our primary computer in writing this book. What struck us about the laptop was that it was not only portable, making it easy for a writing team to collaborate; it was also powerful enough to run truly demanding tasks. It takes a special machine to run graphics-intensive applications, such as the Autodesk 3ds Max 2016 software, and we were thrilled to write this book on the HP EliteBook.

Running an Intel i7 CPU with 16GB of RAM and an NVIDIA Quadro 5010M (with a whopping 6 GB of memory) gave us the muscle we needed to run multiple applications alongside 3ds Max splendidly. Dual 320 GB hard drives gave us plenty of space for Windows 7 Professional and its applications, and still left lots of room for renders. We opted out of the RAID option to mirror the drives (you can also stripe them for performance), but that doesn't mean we neglected our backup duties with this machine! The 8760w was easily integrated into a gigabit network in the home office, and on fast Wi-Fi everywhere else, so we had constant access to the home network and the hundreds upon hundreds of files (and all their backups!) necessary to write this book.

And since we are so very image-conscious (as in the screen!), we wondered if the images we created and captured for this book would be done justice on just a laptop screen. The EliteBook has a stunning 17-inch, 30-bit IPS display panel that put those questions to rest very quickly! The EliteBook screen is professionally accurate and calibrated for optimum image clarity and correct color. Barely a handful of high-end mobile workstations could even come close to meeting the demands that image professionals put on their gear. But this notebook HP DreamColor display is remarkablethere's just no other way to put itgoing as far as besting any of our desktop screens in color and vibrancy.

With performance at such a high level, and in a nice portable form, we were easily convinced that we should perform all of our intensive work for this book on the EliteBook. Going back to a desk-bound tower quickly became a non-option. Thanks, HP!

Randi L. Derakhshani is an Autodesk-Certified Instructor. She began working with computer graphics in 1992 and was hired by her instructor to work at Sony Pictures Imageworks, where she developed her skills with the Autodesk 3ds Max program and Apple's Shake image-compositing program among many other programs. A teacher since 1999, Randi enjoys sharing her wisdom with young talent and watching them develop. Currently, she is teaching at Exceptional Minds, a school where individuals on the autism spectrum learn through customized instruction the fields of multimedia, computer animation, and post-production. She also teaches a wide range of classes, from Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya, and ZBrush to compositing with The Foundry's Nuke. Juggling her teaching activities with caring for a little boy makes Randi a pretty busy lady.