Expert: Andre Hickman - 3/6/2010

Question
i am a beginner of 3ds max. please suggest me how should i learn ?- means what are the main points which i should take carefully ?.

Answer
Hey Tarun,

I am not sure if my answer is what the normal instructor would tell you, but I base mine on experience, and not on a curriculum...  

3ds Max is really just a tool.  If you understand from an overall perspective what it is actually capable of doing, then don't try to learn in a linear, straight-forward method of gaining the information.  The best way to learn it is to actually immerse yourself in a project.

Ask yourself, "What do I want to try to do/build?"  When you find the answer to that, then start doing the research on how to do that one particular thing.  Now you may discover that there are 50 ways to do it on varying levels, but choose one that is comfortable with your understanding and knowledge at the time, and go from there. You will also discover that your idea might be a series of smaller projects that you have to master.

How do you research?  Simple.  If I were trying to build a house in 3ds Max, I'd go to Google or Yahoo search engines and type "3ds max house tutorial" It's that simple!!! or maybe what you need is a bouncing ball, so search "3ds max bouncing ball tutorial". Since you are a beginner, you may even just want to do a search on "3ds max beginner tutorials" and then find a project that wets your appetite.  Using this search method, you'll find tons of free learning materials for modelling, animating, and doing special effects, etc. and they will all use different techniques that will give you a better understanding of various aspects of 3ds max.

So to wrap what I've said up, don't try to learn in a linear fashion.  Learn non-linearly, by finding tutorial projects that you like, or projects that you need, and try to learn how to do that one thing.  In doing so, you will gain valuable information about the software and it's true capabilities and limitations.  Learning 3ds Max should not be like reading a book from front to back...  ...it should be more like putting a jigsaw puzzle together...you start finding pieces that look alike and group them together, until they start to form a picture.  It doesn't happen in perfect order, but once you have many of the pieces in place, you start to see the perfect picture! This may not be the way that they would teach you in school, but it is the way that I learned, and you can see my work on my site at www . andrehickman . com (I put spaces so the internet spiders won't track my website url here) Learning lasts forever, and I still use this method to learn new techniques to this day.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Andre