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AutoCAD Tutorials

Materials and Production

Cameras

Cameras are the main viewing tools in 3D visualisation. This tutorial demonstartes how to create and control cameras.

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Exterior Lighting

This tutorial shows you how to set up a standard Sunlight System using a target direct light and including ambient light and standard shadow map settings.

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Landscape Materials

Efficient landscape modelling demands the ability to create realistic looking surfaces, edges and objects quickly and precisely. This tutorial discusses the issues.

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The Material Editor

The Material Editor provides functions to create and edit materials and maps. This tutorial is a basic introduction to the options available.

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Map Modifying

Map modification takes place in one of two places: either on the Modify Panel with the use of one of two modifiers, or in the Material Editor as part of the material parameters. This tutorial guides you through the options.

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Standard none mapped materials

Standard none mapped materials are suitable for paint, plastics, metal and basic glass type objects. By choosing the correct shader, the most suitable parameters can be used to create the most appropriate effects. This tutorial shows you how.

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Standard mapped materials - Procedural Maps

Procedural maps use computer generated effects and are applied to materials for many different purposes. They have to be scaled and positioned on the object using a UVW Map modifier or a Map Scaler modifier. This tutorials uses a worked example to show you how.

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Standard mapped materials - Image Maps

Image maps are applied to materials for many different purposes. They have to be scaled and positioned on the object using a UVW Map modifier or a Map Scaler modifier. This tutorial steps you through the process.

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Multi/Sub-Object materials

A Multi/Sub-Object material is a container for a number of sub-materials. This type of material is used when you need to assign different materials to different parts of an object and is used in infrastructure and environment projects mainly for objects such as benches, tables, lamposts, buildings etc. This tutorial works through a number of examples.

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Loft Mapping

This tutorial follows on from the simple Loft tutorial in Options for Creating Objects and demonstrates how to map a material along a lofted object.

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Sky Backgrounds

Putting a scene into an "environment" is important, not least to generate a feeling of "outdoors", a "sense of place" or mood. This tutorial takes you through the process of applying a sky background.

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Editing and Saving Materials

Once materials have been created and edited in the Material Editor to suit a particular scene they no longer need to be kept in the Materials Editor. Materials can be saved in material libraries and retreived for use in any other scene. This tutorial shows you how.

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Animation

Design visualisation animation generally involves animation of cameras in walkthrough, panaround or flyover movies to give the client a much richer and more informative view of the design. This tutorial covers the basics.

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Render Scene Dialog

The Render Scene dialog has many settings, only a number of which are commonly used. This tutorial uses the default Scanline Renderer as an introduction to the dialog and settings.

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