What you'll learn
Streamlining material editor workflow
Managing assets
Referencing materials with XRefs
Rendering the Physical Material
Controlling highlights with Roughness
Directing reflections and refractions
Simulating translucency and scattering
Building a shading network
Combining and color correcting maps
Baking maps with Render to Texture
Procedural mapping
Using relief maps: bump, normal, and displacement

Physically-based rendering (PBR) simulates the way light works in the real world. It achieves greater realism with less effort than traditional 3D rendering. This course is updated for 3ds Max 2019, and focuses on PBR shading techniques. The Physical Material simulates surfaces such as stone, glass, and metal. Instructor Aaron F. Ross also looks at building shading networks, and combining and adjusting maps in interesting ways. Procedural maps such as Substance deserve special attention, and you'll also see how to bake them out to bitmap files for cross-application and renderer compatibility. By the end of the course, you'll have a firm foundation in advanced shading workflows in 3ds Max.

In this course we're going to learn about shading techniques for physically based rendering or PBR. Compared to previous generations of rendering algorithms, the PBR shading model gives us greater realism with less effort. In this course, we'll explore the 3ds Max physical material in depth and see how easy it is to get photo realistic results. Another area we'll focus on is building complex shading networks. Combining and processing texture maps allows us to achieve more interesting materials. We'll get the most out of procedural maps, such as substance, and render textures out to image files for compatibility with other programs. Those are some of the topics in this course that I've designed to give you a firm foundation in advanced materials in 3ds Max.