As previously posted, I will host two sessions at Lightfair 2012. Below is the official description for each one. If you do plan to attend, feel free to drop me a line via my contact form with ideas and topics you want me to cover in those classes, its always good to get fresh ideas [...]
I will be presenting at Lightfair 2012 about two topics: Autodesk Revit and 3ds Max Design for Lighting and Daylighting simulation (Monday all day) Challenges associated with Weather-Based Annual Daylight Simulations (Tuesday a.m.) The official Lightfair 2012 schedule can be found here
Run this script on freshly imported Revit models via FBX. It will move all objects on a Layer that corresponds to the Category and Family as illustrated. This script is not a plugin and does not save data in the scene. You only need to run it once a while. The FBX import/link or 3ds [...]
Have you ever wanted to display the material and layer names of objects in the 3ds Max Scene Explorer? Or what about listing the type of object as well as its material name and type? This can be done with a relatively simple MAXScript that you must install under the \Scripts\Startup directory of your 3ds [...]
I will be presenting two sessions at Autodesk University 2011: Fine-Tune Your Autodesk® Revit® Models for Autodesk 3ds Max® Class handout here Stump the Autodesk® 3ds Max® Champions
Xrite’s Color Munki allows for calibrating monitors and measuring spectral samples. This is an excellent tool for measuring colors of materials and finishes for improved accuracy in computer renderings and simulations. The measured color palettes can be exported from the Color Munki software as *.CxF files and read back in 3ds Max with the help of a plugin now [...]
I will be teaching a class on color management, linear color and HDRI workflows at AU 2010. Autodesk University 2010: Color Management and Linear Color Workflow
Follow me on http://twitter.com/pfbreton to get quick tips and tricks related to lighting simulation and 3ds Max in general.
Here is a question that I see asked often: We are trying to do a daylight analysis that includes some frosted glass or “kalwall” style skylights which diffuse the light into the space. We can get the VLT (Visible Light Transmittance) values easy enough. However, is there some way to accurately (or semi-accurately) account for [...]
I recently wrote a document for Autodesk about the typical steps around the usage of mental ray in 3ds Max for architectural visualization workflows. I thought I would share it here since it may benefit many 3ds Max users, especially beginners. My goal was to create a document where the main features of 3ds Max [...]
Manufacturer-based glazing data Several glass manufacturers provide optical data to the Windows® operating system and Daylight Group of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (http://windows.lbl.gov). This group maintains a database and publishes this data via a program called Optics 5. From Optics 5 you can then export a Radiance Material (*.rad file), which can be interpreted [...]
This tool is an assistant which controls the date and time of a Daylight System object for key moments in the year. It will also control Text objects to display the current Time and Date of the Daylight System: Here is a video demonstrating its usage: You can download the tool here.
I am proud to say that the daylight simulation tools in 3ds Max Design 2009 (and beyond) has been validated by the National Research Council of Canada. I have participated in the process and contributed to the authoring of the following paper: 3ds Max Design Exposure Validation (pdf – 5835Kb) – which describes the process [...]
I am pleased to contribute to the authoring of an upcoming book on 3ds Max 2010 published by 3DATS, a well known team of 3ds max training specialists. My involvement consisted into writing a chapter on the measurement of material finishes with affordable hardware for replicating in physically based rendering systems. More details here.
I will present 2 classes at Autodesk University 2009 . The first one will be on the topic of Daylight Simulation with 3ds Max Design 2010. The second one will be about strategies to estimate optical characteristics of surface finishes for accurate renderings. Daylight and Lighting Analysis with Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2010: How to predict [...]
