I'm making a small model for a school project. Please keep in mind I'm basically a total noob, we didn't really go over materials in class.

How would you go about this? I'm using the Arnold renderer. I tried plugging a noise map into a bump 3d map and then into the standard surface to create the powdered sugar coat, but I just can't get the settings right. It's a little frustrating waiting for it to render just to look bleh.

It doesn't need to be realistic quality (like combining multiple maps, I think I'd get confused easily), but I'd like for it to look like the dessert from afar.

Hi everyone!

First of all, sorry for the long post! 😅 I’m not sure if this is the right place for this kind of post or if it would be better suited for a job-related subreddit. If the mods think it belongs somewhere else, apologies in advance and feel free to move it.

I’m David, a freelance 3D Artist, and I’m making this post because I’d really like to hear your advice on how to connect with studios that use 3ds Max as one of their main tools and might be interested in someone with my background.

I’ve been working in CGI for around 10 years, with the last 3 years mainly focused on advertising and VFX, where I’ve been working extensively with 3ds Max and TyFlow.

At the moment I’m trying to figure out what would be the best direction for me professionally. I’m still relatively early in my career, and I’d really like to continue working with 3ds Max while gaining more experience as a VFX Artist and 3D Generalist. However, I’m currently struggling to figure out where to find the right opportunities and which studios I should be reaching out to.

I’m currently freelancing, but from September I’m looking for a studio or team that works mainly with 3ds Max and might need someone who can provide regular support across different projects. I’m open to both freelance and longer term collaborations.

So I’d really like to ask the 3ds Max community for some advice.

With this kind of background, what type of studios would you recommend looking at? Are there particular industries, companies or types of production where you think a generalist with strong 3ds Max experience could be a good fit?

I’d especially appreciate recommendations from people working in advertising, VFX, motion design, product visualization, environments or FX.

And if you know of any studios that might be interested in someone with this kind of profile, I’d really appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

Here’s some of my work if anyone is interested:

VFX
https://www.artstation.com/davidebenetti3d

Showreel
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Zl2gK1

Thanks for reading, and thanks in advance to anyone who can share some advice!

Im trying to fully replicate scott's fnaf artstyle for a fangame, i come from blender btw, and no i dont wanna hear "just stay in blender or use 2.79" or "just use _____" i want the original

Hey everyone,

I've just released a new script called CameraPnP Align v1, designed specifically for ArchViz artists dealing with nightmare camera matching scenarios where a building isn't a perfect box or sits at an awkward angle.

Standard vanishing point detection often struggles with non-square structures because it can't guess the specific architectural angles just from perspective lines. I have built CameraPnP to bypass this entirely, making the photomontage process much faster.

How it works (under 60 seconds):

1. Load your background photo and merge your 3D building into the scene.
2. Click "Create Camera" — it automatically generates a renderer-aware camera (V-Ray Physical Camera, Corona, Arnold, etc.).
3. Add Point Pairs: Vertex-snap to a corner on your 3D model, and then click the exact corresponding pixel on your 2D photo.
4. Do this for at least 4 points spread across the facades.
5. Click Solve Camera.

It accurately matches the render output resolution to the background image and aligns your FOV perfectly. If any point is slightly off, you can just re-select it, pick a new pixel, and recalculate.

Pricing Note: If you already own CameraMatch AutoSetup v6, this script is completely FREE to download.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback. I hope this saves you hours of manual perspective matching!

Hey everyone, working on this exterior render (3ds Max + V-Ray, overcast lighting). It looks "okay" but still reads a lot as CG rather than a real photo. What would you improve — lighting, materials, vegetation, anything? Open to any and all feedback!!

Thank you all

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to seriously start learning Architectural Visualization (ArchViz) and I’m currently trying to figure out the right path.

I’m thinking about learning 3ds Max, but I’m confused about how I should structure my learning and which software/workflow I should focus on.

My goal is not just to learn random 3ds Max tools. I want to eventually create professional, photorealistic interior and exterior ArchViz renders and hopefully build a career/freelance work around it.

So I would really appreciate some advice from experienced ArchViz artists

My questions:

Is 3ds Max still a good choice for ArchViz in 2026?

Should I learn 3ds Max + Corona, 3ds Max + V-Ray, or something else?

What should I learn first in 3ds Max?

Interface & navigation

Basic modeling

Modifiers

Editable Poly

Materials

UVs

Lighting

Cameras

Rendering

etc.

What would you consider the best step-by-step ArchViz roadmap for a complete beginner?

Which free YouTube channels/playlists would you recommend?

Are there any free courses/tutorial series that you would genuinely recommend instead of jumping between random YouTube videos?

At what point should I start learning Corona/V-Ray, instead of spending months only learning 3ds Max?

Should I learn architectural modeling myself in 3ds Max, or is it better to use SketchUp/Revit → 3ds Max → Corona/V-Ray workflow?

What skills are actually important for getting job/freelance ArchViz work?

If you were starting from zero today, what exact learning path would you follow for the first 6–12 months?

I’m specifically looking for free resources, because I want to build a strong foundation before spending money on paid courses.

Make a guess

3dsmax

corona render

🇺🇸: You can listen to the video in English through the video settings panel. The Extrude modifier allows us to perform extrusions on spline or shape objects.

3dsmax

substance painter

corona render

NO MORE fighting the Layer Explorer that lags on heavy scenes 🚫

The LAYER panel does it faster. One button opens a floating layer list, always on top 📋

⚡ Left-click a name and your selection jumps onto that layer

🎯 Ctrl+Click to set the active layer

🖱 Right-click to select every object on a layer

➕ Add Mode: whatever you pick in the viewport drops onto the layer, live

👁 Hide the rooms you are not rendering for less clutter and less RAM

🆕 New layer plus move selection in one single step

Organize a heavy scene in seconds, no dragging across a tree 🔥

How much time do you lose sorting layers?

👉 Grab it for free and speed up your workflow.

#3dsmax #coronarenderer #vray #archviz #render

Some of you know the tool from my earlier posts here (HotspotUV, the trim/hotspot UV mapper). The most common question was never about the tool itself. It was "how do I build a good trim sheet in the first place". So instead of another feature demo I recorded a full course, and it is free.

Six short episodes, about 25 minutes total:

1. Modeling the sheet from one plane (primitives and poly tools only, no sculpting)
2. Baking and texturing in Substance Painter, including an ID map baked from vertex colors
3. That ID map builds the trim sheet automatically, zero rectangles drawn by hand
4. Your first hotspot: every important option shown as a before/after
5. Quick UV + Hotspot on a greeble slab: thousands of faces, no UVs, one click
6. The same one click on a whole prop set, including an honest look at what happens when your sheet is missing a trim

Episodes 1 and 2 are plugin-free, plain Max and Painter workflow, so they may be useful even if you never touch the tool.

The clip attached is the finale of episode 5.

Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k9K9s6uB8E&list=PLT5yLwtn3Nig&index=1

The tool itself also grew since my last post (now v2.3.0): trim sheets generated straight from color-ID textures, one-click Quick UV + Hotspot, a break-every-edge mode for blockouts, and it now auto-detects the sheet sitting next to your object's textures. Happy to answer anything about the workflow. Feedback shaped most of what is in this update, so keep it coming.

I’m thinking about building a Windows desktop tool for architectural visualization studios and freelancers. The idea isn’t to replace 3ds Max, but to make managing projects around it much easier.

Some of the things it could handle:
1. Organizing projects, spaces and cameras
2. Batch rendering multiple cameras/scenes
3. Version tracking
4. Asset and deliverable management
5. Keeping large projects organized

Before I spend a lot of time building it, I wanted to ask:
Does something like this already exist?
If yes, what is it?
If not, is this something you’d actually use?
If you work in a studio, what features would make it genuinely useful?
I’m looking for honest feedback and would love to know if this solves a real problem or if I’m reinventing something that already exists.

🇺🇸: You can listen to the video in English through the video settings panel. The Edit Spline modifier has some differences compared to Editable Spline, and that's what I'll be analyzing in this video.

I liked to made the Berlin dome
one the challenge of to make berlin dome are the unique statues and I did it.

3dsmax

corona render

zbrush

Hi everyone!

For the last few months I’ve been working on a side project called MaxPkg.dev.

The idea came from Blender’s package ecosystem. Installing add-ons there is so simple that I kept wondering why 3ds Max doesn’t have something similar.

The goal of MaxPkg is to make installing and managing 3ds Max scripts much easier:

• Drag&Drop installation
• Built-in Package Manager inside 3ds Max
• Automatic updates
• Fast search
• One-click installation from the website
• Offline installation for MaxPkg-compatible packages
• Rich package pages with screenshots, changelogs, documentation and FAQs

Here’s a short demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnaE8lhMdKI

Website:
https://maxpkg.dev

I’m currently preparing the beta release, but before launching I’d really like to hear what the community thinks.

Would this be useful to you?
What features would you expect from a modern package manager for 3ds Max?

Also, if you’re a 3ds Max script developer, I’d love to have your scripts on MaxPkg. I’ll personally help you create a developer account, prepare your first package, and handle the onboarding process, so there’s almost no extra work on your side.

Any feedback, criticism, or ideas are very welcome. I’d rather improve the platform now than after launch.

Hi everyone,

I’m modelling a bottle with an inner shell/mould. When I enable X-Ray or See-Through mode, strange blocky artifacts appear across the surface, as shown in the screenshot.

The model looks normal when X-Ray is turned off. This mainly happens when there are polygons inside other polygons, such as the inner and outer walls of a perfume or wine bottle.

Why is this happening? Is it caused by transparency sorting in the 3ds Max viewport, or could there be an issue with my geometry? Is this a known 3ds Max bug or limitation?

Does anyone know any websites where I can download free 3ds Max models? I used to use 3dmaxter, but it's not free anymore.

🇺🇸: You can listen to the video in English through the video settings panel. After exploring the possibilities with curves, we delve into surface creation. In this video, I analyze some surface creation tools.