I don’t know why I haven’t realized it before.
I was texturing a model of a building (as described in the real world scale uvw tutorial) and something didn’t work as expected. I had a 25×25 cm textures that simply looked huge when applied to the model.

I double checked and triple checked everything but still the texture mapping was wrong. Finally I noticed that the size of the gizmo of the uvw map modifier wasn’t correct compared to the building. At that point I realized that the building was modeled in a different scale, than it was scaled using the scale tool to match the real world scale.

In order to better understand what the problem is, open 3ds max and create a simple 10 cm radius sphere. Now clone it, and scale the cloned object using the scale tool. Take a look at the radius of each one. They are both 10 cm even though one is obviously bigger.
The same happens with modifiers, in my case the uvw map. Even though the size was set to 25×25 it looked nothing like that.

Needless to say that you should model everything at real life dimensions, but if you find must work on a model that was scaled here is the solution:

Select the objects that you need to “repair”, go to the utilities tab select “reset xform” and click “reset selected”.

I hope this was helpful.

1)    Use chamfered edges, especially in close-ups
In real life there’s no such thing as “razor sharp” edges. Take a look at the objects around you and notice that every edge is more or less rounded. Although in the cad files provided by the architects you will never see this, keep it in mind when building the 3d model. Bellow are a few images that illustrate better what I’m trying to say.

(click on an image to view a higher resolution one)



Chamfered edges not only will make your 3d models look more real, but also may “catch” specular highlights which will give more depth to the rendering.

2)    Don’t use 100% black or 100% white colors.
The explanation for this is very simple. To “show” an object’s volume you need to have highlighted areas, shaded areas and mid tones. This is one of the first things that you learn at art school. If a material that is assigned to a 3d model has a 100% black color in the diffuse channel, there will be no visible difference between the mid tones and the shaded areas and it will make your model look flat. Same thing goes for 100% white objects, only this time there will be no significant difference between light areas and mid tones.

3)    Blur parameter from 1 to 0.1
By default, the blur parameter in the bitmap’s “coordinates” rollout is set to 1. This causes the textures to look blurred, especially if they are looked at from an angle. By setting this parameter to 0.1, will make the texture look sharper and therefore more real (it will also increase the rendering times though…)

4)    Always use area shadows.
If you are doing an exterior rendering, you need to control the sharpness of the shadow, depending on the time of the day. In the morning the shadow is very soft, and it gets sharper and sharper until mid-day; after that moment, it softens again until night.
Even at mid-day the shadow is not 100% sharp though so you still need to use area shadow, just adjust the parameter to make it less soft. The photo below has been taken at mid day; take a look at it to see how crisp/soft is the shadow.

Same goes for artificial lighting. Some fixtures cast a subtle shadow, while others (like spotlights) cast a sharper one, but again you should always use area shadows and adjust the parameters accordingly.

Hope these were helpful; feel free to add to the list if you wish.

2) Problem- You are trying to render a scene with camera correction modifier (3ds max and vray) but you keep having lots of artifacts.
Solution- Uncheck the “max compatible shade context” in the system rollout of the vray menu

3) Problem- You are unable to hit a high resolution render (in 3ds max) because you keep getting an “Error creating bitmap” message.
Solution- Save the scene, and exit max. Open max again, and render an EMTY scene with the desired resolution. After that, open the initial scene and hit render again. TA DAAAA… it works. Don’t ask me how is this possible though….

4) Problem – You are trying to render an interior scene (with max and vray), but for some reason the windows are black, although the light passes through them.
Solution – You have probably checked the “override reflection/refraction” by accident in the environment rollout of the vray menu, and left it black. Uncheck that and it will work.