It's 2023 and you've been wondering "WTF is USD?” You're not alone! Software never stops evolving, and it is easy to feel left behind when new tech enters the scene. Funny enough, that is exactly what USD is aiming to address. USD stands for Universal Scene Description, and it is an open-source initiative, meaning it is being built in a public facing manner, without any single company claiming ownership of its development. Rather, multiple companies share the same vision – a world where sharing production assets among programs is consistent, reliable and easy. In this class you will learn USD's origin, where its currently at in the Media & Entertainment Industry, where it is headed, and how these techniques and technologies add benefit to any industry pipeline.

Industries are converging, and so are the workflows and products that today's leading brands are using. In this session, we'll explore workflows with 3ds Max software for digital representations of products that can be used in a variety of ways, including marketing materials, online product imagery, and real-time applications such as augmented reality with the use of open standards which can also extend into the metaverse.

A modern VFX (visual effects) rendering pipeline is made up of many materials with detailed descriptions called looks. Looks need to be passed across different software products without loss of fidelity. Current workflows involve duplication across complex pipeline tasks that are hard and laborious to maintain. Arnold software lets you author asset looks in any supported software and then reuse the same looks in another software using the Arnold data format, which is fully extensible. Arnold furthers this approach by capitalizing on open-source back ends like MaterialX and USD, enabling users to build a very flexible, reusable, and connected pipeline. Arnold users can take advantage of this interoperability right out of the box. The data is always live, enabling users to make alterations (major or minor) at any point in the pipeline. In this talk, you will learn about setting up your pipeline to capitalize on reusability of looks. You will also see examples of taking your asset looks through different software.

Arnold 5.0 represents an evolution in rendering for artists everywhere. With a significant update to the Arnold core, faster rendering, new feature additions, enhancements to existing workflows, and exciting new capabilities, Arnold 5 will help artists create more stunning imagery than ever. Join Autodesk Technical Specialists John Paul Giancarlo and Morgan Evans for this hands-on class, where you will experience the power and simplicity of rendering with Arnold in Maya for yourself. Arnold 5 is available now as a stand-alone renderer, as well as a plugin for Maya (MtoA), 3ds Max (MAXtoA), and Cinema4D (C4DtoA).

High-quality architectural presentations are more than just good-looking renders; your images need to tell a compelling story. This course will show you how to use 3ds Max software to create cinema-quality presentations and expertly showcase your architectural projects. The course will explain the basics of composition and visual storytelling from a filmmaker’s perspective, including such topics as storyboarding, shot selection, shot sequencing, and screen motion. We’ll then dive into camera techniques and workflow in 3ds Max, including camera selection, animation, rigging, and rendering, following through to postproduction and final output. Every building tells a story—learn how to tell the best story for your project.

Creating animations in 3ds Max software is quick, easy, and fun. In this class, you will learn to animate the movement of daylight throughout a day to create an animated shadow study. This study will provide an accurate representation of how daylight will cast shadows in the scene. You will start by creating a Sun Positioner that provides realistic sunlight with a full sky environment. This system uses a simple and intuitive workflow to create geographically correct positioning and movement of the sun. You will then animate the position of the sun over time for a realistic shadow study.

As technology continues to evolve, the intersection of 3D design and artificial intelligence (AI) presents exciting opportunities for innovation in content creation. In this session, we'll showcase experimentation with innovative techniques—namely, ComfyUI, ControlNet, and Stable Diffusion—to forge a future pipeline that seamlessly integrates 3D rendering with AI-driven processes. We'll outline a visionary approach toward empowering artists and streamlining the content creation process. By using advanced AI algorithms and data-driven insights, we aspire to give artists greater control over their creations as they enhance their efficiency and creativity while using Autodesk tools, specifically Maya and Arnold software. Our vision for the future pipeline revolves around achieving a seamless transition from 3D design to AI render, while empowering artists with unprecedented control over their creations.

365 Materials Challenge started as a case study to create realistic materials. The goal: create one physically based rendering (PBR) material per day. In this demo, we'll learn how Open Shading Language (OSL) maps and Arnold Renderer helped us achieve this goal. We'll explain how to make the transition from 3ds Max legacy maps to OSL maps, and describe some tips and techniques for making the best use of OSL maps. Then we'll show how to create photorealistic materials with Arnold Renderer with OSL maps and Arnold's Standard Surface. Then, we'll see how Autodesk’s Physical Material is the best software for studios and individuals handling multiple renderers. Last, we'll look at techniques for starting to use Arnold Renderer for architectural visualization, and explore why it is such a powerful tool.

This class will teach you a typical workflow for creating a basic rendering of a scene using the highly efficient renderer Arnold, which was incorporated into 3ds Max 2018 software. The class will begin with a brief overview of the Arnold renderer before learning to use Arnold-specific lights to illuminate the scene. You will learn about the shaders provided for Arnold and how to modify the parameters of the Arnold Standard Surface shader to create different kinds of materials. Finally, we will use the Arnold renderer to render the scene.

Mechanical and architectural design relies on visualization technologies to showcase designers’ ideas. Increasingly, that relies on generating highly realistic materials. This class will examine how to incorporate the use of OSL shaders along with the physical material in 3ds Max 2020 software to render photorealistic images and animations. Learn where to find and download OSL shaders that can be used in a visualization, and how to customize your own OSL shaders. Use multiple shaders to create a unique material for your models. Get ahead of the competition by learning to create visually compelling, photorealistic renderings using OSL shaders and compositional rules in a streamlined workflow.

Getting your client to understand the intent of your design is one of the most difficult obstacles in the architecture business. As an architecture visualization expert, the speaker has spent the past 14 years finding ways to creatively show architectural designs in a way that the client can understand. One of the best ways is to show that design preconceptually over the proposed site it will live on. In this class, you’ll learn how to set up a drone and how to best control it for applying 3D compositing. We’ll cover the basics (as well as some tricks) to get the best possible drone match animation, covering preproduction to postproduction and everything in between.

During this presentation, you’ll learn how to win more business by using 3ds Max software, which is part of your Architecture, Engineering & Construction Collection. Starting with an InfraWorks file, you’ll learn a step-by-step visualization approach that’s easy to understand and use in your own environment. After getting your InfraWorks data, you’ll start by adding lighting, so we’ll discuss image-based lighting techniques with daylight and photometric lighting, both rendered with the default ART and Arnold render engine. We’ll also learn how to set up a nice environment with 3D trees, cars, and people, which are part of 3ds Max. Materials and textures will be the final step. You’ll gain a good understanding of which materials are being imported from InfraWorks and the advantage of converting your materials in an automated environment.

Many architectural designs incorporate a water feature as a prominent visual component of the structure. This class explains how to implement 3ds Max Fluids for the creation of these features. This class will take you through the process of creating animated water fountains and tranquil waterfalls that can be found in a variety of landscapes. You’ll learn how to simulate water flow using 3ds Max Fluids and the Motion Field Space Warp. Apply a custom material to render realistic water. This class will step through the process of building a fluid flow from beginning to end using the capabilities built into the 3ds Max liquid fluid dynamics system.

The Arnold renderer is a high-quality, production-ready renderer that is now a core part of 3ds Max software. This course will show you how to get the most out of this renderer for visualization and design. We'll cover Arnold rendering workflow, as well as how to set up scenes for maximum speed and quality. This includes sections on materials, physical sun and sky, and image-based lighting workflows.

3ds Max software is a mature 3D digital content creation package, widely used in the video game industry and by numerous television and visual effects studios. And it is a standard in design and architectural visualization. With the recent addition and democratization of the Arnold renderer, creating stunning imagery and video has never been more accessible. Arnold now brings the visual quality of Hollywood blockbuster movies back home to 3ds Max. In this session, you’ll learn how to import any CAD models in 3ds Max. Then, we’ll show how to create and edit shaders and build realistic lighting setup in an interactive environment. Next, we’ll see how to capitalize on out-of-the-box features to bring your designs to life, such as 3ds Max Fluids to simulate physically accurate liquids and nCloth to generate realistic fabric type objects. Last, we’ll look at flexible techniques for final project delivery. You might also have a chance to see what's coming next! Take your viz game to the next level with Arnold and 3ds Max. Brute force for all!

This session will explore the benefits and associated workflows of transitioning to a digital asset creation pipeline, providing a more meaningful and delightful shopping experience to end users. As more and more people move to online shopping for common goods, enhancing that shopping experience has never been more relevant.

In the real world, a single program just can’t do it all when it comes to sketching, massing models, final design, animation, and rendering of architectural models. This class will discuss the workflow for using multiple Autodesk products in a production environment. Discover the ins and outs of this workflow, starting with an AutoCAD sketch, going to a FormIt massing model, and on to Revit software for final design—then using 3ds Max 2019 software and Arnold to render the final animation. Learn methods for creating models in FormIt and discover how it affects working with Revit downstream. Review the Revit-to-3ds Max linking process and how to render photo-quality images. Use Physical Materials and the Sun Positioner to simulate outdoor lighting. Learn photographic techniques and composition to create compelling images. Utilize the Physical Camera controls to adjust scene exposure and depth of field. Get ahead of the competition by learning how to create your renderings using photographic composition in a streamlined workflow.

Learn how to use USD across the Maya tool set to help solve the problem of being able to store, edit, and export complex asset data like modeling, materials, lighting, and shading variations in a single USD container. This also allows users to transport and share these data across different software products along various stages of a pipeline non-destructively and without any loss of fidelity. Create, edit, and share complex USD prototypes with multiple variants, purposes, and so on, using only the Maya tool sets. Finally, use the power of Maya Bifrost to procedurally create an entire city of pods from one unique module by creating complex prototypes and USD Point Instancer that can be rendered easily with the Arnold MtoA plug-in.

Maximize the power of Pixar's USD with Arnold software in production scenarios. We'll show examples of exporting and importing USD assets—including full shading, material assignments, and render setup—from any of the applications that Arnold supports, such as Maya software, 3ds Max software, Houdini, or Cinema 4D. We’ll also demonstrate how you can take advantage of the power of USD's composition and variants to address common scenarios in modern studio pipelines. All of Arnold software’s effort for USD is open source. You'll learn what's out there and how you can contribute.

In the real world, one program just can’t do it all. Sketching, massing models, final design, animation, and rendering of engineering models—this class will discuss the workflow for using multiple Autodesk products in a production environment. Discover the ins and outs of this workflow, starting with a sketch, moving to Inventor software for final design, then finishing with 3ds Max software and Arnold to render the final animation. Learn how Autodesk Drive can help manage the workflow files, review the Inventor-to-3ds-Max import process, and see how to render photo-quality images. We’ll cover how to use Arnold materials and lights to light the scene and composition to create compelling images. And we’ll show you how the Camera controls can adjust the scene exposure and depth of field. Get ahead of the competition by learning to create your renderings using photographic composition in a streamlined workflow.