Table of Contents

Deconstructing the Elements, 3e

Contents

Fire

Nuclear Explosion
Afterburner jet engine
Sparks & explosive sparks
Sparkler trails (long exposure effects)
Forest fire (from the air)
Underwater explosion
Smouldering paper

Earth

Oak Tree
Countryside landscape (uses Oak Tree result as focal point) Beach cliffs (cont in water section) Grass macro (extreme close-up, cont in water section) Mud volcano (bubbling / cracked mud) Impact crater (Meteor crater) Wrapped / strangling Vines

Water

Beach shore (cont from beach cliffs) with lapping shoreline waves Water droplet crown effect Whirlpool (bath plug?) underwater splash-in (eg parallel underwater view of an item splashing in) Icicles / frozen fountain Blood trails (aka ice splash) Frozen lake Dew on grass (cont from Grass macro)

Air

Steam vent
Heat distortion
Tornado barn destruction (re-vamped version) Dissipating contrail Aurora Borealis Black Smoker (underwater volcanic vent)

Video tutorials

Fire - rocket lift-off
Earth - Avalanche
Water - Boat Wake
Air - Galaxy

About the Author

a UK-based visual effects animator and artist with 10+ years experience on large and small screen projects. Starting out as a fine artist and designer, his shift to CG animation led to key roles such as Lead and Senior Artist, Head of Media and, more recently, Visual Effects Supervisor / Director. Pete's work covers a broad range of disciplines and genres from visual effects to reconstructions, commercials to in-house training. He currently writes for 3D World magazine, providing tips, tricks, reviews and tutorials for 3ds max and other animation and graphics tools.

Reviews

"A detailed, step-by-step guide to creating your own universe. Once again, Pete Draper helps everyone use 3D Max to the max!"--Mark Walsh, Supervising Animator, Pixar ""Deconstructing the Elements with 3ds Max has become a standard, must-have tome for 3ds Max users of all levels. Pete Draper's many years of real-world production chops and ongoing industry writing are unmatched. The clear, step-by-step lessons of this book require no plugins and the final results are feature-film quality assets. I give it my highest mark for recommended learning and training resources pertaining to Autodesk 3ds Max.--Gary M. Davis, Autodesk 3ds Max Master 2007, 3D Animation & Compositing Specialist, Autodesk Media and Entertainment "I am instantly blown away by the level of quality and professional content Pete Draper's new book contains. This book very thorough in demonstrating professional and production quality tutorials and exercising production quality work, while being very informative and easy to follow. Definitely the secret weapon to keep in your work desk draw to refer back to on a day to day basis! I thoroughly recommend this book both to beginners and advanced users alike, I am confident everyone will get a lot from this book!"--Allan McKay, VFX Supervisor"This book is the definitive text on 3ds Max effects using Particles and Dynamics....Pete sets the standard."--Mark Gerhard, Imaginit Technologies

"A detailed, step-by-step guide to creating your own universe. Once again, Pete Draper helps everyone use 3DS Max to the max!" --Mark Walsh, Supervising Animator, Pixar "'Deconstructing the Elements with 3ds Max' has become a standard, must-have tome for 3ds Max users of all levels. Pete Draper's many years of real-world production chops and ongoing industry writing are unmatched. The clear, step-by-step lessons of this book require no plugins and the final results are feature-film quality assets. I give it my highest mark for recommended learning and training resources pertaining to Autodesk 3ds Max.--Gary M. Davis, Autodesk 3ds Max Master 2007, 3D Animation & Compositing Specialist, Autodesk Media and Entertainment"I am instantly blown away by the level of quality and professional content Pete Draper's new book contains. This book is very thorough in demonstrating professional and production quality tutorials and exercising production quality work, while being very informative and easy to follow. Definitely the secret weapon to keep in your work desk drawer to refer back to on a day-to-day basis! I thoroughly recommend this book both to beginners and advanced users alike, I am confident everyone will get a lot from this book!"--Allan McKay, VFX Supervisor"This book is the definitive text on 3ds Max effects using Particles and Dynamics....Pete sets the standard."--Mark Gerhard, Imaginit Technologies, USA