ACU 3ds Max flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Quad menu

A right-click context menu in the viewport with four quadrant sections. Contents change based on the selected object or sub-object level, giving fast access to common tools.

Viewport zoom extents

Pressing Z frames the current selection, or the whole scene if nothing is selected, by moving the viewport camera to fit the bounding box.

Reference coordinate system

A setting that defines the axes used for transforms. World uses global axes, Local uses the object's pivot axes, and View aligns axes to the current viewport.

System units

The internal measurement scale of a scene, set under Customize Unit Setup. Changing it after modeling rescales geometry, so it should be set before building.

Auto Key

An animation toggle that automatically creates keyframes whenever an animatable property changes while the time slider sits on a frame.

Scene Explorer

A dialog listing all scene objects in a hierarchy with columns for name, type, and visibility. It supports renaming, hiding, freezing, and selecting objects by name.

Editable Poly border

A sub-object level that selects open loops of edges surrounding holes in a mesh. Border selection is used for bridging and closing gaps.

TurboSmooth modifier

A subdivision surface modifier that applies Catmull-Clark smoothing. Each iteration roughly quadruples polygon count, so low iteration values keep scenes manageable.

Boolean subtraction

A compound object operation that cuts the second operand's volume out of the first. Converting operands to editable poly often produces cleaner results.

Loft compound object

A modeling method that sweeps one or more cross-section shapes along a path spline to build a surface, useful for tubes, moldings, and rails.

Symmetry modifier

Mirrors geometry across a chosen plane and welds vertices within a threshold along the seam, commonly used to build half a character then complete it.

Modifier stack order

Modifiers evaluate from top to bottom of the stack. Placing a deformer above a subdivision modifier gives a different result than placing it below.

Inset polygon operation

Creates a smaller polygon inside the selected face, connected by new border faces. It is used to add panel detail before extruding inward or outward.

Slate Material Editor

A node-based material editing interface where maps and materials appear as connected nodes. It handles complex networks better than the slot-based compact editor.

UVW Map modifier

Applies texture coordinates to geometry using a projection type such as planar, box, cylindrical, spherical, or shrink wrap, with adjustable tiling and channel.

Unwrap UVW modifier

Provides the Edit UVWs dialog for manually positioning, stitching, and relaxing UV shells so textures map without stretching or seams.

Bump map channel

A grayscale or normal map slot that fakes surface relief by perturbing shading normals. Light areas appear raised and dark areas appear recessed.

Multi/Sub-Object material

A material that holds several sub-materials, each assigned to a material ID. Polygon material IDs on the mesh determine which sub-material appears.

Physical Material roughness

A value from zero to one controlling microsurface scattering. Low roughness gives sharp reflections, while high roughness produces broad, blurry highlights.

Opacity map

A grayscale map in the opacity slot where black renders fully transparent and white renders fully opaque, commonly used for cutout foliage and decals.

Photometric lights

Light objects that use real-world intensity units such as lumens or candelas and physically based falloff, matching the behavior of actual fixtures.

Three-point lighting

A setup with a bright key light, a softer fill opposite it to lift shadows, and a back or rim light to separate the subject from the background.

Arnold renderer

A physically based production renderer that is the default in recent 3ds Max versions. It supports global illumination, area lights, and progressive sampling.

Render Setup dialog

Opened with F10, it controls the active renderer, output resolution, frame range, sampling quality, and the list of render elements to output.

Render elements

Separate image passes such as Z-Depth, reflection, and diffuse that are rendered alongside the beauty pass for later compositing in post-production software.

Physical Camera exposure

Camera settings using f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO to control brightness, mimicking real photographic exposure and depth of field.

Curve Editor tangents

Handles on animation curves that define how values ease into and out of keys. Smooth tangents create gradual acceleration, while linear tangents create constant speed.

Stepped interpolation

A key type that holds a constant value until the next key, producing instantaneous jumps. It suits mechanical motion and visibility toggles.

Dope Sheet

A Track View mode showing keys as blocks along a timeline, making it easy to shift, scale, and retime animation ranges without editing curve values.

Path constraint

Attaches an object to a spline so it follows the curve over time. Percent-along-path values can be animated to control travel speed.

Wire Parameters

A dialog that links animatable properties of two objects so changing one drives the other, in one or both directions.

Time Configuration

A dialog that sets the scene frame rate, such as NTSC, PAL, or film, along with the total animation length and playback speed.