As you noticed in the previous post, the light in the scene is pretty harsh. This is the default light that 3ds Max comes with. It’s great because you are guaranteed to see what you modeled but it kind of washes this out too. So guess what I played with, tried next. Yes. Lights.
I did not get too carried away. I just added an omni light to the scene. It turns out that the default lights go away when you add your first light to the scene. That could be good and bad I suppose. And I will remember that for future projects. I will likely want to be able to see everything in default until I get it modeled. For now, well, I’m stuck with what I’ve got. Anyway, when I first put the omni light in I forgot to set the decay so it was still pretty intense. Once I found the settings though I set the decay to one of the pre-sets. I think I chose Inverse not Inverse square and I set the start at 200. I also adjusted the Multiplier and the color. I have played with those settings some though. That’s what they are at now. I probably did not start with them there.
So here’s what it looks like with a few materials applied and a new light source.
I also decided to play with some Atmospheric effects and added a bit of fog. Just for fun. I don’t know what the settings were. I’ve turned it off. I’ve got to remember to make note of these things as I go. I just get so carried away.
In any event, here’s what the scene looked like with a little fog effect.
It’s really subtle.