What is an Object ?

The first step in building a scene is to create new objects from Create Panel. "Object" means an object in the scene, such as primitive geometry like boxes and spheres, more complex geometry such as Booleans, and so on. 3ds max consider only 3D components as Object. Objects are renderable (ie. it will appear in the scene after it is rendred). A scene can also contain nonrenderable objects such as lights and cameras.

2D components are referred as Shapes in 3ds max. So now onward you will refer 2D objects as Shapes in 3ds max software. Shapes don't usually appear in the rendered scene.

Shapes

Shapes are made up of one or more splines. They are used in the software for the following purposes.

1. As the foundation for extruded objects, by applying an Extrude modifier to the shape.

2. As the foundation for a spun object, by applying a Lathe modifier to a shape.

3. As the components that make up a Loft object, by combining a shape as a path, and one or more shapes as cross-sections along the path.

4. As an animation path for an object by assigning a path constraint to the object, and then picking a shape as the path.

Note : Shapes can be converted into 3D Objects using Extrude, Loft and Lathe. After conversion into Objects, it will be renderable (ie. it will appear in the scene after it is rendred).

• All 3D components, lights and cameras will be called Objects.

• All 2D components will be called Shapes.