I´m a beginner.
I use After effects, and are trying to do titles in 3d max.

I am trying a simple 3d text at Videocopilot.com http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/3d_text_in_3ds_max/

There is an exampel image on the text there with chrome added on by dragging and dropping it on the 3d text, that i am trying to make.

Now, my problem is that I can´t apply any material on a object.
If i seleckt a Metal like chrome and apply it on the text (or a sphere/cube) i will become gray, and when i render it i is still gray with no reflections.

What is it that I am doing wrong?

I don´t understand?
first just to see the materials in the material browser, I have to choose “show incompatible”.

Now, how can 3dmax´s own materials be incompatible with 3dmax?

They are not compatible with the currently selected Renderer and may not work as expected if you use them. That’s why they are hidden by default.

Max 4.2 through 2013.
XP-64 (SP2)
NVidia 9800GTX-512 (Driver 266.58).
Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 8Gb Ram, DX9.0c.

How can I make them work?
What kind of renderer should i select?
Is it in the tea-pot menu I chnge render version?

This still doesn’t make sense. The material used in the tutorial is Standard material, so should be compatible for both scanline and mantal ray, as well as other renderers.
The material is a standard chrome from the material library that has come with Max since V1.
Is it that the old material library is no longer there? I’ve not noticed because I don’t use it.

You could try and learn how to make your own metal materials. The best method depends on the renderer you use and the type of metal.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/cg_education.htm
for menta ray:-
http://mentalraytips.blogspot.co...tal-with-miamaterial.html

I´ve just tried with Mr and Scanline with all the diffrent presets in the list, with no sucsess.

I must say that 3d max is´nt wery user friendly, and it is not intuitive at all.

I am trying to make a simpel shiny metal text and a light, and it seems that i have to sign up for a PhD course in programing to get there.

I understand that it is possible to make my own materials, I have watched diffrent metal material tutorials on Youtube, and they are long and complicated.

3dmax is´nt my primary program, it is Adobe After Effects, I am just going to make a simple 3d text and then go back to AE, I dont want to be drowned in adjustments and tweakings for hours in 3dmax.

That´s why i use standard in-program materials, they are good enough, but surley, the must work?

It should not be difficult to apply a material from a library to an object and render. But it’s impossible to know exactly where you are going wrong without knowing exactly how you are trying to go about it and seeing the results you are getting.
Are you trying to use the very same material that is in the tutorial, or is it a different type of metal material.
The material in the tutorial has a reflection map applied locally to it, so should render with that reflection map without any additional setup, provided that map can be found.
However if you are using a different metal material, like Autodesk Metal or mr A&D with Chrome preset, these behave more like metal in the real world, reflecting their surounings and will only reflect anything if there is anything around them to reflect. So you therefore need either an environment map or other objects in the scene for the metal to show any reflections.

Some examples of how different metal materials should render in various scene setups. Note the standard chrome is virtualy the same in all because it has it’s own local reflection map.
Can you post some shots of your material setup and resulting renders?

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