ForestPack Basics Tutorial for 3ds Max | Complete Beginner’s Guide

Introduction

Creating realistic vegetation and natural scenes can be one of the most time-consuming parts of 3D visualization. Forest Pack changes that by giving you a fast, flexible, and fully procedural way to scatter millions of objects - everything from grass and flowers to trees and rocks - with complete artistic control.

To help new users get started, we’ve created a step-by-step video tutorial that walks through the core features of Forest Pack using a simple terraced environment. In just one session, you’ll learn how to go from a bare 3ds Max scene to a fully detailed render like the one above.

What You’ll Learn

The tutorial focuses on practical techniques that apply to both Forest Pack Pro and Forest Pack Lite. Here’s what’s covered:

1. Using Presets for Fast Results

Get an instant scatter using Forest Pack’s built-in preset library -the quickest way to add realistic grass and ground cover to your scene.

2. Adding 3D Assets and Trees

Learn how to load individual tree models, assign multiple surfaces, and refine distribution using include and exclude areas.

3. Scattering Custom Scene Objects

Use your own 3D models -including assets from third-party sources like Chaos Cosmos - directly in Forest Pack.

4. Manual Adjustments with Custom Edit Mode

Refine your scatter by selecting, moving, and scaling individual items without breaking the procedural workflow.

5. Ground Cover and Clusters

Create more natural plant groupings using clusters, which simulate how plants grow together in real-world ecosystems.

6. Controlling Density with Falloff Curves

Blend vegetation naturally with density and scale falloffs - ideal for creating trampled grass or smooth transitions along paths.

7. Open Splines and Rock Placement

Use open and forced-open splines to precisely place rocks, stepping stones, and other border elements around lakes and paths.

8. Painting Vegetation with Paint Areas

Interactively paint vegetation like bamboo directly in the viewport while maintaining full procedural control over your scatter.

Use the timestamps in the video description on YouTube to jump straight to specific topics.

Why This Workflow Matters

Every technique in this tutorial demonstrates Forest Pack’s non-destructive workflow. Whether you’re adding new geometry, adjusting splines, or tweaking parameters, your scene updates automatically. This makes Forest Pack ideal for archviz professionals and environment artists who need both speed and flexibility.

Get Forest Pack Free

You can follow along using the free version - Forest Pack Lite. It includes all the core features demonstrated in this tutorial.

Download Forest Pack Lite

Learn More

This tutorial is just the beginning. Stay tuned for our upcoming advanced Forest Pack Pro courses, where we’ll cover detailed distribution maps, material randomization, and large-scale environment workflows.

For more guides, tips, and project files, visit the ITOOSOFT Tutorials Library.