IntroductionWelcome| 00:03 | Hi! My name is Steve Nelle and I would
like to welcome you to 3ds Max 2010 New
| | 00:07 | Features. We are going to be taking a
look at some of the terrific new additions
| | 00:11 | to the 3ds Max tool set, features and
options that I'm sure you will be able to
| | 00:15 | apply to your projects right away.
Whether you are a seasoned vet or brand
| | 00:19 | new to the game of 3D.
| | 00:22 | In addition to testing out the new
look interface, we are going to have an
| | 00:25 | opportunity to delve into a wide range
of new improvements. Everything from
| | 00:29 | Updated Scene Management and View Port
Shading controls to some cool new tools
| | 00:34 | specific to materials and rendering and
sound and using the Character Studio biped.
| | 00:38 | We will also be taking a look at what
many feel is one of the most exciting
| | 00:42 | additions to the 3ds Max modeling
arts in quite some time and that's the
| | 00:47 | Graphite Modeling Ribbon, a truly new
innovation in both concept and design
| | 00:51 | that's bound to change the way you
work when building models for your scene.
| | 00:55 | A healthy dose of brand new stuff that
will certainly leave you smiling when
| | 00:58 | using 3ds Max. Now, let's get
started with 3ds Max 2010 New Features.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | Throughout the new features title, I'll
be working in 3ds Max 2010 using assets
| | 00:05 | that I have created especially for the
videos you will be watching. If you are
| | 00:08 | a premium member of the lynda.com
Online Training Library, you have unlimited
| | 00:12 | access to the Exercise Files used
throughout this title. If you are instead, a
| | 00:16 | monthly or annual subscriber to
lynda.com, and don't have access to the
| | 00:20 | Exercise Files, you will still be
able to follow along from scratch or by
| | 00:26 | creating your own assets.
| | 00:27 | As you explore the resource material
provided in the Exercise Files folder, you
| | 00:31 | will find that different chapter
folders will contain different types of
| | 00:35 | material. Some chapters will simply
provide the beginning files to get you
| | 00:39 | going. You see that for an example in
Chapter 03 on View Port Changes and
| | 00:44 | Enhancements. Other chapters will
offer not just the start from here same
| | 00:49 | files, but also maps and images that will
be incorporated in that chapter's discussion.
| | 00:54 | You will find still other chapters
where both the beginning scene file and the
| | 00:59 | completed project will be provided
so you can explore how things were put
| | 01:03 | together. In all cases, make sure to
familiarize yourself with what's being
| | 01:06 | provided for your use and you will
find that in every situation, the chapter
| | 01:11 | numbers in the Exercise Files, will
correspond to the chapter numbers found on
| | 01:15 | the table of contents, which should make
it real easy to find the assets that
| | 01:19 | you are looking for.
| | 01:21 | What I would suggest is copying the
entire Exercise Files folder over to your
| | 01:25 | computer's desktop. That will give you
quick and easy access without always
| | 01:28 | having to track things down. You
will also want to make sure to build a
| | 01:33 | map-path in Max over to the Exercise
Files folder on your desktop. You can
| | 01:37 | easily do that by going to the
Customize pull-down menu, choosing Configure
| | 01:42 | User Paths, clicking on the External
Files tab at the top and adding a path
| | 01:48 | over to the Exercise Files folder.
| | 01:55 | Having this pointer now in place,
we'll make sure that when you open a file
| | 01:59 | that's been put together using one or
more bitmap images, that Max doesn't
| | 02:03 | throw up a warning message saying that
it can't find certain resources. OK,
| | 02:07 | that will get us going,
let's go see what we can do.
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1. Working with the New InterfaceUnderstanding the interface| 00:00 | When opening Max 2010 for the first
time, you are originally caught off guard by
| | 00:05 | the dramatic changes that have been
made to the overall color and shading of
| | 00:08 | the interface. Designed to bring the
software a little more in line with the
| | 00:11 | look and feel of many of Autodesk's
other applications, the interface color
| | 00:15 | change is just one of several areas
of the program that have been revamped.
| | 00:18 | The pull-down menu no longer
begins on the left side with the familiar
| | 00:22 | File commands. Functions, such as Open
and Save, are now included as part of the
| | 00:27 | Application menu, while other file type
controls are organized within the Quick
| | 00:32 | Access toolbar. Both the Application
menu and the Quick Access toolbar will be
| | 00:39 | discussed in detail in the next video.
| | 00:42 | Now, just as a side note, in case you are looking
to view something you have rendered, be
| | 00:45 | aware that the View Image File
command has now been relocated under the
| | 00:48 | Rendering pull-down. The Main toolbar
is also gone through a few changes. With
| | 00:54 | the Undo and Redo commands, making their
way into the Quick Access toolbar and
| | 00:59 | the brand new Graphite Modeling Ribbon,
considered by many as the most exciting
| | 01:03 | new feature in 2010, having its Click
Here to Open icon position on the far right.
| | 01:08 | We will show you how the ribbon works,
when we get to the chapter on specific
| | 01:12 | modeling improvements in 3ds Max 2010.
You will also notice that the View Port
| | 01:17 | controls have taken on a new look.
With the Command menus now divided into
| | 01:21 | separate categories, each being accessed
by a simple click of the mouse. So a lot
| | 01:27 | of changes on the first look. You
will probably need a little time snooping
| | 01:31 | around to initially find a few things
you're used to seeing in another places,
| | 01:34 | but I honestly think with a little
time and patience, you will truly come
| | 01:38 | to appreciate the new layout and design.
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| Using the Application button and the Quick Access toolbar| 00:00 | Containing the majority of commands
that used to make up Max's File pull-down
| | 00:04 | menu, the New Application menu and
Quick Access toolbar, provide users with a
| | 00:09 | quicker and more organized approach to the
most commonly used file management commands.
| | 00:14 | The Application menu found on the upper
left hand corner of the interface, lists
| | 00:19 | commands categorized by topic, with a
brief definition of what the command does
| | 00:24 | next to its name. You will see your
options for creating a new file, when
| | 00:29 | opening an existing file, and your
choices when saving as. The Import category
| | 00:34 | gives you options when you want
to import, merge or replace a file.
| | 00:38 | Export gives you a couple different
controls when wanting to save Auto Max
| | 00:41 | using a different file format.
References offer you controls for both
| | 00:45 | referencing and links to other scenes.
Manage gives you a few different options
| | 00:50 | when wanting to manage your project
or individual scene assets and the
| | 00:54 | Properties category gives you
information and properties exclusive to your
| | 00:57 | scene. If you open the menu using the
Alt+F keyboard shortcut, the drop-down
| | 01:04 | will display the associated
shortcuts for each menu choice.
| | 01:08 | So for an example, pressing R would
reset the scene, while hitting I will activate
| | 01:17 | the Import command. If you move your
mouse instead of pressing a key, the menu
| | 01:23 | reverts back to its original appearance.
Pressing Alt+F again, will restore the
| | 01:27 | shortcut display. Even the files that
you previously worked on can be accessed
| | 01:32 | by typing a single key. So for an
example, if I wanted to go back to
| | 01:36 | yesterday's work, and open the file name
ProOptimizerModifierCompleted, I'd simply hit 7.
| | 01:46 | You have your Exit Max button down
in the lower right hand corner and a
| | 01:50 | button for your options, should you
want to go in and change your preferences.
| | 01:56 | The Quick Access toolbar, as the name
implies, offers immediate access to the
| | 02:00 | commands you will most often use.
It's located directly to the right of the
| | 02:05 | Application menu. In the toolbar, you
will find options for creating new files,
| | 02:10 | opening existing ones, saving
your work and Undo and Redo.
| | 02:15 | You can delete a button from the
toolbar by simply right-clicking and choosing
| | 02:18 | Remove from Access toolbar. You can
also add any button from the modeling
| | 02:23 | ribbon by right-clicking at the button
and choosing Add to Quick Access toolbar.
| | 02:31 | As new features, both the Application
menu and Quick Access toolbar will take a
| | 02:36 | little getting used to. Once you are
comfortable though with what you will find
| | 02:39 | command wise in each. I think you will
come to truly appreciate having both in
| | 02:43 | your new file management arsenal.
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| Understanding the Modeling Ribbon| 00:00 | One of the coolest new features inside
3ds Max 2010 is undoubtedly the Graphite
| | 00:05 | Modelling Ribbon, designed in the hopes
of minimizing as much on-screen clutter
| | 00:09 | as possible when focusing
specifically on the task of modeling. The Ribbon
| | 00:13 | provides all the essential editable
poly commands in one easy-to-access
| | 00:16 | interface, and will undoubtedly change the way
you work in creating objects for your scenes.
| | 00:23 | When you open 3ds Max, by default,
a minimized version of the Graphite
| | 00:27 | Modelling Ribbon displays directly
below the Main toolbar. The Ribbon can be
| | 00:31 | closed entirely and reopened by
clicking on the Tools icon on the upper
| | 00:35 | right-hand-side of the Main toolbar.
The Ribbon's interface is organized in
| | 00:40 | panels which can be expanded and
collapsed all depending on how you would like
| | 00:43 | to work. When collapsed down, the
available controls then become drop-down
| | 00:47 | menus of one design or another.
| | 00:52 | The Ribbon's toolbar contains three
tabs; the Graphite Modelling Tools, the
| | 00:57 | Freeform, and the Selection. The
Graphite Modelling Tools tab contains the most
| | 01:02 | often used polygon commands organized in
separate panels for quick and easy access.
| | 01:08 | The Freeform tab contains a handful of
tools designed when you're wanting to do a
| | 01:12 | little more free-hand modeling, like
maybe sculpting on a surface with, let's
| | 01:15 | say, the Paint Deform Tools. And the
Selection tab provides an assortment of
| | 01:20 | tools specific to assisting you
and making sub-object selections.
| | 01:25 | In order to take advantage of the
Ribbon's tools and commands, the object you
| | 01:28 | are working on must be in an editable
poly state, meaning you'll have to either
| | 01:32 | add an edit poly modifier or simply
convert your object down to an editable
| | 01:36 | poly. You can do that directly inside
the Ribbon Interface. Most of the tools
| | 01:41 | inside the Ribbon offer handy tool tips
that can be accessed by simply holding
| | 01:45 | your mouse over the command icon.
| | 01:48 | The information that displays is
typically divided into two sections; the first
| | 01:52 | providing a brief description of the
tool, while the second one available
| | 01:56 | describing specifically how the tool
works. Because the Ribbon contains all the
| | 02:00 | tools that you would usually access by
going through the Command panel, that
| | 02:04 | side pane can be hidden, which makes
it especially nice when you are wanting a
| | 02:08 | little extra room in your work area.
You can hide that panel by clicking on the
| | 02:12 | Toggle Command Panel icon.
| | 02:20 | If you have worked with Max before,
you are aware that many of the sub-object
| | 02:23 | modeling commands have specific
controls or settings that are accessed by
| | 02:27 | clicking on that command's option box.
Those option box settings are available
| | 02:31 | in the Ribbon by either clicking the
arrow next to the Command icon or by
| | 02:38 | simply holding down the Shift key when
clicking directly on the command's primary icon.
| | 02:43 | As for what shows or doesn't show in
the actual toolbar, options for both the
| | 02:47 | three main toolbar tabs and the
individual panels within a specific toolbar can
| | 02:52 | easily be controlled by simply right-
clicking anywhere at the top of the Ribbon
| | 02:55 | toolbar, on any of the icons,
or along the bottom of the bar.
| | 03:05 | So that's the gist of what you need
to know in order to start using the
| | 03:08 | Modelling Ribbon. In the chapter on
modeling improvements, we'll take a look
| | 03:12 | at actually using it to model along with
diving into some of its customizable features.
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| Reverting back to the look of 3ds Max 2009| 00:00 | Being a 3ds Max user since the days of
DOS, I'll never forget when Max first
| | 00:04 | made its way to the Windows platform
over a decade ago. The new Windows version
| | 00:09 | no longer called 3D Studio was more
colorful, more intuitive, and compared to
| | 00:13 | its older DOS counterpart, an absolute
blast to use. And the programs interface
| | 00:18 | for all intents and purposes stayed
true to its Windows look with its Viewport
| | 00:23 | Shading and icon colors
until well about, I guess now.
| | 00:27 | With the introduction of Max 2010, many
of you seasoned Max users have, whether
| | 00:30 | you like it or not, had a little
learning curve to go through in familiarizing
| | 00:34 | yourself with the new look. Yeah, most
of the commands are in the same place
| | 00:39 | but it's amazing what switching things
around colorwise can do with the users
| | 00:42 | immediate use of the software.
| | 00:43 | I know, it personally took me probably
a couple of weeks to get used to the new
| | 00:47 | and improved layout and design. Well,
if you would rather work with the good,
| | 00:50 | old look and feel of Max 2009, for the
most part, you can. The conversion I'm
| | 00:55 | about to show you won't be identical
to what you remember in the previous
| | 00:58 | edition, but it will certainly make you feel
at least a little closer to home, sweet home.
| | 01:02 | Here is what you can do. Let's go ahead and
scoot up to the Customize pull-down
| | 01:06 | menu and choose Load Custom UI Scheme.
UI simply stands for User Interface. Now
| | 01:11 | if you look at the address at the top
of the dialog, you will notice where we
| | 01:15 | are. We are on the hard drive, in the
Program Files. You go into the Autodesk
| | 01:20 | folder, the 3ds Max 10 folder and then
in there you will find a folder named UI.
| | 01:24 | Now what you see in the list is a
number of predefined user interfaces that you
| | 01:28 | can choose from. You will notice the
one we currently have loaded is called
| | 01:32 | Default UI. What we simply want to do
is to switch over to the one named 3ds
| | 01:36 | Max 2009. We'll highlight that and
now click Open. Now after just a moments
| | 01:42 | delay, the interface has been reconfigured.
| | 01:44 | Now as mentioned previously, it's not
exact to what you remember in 2009, but it
| | 01:50 | comes darn close. You have got a
lighter interface in Viewport Shading, in
| | 01:54 | addition to the icons now having
just a little bit more color. So if
| | 01:58 | getting back to a little more of the
2009 look is what you are aiming for,
| | 02:01 | now you know of a quick and
easy way of how to do so.
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2. Scene Management ToolsIntroducing the Scene Explorer improvements| 00:00 | The Max 2010 Scene Explorer brings a
new level of management to your scene
| | 00:04 | assets. Enabling quick access to
viewing, selecting, and editing elements in
| | 00:09 | the current Wireframe Scene, the new
Scene Explorer looks a tad bit different
| | 00:13 | than it did back in 2009. Let's go ahead
and take a look at some of those changes.
| | 00:17 | I am using a file named Scene Explorer
which can be found on the Chap_02 folder
| | 00:21 | in the Exercise Files. To open Scene
Explorer, you will want to go to the Tools
| | 00:26 | pull-down menu, then choose a new one
or open one that might previously have
| | 00:30 | been created. You can do that by
using the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Alt+O.
| | 00:36 | Now, the new default layout
displays only your object names, although
| | 00:39 | customizing the display is very easy.
The icons that enable you to change what
| | 00:44 | does or doesn't display on the window
have been relocated to the far left side
| | 00:48 | of the dialog. Turning any of the
buttons off will hide that asset class from
| | 00:54 | being displayed within the window.
Your Display filters are located a little
| | 00:58 | bit farther down below. Here is
one for All, None, and Invert.
| | 01:05 | The Selection filters have been
relocated to the bottom of the dialog. Here you
| | 01:09 | can select everything, nothing, or
have a few objects selected and then invert
| | 01:16 | that selection. Listing your Scene
assets in alphabetical order can easily be
| | 01:23 | accomplished by simply clicking
directly on the name tag. Adding additional
| | 01:28 | columns to the table is accomplished
by either using the Customize pull-down
| | 01:31 | menu and choosing Configure Columns.
Or by simply right-clicking on a column
| | 01:37 | heading, and choosing Configure
Columns from the Context menu.
| | 01:44 | To add a new classification, you will
simply pull it from the list and then
| | 01:48 | simply drop it directly on the top
header. The new column is automatically
| | 01:52 | inserted to the left of any existing
columns. Now, if you want to replace a
| | 01:59 | column in the table, simply right-
click on its header, choose Replace Column,
| | 02:05 | and then substitute an alternative.
The columns can be rearranged by simply
| | 02:09 | dragging the column header on
top of another and then letting go.
| | 02:14 | This moves the dragged column to the
immediate left of the target column. If you are
| | 02:18 | looking to remove a column from the table,
simply drag its label down onto the
| | 02:22 | main window, and release the mouse
cursor when the icon changes to an X.
| | 02:28 | Objects can easily be renamed by
simply selecting the name of the list,
| | 02:31 | right-clicking and then choosing
Rename. You can also quickly link objects
| | 02:40 | together with a simple drag and drop.
| | 02:43 | Choosing first the child than pulling
it over to the parent. In order to unlink,
| | 02:48 | you will simply right-click on the
child name, and choose Unlink Selected. You
| | 02:53 | can also easily group objects together.
Let's say we'll take our Lamp, select all
| | 02:59 | its parts, right-click, and then
choose Group, Group. And last but not least
| | 03:08 | you can quickly find objects by their
name. So, up in the Find category, I'll
| | 03:11 | type in remote, press Enter, and the
object is immediately located from the list.
| | 03:18 | So, there is a few things about the new
explorer, be sure to use it whenever possible.
| | 03:21 | It is a great way to both increase your
productivity and simplify the process of managing your Scenes.
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| Using containers| 00:00 | 3ds Max has introduced the concept of
Containers with its release of 2010. They
| | 00:05 | come in particularly handy when you
are working on a team project where Scene
| | 00:08 | assets will be shared between one
computer or user on another. Examples of that
| | 00:13 | would be a group collaborating to
create a video game or maybe a handful of
| | 00:16 | individuals working together on a
large-scale architectural project.
| | 00:20 | Now, what makes Container so
flexible is their ability to gather and hold
| | 00:24 | several objects within a single
Container. That Container then being made
| | 00:28 | available over a server to the other
team members, who can then either edit the
| | 00:32 | contents or be locked out from editing;
all depending on the wishes of the
| | 00:36 | individual who originally created the Container.
| | 00:38 | Why don't we start by first opening
the Select by Name list and taking a look
| | 00:42 | at the objects in the scene, so I want
to make sure they are all included in
| | 00:45 | our Container. OK, now that we know
we are working with, let's go ahead
| | 00:49 | and create that Container. You can do
so by going in the Helper section of the
| | 00:53 | Command panel, clicking on Container, and
then dropping one anywhere within the Scene.
| | 01:00 | Now, because the Container will hold
certain objects in the Scene, it is
| | 01:04 | probably a good idea to recenter that
Container onto the objects themselves. I
| | 01:09 | can do that in this instance by simply
right-clicking on the Move command and
| | 01:12 | zeroing out my coordinates. Now, that
we have got things in place, why don't we
| | 01:22 | go ahead now and add the
objects into the Container.
| | 01:24 | To do that we will go to the Modify column
and then under the Local Content tab,
| | 01:30 | simply click on Add. The list that
pops-up contains all the objects in your
| | 01:35 | Scene. We have already established the
fact that each of these is part of the
| | 01:38 | weight machine. So, we'll want to make
sure to include them all when we make
| | 01:41 | our selection. I'll simply start at
the top and then pull all the way down to
| | 01:45 | the bottom. With all of them now
included I can simply click on Add.
| | 01:49 | Now, because a Scene can have many
Containers, we'll keep things organized by
| | 01:53 | naming this one. I'm going to go give
it the name Weight Machine. Now because
| | 02:03 | at this point the objects have been
added into the Container, I can now move
| | 02:07 | the Container Helper and manipulate the
objects as a single entity. Now because
| | 02:14 | I have yet to close the Container, I
can still select the individual objects
| | 02:18 | inside and control them as individual pieces.
| | 02:24 | If you would like to create a
visual representation of the name of the
| | 02:27 | Container on the screen, you can do
that by simply dropping a little farther
| | 02:30 | down the menu and then activating
Label under the Display section. If needed
| | 02:35 | you can even change the size of the
Container Helper icon without worrying
| | 02:39 | about affecting any of the geometry inside.
| | 02:42 | Now, when you are setting the
Container up to be used by others, you have the
| | 02:46 | option to control whether or not your co
-workers will be able to make any edits
| | 02:49 | to what you have created. If you want
those other members of your team to have
| | 02:53 | those editing rights, you want to make sure
to turn on the Allow Edit in Place option.
| | 02:58 | Now, if you leave this option off as
we'll do in our example here, only you
| | 03:03 | will be able to edit that geometry.
Others in your team will be able to move
| | 03:06 | the assets around in the Scene, they
just won't be able to make any changes to
| | 03:11 | whatever might be inside the Container.
When you are happy with the way things
| | 03:15 | are and you are ready to move forward,
you simply have to save things up.
| | 03:18 | We will go back on the Command panel,
and simply click on Save. Now, with this
| | 03:24 | Max will save this as a separate file.
You will note that it is using the Max
| | 03:29 | Container definition file format using
an extension of MAXC. Now, as long as
| | 03:38 | you save that file to a server
location others in your work group can access,
| | 03:42 | they will be able to use that file
with or without editing privileges all
| | 03:46 | depending on the way you have set things up.
| | 03:50 | If you being the author of the file
wish to make any changes, you can simply
| | 03:54 | open the Container, edit the assets
however needed, then simply close the
| | 03:59 | Container and re-save. Whatever changes you make
will reflect in each reference to that Container.
| | 04:08 | So that should give you a little
introduction as to how the Containers work.
| | 04:11 | Next time you are working with a
group on a team project, be sure to take
| | 04:14 | advantage of the benefits they offer.
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| Using the Transform toolbox| 00:00 |
The new Transform Toolbox offers a
quick and easy way to re-size and rotate
| | 00:05 |
objects in your Scene, in addition
to providing a handful of tools for
| | 00:09 |
manipulating pivot points. You can
access the controls by going to the Edit
| | 00:13 |
pull-down menu and choosing Transform
Toolbox. Now, in as much as you can float
| | 00:18 |
the box around the screen, I'm going to go
ahead and dock it off to the left hand side.
| | 00:22 |
Let's start with the rotation. One
of the cool things about the way that
| | 00:25 |
Transform Toolbox handles rotating
objects is that the rotations are done so
| | 00:29 |
from your actual point of view as
opposed to the coordinates either in your
| | 00:33 |
Scene or exclusive to the object itself.
You can type in a specific number of
| | 00:37 |
degrees to rotate, or you can simply
choose one of the predefined Degree settings.
| | 00:44 |
You can then choose to rotate it
counterclockwise or clockwise. Now, as you can
| | 00:48 |
see once the command is executed,
your model quickly rotates in relation to
| | 00:52 |
your actual point of view. If I orbit
around to change the orientation of my
| | 00:56 |
workspace which can be done by simply
holding down both the Alt key and the
| | 01:00 |
middle mouse button, then moving your mouse.
| | 01:02 |
You will see that the rotations are
still performed from my current POV, and it
| | 01:09 |
doesn't matter which direction you are
working. Here we'll change the rotation
| | 01:13 |
to 90, and go counterclockwise, and
then back clockwise. These rotation
| | 01:22 |
controls come in especially handy
when you are creating assets for a game
| | 01:25 |
level, as many times you will need to
quickly re-orient something without the
| | 01:29 |
use of an additional
construction grid or snapping function.
| | 01:32 |
The Toolbox enables those rotations
to be both quick and easy. Now the Size
| | 01:36 |
controls directly below that allow you
to set the size of an object in specific
| | 01:41 |
units along a single axis or in all
three directions simultaneously. The Get
| | 01:46 |
button shows the dimensions of your
objects bounding box along all three axes,
| | 01:51 |
enabling you to make precise
adjustments with very little effort. So, for an
| | 01:55 |
example, if I wanted to make the plane just a
little longer, I could increase the Y value.
| | 01:59 |
When I have locked in my 120 units
I can just click on Set Size. The Align
| | 02:08 |
Pivot options allow you to reposition
an object's pivot either to the minimum
| | 02:12 |
or maximum constrains in a particular
direction, centered on the object, or if
| | 02:19 |
needing to center the pivot to the
origin of the world; which you would for
| | 02:22 |
example need to do when exporting your
model to a video game engine, you can
| | 02:25 |
simply align the pivot to the origin.
| | 02:30 |
Lastly, there is a real neat tool
called QuickClone, that comes in especially
| | 02:34 |
handy when creating when morphed
targets for a Scene. It works by creating
| | 02:38 |
copies of the selected object based on
the direction the object is viewed in the
| | 02:42 |
View Port. It will typically move the
clones to the right of the original,
| | 02:46 |
except in situations where you are
viewing your model from above or over head.
| | 02:56 |
In those situations it will move
the copies toward the point of view.
| | 03:06 |
So, there you go with a few of the
features in the new Transform Toolbox,
| | 03:10 |
definitely worth getting to know
and definitely worth putting to use.
| | 03:13 |
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| Understanding OBJ import and export enhancements| 00:00 | 3ds Max has expanded its support for
the OBJ file format with the release of
| | 00:04 | 2010. If you are planning on working
with data from another application, like
| | 00:09 | maybe Maya, Mudbox or one of the other
popular 3D softwares. You are going to
| | 00:13 | find that the new version of Max has
made that job both a little cleaner and a
| | 00:17 | little less troublesome.
| | 00:18 | Let's take a look at some of your
options. Why don't we start by first
| | 00:22 | exporting this out. We will go onto
the Application menu, and simply choose
| | 00:26 | Export. We want to verify that we are
indeed using the OBJ file format, and why
| | 00:32 | don't we go ahead and name this candle.
Now your Export options have pretty
| | 00:38 | much stayed the same since 2009, you
still have a control to determine the
| | 00:42 | type of Faces that you will export, and
you got the standard options under the
| | 00:46 | Material category. If you indeed know
the software that will be the using the
| | 00:50 | file, you can select that from the pop-up menu.
| | 00:52 | For example, we'll just keep it on NONE.
Now we'll go ahead and click Export,
| | 01:02 | and the job is done. Now with Import
there are a few new things to be aware of.
| | 01:07 | We'll first Reset and then we'll go
into our Import menu, let us go ahead and choose
| | 01:14 | the candle.obj file which you can find over in
the Chap_02 folder and you can now click on Open.
| | 01:20 | Now here is a few new things to look
for, first there is a new Import As
| | 01:25 | Editable Poly option, this will import
the geometry as an editable poly object
| | 01:29 | as opposed to the old editable mesh.
With Retriangulate Polygons, you will
| | 01:34 | ensure that the imported polys do
indeed come in as triangles. In the Normals
| | 01:38 | category over on the right, the Import
from file option will accurately import
| | 01:42 | the Normals as they were generated from
the original OBJ file. Now that OBJ
| | 01:47 | doesn't have Normals for whatever reason,
new Normals will be created using the
| | 01:51 | imported smoothing groups.
| | 01:53 | In the Materials category directly
below, there is a new Copy Maps To Project
| | 01:58 | Folder option. This will automatically
copy whatever maps were contained in the
| | 02:02 | OBJ file into the Images folder of your
current project. And you now even have
| | 02:07 | a handful of presets that you can
choose from, to identify this specific
| | 02:10 | application the file is coming from
to ensure that the import comes in as
| | 02:14 | error-free as possible.
| | 02:15 | Once you have chosen your options, you
can simply click Import. And it looks
| | 02:22 | like things have come in pretty clean.
Let's go ahead and render that to check
| | 02:25 | out how things turned out. And I
think we are looking pretty good.
| | 02:35 | So that will give you a few new things
you can look for when exporting and when
| | 02:39 | importing OBJs from another application.
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|
|
3. Viewport Changes and EnhancementsUsing right-click controls| 00:00 |
The Viewport Labels in Max 2010 have
undergone a little facelift, in the hopes
| | 00:05 |
of providing users with quicker
access to the various display options. The
| | 00:09 |
layout now consists of three separate
labels, each being a clickable shortcut
| | 00:14 |
menu to the commands and
control settings within their group.
| | 00:18 |
Those labels can be accessed using
either the left or right mouse buttons. The
| | 00:23 |
plus(+) sign label farthest to the left
provides the opportunity to activate a
| | 00:27 |
handful of miscellaneous Viewport
display data controls, in addition to giving
| | 00:36 |
you access to the Viewport Configuration dialog.
| | 00:40 |
The category that reads Perspective
is known as the Point Of View menu and
| | 00:45 |
provides the opportunity to change
Viewport orientation. In addition to
| | 00:53 |
allowing a collection of other type
windows to dock within the Viewport layout.
| | 00:57 |
Those other type windows would include
the Schematic View, Scene Explorer, and
| | 01:03 |
the Asset Browser. The Point Of View
menu also contains the ActiveShade. And a
| | 01:19 |
brand new feature called Shape, which
allows you to view a selected 2D shape in
| | 01:23 |
a flat 2-dimensional orientation. Now
this comes in extremely handy when you
| | 01:29 |
are wanting to edit that shape only
in a flat 2D or the graphic direction.
| | 01:39 |
The final menu on the right are your
shading controls which allow you to choose
| | 01:43 |
how your objects will display inside
the View. The menu also contains the
| | 01:51 |
options to control your hardware-based
advanced lighting preview
| | 01:53 |
configurations, and your Transparency
Quality Of Display controls. There is
| | 02:01 |
also a brand new option called xView
which can be used to analyze a 3D model
| | 02:06 |
for potential problems and errors when
being imported into a video game engine.
| | 02:11 |
And lastly, you have got your options
for images and animations being displayed
| | 02:14 |
in the Viewport Background.
| | 02:18 |
So, there you have it, mostly the same controls that
you have seen before but on a slightly different Layout.
| | 02:23 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Previewing soft shadows| 00:00 | Max 2010 has dramatically upped the ante
as far as providing immediate feedback
| | 00:05 | within the Viewports by improving on
it's ability to show not just Shadows in a
| | 00:09 | shaded view, but now also
Ambient Occlusion and Exposure control.
| | 00:14 | These new features have been added to
the program in the hopes of being able to
| | 00:17 | provide 3D artists a greater level of
immediate visual feedback within the
| | 00:21 | normal work flow. Now what makes
these new and improved settings even more
| | 00:24 | impressive is the fact that they
are scalable, meaning that they can be
| | 00:28 | adjusted and tweaked, in order to best
suit the abilities and limitations of
| | 00:33 | your system resources. In other words,
those Viewport controls aren't just an
| | 00:37 | all-or-nothing process. The ability
to fine tune those adjustments makes it
| | 00:42 | possible to receive immediate
feedback within your windows.
| | 00:45 | Even without having to spend an arm
and a leg on a high-end graphics card or
| | 00:48 | a ton of RAM. In this video we'll
specifically address the enhancements of
| | 00:53 | Viewport shadows. Now being able to
actually view shadows directly inside of
| | 00:57 | Viewport is not new to 3ds Max as the
technology has been around since Max
| | 01:01 | 2008. What is new is the ability to
display not just Hard Shadows which was
| | 01:06 | available on the previous release.
But now being able to offer also Soft
| | 01:11 | Shadows which can improve your viewing
experience even that much more should
| | 01:15 | that style of shading be called for.
| | 01:17 | Let's take a look at how things are
set up. This is a file named Soft Shadows
| | 01:21 | which can be find in the Chap_3
folder of the Exercise files. Now if you
| | 01:25 | select the light and move it from side
to side, you do notice there is a little
| | 01:33 | bit of shading going on but certainly
no shadows. We'll need to first verify
| | 01:37 | that the shadows have indeed been
enabled on the light; if we go the Modify
| | 01:41 | column, under Shadows let's make sure
they are turned On. You could have also
| | 01:47 | done this by right-clicking on the
light, and choosing Cast Shadows.
| | 01:52 | Now let's go ahead and Render and see
how things look. The results are awfully
| | 02:01 | dark, we'll make a few adjustments on
that in just a moment. Let's first enable
| | 02:07 | the hardware shadow display within the
view. We'll go to the Shading properties
| | 02:11 | in the upper left-hand corner, down to
Lighting and Shadows, and then turn on
| | 02:16 | Enable Hardware Shading. Notice we could
have also used the keyboard shortcut, Shift+F3.
| | 02:21 | Now although the Scene is still quite
dark, if we move the light from side to
| | 02:25 | side, we can indeed see the shadows
directly inside our shaded view. Let's go
| | 02:29 | ahead and crank up the brightness
of the light, we'll go down to the
| | 02:36 | Intensity/Color/Attenuation controls,
and take our Intensity from 1500 up to
| | 02:40 | let's say 3000. We could probably go a
little lighter still. So let's increase
| | 02:47 | it to 5000. Now with the Intensity
turned up, as we move the light from side to
| | 02:53 | side you can indeed see the
interactivity of the moving shadows.
| | 02:58 | Now before we go making any further
adjustments, I want you to take note of how
| | 03:02 | hard the Shadows look. You can see
this behind the table, over on the wall
| | 03:07 | behind the lamp, and also to the right-
hand side of the chair. Let's instead
| | 03:12 | activate the new soft shadows feature;
for that we'll go back in the Shading
| | 03:15 | menu, under Lighting and Shadows you
want to go to your Configure page. From
| | 03:20 | here, halfway down on the right-hand
side you have your Shading options, here is
| | 03:23 | our control. We want to go from Hard
Shadows over to Soft. Now look at the
| | 03:30 | difference that has made as far as the edge on the
Shadow, you can see how things have softened up.
| | 03:35 | Let's go ahead now and render so we can
see the quality of the Viewport shading
| | 03:38 | versus the actual render. Now when
you compare the two, and we'll move that
| | 03:50 | over to the left-hand side here, look
how the quality of the shading inside the
| | 03:54 | Viewports is almost as good as the
quality of the shading inside the actual final
| | 03:59 | render. Pretty darn close and
certainly much better than anything that's been
| | 04:03 | available up until now.
| | 04:05 | So that will give you a few options
when wanting to display Shadows directly
| | 04:08 | inside your views. Now we'll
take a look at Ambient Occlusion.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Applying Ambient Occlusion| 00:00 | With the introduction of Ambient
Occlusion shading directly inside of View, Max
| | 00:04 | 2010 provides an even greater level of
visual accuracy and realism, in hopes of
| | 00:09 | more closely matching ones Viewport to
the actual finished render. Let's take a
| | 00:13 | look at how it's activated and
controlled. Now to fully understand the effect
| | 00:17 | and benefits of Ambient Occlusion, let's
first turn the Shadows off in our light.
| | 00:22 | Now if you look below the desk and
chair, you'll notice we have no shading
| | 00:26 | whatsoever, this is where the Ambient
Occlusion comes into play. To activate
| | 00:31 | that, we'll go up to our Shading menu,
over to our Lighting and Shadows, and
| | 00:35 | then enable the Ambient Occlusion. Now
watch the change underneath the table.
| | 00:40 | The Ambient Occlusion basically adds
an additional level of shading to any
| | 00:44 | surface that lies in close proximity to
another object or objects in the Scene.
| | 00:49 | Adding the Ambient Occlusion to your
shaded view, just brings you one step
| | 00:52 | closer to having a better idea of what your
eventual render will turn out looking like.
| | 00:57 | If you now move your light from
side to side, you'll see the shading
| | 01:00 | dynamically update underneath the table
and chair. Now the full benefit of the
| | 01:05 | shading comes by going back and
turning on the Shadows in the light.
| | 01:10 | To get a better idea of what the
Ambient Occlusion offers as far as overall
| | 01:13 | shading, let's temporarily turn it off
then back on. So there is with it off,
| | 01:24 | and there it is when re-enabled. As we
move our light now back and forth, you
| | 01:29 | can say we have got a nice little level
of both contrast and 3-dimensionality.
| | 01:33 | Now the quality of the Occlusion
shading can also be adjusted, should the
| | 01:36 | limitations of your computer's
processor, RAM, or graphics card become an
| | 01:40 | issue. To make those adjustments, you
want to go back in the Configure page.
| | 01:47 | You have got a slider control that
goes from Medium to High, which you can
| | 01:51 | adjust all depending on what you think
your machine can handle. Lower levels
| | 01:55 | will obviously yield a lower quality result.
| | 01:58 | You also have a setting called Sample
Radius. Here a higher value will yield
| | 02:02 | smoother results albeit at an
increase in render times, while a lower
| | 02:07 | value will indeed render faster but has a
tendency to yield results that look a little more grainy.
| | 02:14 | So, with the addition of Ambient
Occlusion, you can now achieve an even higher
| | 02:17 | level of final output realism
directly inside your shaded views.
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| Using exposure controls| 00:00 | Max 2010 has advanced the ability
to create the highest level of shaded
| | 00:04 | Viewport realism by introducing
Exposure controls that serve to provide your
| | 00:08 | viewing Windows with the same
output levels and color range as an actual
| | 00:11 | rendering. Let's take a look at
some of those innovative controls.
| | 00:14 | I am using a file named Exposure
Control which is merely a carryover from our
| | 00:19 | previous video. Now you should know
that Exposure Control is typically used in
| | 00:23 | a 3D application in order to compensate for the
limited dynamic range of ones computer monitor.
| | 00:28 | In essence, you apply Exposure Control
to a computer-generated image in hopes
| | 00:34 | of achieving the same level of photo
realism that one would typically get when
| | 00:37 | shooting with a real world camera. It's
important to know that Exposure Control
| | 00:41 | doesn't change the actual lighting in
a Scene, it's more like changing the
| | 00:45 | amount of light coming into the camera
that's shooting the Scene. Here's how
| | 00:48 | you go about setting it up.
| | 00:50 | You'll first need to activate your
hardware shading, then be sure that the
| | 00:54 | Enable Exposure Control in Viewport
option has been turned on. Both of these
| | 00:59 | are controlled in the Shading
menu in the upper-left hand corner.
| | 01:05 | Now we can open up the Exposure
Control dialog. You do that by going to the
| | 01:09 | Rendering pull-down and choosing
Exposure Control. Now there is a couple of
| | 01:13 | different types of Exposure controls
you can choose from. Let's start with
| | 01:17 | Logarithmic, which is best used on
Scenes that have a high dynamic range of
| | 01:21 | both lighting and contrast.
| | 01:23 | We have a Render Preview option
directly inside our dialog, let's go ahead and
| | 01:26 | activate that. Now directly below
our thumbnail preview, we can make some
| | 01:31 | adjustments. You have got controls
for Brightness, the level of your Scene
| | 01:39 | Contrast, and even the Mid Tone
Coloration and Shading within your Scene.
| | 01:57 | You can even experiment with the Color
Correction which serves to simulate how
| | 02:01 | the human eye adjusts the lighting.
Now if you are using the metal ray
| | 02:09 | rendering engine as we are here, you
can consider using the metal ray Photographic
| | 02:14 | Exposure controls, which let's you
modify your view using camera controls like
| | 02:18 | Shutter Speed, Aperture, and Film Speed.
| | 02:21 | Let's start by simply applying a
general Exposure Value. And we can now render
| | 02:26 | our Preview. Things are quite dark
because our Exposure Value is too high, so
| | 02:32 | we'll back that down to let's say 10,
and here is what it would look like with
| | 02:36 | 5, and let's go somewhere in
the middle of that, how about 8.
| | 02:42 | For your real world camera
settings, you will want to change over to the
| | 02:45 | Photographic Exposure. Now you can
control things like Shutter Speed, which
| | 02:49 | adjusts the length of time the camera
shutter is actually open. Higher values
| | 02:54 | have a tendency to lower the exposure.
So here we are with 6, here is 2, and
| | 03:01 | we'll return to the default value of 4.
| | 03:04 | You can also adjust the Aperture or
what as many times referred to as the
| | 03:08 | F-stop setting. This controls the size
of the opening of the camera eye. Like
| | 03:12 | with Shutter Speed controls, higher
Aperture values will create a lower
| | 03:16 | exposure. So here we are at 12,
we'll back that down to 4, and then we'll
| | 03:23 | return to our original 8.
| | 03:27 | Under the Image Control section
directly below that, you have individual
| | 03:31 | settings for Highlights, Midtones,
Shadows, and Color Saturation. There is even
| | 03:38 | a series of preset templates that
you can use to dial in on a particular
| | 03:41 | lighting effect, should
that be the way you want to go.
| | 03:44 | So you have got some pretty cool
Viewport adjustments that you can now play
| | 03:47 | around with. Take a little time to
explore how they work, and you'll soon be
| | 03:51 | able to take your shaded views one notch closer
to that realism that I'm sure you are aiming for.
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|
|
4. Modeling ImprovementsUsing the Modeling Ribbon| 00:00 |
Let's take a look at how you go about
using the tools in the modeling ribbon.
| | 00:04 |
Now one of the things that makes the
ribbon so feature-filled is the fact that
| | 00:08 |
it contains not just all the Editable
Poly commands that you are used to using,
| | 00:12 |
but nearly 150 new tools that are designed
to both increase your speed and efficiency.
| | 00:16 |
Let's see what we can do. Why don't we
go ahead and activate the perspective
| | 00:20 |
view full screen and create a Plane
that's pretty much the size of the grid.
| | 00:26 |
We'll now hide that grid by typing G, then
pressing F4 so we can see our shaded edges.
| | 00:31 |
Now we are going to need a little more
geometry in this, so let's go ahead and
| | 00:34 |
change the Length and Width Segments
both to 20. We can now activate the
| | 00:40 |
modeling ribbon, convert our object to an
Editable Poly and then hide the Command panel.
| | 00:52 |
Okay, I'm just going to play around a
little here. I'm going to go ahead and
| | 00:54 |
select this series of polygons right
in the middle of by surface. I think in
| | 00:58 |
this example I'll go ahead and use my
Paint selection and turn on my Ignore
| | 01:03 |
Backfacing. I'll come to the middle and
go ahead now and make a selection.
| | 01:11 |
Now I have a few more on each end that
I actually wanted, so I will hold the Ctrl
| | 01:14 |
key down and deselect those. Now from
here I'm going to use a couple of Polygon
| | 01:19 |
commands. I don't see the Polygon
panel up on the ribbon, so I'm going
| | 01:23 |
right-click to go to my Panels, and there
is the reason why, it's temporarily been
| | 01:27 |
hidden. So we'll go ahead and turn that
on. From here I'll go ahead and choose
| | 01:30 |
the Extrude command. And then
simply extrude this up. There we go.
| | 01:36 |
Now my idea was to make maybe a castle
in the middle of things. So I'm going to
| | 01:39 |
now select a couple more polygons on
the inside. This time choose the Bevel
| | 01:45 |
command; we'll bevel that up and
then possibly a little bit more in.
| | 01:51 |
Now to get a closer look I'll hit Z, and
then pull back away just a tad. Now it
| | 01:57 |
looks like we have quite a few
polygons and what I would like to do now is to
| | 02:00 |
delete those polys. Select the opening
as a border and use the Cap Poly command located
| | 02:07 |
over in the Geometry panel. That
converts that to a single polygon. I can go
| | 02:12 |
back and select it now as a poly and
this time I'll bevel this up and in by
| | 02:17 |
using the Option box by
holding down the Shift key.
| | 02:19 |
We will change the Height on this and
maybe come back a little ways more. There
| | 02:30 |
we go. From here let me pull back just
a tad and I still have all the options
| | 02:36 |
with my right mouse click, so we'll
right-click, choose Bevel one more time,
| | 02:40 |
and then take this up even further.
| | 02:44 |
Let's cancel that command and pull
back to see how things look. Now I would
| | 02:49 |
also like to lengthen the outsides
on each corner. So we'll go ahead and
| | 02:54 |
select those. Bevel those just a tad,
again I should probably pull a little
| | 03:00 |
closer in. There we go. And then
we'll go to our Extrude, again holding the
| | 03:08 |
Shift key down for the Options box.
Lower that just a bit, we'll pull back out
| | 03:14 |
and then why don't we right-click and
scale those down to a tip. There we go.
| | 03:22 |
This place is going to need a location
to actually enter, so why don't we go
| | 03:25 |
ahead and create a couple of doors on
this side over here. For this I'm going
| | 03:29 |
to cut some edges, and get myself a
little better angle. Go to the Edge
| | 03:34 |
command, and then under the Edit panel
choose Cut. And we'll see how close we
| | 03:39 |
can come to going straight across. It
doesn't look like I have made a very good
| | 03:50 |
cut, so we'll change another angle.
Let's see, it looks like I have got good
| | 03:52 |
detection here. Let's try again, Ignore
Backfacing is on, there we go. I think
| | 03:59 |
Max just didn't like the angle I was
going in at. There we go. We are going to
| | 04:05 |
be happy now with those.
| | 04:07 |
Now after making those cuts, I can go
back and select the polys underneath.
| | 04:13 |
Come back a little closer and again
using the Extrude Options box we are now
| | 04:18 |
going to Extrude these in just a tad.
And in this case choose the By Polygon
| | 04:22 |
option so we can actually
make three even divisions.
| | 04:24 |
Now you can see those are single
polygons, what I would like to do is divide
| | 04:30 |
those by using the Tessellate command.
You can find that over in Subdivisions,
| | 04:33 |
and here is the button here. Let's go
ahead and click. Now you can see what
| | 04:37 |
that's done. I'm now going to open up
the Bevel option box, we'll bring those
| | 04:42 |
in just a tad. Again, we'll bevel By
Polygon to make some nice separations, and
| | 04:48 |
then we'll maybe extend those out just
a bit more. There we go, click away and
| | 04:59 |
you can see we have got
some nice doors now in front.
| | 05:02 |
Now a palatial estate of this magnitude
is certainly going to want some leisure
| | 05:05 |
activity, why don't we go ahead and
create a pool directly here on the front.
| | 05:08 |
Let's zoom in, we'll go to the
Edge command and I'm going to select a
| | 05:14 |
series of edges that I'm then going
to plan on removing. Oops! Let's go one
| | 05:20 |
more back. There we go, I think I have
got them all. I'll now go to the Edges
| | 05:29 |
panel, and click on Remove Edges.
| | 05:33 |
So now again we are working with a
single polygon. I'll now select that puppy
| | 05:39 |
and then using the Inset command
under Polygons. We'll then create another
| | 05:43 |
polygon just a little bit smaller
than the one that we began with. This is
| | 05:47 |
going to give me the opportunity of
then selecting all the outside polygons,
| | 05:50 |
extruding them up, in essense to
create kind of a barrier or maybe fence
| | 05:55 |
around the pool. There we go.
| | 05:57 |
We will come to the Extrude, and up we
go. I'm also going to want to take that
| | 06:03 |
inside polygon and maybe extrude that
down a little bit to the depth of our
| | 06:08 |
little wading pool. Now from here, I
would like to create a decking around the
| | 06:11 |
pool. So we'll select the inside polys
down at the bottom, orbit around.
| | 06:19 |
I better get myself better situated
here, there we go. And then with those
| | 06:31 |
polys selected we'll again use the Option box,
and extrude in that decking. There we go.
| | 06:44 |
Now a place this nice would probably
end up being in the mountains somewhere,
| | 06:47 |
so we are going to use one of our
Freeform tools. Hold the guy over here named
| | 06:50 |
Shift, which will now allow me to
Freeform scoped in a couple of mountains for
| | 06:54 |
my background. Over the Shift option
I can control both the strength of my
| | 06:59 |
brush, and also the size.
| | 07:04 |
So we'll come around here a little
bit. Isn't that neat how that works, maybe
| | 07:11 |
around more to the side. I'm going to
be careful here not to get my palatial
| | 07:17 |
estate. And you can see now how that's
worked, maybe little farther up in the
| | 07:24 |
back here, there we go.
| | 07:26 |
Why don't we now aim to smoothen
things out a little bit. We going to go to a
| | 07:32 |
element selection, we are going to
use again the subdivision category,
| | 07:36 |
Tessellate this guy one more time.
Now to smoothen out even further, we'll
| | 07:41 |
again make a selection as an element and
this time choose the MSmooth. There we go.
| | 07:50 |
Now another handy command I can use in
the Freeform category is the good old
| | 07:53 |
Paint Deform. I can pull these up
little farther, or by holding down the Alt
| | 08:02 |
key we can actually create maybe a moat
that goes directly around our property.
| | 08:14 |
There we go. Not perfect, but I
think you certainly get the idea.
| | 08:20 |
So that will give you a quick little
whirlwind tour of how the modeling ribbon
| | 08:23 |
works. Now like with anything new,
there will be a little learning curve that
| | 08:27 |
you are going to have to work through.
But I think once you are comfortable
| | 08:30 |
with where things are and how all the
new tools work. You will truly come to
| | 08:34 |
appreciate what the ribbon can do
to improve your modeling work flow.
| | 08:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Customizing the Modeling Ribbon| 00:00 | The modeling ribbon offers a couple
different things you can do to customize
| | 00:03 | its look and feel to best fit your
personal style and modeling workflow. Both
| | 00:08 | the entire ribbon and individual
panels can be torn off and used as floating
| | 00:12 | tools sets directly inside your Viewports.
| | 00:14 | The entire ribbon, by going to the
upper left-hand corner, right-clicking and
| | 00:18 | choosing Float. This can also be
resized by grabbing either side and pulling it
| | 00:23 | left or right. It can be docked at the
bottom of the interface by
| | 00:26 | right-clicking choosing Dock>Bottom or
taken back to its original position
| | 00:32 | by going to the left-hand edge, right-
clicking and again docking at the top.
| | 00:36 | As far as tearing off individual
panels, that's simply done by dragging the
| | 00:41 | panel directly inside the view. You
can then move the panel from side-to-side
| | 00:45 | by simply grabbing on its
name and then pushing it around.
| | 00:53 | Panels can be added together by simply
dragging one on top of the other then
| | 00:56 | releasing your mouse. To separate, you
simply take the panel and drag it from
| | 01:00 | its locked position. The panels are
also redocked to their default locations by
| | 01:06 | going into the panel name and
choosing Return Panels to Ribbon.
| | 01:12 | The order of the panels in the
toolbar can easily be switched around. You
| | 01:15 | simply grab the panel and pull it to a
new location. Individual panels can also
| | 01:26 | be resized by simply dragging
horizontally while holding down on the panel's edge.
| | 01:33 | Both the tabs and the panels can also
be hidden from display. That's done by
| | 01:37 | simply right-clicking on the tab name
and hiding this specific panel. To get it
| | 01:43 | back open just right-click again and reactivate.
| | 01:48 | Individual commands can also be added
into the Quick Access Toolbar at the
| | 01:52 | upper left-hand side of the interface. To
do that, simply put your mouse on top of
| | 01:56 | the command, right-click and choose
Add to Quick Access Toolbar. You will see
| | 02:02 | that tool has now made its way up to
the Quick Access Toolbar. If you would
| | 02:07 | like to remove it from that location,
just right-click on the icon and choose
| | 02:10 | Remove from Quick Access toolbar.
| | 02:12 | So you've got quite a few options when
it comes to customizing the ribbon and its
| | 02:16 | tools. And because it's XML-based, you
can even add your own tools into the mix
| | 02:21 | making it even that much more
useful when setting out to model.
| | 02:24 | Next we'll take a look at some of the new
Edge and Edge Loop tools available in the ribbon.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the new Edge Loop tools| 00:00 | Max 2010 has introduced an entire new
set of tools that work exclusively when
| | 00:04 | working with both Edges and Edge Loops.
Let's take a look at how they work.
| | 00:09 | It's simply a sphere that's been
converted down to an Editable Poly. Now in
| | 00:12 | order to work on your edges, we are
going to need to enter Edge mode. Let's
| | 00:16 | first of all take a look at
a few selection techniques.
| | 00:19 | If you have an edge selected and you
would like to either grow or shrink that
| | 00:22 | selection, you can do so on the
Modify tab. Here is your Grow command, and
| | 00:28 | directly below that you'll find Shrink.
If you have an edge selected and you'd
| | 00:34 | like to turn that into a loop,
well, you've got a Loop icon.
| | 00:38 | Now if you like to bypass the idea of
having to convert an edge into a loop,
| | 00:47 | there is a brand new Loop Mode. This
enables you to select any individual edge
| | 00:53 | and it will automatically
select the adjoining loop.
| | 00:56 | As usual, you can hold down the Ctrl
key to add to your selection. By the way,
| | 01:03 | you can always tell if you are in
your Loop Mode by simply looking directly
| | 01:05 | above the View Cube on the right. And
just like you had a Loop Mode, you also
| | 01:10 | have a Ring Mode. You can
see how that works here.
| | 01:15 | Again the Ctrl key will add to your
selection. Now there is going to be times
| | 01:21 | when you want to add a loop into the
existing geometry, and for that Max
| | 01:24 | introduces a brand-new tool called SwiftLoop.
You can find that over in the Edit panel.
| | 01:29 | Now this is pretty cool, watch how this
works. As I put my mouse on top of the
| | 01:33 | surface, I can interactively choose
where I'll create my new loop, clicking
| | 01:38 | will add that new loop in. There might
be other times when you want to remove
| | 01:45 | an existing loop. Here is how that's
done. We'll go back to Loop Mode and
| | 01:50 | select the Horizontal Loop that maybe
goes around the center of the object.
| | 01:54 | Now let's simply hit the Delete key.
Well, that actually removes the geometry,
| | 01:58 | so there must be another method that
we can use. We'll undo that. And instead
| | 02:03 | cruise over to the Loops panel and
choose Remove Loop. We could have also done
| | 02:10 | that by simply using the
keyboard shortcut, Ctrl+Backspace.
| | 02:14 | Now I want to show you something that
you'll many times run into when wanting
| | 02:17 | to add an additional loop
or two into an existing mesh.
| | 02:20 | Watch what happens when we activate the
SwiftLoop. Go to the middle part of our
| | 02:23 | geometry with the Horizontal Loop and
simply click. With the normal way of
| | 02:27 | adding loops, you'll notice the new
loop was simply added into the area where
| | 02:31 | we clicked, having absolutely no effect on the
overall curvature of the surface in that area.
| | 02:36 | All you did was simply add in a new
series of edges that lay directly inline
| | 02:40 | with the existing surface. And that's
created a very flat area, if you look at
| | 02:44 | the side of the sphere.
| | 02:45 | Let's instead remove that loop, and
this time using the SwiftLoop command,
| | 02:49 | we'll hold the Shift key down. Look at
the difference that's made. The new loop
| | 02:55 | now instead approximates a gradual
smoothing between the two existing
| | 02:58 | neighboring loops. Creating a smoother
transition and curvature to the surface
| | 03:02 | by averaging out the surrounding
polygons. And we can make that area even
| | 03:06 | smoother by clicking with the Shift key down
a little bit above, and a little bit below.
| | 03:12 | So that will give you a few new Edge
tools that you can play around with. Now
| | 03:16 | with the graphite ribbon having added
almost 150 new features and controls
| | 03:19 | to the Max modeling arsenal, it's
obvious that I've only touched on a handful
| | 03:23 | of some of the options. With the ones
I've showed you though, and with maybe
| | 03:26 | a little looking around on your own,
you'll quickly come to realize that Max has
| | 03:30 | added some pretty sweet new tools for you to
deploy the next time you set out to build a model.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding the Quadify Mesh modifier| 00:00 | Max 2010 has introduced a new modifier
called Quadify Mesh, which enables you
| | 00:05 | to convert an object's geometry into
four-sided polygons. To better produce
| | 00:09 | rounded edges on a model when using
subdivision surface tools like MeshSmooth,
| | 00:14 | TurboSmooth or when in Editable Poly
mode. Let's take a look at how it works.
| | 00:19 | The scene consists of three
separate mesh objects which can be easily
| | 00:22 | identified by their surface color.
Our goal would be to first join them
| | 00:25 | together using the ProBoolean command,
then round off the edges to create a
| | 00:30 | smoother surface. Let's first glue
all three pieces together using the
| | 00:33 | ProBoolean command.
| | 00:35 | I'll select one of the objects, then
in the Command panel, go under Standard
| | 00:39 | Primitives to Compound Objects. Let's
click on the ProBoolean command. Go down
| | 00:44 | to the Parameter section and change
Subtraction and Union, we'll now click on
| | 00:48 | Start Picking button, and get down
to work. I'll pick one of the other two
| | 00:52 | objects, and then the third.
| | 00:55 | Now the single surface color
indicates we now have one object. Before we
| | 00:59 | attempt our smoothing, let's hit F4 to
go into Shaded Edge mode. Now as you can
| | 01:04 | see, we don't have a whole lot of
geometry here to work with. We'll leave
| | 01:07 | things as they are though, and apply
the TurboSmooth Modifier. We will eneter the
| | 01:11 | Modify column, go down our
list, and click on TurboSmooth.
| | 01:20 | Now that's not exactly the results I
was expecting. What's happened here, is
| | 01:24 | the TurboSmooth hasn't been given
enough initial geometry in order to perform
| | 01:28 | its magic. This is where the
Quadify Mesh Modifier can come into play.
| | 01:32 | Let's first go below the stack, and
delete the TurboSmooth Modifier. Now we'll
| | 01:37 | go back in our list, head down aways,
and click on Quadify Mesh. Now with the
| | 01:47 | application of the modifier, you can
now see how the geometry has been better
| | 01:50 | divided into primarily four-sided polygons.
| | 01:54 | The actual number of polys can be
further adjusted by going to the Quad Size %
| | 01:58 | over on the right. What the setting
does, is specify the approximate size of
| | 02:03 | each quad in relation to the overall
size of the object. The smaller the
| | 02:07 | number, the more four-sided
polygons you'll have to use.
| | 02:10 | Let's start by experimenting with the
value of 20. You can see it's reduced the
| | 02:15 | divisions in our mesh, and for our
example here, we're certainly going to need
| | 02:18 | a lower number. Let's try 10. I think
we are going to need to go a little lower
| | 02:22 | still. Let's try 5, and then 2.5. Now
we've created the proper division in
| | 02:31 | layout for our polygons, and can now go
back and then reapply the TurboSmooth Modifier.
| | 02:35 | Look at the difference that's made.
Let's again hit F4 to remove our edges, and
| | 02:47 | we'll orbit around for a closer
inspection. You can see it whatever angle we
| | 02:53 | approach our geometry, our
results have turned out much better.
| | 02:57 | So when attempting to smooth out a
low polygon surface, and not getting
| | 03:00 | the results you are expecting, try
first applying the Quadify Mesh Modifier and
| | 03:04 | then go in for your smoothing.
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| Using the ProOptimizer modifier| 00:00 | The new ProOptimizer modifier offers a
more interactive approach to optimizing
| | 00:05 | extremely dense 3D models. Now if
you're familiar with the older Optimize
| | 00:09 | modifier in Max, you know that
optimizing objects is done for a handful of
| | 00:13 | reasons. First, it helps with
reducing a scene's overhead as far as memory
| | 00:17 | requirements, and secondly, it
improves performance in both the speed of your
| | 00:21 | Viewport display and in your render times.
| | 00:24 | ProOptimizer works by reducing the
number of vertices and faces on an object
| | 00:28 | while still preserving its overall
shape and maintaining any material mapping
| | 00:32 | and vertex color information the object
might have. We'll see how it works with
| | 00:37 | the example we have on the screen.
| | 00:39 | Let's start by first inspecting our mesh,
which we'll do by selecting the model
| | 00:42 | and heading out for. Now as you can
see we've got quite a heavy piece of
| | 00:45 | geometry. Let's go ahead and apply the
ProOptimizer and see if we can't lighten things up.
| | 00:56 | In the Optimization Options, about
half way down, Max offers a couple
| | 01:00 | different ways that will handle the
faces and edges that might occupy a border
| | 01:03 | of your object. Those are your controls
under optimization mode. There is also
| | 01:08 | a couple of controls designed to assist
in both maintaining your mapping and UV
| | 01:12 | coordinates. You can see those just below.
| | 01:15 | For our example, we'll leave things as
is and now begin the process by clicking
| | 01:19 | on the Calculate button located just
above. Max is now taking a closer look at
| | 01:23 | the model and determined a starting
point for both our vertex and face count.
| | 01:28 | You can see before we begin, we're
running into about 53,000 faces. Those
| | 01:33 | numbers can be further reduced by
using one of two options just above; by
| | 01:37 | controlling the Vertex %, or the
actual Vertex Count. Let's take the Vertex %
| | 01:43 | spinner, hold down and simply drop this
down a little more and you can see more
| | 01:47 | and more faces are being eaten away.
Continue to go down farther and farther
| | 01:55 | and I'll go down to roughly
about 20% of the original geometry.
| | 01:59 | Now look what this has done to our
face count. We've taken the original 53,000
| | 02:03 | faces down to just less than 11,000. Now
the big test, we'll see how this thing
| | 02:09 | renders. Let's go ahead. I see no
changes to the overall curvature of the
| | 02:13 | surface, yet we have substantially
reduced the number of faces needed to create
| | 02:17 | that shape. You can also type in a
specific Vertex Count. Let's drop just below
| | 02:23 | that and why don't we type in, let's say,
4,000. Now our faces have dropped down
| | 02:28 | to a little less then 8,000.
Let's go and render again.
| | 02:30 | To do our final tweaking, let's head
up for one more time to hide our edges.
| | 02:38 | And we'll now drop down the Vertex %
count until we start seeing our mesh
| | 02:42 | beginning to break down. You can see
that's exactly what's happening here. I'll
| | 02:51 | go ahead and crank it up to about, let's say,
around 10 or 11 and we'll render one more time.
| | 02:57 | Now think of what the ProOptimizer has
done. We have taken original face count
| | 03:00 | of 53,000 all the way down to just a
little over six. That's a nine-fold decrease
| | 03:06 | in the amount of our geometry. Yet
the shape of our surface remains intact.
| | 03:10 | So next time you're working on a
heavy mesh object, consider applying the
| | 03:14 | ProOptimizer to lighten the load.
You'll be able to work more efficiently and
| | 03:18 | Max will certainly love you for it.
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| Using Hair Spline Deform| 00:00 |
By using the new Spline Deform feature
on the Hair and Fur Modifier, you can
| | 00:04 |
now more easily style or animate your
character's hair by having it conform to
| | 00:08 |
the shape of a spline.
| | 00:10 |
We'll start by first selecting the blue
sphere, then applying the Hair and Fur
| | 00:13 |
Modifier. Now the Hair Deformation
Controls can be found under the Tools tab.
| | 00:23 |
So open that up and then click on the
None button directly below the words,
| | 00:26 |
Spline Deform. This now simply signals to Max
that we're ready to pick a spline in our scene
| | 00:32 |
that we will then use to change the
curvature of our hair. With the button down,
| | 00:35 |
go ahead and click on the yellow line.
Notice how each hair is now conforming
| | 00:40 |
to the general overall curvature of the
yellow spline. Let's take a look at how
| | 00:44 |
that would look if we would render it out.
| | 00:46 |
If you would like to experiment with a
different line, or would simply like to
| | 00:54 |
remove the one that we are using; you
can simply click on the X button to the
| | 00:57 |
right of the spline's name. To return the hair to
its original layout, we'll now click Regrow Hair.
| | 01:04 |
The Spline Deform can even be used on a
series of selected ploys. Let's go to a
| | 01:08 |
four-way view. We'll activate the Front
View. Open up the Hair and Fur Modifier
| | 01:13 |
going down to the Poly level and now
window select the top of the sphere. We
| | 01:19 |
can now return to the Perspective
view full screen. We'll now need to go a
| | 01:22 |
little bit above the Tools tab, open
up Selection and then click on Update
| | 01:28 |
Selection. Now we can go back and
select our yellow spline. Click on None and
| | 01:33 |
then the spline itself.
| | 01:34 |
Let's take a look at how this will
render out. Why don't we now see if we can
| | 01:41 |
lighten up the hair a little bit by
changing the Glossiness setting on the hair
| | 01:44 |
material. To do that, we'll put our
mouse inside the Command Panel, right-click
| | 01:50 |
and then drop-down to the Material
Parameters. Let's now change the Glossiness from
| | 01:54 |
99 to 25 and we can render that.
| | 02:04 |
What makes the spline deform even
more versatile is that you can animate
| | 02:07 |
vertices along the spline to make the
hairs move from side to side. Let's first
| | 02:12 |
turn off the Hair and Fur Modifier by
clicking on the light bulb inside the
| | 02:15 |
stack. We'll now hit H to open up our
Select By Name list and choose Line 1.
| | 02:23 |
In the stack, we can now drop down to
the Vertex level, turn on our Auto Key
| | 02:27 |
and move the vertex from side to side.
Let's grab the time slider and pull it
| | 02:31 |
to 50. We'll select that middle vert,
activate our Move command and we'll slide
| | 02:37 |
it to the right. We'll now go to
Frame 100 and we'll move that back to the
| | 02:42 |
left. Now if we click back on the top
of the stack and type H, we can now go
| | 02:50 |
back and select our blue sphere. Let's
now turn the Hair Modifier back on and
| | 02:55 |
we'll play things back.
| | 03:03 |
To offer an even greater range of
possibilities, you can even have the hairs
| | 03:06 |
conformed to not one, but a series
of splines that have been connected
| | 03:09 |
together. We'll go back up to the top
of the Hair and Fur settings. Remove the
| | 03:16 |
spline from controlling the hairs curvature
and get out of the Polygon sub-object level.
| | 03:22 |
Let's now Regrow our hair. Select the
old spline and hit Delete. Let's now
| | 03:29 |
right-click to Unhide All and we'll
use this spline cage consisting of two
| | 03:34 |
lines to reform our hair. Let's first
of all turn off the Auto Key and so we
| | 03:38 |
don't get in trouble with that. Now we
can go back and select the ball. Click
| | 03:42 |
again on the None button under Spline
Deform and this time click on one of the
| | 03:46 |
two green lines. If we
render you can see how that looks.
| | 03:56 |
Now to offer a greater level of
accuracy as to where the hair bends. Let's
| | 03:59 |
increase the number of segments on
each hair. To do that, we'll go a little
| | 04:03 |
farther down in the Modify column and
change the Hair Segments from 5 to let's
| | 04:11 |
say 12. We can render again and that
should smoothen things out just a bit.
| | 04:22 |
Now with just like working with one
spline, we could change the shape of our
| | 04:26 |
two green curves, which would
therefore reshape the hairs. I'll select the
| | 04:31 |
green lines, enter the Vertex level
and as you can see, moving these up and
| | 04:37 |
down. Indeed that's the trick.
| | 04:46 |
So the next time you're needing a
little hair or fur on a character, consider
| | 04:50 |
whether the new Spline
Deform feature will do the trick.
| | 04:52 |
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|
|
5. MaterialsViewing the Material Explorer| 00:00 |
One of the new features within 3ds
Max that I think you will come to
| | 00:03 |
appreciate the most is the Material
Explorer; designed to allow for the
| | 00:07 |
management of all your scene materials
within a single easy-to-navigate window,
| | 00:12 |
the Material Explorer offers the
opportunity to quickly craft not just global
| | 00:15 |
material adjustments, but also to
make quick edits to individual materials
| | 00:20 |
without having to access the Materials Editor.
| | 00:22 |
Let's take a look at how it works. To
access the new dialog, you will want to
| | 00:26 |
go to the Rendering pull-down menu and
choose Material Explorer. The interface
| | 00:32 |
is divided into two panels; the Scene
panel at the top and the Material panel
| | 00:36 |
located directly below.
| | 00:38 |
The Scene panel allows you to quickly
browse and manage each and every material
| | 00:42 |
that's been applied to your scene. You
can determine what and how things are
| | 00:46 |
displayed within the window by using
the display icons located in the upper
| | 00:50 |
left-hand side, showing
your materials as thumbnails.
| | 00:56 |
Displaying or not displaying the maps
that are built into those materials and
| | 01:01 |
if needed, showing the object or
objects that, that particular material has
| | 01:05 |
been applied to. Sorting, can
done by Object or by Material.
| | 01:14 |
You also have a series of columns that
identify the type of material that you
| | 01:17 |
built. Whether or not its Map is
currently displayed the Shaded view and how
| | 01:21 |
that display is being generated and the
Material ID number which can easily be
| | 01:25 |
changed from directly within the
window. Like with working with the Scene
| | 01:29 |
Explorer, individual columns can be
added or removed to suit your needs and
| | 01:33 |
production workflow, removing by
simply dragging the title tag into the view,
| | 01:37 |
or adding by either right-clicking on the
Title bar or going to the Customize pull-down menu.
| | 01:47 |
Columns can easily be reordered by
simply dragging-and-dropping to their
| | 01:51 |
desired position. Materials can be
renamed, Maps can be swapped or copied to
| | 01:58 |
other materials. You can even pull
this again back into the Materials Editor
| | 02:08 |
for a quick adjustment or drag
something directly from the Explorer into your
| | 02:24 |
scene. Expanding the material, now displays
both objects on which it has been applied.
| | 02:39 |
You can even change the type of
material on the fly. That's done by opening the
| | 02:43 |
Material Editor, choosing a different
type of material and dragging that type
| | 02:49 |
on to the existing material in the Explorer.
| | 02:55 |
Down on the Material panel, you can
more closely inspect any individual
| | 02:59 |
material that's been applied to your
scene. You can also easily change the
| | 03:03 |
size of the display. You can see what
particular branch or material channel a
| | 03:08 |
Map has been loaded on to, in
addition to its actual size. Or remove a
| | 03:16 |
Subtexture Map altogether by right-clicking
on the name and choosing Delete Sub-Materials.
| | 03:23 |
So, a lot going on the new Material
Editor. As you get a little experience
| | 03:27 |
using it, you are going to wonder
how you ever got along without it.
| | 03:30 |
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| Using the viewport canvas| 00:00 |
A much anticipated feature that's
finally made its way into the Max toolset is
| | 00:04 |
the Viewport Canvas which allows you
to interactively paint textures directly
| | 00:08 |
on an object surface right inside the
Viewport. Let's take a look at how it works.
| | 00:12 |
First, select the vase, which will be
the object on which we'll paint. We can
| | 00:16 |
then go to the Tools pull-down menu and
choose Viewport Canvas. There is a couple
| | 00:20 |
of things to be aware of when using
the Viewport Canvas. The object that you
| | 00:24 |
are planning on painting on, needs to
have Mapping Coordinates applied and it
| | 00:27 |
must be an editable poly.
| | 00:29 |
Now to get going, the first thing you
will want to do is click on the Setup
| | 00:32 |
button up at the top of the dialog.
You will then want to choose whether you
| | 00:36 |
are planning on assigning a brand new
texture or using an existing one. For our
| | 00:40 |
example here, we'll start from
scratch, so we'll leave it on New Texture.
| | 00:44 |
You can then determine the resolution
of the map that you are going to create.
| | 00:47 |
Having some presets over on the right,
we are going to go ahead and keep ours
| | 00:50 |
at 512x512. You will then want to
click on the color swatch which will enable
| | 00:55 |
you to apply a base color to your object.
I'm going to go ahead and choose a light red.
| | 01:00 |
Now, you'll want to save your new
texture. You can do that by clicking on the
| | 01:03 |
icon that looks like three dots. I'm
going to name my file Viewport Canvas. Now
| | 01:12 |
I want to you to notice that Max is
saving this in the TIFF file format. This
| | 01:16 |
will typically yield the best results
when using the Viewport Canvas feature.
| | 01:19 |
We'll click on Save and then the Setup
button in the lower right part of the
| | 01:23 |
dialog. You can now see that the new
color has been applied to the vase.
| | 01:27 |
From here, you'll want to select the
type of brush you will be using for your
| | 01:30 |
painting. As you can see, I have got a
couple of options. For now, I'm going to
| | 01:34 |
go ahead and keep mine on the Default style.
You will now want to choose your paint
| | 01:39 |
color, which you can do by clicking
on the Color swatch or by using the
| | 01:42 |
eyedropper to grab a color directly
from the scene. I think, I'll use the
| | 01:46 |
yellow over in the flower.
| | 01:49 |
Now to be begin painting, you will
simply want to click on the Paint icon.
| | 01:53 |
Doing this automatically converts the
Viewport into a two-dimensional canvas on
| | 01:57 |
which you can now interactively paint.
So I'll move my cursor over the vase and
| | 02:01 |
start applying a few strokes.
| | 02:05 |
If I want to make my brush bigger
or smaller, I can do that back in the
| | 02:08 |
Viewport Canvas dialog. I'm going to
take mine up to a size of 50 and I'll add
| | 02:15 |
a little more yellow down at the
bottom of the vase. Now when you are done
| | 02:21 |
painting, you simply want to turn Off
the Paint Brush icon. Doing so will bake
| | 02:25 |
the texture onto the vase. You
can see that if I orbit the view.
| | 02:31 |
I want a few more touches by changing
my Brush type. Choosing a different color
| | 02:36 |
from within the scene, this time I'll
choose the blue in the upper right hand
| | 02:39 |
corner. Going back to click on the
Paint Brush icon, and continuing to paint on
| | 02:43 |
the vase. Turning off the Paint icon
again bakes the texture down onto the
| | 02:54 |
surface of the vase.
| | 02:58 |
You also have a Clone tool which allows
you to grab a texture off of something
| | 03:02 |
else in your scene and use that
pattern as your paint color. I'm going to
| | 03:05 |
return to my original Brush style,
click on the Clone button, then hold down
| | 03:15 |
the Alt key and click in the middle of
the teapot. This now grabs that teapot
| | 03:19 |
pattern and I can transfer
that directly over to the vase.
| | 03:28 |
If I'd like to use the flower
design over at the right-hand side of my
| | 03:31 |
background, I'll position my mouse
there, hold the Alt key down and click and
| | 03:36 |
then again begin painting on the vase.
Getting out of the Clone tool bakes the
| | 03:44 |
texture onto the object.
| | 03:49 |
There is also a few different
Photoshop-type Blending Modes that you can play
| | 03:53 |
around with for other type of effects.
Doing anything from a Lightening or
| | 03:56 |
Darkening in the Maps, to
changing their Saturation.
| | 04:06 |
So that's the Viewport Canvas. A nifty
new edition to the 3ds Max toolbox that
| | 04:11 |
you will certainly want to start
using in your production workflow.
| | 04:13 |
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| Using the Render Surface map| 00:00 | Another new feature in 2010 is the
Render Surface Map utility which provides a
| | 00:05 | set of tools for creating bitmap
images based on an object's UVW-Mapping. Those
| | 00:11 | bitmaps can be used to either analyze
the structure and makeup of an object's
| | 00:14 | surface or it can be applied as a
material mask in the hopes of creating a more
| | 00:19 | realistic skin for an object.
| | 00:21 | To show how the new feature works,
I'll be using a file named Render Surface
| | 00:25 | Map. Let's go ahead and first select
our object which can be any editable poly.
| | 00:29 | Now we'll go up to the Rendering pull-
down menu, and choose Render Surface Map.
| | 00:36 | When the dialog opens, you will first
want to choose the size and resolution
| | 00:39 | for the map you are creating. There
is a handy drop-down list, so you can
| | 00:43 | choose from to make things go a little quicker.
| | 00:45 | For our example here, we'll leave it
set to 512x512. Once the Size of the map
| | 00:51 | has been determined, you can then make
a selection between four different types
| | 00:54 | of maps that you can create. For
example, if you wanted to generate a texture
| | 00:58 | that could be used to make an object
look dirty in the areas of its surface
| | 01:02 | that were concave, you could choose a
Cavity Map, where the darker areas of the
| | 01:08 | bitmap representing the areas of the
surface, they are little more concave.
| | 01:14 | You can kick up the Contrast level a
bit; should you want the differences
| | 01:18 | between the light and dark areas to be
a little more pronounced. I'll take my
| | 01:21 | Contrast to 15, and I'll click the
Cavity Map button once again. You also have
| | 01:32 | a Density Map. This creates a grayscale
image that displays how dense the mesh
| | 01:38 | is at any given point. Lighter areas
displaying the location of the surface
| | 01:42 | where the vertices are closer together.
| | 01:44 | There is also a Dust Map which
produces an image again in grayscale that
| | 01:52 | illustrates the areas of the surface
that point up or in the Z direction of
| | 01:57 | world space in other words. This is
helpful to know for an example, when you
| | 02:01 | are wanting to study what areas on the
surface will be shaded and lit should
| | 02:05 | the primary lighting in your scene be
coming from above. You could also use it
| | 02:10 | to determine where the dust would
gather on an object, should that be in your
| | 02:13 | project's game plan?
| | 02:17 | There is even a SubSurface Map which
once calculated, displays an estimation of
| | 02:24 | the relative volume of an object at a
given point. This comes in real handy
| | 02:28 | when using subsurface scattering
materials. Wide areas within the map
| | 02:33 | representing the thinner regions of
your geometry. The areas that will show the
| | 02:37 | greatest level of translucency in
another words, which you can see in our
| | 02:40 | example here would be areas of the dog's
forehead, nose, and the edge of his lips.
| | 02:46 | So that's the Render Surface Map
utility new to 2010. Be sure to take advantage
| | 02:51 | of its controls and features the next
time you are needing a quick analysis of
| | 02:54 | a model, or a fast and easy
way of creating a material mask.
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| Using the Mental Ray Multi Sub-Map Shader| 00:00 |
The new Metal Ray Multi-Sub Map
Shader gives you the opportunity to assign
| | 00:04 |
different colors or maps to a single
parameter on a material. Those designs or
| | 00:09 |
colors can be assigned at random or
based on an object or material ID number.
| | 00:14 |
Let's take a look at how it works.
| | 00:16 |
Let's start by first selecting all the
bricks and assigning the new Multi-Sub
| | 00:20 |
Map Shader. Each of the bricks is
starting with a default object ID number of
| | 00:36 |
0. Because of this, each object
has currently been assigned the map's
| | 00:41 |
default or what is called the Out-of-
Range color. You can see that as being Red.
| | 00:46 |
Let's go ahead and render real quick to make
sure that we have got good contact with
| | 00:49 |
our skin. And it looks like we do. Now
if we went ahead and changed that color
| | 00:55 |
swatch, you can now see how those
changes reflect back in our scene. For our
| | 01:03 |
example here we will leave it on the Red.
| | 01:07 |
Now we can start mixing things up by
reassigning objects of similar color, a
| | 01:11 |
new ID number exclusively to that
color group. In other words, all the yellow
| | 01:15 |
wireframe objects will receive ID number 1,
all the green objects ID number 2 and
| | 01:20 |
so on and so forth. When we have the
renumbering in place, we can then start
| | 01:24 |
building a random color
pattern into our block formation.
| | 01:28 |
Now in the hopes of speeding things up,
I have already created a couple of
| | 01:31 |
selections sets for each mesh color.
That will simply make it a little easier
| | 01:34 |
for us to assign the ID numbers. We'll
choose the Yellow, right-click, go to
| | 01:39 |
the Object Properties and change their
ID number to 1. We'll go to the Green,
| | 01:46 |
and we'll make those number 2,
continuing on here, let's go to the Pink, those
| | 01:52 |
will be Object ID 3 and finally, the Lt Blue,
will be converted over to Object ID 4.
| | 02:06 |
There is another way that we could
have selected all the objects that have a
| | 02:09 |
similar wireframe color and that would
be by using the Select By Color Command
| | 02:14 |
over in the Edit pulldown menu. With
this now activated, let's go and click on
| | 02:19 |
all the orange bricks, and
we'll change their Object ID to 5.
| | 02:27 |
Now we can use the different Object ID
numbers to vary the color and textures
| | 02:31 |
on the individual objects. Let's go
back in the Materials Editor. You can see
| | 02:35 |
that we already have some random
colorations here identified by the Object IDs
| | 02:39 |
to the left. So if we now render, we
should be able to see a little bit of
| | 02:43 |
change in our results and indeed we do.
| | 02:48 |
Now if you are simply wanting to stay
in solid colors, you can now go ahead and
| | 02:52 |
change some of these color swatches.
So we'll make one kind of a Lt Green,
| | 03:00 |
maybe another going to Orange and how
about a third one, converting over to
| | 03:06 |
Yellow. Let's render that.
| | 03:07 |
Now what makes the Multi-Sub Map Shader
even more powerful is the fact that you
| | 03:16 |
can actually load bitmaps on each
color ID slot. So we'll go to slot number 1
| | 03:20 |
and click on the Option box directly to
the right and from here we'll choose Bitmap.
| | 03:26 |
Now these are a series of images
that I have made available to you over in the
| | 03:28 |
Chapter5 folder. Six of them in total,
they all start with the word Tile. We
| | 03:33 |
can take a look at one of those real quick so
you have a better idea of what we are working with.
| | 03:37 |
Okay, now we are going to go ahead and
load that up. If we now render, all the
| | 03:42 |
objects that have been assigned the
Object ID number 1, have now change
| | 03:46 |
accordingly. And we can do that with
each of our other colors. So our number 2 will
| | 03:56 |
load Tile 2, ID 3 gets Tile
3, and so on and so forth.
| | 04:19 |
Now you can see that each of the top
five ID numbers have been assigned a map
| | 04:23 |
with just a slight variation in their
color. Let's go ahead and render that. Now I did
| | 04:31 |
purposely leave a few of these blocks
set at the Out-of-range color just to
| | 04:35 |
demonstrate the fact that you can also
load a map up on that, which is bitmap
| | 04:40 |
and for this one we'll choose Tile 6.
Let's render one more time and you can
| | 04:47 |
now see the results. So that's
Metal Ray's Multi-Sub Map Shader.
| | 04:51 |
I got to believe you'll be able to come
up with dozens of ways that you can put
| | 04:54 |
that baby to use. Varying the tile
colorations on a kitchen counter or in a
| | 04:58 |
shower stall, mixing up the brick
designs on a driveway or paver patio. Heck,
| | 05:03 |
maybe even changing the seat colors
in a concert hall or sports stadium.
| | 05:06 |
There is all kinds of uses for the
Multi-Sub Map Shader. Now it's just a
| | 05:11 |
matter of pulling that puppy
out and putting it to good use.
| | 05:14 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. Other New StuffAdding multiple soundtracks using ProSound| 00:00 |
If you've ever worked with adding
dialog or sound effects to an animation in
| | 00:03 |
Max, you've undoubtedly felt the
frustration of having to work with only a
| | 00:07 |
single track for whatever you've
needed to add in. Because of that, you have
| | 00:11 |
more than likely decided to instead use
a video editing program to throw things
| | 00:15 |
together and you still might, but
with Max 2010, you now have a much more
| | 00:20 |
flexible option directly inside the software.
| | 00:23 |
You see the new release has brought
with it a terrific new utility called
| | 00:26 |
ProSound that provides 3ds Max with
a real-time multi-track solution for
| | 00:31 |
integrating sound inside your animations.
With ProSound, you can compile up to
| | 00:36 |
100 different independent audio
tracks using any clip that's been saved in
| | 00:40 |
either an AVI or WAV format.
| | 00:43 |
Here is how it works. Let's say that
we are creating a wartime video game and
| | 00:48 |
have been given the responsibility of
adding sound into a shot. We have got a
| | 00:52 |
soldier on foot running from an enemy
helicopter in close pursuit. Our job will
| | 00:57 |
be to add the sound of the footsteps
from the fleeing soldier, the hum of the
| | 01:01 |
helicopter overhead and the explosion that
will result from the chopper firing at his prey.
| | 01:07 |
Here is how we'll set it up. We'll
first access the Dope Sheet by going through
| | 01:11 |
the Graph Editors pull-down. From here,
we'll click on the Sound option, then
| | 01:17 |
right-click and choose Properties. Now,
here is your ProSound interface. To add
| | 01:22 |
a sound track, we'll click on the Add
button in the upper right corner. Now,
| | 01:25 |
here is our sounds for the chopper,
the explosion and the soldier running.
| | 01:29 |
Let's first bring in the sound of the
soldier's footsteps. We'll choose Running
| | 01:33 |
and then Open. Now, once it's been
loaded into the interface, we can click on
| | 01:37 |
the Playback button to hear how it
sounds. [running sound] We'll now close the dialog, then
| | 01:51 |
open the sound track in the Dope Sheet.
We'll click on the plus sign to the
| | 01:55 |
left of Running, so we can see both the
WAVform and its volume. We only have a
| | 01:59 |
100 frames in our animation, so
let's right-click on the Playback head and
| | 02:03 |
change your End Time to, let's say, 500 frames.
| | 02:09 |
We can now click on the Horizontal
Zoom Extents inside the Dope Sheet. Now we
| | 02:13 |
can go ahead and play it back directly
along the timeline. Let's now add in the
| | 02:26 |
sound of a chopper flying overhead.
We'll again go back to the Sound entry in
| | 02:30 |
the Dope Sheet, right-click and
choose Properties. This time we'll load the
| | 02:36 |
Chopper file and again, play it back. [Chopper sound]
We'll now close the dialog and expand the
| | 03:00 |
Chopper track in the Dope Sheet.
| | 03:02 |
Let's pull this down a little way so we
can actually see both, here we go. Now,
| | 03:10 |
let's play this back and see how things
are turning out. [chopper and running sound]
Okay, not bad, but we
| | 03:27 |
are going to want a slight delay
before we begin to hear the chopper
| | 03:30 |
approaching. To move the sound track,
you will have to change from Edit Keys
| | 03:34 |
over into the Edit Range mode. This now
gives you a set of range bars that you
| | 03:38 |
can slide back and forth.
| | 03:40 |
I am thinking that I would like the
chopper sound to begin about 15 frames
| | 03:44 |
after the start of the animation. I'll
move back to frame 15, just so I get a
| | 03:51 |
better idea of where I'm working. And
I'll now grab the Chopper range bar and
| | 03:55 |
move its start into the middle of those
two yellow lines. Let's now hit the Home
| | 03:59 |
key and play this back. [chopper and running sound]
So, that does indeed synch up a little better.
| | 04:15 |
Now why don't we bring in the sound
of the missile fire and the resulting
| | 04:18 |
explosion. We'll again return to the
Sound button, right-click the Properties
| | 04:25 |
and add the explosion. Let's take a
listen to that. [explosion sound]
Okay, we can close that out
| | 04:44 |
and as just with the others, we'll go
ahead and expand its track. Now, if you
| | 04:49 |
look at the WAVform, it is pretty
obvious, the explosion occurs about a third
| | 04:52 |
of the way into the track. At its
current position, the explosion will be
| | 04:56 |
occurring much too early in our animation.
| | 04:59 |
Let's verify that by listening to the
playback. [running and explosion sound]
So, with the timing off, we are
| | 05:17 |
also going to want to move this range
bar back to the right. Let's synch this up
| | 05:22 |
so the explosion happens right around
frame 300. I'll get to that location on
| | 05:29 |
my timeline, then move the range bar
in place, there we go. Now, let's have a
| | 05:37 |
listen to that. [chopper, running and explosion sound]
Okay, so that sounded pretty good.
| | 05:58 |
Now, to polish this off, we probably
need to lower the levels of both the
| | 06:02 |
explosion and the running to bring in a
little more realism into what actually
| | 06:06 |
happened as the soldier got knocked off
his feet. For this we'll start with the
| | 06:10 |
Explosion. We'll select its volume
track. We'll have to go back to the Edit
| | 06:15 |
Keys mode and we are going to want to add
a couple of keys along the volume track.
| | 06:22 |
Let's say that we are going to start
fading out of the explosion around frame
| | 06:25 |
360, then completely eliminate the
volume on the explosion by frame 420. For
| | 06:30 |
this I'll simply click to set a
couple of keys knowing that I'll have to go
| | 06:33 |
back to make the fine tune adjustments
in their dialog boxes. I'll click once
| | 06:37 |
around 360 and then again right around
420. Once I have done that, I'll go back
| | 06:43 |
to the Move command and then I'll right-
click on that second key that I created.
| | 06:48 |
Now, we'll set the frame to 420 and
we'll lower the volume to 0 meaning that we
| | 06:55 |
can no longer hear the sound of the
explosion. We'll go back to the first key
| | 07:02 |
and readjust its frame to 360. You
can now see the sound volume is tapering
| | 07:09 |
down over the 60 frame interval that
we set our keys. We'll now want to do
| | 07:13 |
pretty much the same thing for the footsteps.
| | 07:15 |
We will find the volume track for the
Running, go back to Add Keys, then click
| | 07:22 |
around 360 and then just a little bit
thereafter. Again, we'll be adjusting
| | 07:27 |
these once we get another Option box.
Let's right-click on the selected key
| | 07:34 |
and we'll say that the footstep sounds will
end within one second. We'll make sure
| | 07:39 |
it starts at 360, keeping the volume
at 1 and then right around frame 390,
| | 07:49 |
we'll lower the value to 0.
| | 07:56 |
If we now play this back, we'll be
able to hear the end result. [runnin, chopper and explosion sound]
| | 08:18 |
We probably need to tweak the running keys a
little bit more so he gets knocked off this
| | 08:21 |
feet a little sooner. If the explosion
happens at frame 300, maybe that's about
| | 08:26 |
the time we ought to have him being
blown to the ground. So, we'll go back and
| | 08:30 |
right-click on that key. We'll take
the first one to about let's say, 310 and
| | 08:38 |
we'll take the one at 390 back to let's
say about 340. That ought to synch things up
| | 08:45 |
just a little bit better.
| | 08:46 |
Let's play that back. [running, chopper and explosion sound]
So, that's pretty sweet and all inside 3ds Max. Now, the
| | 09:10 |
next time you are looking to add a
sound effect or maybe a little dialog for
| | 09:13 |
your character, know that you won't
experience the same obstacles that have
| | 09:16 |
limited you up until now. I'm going to
save this out as ProSound Completed if
| | 09:21 |
you would like to take a look at it.
| | 09:22 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding the new Particle Flow operators and tests| 00:00 | The 2010 version of Particle Flow has
added a number of great new operators and
| | 00:04 | tests. A better design to expand the
capabilities of an already very powerful
| | 00:09 | particle system. Some of the options
are brand new while others are improved
| | 00:14 | versions of existing events that up
until now have been available only as
| | 00:17 | additional plug-ins. Now there
is quite a bit to choose from.
| | 00:20 | Let's take a look at a few of the ones
that you might want to use right away.
| | 00:26 | OK, let's see what we can find. The
Preset Flow merges a previously saved
| | 00:31 | Particle Flow Setup into the current
scene. You can use that flow as an event
| | 00:35 | within the current flow or as a
starting point for a new particle system.
| | 00:41 | The Empty Flow provides you with a
starting point for a particle system
| | 00:44 | consisting of simply a single global
event containing a Render operator. You
| | 00:49 | can use the Empty Flow when you are
looking to build a new system completely
| | 00:51 | from scratch, without first having to
delete all the default operators that
| | 00:55 | come loaded in the standard flow setup.
| | 01:00 | Now the Standard Flow will add a
default particle system into your view. It's
| | 01:04 | just a quick way to add a flow that
contains all the default events and event
| | 01:07 | settings. Now as far as the new
operators, let's start with the Birth Paint.
| | 01:12 | This will generate particles using
the data from another new feature in Max
| | 01:15 | 2010, something referred to as a
Particle Paint Helper. You also have the Birth
| | 01:20 | Texture, which will generate particles by
using the animated color data from Animator Object.
| | 01:25 | Directly below that is the Initial
State. This makes a snapshot of the Pflow
| | 01:29 | event at its Start Time, and uses it to
generate clone particles at Emit Time.
| | 01:35 | There is also a new mapping object
operator, which assigns the mapping from a
| | 01:39 | reference object on to your particles.
There is also a newer version, the Shape
| | 01:43 | Operator, which has added several
new particle shapes, both 2D and 3D.
| | 01:50 | And one more item of note, the sample
files disk, the second DVD that ships as
| | 01:54 | part of the Max 2010 Installation
Package, contains the new Pflow elements
| | 01:58 | library that offers over 100 samples
Particle Flow setups, that have been
| | 02:03 | created by one of the
industries leading effects artists.
| | 02:06 | If you get a chance, check them out
they are awfully impressive. So that will
| | 02:10 | do it for some of the new power pack
features in Particle Flow; be sure to take
| | 02:14 | some time to learn how they work.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring Mental Ray's Render Frame Window improvements| 00:00 |
The Mental Ray Rendered Frame Window
has gone through a little face-lift since
| | 00:03 |
Max 2009. For example, both the
Render button and the Production Iterative
| | 00:10 |
switch have moved south to the lower
part of the dialog to join the other
| | 00:13 |
Mental Ray specific controls.
| | 00:15 |
You will also be happy to know that
the lower panel has added a new set of
| | 00:19 |
global tuning sliders, that serve as a
way to temporarily override the final
| | 00:24 |
render settings. When you are simply
looking to take a quick test render at
| | 00:27 |
maybe less than final quality output.
| | 00:30 |
The Slider Controls are also
particularly handy when fine-tuning both Mental
| | 00:33 |
Rays, Arch & Design and Pro
Materials. In Max 2009, you would have to
| | 00:38 |
painstakingly go back and forth
through various dialogs, to get what now can
| | 00:42 |
all be controlled in a single on screen window.
| | 00:46 |
Each slider also offers a quick tool
tip that enables a quick understanding of
| | 00:49 |
its purpose and application. So there is a
little less guessing now when making your adjustments.
| | 00:55 |
Now, as with most settings in Mental Ray,
when making your adjustments, be sure
| | 00:58 |
to remember that the higher the setting,
the longer the render. Those delays
| | 01:02 |
sometimes being pretty dramatic.
| | 01:05 |
So the new Mental Ray Rendered Frame
Window may not look like a whole lot just
| | 01:09 |
an extra slider here or there, but
believe me, next time you find yourself on a
| | 01:13 |
production work-flow, you will truly
appreciate the new bells and whistles that
| | 01:17 |
are now available with the 2010 overhaul.
| | 01:19 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using Biped's new Knuckle feature| 00:00 | Max has added a few new features to the
Biped tool-set that you will appreciate
| | 00:04 | when animating your next character.
First, is the new Knuckle option that
| | 00:09 | allows for the addition of more
subtle hand animation when needed.
| | 00:13 | The Standard Biped Hand link which up
until now has been the only available
| | 00:17 | hand configuration gave animators the
ability to move things around, but never
| | 00:21 | really offered the opportunity to create
finely detailed movement on a character's hand.
| | 00:25 | That is all now changed with the new
Knuckle and Short Thumb options in 2010.
| | 00:31 | With Knuckles activated, you see that
the hand automatically converts to a
| | 00:35 | small base and individual bones for
each finger, each finger having four links.
| | 00:40 | New in 2010 is also the ability to now
more freely rotate each bone along all
| | 00:45 | three axes. The Short Thumb option went
on, configures the thumb with one fewer
| | 00:51 | bone at each finger, making it a little more
anatomically correct when working with a human hand.
| | 00:57 | The Bone Twist option which was
previously limited to the biped's forearm has now
| | 01:02 | been expanded to include all the biped limbs.
| | 01:05 | Activating Twist allows for a much
more realistic deformation on your
| | 01:09 | character's mesh when a particular limb
is twisted. When the option is active,
| | 01:15 | the Twist link controls the skin
deformation set up by your physique or skin
| | 01:19 | modifier, while the base link, the
primary bone drives the animation.
| | 01:32 | You can see a similar result if we
would rotate the ankle. The new Xtras group
| | 01:47 | directly below the Twist link lets
you add extra tails to your biped.
| | 01:51 | The tail is added by simply clicking on
the Create Xtra button. By default, the
| | 02:00 | biped's center of mass is assigned as
the Extra Tails parent. Although you can
| | 02:04 | change that if needed.
| | 02:05 | To make that change, you will go down
a little bit lower, click on the Pick
| | 02:08 | Parent button, and then choose your
new parent. In our example here, I'll go
| | 02:13 | ahead and choose the Green Thigh. You
can also add additional links if needed.
| | 02:39 | It's also easy to add an additional
tail to the opposite side of the biped by
| | 02:42 | simply clicking on the
Create Opposite Extra icon.
| | 02:52 | Now, these extra tails like the biped
ponytails aren't configured with inverse
| | 02:56 | kinematics. So transforming a bone
further down the chain won't affect any of
| | 03:02 | the links going toward its parent.
| | 03:04 | Now because of that, any animation you
want to add to the extra tail must be
| | 03:08 | done by setting individual rotation keys.
Whatever key framing you do, will be
| | 03:13 | saved in both your Max file, and if you were
to save out the motion, via the BIP format.
| | 03:19 | So there is a few things you can play
around with on the Biped. Next time you
| | 03:23 | are doing a little character work,
be sure to remember the new options.
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ConclusionGoodbye| 00:00 | Well, how's that for a healthy dose
of new features you can sink your teeth
| | 00:03 | into, and it will definitely improve
your production work-flow in 3ds Max.
| | 00:08 | Be sure to be on the lookout for other
new titles on 3ds Max 2010 scheduled for
| | 00:12 | release in the not-too-distant
future. For lynda.com, I'm Steve Nelle.
| | 00:17 | Thanks for watching.
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