Jamie's Jewels

14. 3ds Max QuickTip: Re-render

A nice, and simple quicktip today: Pressing the F9 shortcut key will perform a re-render using the previously used camera and output settings. This will also automatically overwrite the file if a save file name has already been used. This is certainly one of the most used short-cut keys in 3ds Max.

As all of my other postings normally come with an image, I felt I needed to include one with this, so here goes:

 

When performing render using mental ray, don't forget to get in the habit of always enabling the "Geometry" option in the VFB's 'Reuse' box. (After reading my other posts, you should now know what VFB means.) This will cache the geometry to a temporary location on your hard-drive ensuring the 'translation' time of converting the geometry to something that mental ray understands, is kept to an absolute minimum. In some cases, the translation time can often take longer than the physical rendering phase.

 

Happy Max'ing.

13. 3ds Max QuickTip: Groups are bad

Those that know me, will know how much i dislike ‘groups’ within 3d applications. This is primarily around workflow. For example, if you pick up someone else files after they have worked on them, you often have to work through many layers of nested groups before you are able to select the one individual object you want to quickly amend. Luckily 3ds Max has a great system for combating this. Unfortunately, its under-used. The powerful system is called ‘Selection sets.’

The ‘selection sets’ options are found within the main menu bar.

 

The process is very simple. Select all the object's you require to form a ‘St’ (or dare i say it a ‘group’). Then input a name into the selection set field, and ensure you press Enter on the keyboard, confirming your operation. This selection set is now available from the drop down list, but also allows you to individually select the objects. In-turn speeding up efficiency. You should also start to notice, that selection sets are propagated through many of 3ds Max’s dialogue box's in other workflows, when multiple selections are required.

You should also take the time to explore the options found in the below 'Edit Named Selection Sets' button. This allows you to add/remove/highlight objects in sets, to name but a few of the options available.

 

Once the above button is selected you are confronted by the below floating dialogue. Giving you the extra control mentioned above.

 
 

Its also important to note that selection sets will work on sub selections, such as edit poly faces, an extremely powerful option.

Happy Max’ing.

12. 3ds Max QuickTip: Renaming objects

It is common that you need to rapidly rename multiple objects. Whether that's because you have imported geometry from an application which contains ‘dead’ data or whether you need to amend your characters bone rig, for export to another toolset or engine.

One of the quickest ways for me to do this is by using the scene explorer. (note, this is not the ‘select by name’ dialogue) You can quickly rename multiple objects by selecting the objects in the scene explorer, and Right Clicking. From here navigate down the list to the ‘Rename’ option. The benefit of this workflow is it will also apply a sequential suffix number to the selected objects, for example, renamed01, renamed02, renamed03.

 
 

 

Happy Max’ing

Bonus 3ds Max Quicktips? A call for help.

Well, we are now pushing through the Quick tips for 3ds Max. Luckily many of you have emailed saying how useful they have been, so thankfully I’ve not been talking to myself. It’s also been incredibly encouraging to see some of you have also emailed me with your own tips. Which leads me onto my main point of this blog posting….

It would be great for more of you to send me some tips, now I know what your thinking, but no I haven’t run out of ideas. In fact, all the 100 I promised are currently sat on my blog waiting to auto-release. You may have noticed that the Twitter posts automagically go live at 12:00GMT, with a more detailed blog posting going live at 12:01. In short, no i wont be stealing your ideas. My intention is to release these as bonus blog/twitter tips.

Once we hit 50, I will also post a rundown of all the tips so far, including the bonus ones. Just in case you missed a couple.

So why not follow Pol Senserrich’s lead (below) and send me a quick tip of your own to share with your fellow 3ds Max community….

It can be something as simple as: ‘- and = scale gizmos up and down’ (Pol Senserrich, @zenerry)

 

Email me your tip  by clicking here, ideally with a couple of screen grabs showing the tip in action.

 

Happy Max’ing

11. 3ds Max QuickTip: Camera backplates compositing

I often get asked how to model that scene, to place an object in it. My response is normally always the same. Don't.

Just because you can model something in 3d, does not always mean you should. If you need to place a car, or product into a real world environment, then its generally better to just use a real world photo as a backplate, or background. From here you need to start implementing the very useful mental ray production shaders. This use a combination of matte shaders, and chrome ball maps with rayswitchers for accurate reflection passes. This is by far the best option for when needing to accurately composite CGI objects into photos.

As there is already a wealth of information out there on the internet on this subject, I would recommend reading the below link. Its only right that the guy who wrote this set of tools, is the one who describes them to you. Please note, when they were first added to 2008, these tools were 'hidden' from the standard interface. This is no longer the case, and you do not need to edit the shader declarations to make them visible.

Link to Zap's blog. 

 

Happy Max'ing

 

10. 3ds Max QuickTip: Environment dialogue window

By Pressing the shortcut key ‘8’ you are able to quickly toggle open the ‘environment/effects’ floating dialogue window. In a mental ray rendering workflow, this dialogue box is one of the most opened windows as it allows you to rapidly change globally applied exposure settings.

I would also recommend exploring all of the options contained within this window. Particularly looking at the ‘vignette’ and ‘whitepoint’ options for more creative renders. Vignette will add a darkening to the pixels, around each four corners of the rendered frame. Whitepoint, will add a shift to the colours. increaing the number adds an orange tone to the whites, whereas the lower the value will add a blue hue tone to the whites. This is often called whitebalance in the photographic world.

 

Happy Max'ing

Hot fix reminder for 3ds Max 2012

Morning All

Just a quick reminder that we recently released a hotfix (2) for 3ds Max/Design 2012.

If your like me, you will have probably seen this announcement a week ago, and promised yourself you will install it when you have some free time later that day. Over 7 days later, you've still not done it. So why not go and have a coffee/tea, but before you get up and leave your chair, then set that hotfix to install. You then have my permission to congratulate yourself with a hob-nob or cookie, on a job well done.

• Hotfix 2 – 3ds Max 2012
• Hotfix 2 – 3ds Max Design 2012

The majority of fixes should touch most peoples workflows, as they solve issues around CAT, modelling, MAXScript, Point helpers, SLATE, and Xref Scene. You can view the full 'readme' of problems fixed below.

      Readme (pdf - 103Kb)

Happy Max'ing

9. 3ds Max QuickTip: Gamma Basics

In previous posts I have discussed using Gamma, but many of you have emailed asking for a “basic-rule” for when using gamma in your pipeline. Below you will find my simple considerations that I will always keep in mind when working inside of 3ds Max.

The most important area to remember is around file in/out (I/O)

• of 1.0 for HDR images, such as 16-Bit TIFF/TGA/PNG
• and 2.2 for LDR imagery i.e. JPGs, BMP

(HDR=High Dynamic Range LDR=Low Dynamic Range)

Without these 2 important considerations firmly cemented into your workflow, all your other workflows will be severely affected.

Happy Max'ing

8. 3ds Max QuickTip: Hold and Fetch

The ‘Hold/Fetch’ feature is a great tool in 3ds Max to allow you to store/restore a 3ds Max file in memory. This allows you to perform tasks which can not be undone, but be safe in the knowledge that you can restore to your previous state. This toll will also often restore after 3ds Max has been restarted. For instance, if your using a unknown combination that can cause a strange behaviour with a new plugin, then this toolset allows you peace of mind, even if 3ds Max has an unexpected crash.

• Hold = Ctrl+H
• Fetch = ALT+CTRL+F

You can find this toolset within the Edit main menu bar shown below.

 
 

Happy Max’ing

7. 3ds Max QuickTip: Zooming

Following on from yesterdays 3ds Max QuickTip, todays is staying within the Object Properties dialogue window.

It is often useful once, a large scene has been constructed to ignore objects when zooming (Z shortcut key) to the scenes extents. A good example for this, is the ‘daylight’ system.

This is a vey easy process by selecting the geometry you wish to ‘ignore.’ and then Right Clicking the object and navigating to Object Properties > Ignore Extents toggle option.

 

 

Happy Max'ing