Jamie's Jewels

Boston, USA User Group

Afternoon All

Do you live near to Boston in the USA? If so, then I recommend you go along to the next AAUGA. If you need more of a reason to go, then this is held at Neoscape’s offices. For those of you in the Design Visualisation field, you wont need any introduction to who Neoscape are. For those that don’t know who they are, you should have a look at their website here.

What I particularly like is they are thoughtful enough to include ‘minutes’ from their gatherings, so those of us not lucky enough to attend can see what they discussed (and then get jealous.) Many of these ‘minutes’ are screen captures, allowing you to follow all the action.

You can follow what’s happening with the group and future meetings via:

• Website
• Facebook
• Twitter

On the main website, ensure you take advantage of the ‘Get Connected’ option on the left handside to ensure you are on their mailing list for future events, you wont want to miss out on.

Happy Max’ing

Showreel Submissions (Design Visualisation)

It’s that time of year again when we ask you to share and highlight the great work you’ve been creating: Submissions for the 2011 Autodesk Design Visualization Reel are now open.

This year we are looking for a wider spectrum of work from more products (Below.)

Please Note: The deadline to receive submissions is September, 26^th.

Please submit any recent animations, short film, commercial, reels etc created using any of the following Autodesk software: Autodesk® Design Suite 2012, AutoCAD®, Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design, Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® Showcase®, Autodesk® SketchBook® Designer, Autodesk® Civil3D®, Autodesk® Maya® and Autodesk® Mudbox®, Autodesk® Revit®, Autodesk® Inventor®, Autodesk® Building Design Suite, Autodesk® Product Design Suite, Autodesk® Factory Design Suite, and Autodesk® Infrastructure Design Suite.

Our goal is to make the 2011 design visualization reel the best ever showcasing work from all GEOs across all industry segments and capture the breadth and depth of our product portfolio.

So pass this submissions page on to your friends and studio managers to ensure your chance for bragging rights is secured!

www.autodesk.com/exposeyourself.

If you prefer, you can also submit work directly to me using the normal email address.

Don’t forget the deadline is fast approaching: September, 26^th.

Happy Max'ing

Project Photofly and Music Videos

I was told about this interesting music video recently, and for those of you following me on Twitter would of seen a quick mention of it last week.

Now I’ve got a spare minute I thought it was worthy of a posting on this blog. As an overview, Project Photofly was used to help create this music video. I wont spoil how or what it was used on, I will leave that up to you to watch and find out, but what I will say is how interesting I find the potential that Project Photofly brings. Particularly for us 3ds Max users, because of the control we have on the resultant meshes.

Anyway, enough of me rambling away, time to watch the video:

 

 You can find out more about:

• 3ds Max and Project Photofly interoperability
• Try Project Photofly 
• The Video
• The Makers of the video

by clicking on the above relevant links.

 

 

Happy Max’ing

36. 3ds Max Quicktip: Revit FBX Scale

First of all,  this shouldn’t need to be said, but if your using Revit inconjunction with 3ds Max 2009+ then you really should be using FBX as the file format to import with. There’s a wealth of information out their which explains best practices and workflow procedures including two Autodesk Whitepapers. (Note: that some of the information is out of date, as this information is evolving rapidly. For instance you can use the ‘File Link Manager’ with FBX’s now.) Anyway, I digress.

So now onwards to the tip: One area that is often overlooked however when using FBX inconjunction with Revit, is the scaling options contained with the FBX file import process.

I recommend that you ensure you are using ‘Inches’ as scene units when importing your FBX file. If your reading in the US, then this wont be an issue, however if your using 3ds Max in Europe for instance, your probably using millimetres The internal scaling of an FBX assumes you are importing as Inches and as such you can sometimes be confronted by some scaling issues within 3ds Max, if using a scale other than this. for example, a wall that is 4 inches long, rather than 4 feet. (Revit’s default is often Feet.)

So today’s tip is always use Inches when importing Revit FBX files into 3ds Max. This will ensure the scaling of imported objects is correct and that the automatic mapping is accurate.

 

Whilst we are briefly discussing FBX, its also worth mentioning you can download a free viewer for QuickTime, that allows you to view your FBX  file, as well as play any stored animation directly in QuickTime. You can download this viewer by clicking here (as well as convertors, and updates.)

The two whitepapers previously mentioned, can be downloaded below:

 Autodesk FBX-Based Revit Architecture 2009 to Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2009 Workflow (pdf - 2095Kb)

 BIM and Visualization (pdf - 1401Kb)

For more information on FBX click here.

Happy Max’ing

London VES & TIGA summer social on Wednesday

Morning All

Are you planning on attending the VES & TIGA summer social in London on Wednesday? (Sponsored by Autodesk)

This will be a great opportunity to make new friends, catch up with old ones, and meet senior figures in both the games and visual effects industries.
Feel free to bring a guest or two, but please supply their names when you RSVP.

Reserve your space by visiting the TIGA website.

24th August 2011
19.00 till 01:00

Venue:
Paramount. Centre Point (Level 31), 
101-103 New Oxford Street, 
London WC1A 1DD
(with fantastic views over Central London)

Happy Max’ing

Twitter

Morning All

Just a quick note to say thanks to all my new followers on Twitter, and for those of you not following me you can do so with the @3dsjamiesjewels handle, or by clicking below.

Follow me on Twitter.

It’s very much appreciated, and great to see some of you sharing your own 3ds Max quick tips with me. I’m currently adding all the those submitted to a ‘Bonus Quicktip’ posting. So stay tuned.

Happy Max’ing.

35. 3ds Max Quicktip: Orbiting Objects

Today is time for another nice and simple tip, but one you will use countless times throughout your day. When wanting to orbit objects in the active viewport, I would recommend using the CTRL+R shortcut combination. This allows for faster spinning directly in the viewport.

Now you should see a different gizmo in the viewport, as below. Below we look at why this is important.

You should also notice how the cursor is behaving. All it is concerned with is spinning that model. Using the other, and more traditional, method of middle mouse and ALT, you will notice that the cursor is also expecting you to select a model. Adding extra calculations into the mix, and inevitably slowing things down slightly. Hence why I would always strongly recommend using CTRL+R for orbiting geometry within 3ds Max.

I would also ensure you have enabled the ‘Orbit selected’ option in 3ds Max’s interface.

To enable ‘Orbit Selected’ Left-Click and hold over the icon shown at the bottom of the list (blue background), and then choose the flyout button which is highlighted below.

Now when you spin, the viewport will always be focused on the object you are working on, i.e. have selected. This ensures it remains your focus, and don’t waste time chasing it around the viewport when it disappears.

 

Happy Max’ing

34. 3ds Max Quicktip: Command Panel

Did you know you can Right Click on the command panel in 2011+ to “minimize” it. Then when you need to use the panel you can hover your mouse over and it will autoexpand to display the tools you require. This allows for optimum screen viewport space or ‘screen real-estate’ as its often referred to.

Follow the below options to implement this:

33. 3ds Max Quicktip: Autogrid

I am sure many of you rely on ‘Autogrid’ daily, but after a few recent events, I was amazed to see how many users arent aware of this toggle, yet they people look at it everyday. So I wanted to make sure this fantastic little tool, made its way onto the list of 100 quicktips.

The ‘Autogrid’ option will look at the objects within your scene and lock the gizmo and temporary grid (or dynamic UCS, if your from a CAD background) onto the surface of the objects within your scene. This then allows you to quickly apply geometry which doesn’t intersect (dependant on the new objects pivot point), and that is in the correct orientation from the original objects faces.

It’s easy, so give it a try, following the below steps: 

32. 3ds Max Quicktip: Shortcut for main App

This latest Quicktip is more of a general tip I’ve been using for many years. Even though its not directly related to a feature in 3ds Max it has certainly helped speed up my complete workflow. Its often these little tasks throughout the day which can slow us down.

I will assign shortcut keys to my commonly opened main applications, i.e. 3ds Max / Adobe Photoshop. This only take you two seconds to setup but allows me to quickly open the applications I need without worrying about where it is on my taskbar, or start-up menu. It seems a simple thing, and I’m sure many of you will be thinking why bother, but try it. It really does speed processes up over the course of a day.