Today is time for some unashamed, self promotion and trumpet blowing.
Last night I returned home to find that one of my favourite (and nice and shiny) magazines had turned up. Why’s that important? Well, I was recently asked by those nice people over at 3dArtist to produce a quick tip on a lesser known feature inside of 3ds Max. For this I choose to concentrate on the powerful .IFL file format.
Never heard of this file format? Well don’t worry as most people haven’t either.
This article covers a simple 3 step setup procedure of how you can use this text-based file format to quickly setup bitmaps and control when they appear and swop. For the full overview you will need to grab the latest issue from your nearest newsagent stand. This includes a basic sample pack of files and textures to follow along with on the CD. (The obligatory Teapot scene, just had to be done!)
Even though the technique is very simple, it offers some enormous flexibility. It remains a workflow I have utilised on numerous occasions and continue to rely on. It still surprises me how many people have never used or seen it, so hopefully this is a technique that you will add to your own 3ds Max arsenal of workflows.
You can find the full Q&A tutorial in Issue 47, on page 90.
I always enjoy writing these tips and articles, so if you found it useful and want me to do more, then please let @3dArtist know by tweeting them. (Does that class as crowd sourced bullying?)
Also, if your wondering how I produced the stylised image effects above, then they were from a lesser known Autodesk photo-editing application called Pixlr-o-matic. The most important point is that its a FREE application, that you can either run in a browser, on your smart-phone or as a standalone application on your desktop. For more info on this great tool, then please view this link: http://pixlr.com/o-matic/
(If your still not convinced then it currently has over 1,355,000 “” on Facebook – That many people cant be wrong!)
Happy Max’ing, and thanks for the support.
