I just wanted to let you know I will be at next months 3ds Max London User Group. This month I will be talking about Motion Capture workflows, discussing the new viewports, and sharing some tips and tricks. Many of you have also asked to get an overview of SLATE, the node-based material editor. This continues to be a hot-topic for 3ds Max users, and is certianly one of the most powerful workflows for the 2011> user.
This is being held on wednesday, 3rd August, from 18.30 onwards, for a 19:00 start.
For those that aren't aware Project Photofly 2.0 is an Autodesk Labs project (with a current rating of 4.7/5) that allows you to take standard photos (approx. 30-50) of an object or real world scene, and then upload the resulting jpgs or tiffs to an Autodesk cloud based server. This then reconstructs mesh data from the multiple photos and supplies you with a model to exported for use in other applications. The resultant mesh can be exported as a DWG or OBJ. Now this is where it gets very interesting for the 3ds Max user. As you may know we updated our OBJ importer a couple of releases back to allow for a smoother transition from applications such as Mudbox (before FBX was introduced) or Zbrush. This enhanced workflow allows us to bring in the extremely high res data into 3ds Max and optimise it for either rendering, scene reconstruction or environments.
As I'm sure your aware, 3ds Max has a huge array of tools and workflows for optimising the resultant mesh to ensure its efficiency. This is where it gets interesting for us Max users. Rather than spending half a day constructing complex models of window arches, vases, entire facades of buildings, then how about we just took some photos and then let an app do all the hard work. No matter which market you use Max in - be it Games, film, or Design Visualisation - then this tool should be of interest. For the games guys, this tool offers a way of quickly taking photos of existing real world locations/vehicles and using this a 3d blue print, to build upon using tools such as 'Graphite's' robust free form tools (extend, topology etc.) From here you can create Low Res geometry from the imported High Res, whilst retaining full control over the flow of the quads.
Project Photofly has already had a huge amount of downloads, and why not as its free! It is also in its second release, providing a very simple and optimised workflow for constructing the geometry with the utmost ease.
So let's have a look at the workflow and considerations when working with Photofly and 3ds Max. Its important to note, this is my first try with the workflow and includes the mistakes I made. I have also uploaded my models to allow you to work through the processes,and see the impressive mesh quality before you download Project Photofly.
The model we will be working with is shown below. This was rendered using the high-res mesh and iray. Each frame was specified to take only 30 seconds per frame. The total animation took just under 55minutes on a HP8730w laptop, using an NVidia FX 3700 mobile GPU. (Hence the minor ‘progressive’ defects in the render output.) No post was applied, and all effects such as DoF (depth of field) were rendered into the file. As you may know, DoF does not ‘cost’ anything when using iRay as the render engine.
Project Photofly and 3ds Max iray test
Please note: the below process should took around 30 mins to work through.
1. First install the free application:
2 . Whilst installing, start taking multiple photos of the item you want to be automatically translated into a mesh. For my example I used the below Buddha. I would recommend you use a fixed focal length, and not a low f-stop. we don't want depth of field that may cause ‘blurryness’ in the model construction stage. (I shot using a Canon 7D with a 18mm lense.)
It is recommended you shot at 5 degree increments around the item. covering all angles that you want to see in the model. Copy these over to your computer, in an easy to reach file/folder location.
I took 56 photos of this object at a 2592x1728 resolution in a jpg format.
3. Make sure all photos are vertically set inside of windows explore. If not, a quick way to do this is, is select all the photos - then Right Click and choose rotate clockwise/anti-clockwise.
4. Once Project Photofly is installed you with be confronted by the apps main interface.
5. From here, select ‘Create a new Photo Scene’
6. and then choose your photos.
7. This will then upload all the photos to cloud server for you. A quick registration is needed.
and you can choose whether to ‘Wait’ or be notified by email when complete.
8. My upload took approx 3 minutes to complete before a had a low res mesh to work with. I’m sure you will agree this is speedy when you consider each image was approx 1.88mb in size, and I had 56 of them.
9. I chose to be emailed the link, to ensure i had it should I need it again. This then allowed me to download the completed “.3dp” file.
10. From here, you just need to open the returned file.
The model will first of all open in ‘draft’ mode. This is a low quality mesh, allowing you to asses if more photos are needed for areas that are incomplete or inaccurate.
11. If you don’t ensure your photos are vertically aligned you will end up with a model on its side, as seen below.
12. We now have a mesh in our viewport, that also shows are real world camera locations.
13. From here start removing parts of the mesh that are not required. For instance the ground plane. You do this by using the top left icon, selecting parts of the mesh in the viewport and pressing delete.
14. Once satisfied with the mesh, I would recommend converting the mesh to a higher quality. For 3ds Max I went for the ‘Maximum’ resolution. I will always choose Maximum as I am confident that 3ds Max’s tools allow me to quickly bring this down to a low res dependant on my requirements.
Chose this icon:
and then select ‘Maximum’
15. To improve efficiency, you can do this only on selected portions.
16. Again you have the choice to ‘Wait’ or be email notified. This submission process, understandably, took a little longer. 12 minutes for a very detailed model.
17. Once returned, the model takes around 30 seconds to be opened in Project Photofly.
18. From here we now need to export the model for 3ds Max.
19. Now lets get it into 3ds Max.
20. Go to the ‘Jewel’ icon>Import>Import>
21. Select the OBJ to import.
22. This will open the guruware interface for importing OBJ’s.
I would strongly recommend the below settings to be changed for a typical project of one object.
The below options will copy the unwrapped textures and original photos to your designated ‘Project Folder structure.’ On the odd occasion you may get an error message. Don’t worry, its still brought them across for you.
Finally, ensure this option in the top right corner is disabled: This will make certain your model is upright in the scene space.
23. It will then start to import:
24. and hey presto! you now have a textured and dense mesh inside of 3ds Max.
As an example of just how dense this mesh is:
25. As a final recommendation, I would explore the ‘ProOptimizer’ modifier options, to allow you to easily recalculate the geometry for redefining the mesh for other uses. Make certain you toggle ‘Keep materials’ and ‘Keep UV boundaries’ sub-options, before calculating the optimisation.
You will have then have a mesh that you can tweak for your needs. In this quick test I went down to 5%. (from 527083 faces to 21645 faces) before seeing ANY noticeable visual difference.
26. Finally you can also examine the Unwrapped textures, should you need to add or remove detail. These textures are created as a JPG.
27. From here, if you plan to use iRay with the models, I would recommend you swop out the ‘standard’ material for an Arch&Des material.
As a final, and probably most important tip, I would recommend not trying to do this when your cat is in the room, and in playful mood:
It would be great to see some of your 3ds Max / Project Photofly examples. Please feel free to either email me or upload some links in the comments section.
I would recommend you also look at the Project Photofly gallery to see other examples of what is possible. Below is an example of which show its potential with 3ds Max and iRay. You can view the full gallery by clicking here.
Courtesy of ‘GKMOTU’
Whilst your over at Autodesk Labs, you should also explore Project Helix. This is a toolset for allowing 3ds Max to work with incredibly dense Point cloud data, as well as rendering directly with mental ray. By using Project Helix you can turn laser scans into models.
The Color Correction map has a huge amount of functionality for completing some basic Adobe Photoshop colour correcting workflows within 3ds Max.
The main benefit of this is results in you thinking about texture (and inturn RAM) optimisations. When needing variations of the same bitmap, I would always recommend using the ‘color correction’ map type to lower memory footprints for rendering. It's all too common to see the same bitmap repeated with a minor colour alteration applied.
The below two images shows the map location (after Right-Clicking) and where I would suggest placing the map within the node flow inside SLATE.
Below we can also see the extensive functionality and control contained within this under-used map. This is the standard parameters found within the 'docked' compact editor. I would strongly recommend you also extend the actual nodes parameters, as you will be surprised by the mount of information this exposes additionally to what we can see below.
So the next time you need to amend a map, think whether this is the most efficient way of doing it? Be it from a workflow perspective swopping between or applications, or from a RAM overhead This is an extremely important area where we, as an industry, move into GPU accelerated rendering. For example 3ds Max's iRay implementation from mental images and Nvidia.
I’m sure you’ve seen many posts on 'correct' Gamma usage, but one area that often gets overlooked is the “extra” maps, that aren’t the usual Diffuse, or the end visual settings. These are critical to your final model.
Therefore I wanted to highlight this extra consideration that has a huge effect on the final results. In short, remember that when using a ‘correct’ gamma workflow, you need to ensure the gamma settings of the following (common) maps, are set to 1.0.
Bump
Specs
Normal
Opacity
It's usually common to see people using a 'correct' gamma workflow, but they have completely forgotten that the workflow needs to be constantly considered throughout the projects life-cycle. You should repeatedly ask yourself on file load "where has this bitmap come from and where is it going." As mentioned, the easiest way is to check on file load in the settings options. The settings can be found in bottom left corner of the standard bitmap load options dialogue box (file select). Seen below:
Also, you should ideally ensure that your preferences match the below. In particular the two highlighted toggle options. These ensure you can 'preview' the material swatches correctly. Remember the VFB (or Rendered Frame window) only previews the gamma settings.
You can access this dialogue by the below area of the main menu:
Its worth noting these preferences are set for a LDR range workflow. If saving to a HDR format, such as OpenEXR I recommend changing the output to 1.0. The benefits of the workflow in 3ds Max allow you to change this on an image by image basis, via the file select options shown in the very top image. Ensure the above settings are set for your most common choices.
Ted has uploaded some of his presentations from EUE, in which he focused on 3ds Max Composite and the advantages it brings to the rendering workflow. Composite is a great feature to experiment with, and one I would recommend utilising more for post-processing.
If your not familiar with who, the award winning, Ted is, then he’s a freelance trainer who covers fundamental concepts in 3ds Max. These techniques are primarily concerned with the efficient use of 3ds Max, focusing on workflows that are not always obvious. Ted is also a published author, most recently co-authoring with Joep van der Steen. If you ever are lucky enough to have Ted giving a local talk at an event, then I highly recommend attending.
Now lets have a look at his Video training:
01 - Intro
02– Import, Blend & Comp
03–Composite Tracker
04–Composite Transform
05–Garbage 01
06–Garbage 02
07–Render Recap
Thanks to Ted for sharing these, and I hope it encourages you to try these valuable tools in 3ds Max 2011 & 2012.
Todays guest blog posting is from Alex York of Atelier York Studios. Alex has kindly wrote an article on setting up the apache web version of 3ds max‘s backburner monitor. But why would would you want to do this? Well, it enables you to access this data from any internet enabled device, anywhere in the world. Alex has even got this happily working on his Apple iPad. Surely that’s reason enough to try it? (See the screen shot below – click to enlarge.)
First of all, who is Alex?:
Atelier York is an architectural visualization studio based in London, UK, with over five years of experience in the field, working with some of the world's largest architectural practices, interior designers and developers, from Foster & Partners to Richard Rogers Partnership, MMM Architects to John Pawson and Barton Willmore amongst many others. Founder Alex York is a council member of the Society of Architectural Illustration. Alex’s work has been published in the Architects Journal, Building Design, 3D World and in various architecture/design books and publications, both in print and online.The studio's specialities include computer-aided 3D design for the architecture industry, architectural photography and digital image manipulation, covering everything from luxury high-end residential projects to offices, public realm and planning work (masterplans, eye-level planning shots etc.)"
The Article:
“Backburner Web Monitor is (or can be) a very nice way of accessing backburner from any machine on your network or any machine/ipad/iphone/smartphone from anywhere in the world.
This guide is for Windows 7 64-bit systems but it’s easy enough to tweak the directories if you’re running a 32-bit system. Quite a bit of this has been copied from Autodesk guides and reworded to work with 64-bit systems and the new Apache folder structures introduced in recent versions. It looks long and complicated but it literally only took me 30 mins or so from start to finish and is well worth the effort.
Here’s how to get it installed and access it with auth mode enabled (rather than read-only - what’s the fun in that?!):
*NOTE: I don’t accept any responsibility whatsoever for what you do while going through this guide. If your network dies, your machine melts or you spill your coffee all over your 3d Connexion as a result of any of this, it ain’t my fault. Do carry on!*
1) install Apache from http://httpd.apache.org (you want the version without SSL eg. httpd-2.2.19-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi)
2) install it with all the default settings
3) open a web browser and type (without inverted commas) “localhost”. You should see “It Works!” If not, re-install and check your installation settings.
4) install backburner as normal (or skip this step if you already have it installed). But double-check that it’s working normally. Start your Manager.
5) Navigate to the folder where Backburner is installed, by default C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\Backburner.
Copy the entire backburner_html folder to C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\htdocs.
Rename the backburner_html folder you copied in step 2 as backburner.
Copy the following files from C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\Backburner to C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\cgi-bin:
monitorCGI.cgi
monitorCGI.cfg
6) Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\cgi-bin, and then open the monitorCGI.cfg file in an XML or a text editor such as Notepad.
Locate the following line in the monitorCGI.cfg file:
<!-- Default Manager Hostname -->
<Manager>localhost</Manager>
Replace the value for localhost in this line with the full computer name of the workstation running Backburner Manager. For example, my main workstation running the Manager is called GIGABYTE.
Locate the following line in the monitorCGI.cfg file:
<!-- Port that the manager is running on -->
3234</Port>
If necessary, replace the value in this line with the port number used to communicate with Backburner Manager. Check the Backburner Manager General Properties dialog or the backburner.xml file if you are unsure what port number is being used by the Backburner Manager; see Configuring Backburner Manager. Note: The default Backburner Manager port number is 3234. Changing this port number is not recommended.
Save and close the monitorCGI.cfg file.
7) Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\cgi-bin.
Create a copy of the monitorCGI.cgi file in the same folder, and then rename the copy monitorCGI-auth.cgi. Your folder should now contain two files named monitorCGI.cgi and monitorCGI-auth.cgi.
Create a sub-folder called auth in the main Apache folder. You should have a C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\auth folder. Next, set up a password file for the Backburner Web Server in this folder.
Open a command prompt (DOS) shell, and then navigate to the bin folder by typing the following:
cd “C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\bin”
You use the htpasswd.exe utility in this folder to set up usernames and passwords for all Distributed Queueing System users.
Create a password file that contains the username and password of the first user. Type:
8) Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Apache Software Foundation\Apache 2.2\conf and open the file httpd.conf in notepad. Enter the following at the END of the file, save and close.
9) To test the Backburner Web Server from a machine on the local network, open a Web browser and enter the following in the address line:
http://<machinename>/backburner
If the Backburner Web Server is working, the Web Monitor appears in the browser. All users on the network can use this Web address to access the Backburner Web Monitor.
10) To get this all working on any machine/device remotely (not on the LAN) you need to firstly go into your router settings (i.e. Belkin/Netgear/Bebox etc.) and set up port forwarding to forward port 80 (the default Apache port) to point to your workstation that is running Manager. In my case, port 80 now forwards to GIGABYTE.
11) You now need to open Windows Firewall from Control Panel and go to Advanced Settings on the far left. On the far left of this window click “Inbound Rules”. On the far right, click “New Rule” and add port 80 for both UDP and TCP. You should end up with TWO port 80 rules, allowing both to be incoming.
12) now find out your WAN IP from your router (or go to whatismyip.com and it will tell you). Open a web browser and go to *yourwanip*/backburner. If everything has worked, you will be presented with your login screen. Log in and.... Enjoy! “
You can contact Alex here: (or why not just say thanks for the article)
I want to make you aware of a detailed and very interesting document that highlights skills required for VFX projects. This 39 page document hopes to change what new entrant skills are available for the UK industry, and most importantly accelerate this change.
Whilst were talking about VFX, it;s important to remember that VFX is a strong area for 3ds Max, as many of the films and moves you watch have watched include 3ds Max VFX work. Maya of course, is the standard tool of choice for general film 3d CGI due to its ability to be highly customised in the larger studios. 3ds Max, in conjunction with its extensive wealth of third party plugins, plays an important role in creating many of the effects you’ve seen in recent blockbuster movies. The below two link names but a few of them.
3ds Max 2012 is a very strong release, but don’t take my word for it, take that of gamedev.net. There recent review of 2012’s new features and workflows gave it an outstanding…..
5/5
OK, so the above isn’t subtle, but a 5/5 is amazing to get in this difficult industry. Clearly demonstrating the thought and care that has gone into this latest release, from all in the development and product design teams. This is what makes 3ds Max the number one selling professional application out there on the market, and why many of you continue to passionately care about this product.
I am pleased to announce that the 1st3ds Max 2012 Service Pack (SP) is now available for download, both in 32-bit and 64-bit flavours. This SP is targeted to many areas of 3ds Max functionality including continued performance and stability improvements. It is also worth noting that the SP includes a completely re-written core to CAT (Character Animation Toolkit).
As with any additional download I recommend you view the below readme before installing on machines. If your in a large studio, then please check with your TD first.
This 7 page document is full of useful information and is certainly an important read for all.
I also want to take this opportunity to say a special thanks to all of you who continue to provide user feedback and improvement suggestions for 3ds Max. This information is always greatly appreciated.
Those lovely people at 3dworld are running another competition to win your choice of either a 2012 3ds Max or MayaEntertainment Creation Suite. The normal retail price of a ‘Premium’ edition is £6300, so its certainly a nice prize to walk away with.(The total price of the individual products you get in the suite box are approximately £9300.)
This simple to enter prize draw, closes on August 15th, so ensure you take the time to fill out the online form. but, don't delay, as if your like me then you’ll probably forget and kick yourself for missing out on this opportunity.
You can learn more about the suite offerings and how they can enhance your workflow by visiting the below link, or download the trial on the left hand side of this web page.
You can view detailed product information and FAQs below.
“The Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2012 Premium gives artists and production facilities access to a broad range of creative toolsets. It offers a choice of either Maya 2012 or 3ds Max 2012 as the flagship suite, plus:
MotionBuilder 2012, the real-time character animation software
