Jamie's Jewels

3ds Max & Motion Graphics – A Free 100minute Masterclass is now available

Hi Everyone

On Friday 10th August, I was joined by Daniel Tegeland of Sweden’s Haymaker. A talented and young company, specialising in Motion Graphics with 3ds Max. They joined me to discuss their pipeline, and workflows by looking at a recently completed (and award-winning) project for the Volvo Group.

 

I am delighted to say this detailed, 1hr and 38minute, web seminar was recorded and is now available to view on demand using the below link.

>> Click Here To View <<

This is a great presentation, and highlights many of the free and commercial plugins and tools, studios can take advantage of in their projects.

If you enjoyed this presentation, then you can register for upcoming ones by clicking on this link. Their are some great ones planned, and cover all of the Autodesk Media & Entertainment products. You might also like to know that 100% of attendees who responded to the poll question, said they would attend another web presentation.

Finally, a genuine thanks to Daniel for taking the time to share his knowledge with the rest of us. These presentations take a huge investment in time to be produce from both us at Autodesk and from the co-presenters. I know I personally learnt a lot through this session, and i certainly hope you do too.

Remember you can follow me on Twitter for the latest news, on all things 3ds Max, related by clicking here.

Happy Max’ing

Importing CAD data into 3dsMax – Prioritization help

Morning Everyone

• Do you work with CAD data in 3ds Max?
• What challenges do you face?
• What would you like to see improved or changed?
• What enhancements would you request?

Well, the good news is a newly created section has been added to the popular 3ds Max Uservoice Forum allowing you to give feedback. (You may remember me mentioning that 35 of 3ds Max 2013’s latest features came from your comments on this website.)

Using this feedback forum (link  below) you can help us identify and prioritize enhancement requests for anything related to importing CAD data into 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design. It’s also worth noting that these requests are not just limited to working with Autodesk CAD products/formats, as it also covers any CAD software or format.

>> Click here to participate <<

Remember that the Uservoice forum allows you to create ‘wishes’ and have 20 votes from your registered email address. Each vote you place helps us prioritize our plans and thoughts to match your expectations. This is an on-going opportunity where everyone can help steer the package.

>> Click here to participate <<

Happy Max’ing

A 3dsMax material setup quick tip for Spec and Bumps

Morning All

Todays blog post submission comes from Chris Trill of Design Corp, a visualisation company based in the UK. In this post he shares his way of quickly generating specular and bump maps, which he use’s to create believable materials.

Before we hear from Chris, lets have a look at some of his 3ds Max recent work to see just how well this technique works in day-to-day production. Chris has over 15 years experience as a designer, with a broad range of clients, from micro organisations to some of the most well known international brands.

(Click the below images to enlarge.) 

 

All you do is add 2 colour correction nodes and plug your diff map into each one, drag the saturation down to -100 (so it’s Black & White) and then tweak the brightness and contrast settings. Hey presto, simple spec and bump mapping. To describe this process in more detail, Chris has supplied a step by step guide showing the simple process:

1: “Shows an standard A&D mat with the diff map plugged in. This is your starting point. (As before, click to enlarge.)

2: Shows the colour correction settings for spec – the nice thing is that you can just tweak the brightness and contrast sliders and watch the preview update. I plug the same map into bump as the settings have no effect on it

3: Shows another colour correction map used for displacement – no preview window feedback for that one but you can add a displacement modifier to a sample mesh, plug the colour correction map into the ‘map’ slot and get a rough idea of what the brightness and contrast settings are doing” Says Chris.

Chris goes on to say, “One other thing that I sometimes do is to clone the diffuse node and adjust the blur setting to soften the spec and bump maps. As I said this doesn’t replace proper mat setups for close-up work, but for stuff where you just need a quick representation it can be a real time saver”

Thanks to Chris for supplying this quicktip. As a reminder, you can supply any of your tips via the below link. This is permanently displayed in the left column of this blog.

Happy Max’ing

The working week has started – so lets avoid it with help from Pixomondo

Hurray it’s Monday, and the week has started. Deadlines are approaching and work needs to be completed. Your boss is getting angry, and the coffee is bubbling away. So what better way to start off the week than by looking at Pixomondo’s 2012 reel, and avoiding it all……

Pixomondo is an international visual effects company with a global network of studios in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Beijing and most recently Toronto, primarily with 3ds Max.

         

        

Their showreel mentions they are “Global Talent Worldwide” and I’m sure after seeing this reel you will see why….. So sit back and enjoy their latest four and half minute reel of amazing visual affects.

 

Happy Max’ing

Thursday Distraction from RealtimeUK

You may remember a previous post (link here) discussing the impressive work that RealtimeUK completed for World of Warplanes Trailer. Well, the good news is that they have just realised another 1min15 trailer, directed by Ian Jones, packed full of explosive effects, aeroplanes and beautiful detailing. So sit back and enjoy the amazing work from this cutting-edge studio.

This is one cinematic that definitely deserves to be played with the speakers up and the HD mode On. In fact, why not find the biggest screen you have in the office and play it out on that….You won’t be disappointed!

Now you’ve watched this once, I recommend a second a viewing, as the subtle detail is incredible. It’s this attention to detail that sets aside studios like RealtimeUK. You can follow them on Twitter by searching for @RealtimeUK.

Happy Max’ing

BAFTA Annual Games Lecture & Autodesk

Hi Everyone

On Friday 28 September, Autodesk will be supporting the 2012 BAFTA Games Lecture by Hideo Kojima. The Japanese creator of ‘Metal Gear.’

 

BAFTA’s Annual Lectures showcase renowned creative talent in film, television and games, providing a platform on which individuals share their personal vision for the future of their industry. Previous speakers at the Annual Games Lecture include Will Wright, Peter Molyneux, and co-founders of Bioware Drs Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk.

“Kojima is currently celebrating 25 years of the METAL GEAR series, and has also been director, producer, writer and/or game designer on celebrated titles such as Snatcher, Zone of the Enders, and Boktai. He is currently Director of Kojima Productions and Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment.”

Full details can be found here.

You can find previous lecture recordings, by clicking on the below relevant links.

• BioWare: Annual Video Games Lecture 2011
• Media Molecule: Annual Video Games Lecture 2010
• Peter Molyneux: Annual Video Games Lecture 2009
• Will Wright: Annual Video Games Lecture 2007

Happy Max’ing

An interesting tool for 3dsMax Poly Modelling

Below is a YouTube video and download links for an interesting plugin (Lite version) of a potentially powerful toolset from 3Point Studios for 3ds Max polygon creation.

3Point Studios are a UK based company who founded in 2005, with a heritage in games content outsourcing. The free version of the toolset was released 3 days ago (11 Aug 12) and according to the creators is a:

“..taste of things to come, and free to use for non-commercial purposes, 3ptools Lite is designed to invoke the experience of line-drawing in a 3D environment by letting you paint strips of geometry in an intuitive manner.
In order to let the artist remain creative, the technical complexities of the plugin are hidden underneath the hood. This means that a large number of cases are handled based on projected artist expectations and modeling environment, instead of forcing the user to micro-manage.”

Note that this free download is a ‘Lite’ version of the toolset for non-commercial use. For full details on the full version, please visit the 3Point Studios website.

Supported versions of 3ds Max are 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Whilst we are talking about the studio, its also worth taking a moment to visit their portfolio section. Click on the below image to visit their website imagery.

 

 

Download:

To Download the 11mb plugin click on this link.

As a reminder of installation, you can use "MAXScript->Run Script" to execute the downloaded file 3ptoolsLite.mzp.

Happy Max’ing

Last weeks 3dsMax web presentation recording is now available on demand

Hi Everyone

I’m very pleased to announce that the recording from last Friday’s great 3ds Max web presentation is available to view on demand for free. During this 95 minute presentation (It was only supposed to be 60mins) I was joined by Sol Rogers and Matt Allen of boutique studio RewindFX.

For me personally this has been one of my favourite webinars, as it gives a real insight into how a generalist UK studio like RewindFX works. They agreed to discuss and share some behind the scenes insights into 5 of their recent projects, which range from a worldwide TV campaign, to VFX work for the BBC, to work for a Xbox title, and augmented reality work for a large drinks company. The breadth of their work not only shows their talents as a studio, but also the evolving work available to CGI studios, and the pivotal role that 3ds Max played in the production of this varied work. Forming a striking component of these impactful commercials, VFX and motion graphics projects.

RewindFX have only been going for 18months, but have already carved a strong reputation within this fast paced industry. This is one studio to keep an eye on.

Recorded: Friday 3rd August
Playback: Available on Demand

 

Also, don’t forget the next exciting webinar will be tomorrow. You can register for this here, but ensure this is done today before registration closes.

Finally, a huge ‘thanks’ to all those that attended for the live presentation and Q&A section, but most of all a genuine thank you to Matt and Sol for giving up time during their busy schedules, to share expertise with the rest of us in the community.

      

You can follow them both on Twitter by searching for @RewindFX or visiting their website here. You can also follow me on twitter by searching for @3dsJamiesJewels.

Happy Max’ing

I’m a speaker at Autodesk University

(Well, they do say a picture speaks a thousand words.)

Happy Max’ing….

Learn from real-world studio lighting setups

core77 design magazine has published an excellent article and resources link to real-world lighting setups. Much of what we do in CGI is related to the real-world and as such this provides some great insight into how traditional professional photographers utilise light bounce, lighting rigs, softboxes and ultra-reflective objects.

I would highly recommend this link to anyone who is experimenting with light setups in CGI, and wants to see the way talented photographers overcome challenges. I would also recommend examining some of the external links contained with the web page, as this provides some great image references, allowing you to reverse engineer traditional light rig setups and light bounce boxes.

 

 

You can view this informative external link by clicking here.

Happy Max’ing