Wesley Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 There are some nice books for Max, I'd recommend 'Introducing 3ds Max 9' by Dariush Derakhshani. 3DTotal have some nice tutorials, too. But as for learning, just trying to create things then solving problems as you come across them is quite good. Sounds strange, and obviously it will take a while, but you'll never come to those problems again. Try creating a desk scene, modelling the desk, a computer, chair, etc. All of these things have tutorials. Then texture, solve problems. Then do a bit of lighting and a nice render. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantsu Man! Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 This thread may be old but it's on topic. Can anyone tell me how I can make one of the viewports, in 3ds max, display the exact resolution/picture that a camera in a scene is looking at? My lecturers told us once but he doesn't give a crap and just flew through it and I wasn't quick enough to follow it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Right click the viewport label and click on Show Safe Frame. You'll have 3 boxes that represent the camera view, just render out quickly to see which one is the edge, I always forget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantsu Man! Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Life saver. I've had to drastically cut back on a few things just so I can actually move around in the thing. Putting in trees now and mental ray ran out of memory. Then the program ran out of memory... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Once you have your scene completed and animated, you may want to save a new version and open it in Max 2009 64bit, it should render a lot better. Did for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantsu Man! Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 (edited) It's rendering fine now in 9 32bit. It's just taking ages. After messing with stuff it looks pretty good. About 20 seconds a frame, with 150 frames. First 6 seconds is done in 40 minutes or thereabouts. Halfway done now anyways. Oh and another quick question. I have a biped which a .bip file was put onto, a walk animation. It was on the spot so I, for 4 hours, keyframed the little diamond in it's pelvis to move along a walkway. Is there a way to move all of this animation elsewhere in the same scene? So it's going from A to B, but I want to skip out B to C and just do C to D, if that makes sense. Edited March 21, 2009 by Pantsu Man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Ah that's not too bad. I did my longest rendering part today in 2009, while animating a different scene in 9. I may be tempted to re-render it though, because I realised I have no different colour on the girls nails... they look natural and okay, but if they were red to match her dress... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantsu Man! Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 You've got a 'fake' quad core though so you can do all that jazz... (haha) A question if anybody will answer, I know I'm spamming this place. I have a biped in a boat. He will be holding some oars as soon as I get round to setting it all up, but is there a way to keep one point of the oars in one place at all times so that it won't be jumping around everywhere. For example about a third the way down set a point there so that point will stay there whatever direction you pull the hands in? I can't really explain it very well... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirkatronics Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 You've got a 'fake' quad core though so you can do all that jazz... (haha) A question if anybody will answer, I know I'm spamming this place. I have a biped in a boat. He will be holding some oars as soon as I get round to setting it all up, but is there a way to keep one point of the oars in one place at all times so that it won't be jumping around everywhere. For example about a third the way down set a point there so that point will stay there whatever direction you pull the hands in? I can't really explain it very well... Is there a pivot option? Like for bones and stuff? (Im only guessing, as ive not used 3D software for more than 30 mins) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 I had some problem with this type of thing, keeping the hands of the a person in a constant position while the arms were moving (thus moving the hand). I did it by moving the hands to the position at every frame, creating many keyframes. Not a good method I'm sure. *shrugs* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantsu Man! Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 It's turned out crazily fine. I love the %tage rotating thing. My character really looks like he's rowing a boat. I'm surprised that the place where I wanted to stay put, actually did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 (edited) I hate that it's turning fine for you while mine isn't. By the by, did you work out how to do splashes in max? Edited March 21, 2009 by Wesley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantsu Man! Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Nope. I tried a tutorial for wakes made by the boat but it didn't work. Not too bothered by it, just trying to get a finished animation done in time. Also, haha, it was turning out fine. Until I wanted to animate my boat slowing down. I've been stuck on that for 3 hours now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Ah! Well I'm off to bed to leave my machine to render. I have have to wake up during the night to switch scenes and render. I have just worked out now I have a combined total of 11.9 hours worth of rendering to do. Then my sky scene shall be done and dusted. I don't need to worry about my kitchen scene because it only takes like... 14-24 seconds for a frame and is pretty short. Yay for animation! Next year I'm buying a mini PC setup or a Mac Mini, so when deadlines crop up I'll be able to have a dedicated rendering machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantsu Man! Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 That's a good idea. My tall flatmate has been borrowing my laptop to use the program on because the program doesn't work on his laptop. It looks like it runs quite smoothly considering how old it is. I should have told him to sod off and then use it for my rendering... Next time I know what to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 (edited) Hurrah for first year animation! Edited March 30, 2009 by Wesley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emasher Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 I'm starting to do some modeling again now. Although, I've just been using sketchup, so nothing really all that major. Although I'm rendering the stuff with kerkythea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantsu Man! Posted June 24, 2009 Share Posted June 24, 2009 This thread is dead yes, but I don't want to start another 3d modelling thread. I've just something to ask. Firstly if you could go here. You see the reflections under the phone? All I ask is if this is possible to do in 3ds max? So for example have that sort of reflection underneath this kind of text. Shears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cube Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 I think you'll get a similar effect by creating a massive square and making it reflective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 For the reflection a simple plane with a small amount of raytrace reflection for the material should be fine. Either adjust the falloff distance or be fancy and use a gradient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Anyone know of a free starter program for Macs? I nearly picked up 3D World today (magazine) because of their Pixar feature (and still may) and they have one included, but its windows only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Waaa? What is Windows only about 3D World (a great magazine by the by that I also pick up monthly)? A decent free start-up program is Blender, which has a Mac version. Or if you want to go in deep you could get a trial of Maya (or get a cheap student editio. Or warz); which is the standard in 3D for film and animation. There are other big hitters in 3D, but a lot of them cator for specfic needs or are Windows only. Maya is pretty much top-dog for animation, with 3DS Max (Windows-only) top for games specific. Poo... I read your post again and see that you meant the program was Windows only on the disk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 haha yes, poo indeed But it did answer my question anywho. Do you read the magazine? I flicked through it yesterday and animation has always trickled on my mind (although granted, traditional). I was drawn in by the Pixar cover lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesley Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Yeah I get the magazine each month, I would definitely recommend it - covers lots of areas in 3D. Also that issue had the best 10 animation shorts... all of which were traditional, I think - oh, and amazing. So you going for Blender or Maya? Maya is more complex, as it's used for big-budget films, but it has a lot of documentation and training DVDs (a DVD for introduction to Maya by Digital Tutors just came out - I've got a few of theirs and they're good); while Blender can be a bit... "woah, wtf?". Don't get me wrong, Blender is still amazing, and can be used for all the stuff Maya does... ish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightwolf Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Ah maya ^_^, maya's actually reallll easy to use, I've made a rocket and kitchen out of it recently. Maya is expensive though and from last I heard its bad enough getting cracks etc for Maya on windows never mind Macs..I'm sure somebody could find you a version though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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