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3ds max 5 for Dummies by Shamms Mortier, PhD 3ds max 5 For Dummies Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River StreetHoboken, NJ 07030 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2003 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447 Introduction Welcome to the world of virtual 3D design and animation, as crafted and presented in 3ds max — no less than the world’s largest-selling 3D application. 3ds max (insert the trumpet fanfare here) is used all over the world by thousands of designers to develop 3D interactive games and realistic 3D effects for movies and television, and to create astounding 3D content for display on the Web. Purchasing and working through this book will give you an enhanced introduction to 3D design and animation in general — and some hands-on experience with 3ds max itself — to bring your 3D ideas to life. About This Book For folks unfamiliar with the way 3D software works, using 3ds max can be a daunting task. Just hefting the weighty documentation that comes with the software can be frightening. The documentation is thorough and detailed enough, but it’s not quite as welcoming as your grandmother waiting at the door with fresh baked cookies to soothe your fears. When you first open the soft About This Book How to Use This BookHow you use this book depends somewhat on who you are and the level of your previous encounters with the general concepts of 3D design, and any experience you may have had with other 3D software. The book is not designed like a novel, with the requirement that you read it from start to finish, but rather as a reference and an encyclopedia of interactive information to help you understand various facets of how 3ds max functions. If you’re a novice to 3D design and know very little about 3D concepts and nothing about 3D software, don’t be embarrassed. Everyone has to start somewhere. As a 3D novice, pay special attention to the terms used for various 3D operations and tools. Picking up the lingo not only gets you quickly into 3ds max, but imagine the fun at parties when you 3D-speak with others. (Impress your friends! Astound your peers! Dumbfound total strangers!) You may want to read any parts or chapters in the book that totally overwhelm you the first time through How to Use This Book What I Assume About You I assume that you have some basic knowledge of computers that includes turning on the computer and interacting with your keyboard and mouse. I further assume that you know how to install the 3ds max software from the CD-ROM. You need at your personal disposal a system that runs 3ds max Version 5 or above and one of the following operating systems: Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XT. 3ds max doesn’t work on Windows ME or Windows 95 or earlier, though it may work on some Windows 98 Second Edition systems. Your computer should be using a Pentium III or IV chipset, have a CD-ROM drive and at least 512MB of RAM, and be running at a speed of 512 MHz or better. You should also have a color monitor capable of millions of colors and a screen size of at least 1024 x 768 pixels. If any of these tech terms are new to you, check the documentation that shipped with your computer that defines what these specifications mean. How This Book Is OrganizedEach part of this book builds upon previous ones and improves your 3ds max expertise in a cumulative step-by-step fashion. However, this book is also an encyclopedia of information so that you can always return to any part or chapter of the book that is helpful in refreshing your memory about specific topics. If you already have a basic knowledge of 3D software, you can begin by going immediately to the part or chapter that most interests you. Part I: First Things First This part introduces you to general 3D concepts, tools and command locations, and ways that you can customize and personalize the look of the 3ds max environment on the screen. Part II: All About max Models You find out all about models in this part — how to create and customize them using the wealth of 3ds max tools. Models are to a 3D designer what images are to a 2D designer. Everything you see in the room you are sitting in and in the world outside of your window, including both man-made an How This Book Is Organized Icons Used in This BookIf you flip through the book, you’ll see icons in the margin next to a block of text. These icons are designed to alert you to some nugget of information.  Tip  When you see this icon, pretend I’m whispering in your ear about a sure bet at the racetrack. Just kidding. I pass along this information to make your experience with 3ds max quicker and more efficient.  Remember  This icon points you to a tidbit that you’d be wise to keep in mind as you work with 3ds max.  Warning  Skip this text at your own risk! Ah well, some folks like to live dangerously.  Technical Stuff  When you see this icon, it means that the information goes a bit deeper into some relevant technical information about a topic. Skip it if it gets too deep.  On the CD  This icon alerts you to some really cool examples of animation contained on this book’s CD-ROM. Icons Used in This Book Where to Go From HereWell, at this point you’ve got pretty much the whole story. Use this book however it best serves you. Write notes in the margins. Highlight helpful sections. Step through the doorway into this book and your date with destiny — or at least a feast of creativity with 3ds max. Part I: First Things First Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 1: Reading the Roadmap In This Chapter Navigating the 3ds max GUI Working with the viewports Configuring your resolution A whole world of wonder opens up to your exploration when you discover how to navigate in 3ds max. You’re using the same software used to create all kinds of effects in major Hollywood movies and on broadcast television. It all starts with the basics of 3D creation, and this book walks you through each step, so fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a great adventure! Before you can start creating 3D scenes in 3ds max, you have to know how to navigate the GUI (Graphical User Interface). The GUI appears when you start 3ds max, and at first it may look overwhelmingly confusing. But don’t worry. It’s really not that scary. The GUI is your interactive window into 3ds max, loaded with all the tools and commands you’ll need to bring your 3D creations to life. The chapters in the first part of this book show you where to find max’s controls and menu selections, pres Chapter 1: Reading the Roadmap In This Chapter Uncovering the MultidimensionalI’m certain that many world-class painters in history would have jumped at the chance to explore the tools offered by 3D software if they were alive today. Just think of it. Imagine being restricted to a 2D canvas, where all you can do is to fake your 3D image by using the rules of shade and shadow and perspective — as opposed to moving into the canvas to see your image from any 3D camera angle. After you create a 2D painting, the image remains in whatever view you have assigned to it. When you work in 3D, that isn’t the case. After all your objects are in place in your 3D world and the lights and textures have been calculated and temporarily set, you’re free to move around and snap images from any angle you like. Each traditional 2D painting is a one-shot deal, whereas each 3D composition can be a doorway to infinite illustrative snapshots. Until film came along, the artist was limited to capturing a single snapshot of movement from a series of possibili Starting 3ds maxTo get 3ds max up and running, do the following: With your computer turned on, locate the 3ds max icon. It’s located in the directory where you installed 3ds max, or you may have placed a copy of it on the desktop. Double-click the icon. Loading takes a few seconds, and then 3ds max appears on your screen. Figure 1-1 shows what 3ds max looks like. Figure 1-1: Eeeek! 3ds max is open and looking right back at you. Meet the 3ds max tools If you try to use a wrench as a hammer, or attempt to turn a screw with a toaster instead of a screwdriver, you might be described as tool-challenged, at the very least. Technology has led to the development of a huge assortment of tools, each designed with a specific purpose. The tools and commands in 3ds max are also used for specific operations, so you have to know where to find them and have some idea of what they are meant to do. It’s a bit more complex than swinging a hammer, because 3ds max presents you with a large series of hammers, each designed with a specific task in mind. I get to the specifics of tool usage in later chapters. Locating the right tools and menus Before you can use any of the 3ds max tools, you have to know where they’re located. A group of 3ds max main menus and toolbars appears at the top of the opening screen (see Figure 1-2). Figure 1-2: A dark border has been placed around the items at the top of the 3ds max interface to show you Gooey Max: Navigating in a 3D Graphics User InterfaceA GUI (pronounced “Gooey”) is a techno-abbreviated term for Graphics User Interface. Every piece of graphics software has its own GUI. 3ds max has a 3D GUI, which in many ways resembles other 3D GUIs. If you learn how to navigate in 3ds max’s GUI, you can more easily learn how to navigate in any 3D GUI (not that you’d want to of course!). Getting around in the 3D GUI Viewports A few paragraphs ago (we all seemed so much younger then), a peek at the lower-right part of the 3ds max GUI revealed Viewport Manipulation controls. Each of these eight controls has its own function — but none of them can do anything until they have some content to work on. To take care of this essential business, follow these steps: Click the Objects tab on the Tab Panel. Select the sphere object (the second object from the left) to highlight it. Place your mouse pointer at the center of the Front Viewport and then click and drag to create a sphere that measu Now You See It, Now You Don’t3ds max is a visual workplace. Because of the number of tools and controls that are present on the interface, you’re forced to customize the screen so that you can see everything, yet remain in an uncluttered workspace. The following sections detail two things to keep in mind. Changing your screen’s resolution The Windows display screen has a defined number of pixels (picture elements) horizontally and vertically. The more pixels your display addresses, the smaller the data on the screen, but the more data that can be displayed. If the display is set too high, then you will suffer eyestrain trying to see what you’re doing. If the display is set too low, a program that provides a lot of display data — such as 3ds max — won’t fit. As with so much else in life, you can get it to work by configuring a happy medium. To set the pixel resolution of your display, do the following: Double-click the My Computer icon on your Desktop. A window appears, displaying all t I Know It’s Here Somewhere When you have added all sorts of objects, lights, cameras, and other 3ds max elements to a scene, it may be difficult to select the item you need when you want to modify it. Never fear! 3ds max has a perfect answer for that situation. If that happens to you, go to Tools>Selection Floater to bring up the Selection Floater window. Everything in your scene is listed. Click on the name of the object, choose the Select button, and close the Selection Floater window. The object or objects are now selected for any desired modifications. Chapter 2: Customizing Your Workspace In This Chapter Customizing the default space Moving stuff around on-screen Altering your viewpoints in 3D space Here’s a scenario: You’re in a strange city, looking around for an apartment to rent. Apartments you can afford are scarce, but you are diligent in your search, and finally find one listed in the paper. Feeling the urgency to get settled, you rush to the address, and thankfully, it’s not rented yet. The landlord answers your knock, and agrees to show you around. The apartment seems to have a pleasant view of the city, and it’s fully furnished. “There’s one thing,” the landlord cautions, “if you want to live here, you are not permitted to move anything around. Every piece of furniture, every lamp and knick-knack, everything down to the smallest item, has to remain exactly where it is. We check once every couple of days.” This apartment might be described as a default space in that it comes prearranged with no options for personal design i Chapter 2: Customizing Your Workspace In This Chapter Changing Things Here and There Most of the personalized changes you can make to the GUI in 3ds max won’t become a need for you to explore until you spend some time with the software. Initially, you may decide that the default UI look is okay for now, and you just want to get on with the business of creating 3D models and placing them in scenes. The personalization of your 3ds max environment will be based upon your experience with the software over time. When the time does arrive, however, you’ll want to know how to navigate to the right menus and controls that can help you achieve the GUI environment you want. Color is first The first time 3ds max pops up on the screen, the GUI looks like Figure 2-1. Pay special attention to the color of the viewports. Figure 2-1: This is the default 3ds max GUI, as it appears when you first start the software. Note the dull gray color of the viewport backgrounds. Personally, I find the dull gray of the default viewports kinda depressing. Like many of Exploring Viewport Options Chapter 1 covers how viewport data can be zoomed, and how the point-of-view can be rotated in any selected viewport. But how about altering the sizes of the viewports, or perhaps deleting one or more viewports to create another arrangement entirely? Using our rented-and-furnished-apartment analogy, the first case would be like magically making a room larger or smaller; keeping the overall space the apartment takes up the same as it was. In the second case, it would be like tearing down walls between rooms to create a more suitable living space. In either case, you would pray that the landlord wouldn’t raise the rent or evict you! Moving viewport borders If you look carefully at the default viewport arrangement, you’ll notice dark borders around each viewport, with spaces between viewports. If you move your mouse pointer (which by default is a large arrow) over a border, something wonderful happens: The pointer becomes a smaller, double-pointed arrow that goes Part II: All About max Models Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 3: Polygons, Properties, and Transformations In This Chapter Sorting out polygons and Normals Applying transformations Customizing object properties (it’s almost magic!) This chapter looks at the types of models you can create in 3ds max. Included are methods based on loading preset or saved models, locations, and procedures. Models have properties, which are aspects that define their form. For example, a sphere has a curved surface and a diameter. Models are made up of smaller polygonal units. The form of any model in 3ds max can be infinitely transformed into other forms by using specific tools and commands on polygons and surfaces. Chapter 3: Polygons, Properties, and Transformations In This Chapter Introducing 3ds max Primitive ModelsThe basic element of a 3D scene is a model (also called an object in 3ds max, although there are other objects that are not models). The basic element of a model is a polygon. Because confusion can be the spice of life, here’s a spicy tidbit: Some model elements are not strictly polygons at all — but they get dissected later in the book. For now, consider polygons as the basic elements of the models that inhabit this part of the book. Polygon? Say what? No, polygon does not mean the parrot flew away. In math-speak, a polygon is a surface created by connecting three or more points in space. Because math uses a lot of definitions that put things in purely imaginary space, a polygon has no depth dimension. In 3D techno-talk, the points that generate a polygon are called vertices (the fancy plural of vertex). The lines that connect the points are called edges. If the polygon has three vertices, its surface is called a face (no nose or eyebrows required). Using Transformations on Models In 3ds max, three main operations are known as Object Transformations: Positioning, Rotating, and Scaling. To Position an object is to change the XYZ space coordinates that describe where it is. To Rotate an object is to turn it around an X, Y, or Z axis. To Scale an object is to increase its size along any X, Y, or Z axis, or along two or more axes at the same time. Importing a model You have to have set up a 3D model in a 3ds max scene before you can explore transformation operations. Later in this chapter, you find out how to create 3D models from scratch; for now, a ready-made model (from the huge model library that comes with your 3ds max software) is all that’s needed. Here’s how to get one on-screen: Choose File>Open>Scene>Characters to open a folder with various modeled content. This collection of scenes was installed when you installed the software. Search the contents until you find a model you want to use for exploring the Transformation optio Ye Olde Object Properties PanelAny object you put in a scene, whether it’s a 3D model or another 3ds max object, has specific properties (parameters) that describe its boundaries. In that way, it’s much like any real-world object in a room; you can describe the object by referring to its individual properties. Unlike real-world objects, however, 3D models have uniquely controllable parameters — for example, how many segments are involved in the object’s form, and what parts of the model are visible. The next chapter digs into the process of creating and customizing basic (primitive) objects by working with nothing more than their parameters. If that sounds like parlor magic (“at no time will my hands leave my arms . . .”), then it’s a good time to get to know the amazing Create Command Panel. Accessing the Objects Create Command Panel Parameters differ according to the model they represent — but they all have one thing in common: They show up in a Create Command Panel located at the bo Chapter 4: Model Movers and Shakers In This Chapter Creating basic Primitives, both Standard and Modified Standard Getting fancy with Extended and Modified Extended Primitives Making a scene This chapter looks at the types of simple, off-the-shelf 3D models — Primitives — embedded in 3ds max for you to use and customize. Placing 3D Primitives in a scene and using the Command Panel to customize them is about as fast and fun as 3D animation techniques can get. These Primitives form a group of objects that you can use to create your own models by combining and altering their forms. Chapter 4: Model Movers and Shakers In This Chapter Primitive Objects in the Beginning . . .Okay, pop quiz: Just what is a modeling Primitive? Please select from the following multiple-choice answers, and keep in mind that none of your grade depends on it: Someone who is completely unfamiliar with the latest Paris fashions. A person who is just beginning to learn how to create a clay pot. The artist’s model who sat for the first paint-by-number cave drawings. None of the above. That’s right — none of the above (and everybody passes anyway). In 3D techno-terminology, a modeling Primitive is a simple model made readily available in 3D software so you can instantly create an object, place it in a scene, and modify it to look the way you want. Different 3D software packages contain a range of 3D Primitives, with the most common ones being the cube or box, cylinder, and sphere. 3ds max features a much wider variety than that. If you go to the Tab Panel and select the Objects tab, the icons that are displayed (as shown in Figure 4-1) show all Making a Scene One way to use 3D Primitives is to build composite objects. In Chapter 6, I talk about ways you can glue objects together. The following steps describe how you can work with different Primitives to create a scene: Working in the Top Viewport, place any number of interesting Primitives in a scene. These can be a mix of both Standard and Extended Primitives. Use any ones that you find of interest. Move them into place by clicking and dragging to create an object. In order to get the positioning just right, it helps to work in first one and then another viewport. Make sure XY is active in the Axis Constraints panel. After you create a complex 3D model in 3ds max and save it, you can use it as a component to create even more complex structures. Figure 4-17 starts you down that particular primrose path. Figure 4-17: Large, complex structures can use smaller similar structures as building elements. You can get unlimited use out of the Standard and Extended Primitives when it c Chapter 5: 2D Shapes in Flatland In This Chapter Mastering basic 2D shape creation Creating 2D open and closed shapes Using the Color Swatch and System Colors 2D shapes and 2D meshes This chapter walks you through using the 2D drawing tools to create shapes in 3ds max. 2D shape creation is essential in the construction of unique 3D models. 2D shapes are like ultra-thin slices of bread. They are a part of the loaf that shows the shape the loaf takes, but not the thickness. The 2D slice can be used to determine the 3D loaf by imagining it extended in space. Chapter 5: 2D Shapes in Flatland In This Chapter Creating Basic 2D Shapes Before you master creating 2D shapes, you have to know where to find their controls. It’s important that you first find out how to create 2D shapes so that you can convert them to 3D forms later. You can access 2D Shape tools from three places — on the Main menu by choosing Create>Shapes, by clicking the Shapes tab on the Tab Panel, and on the Command Panel, shown in Figure 5-1. Figure 5-1: The Command Panel. Common shapes Eleven separate 2D Shape options are available: Line, Rectangle, Circle, Ellipse, Arc, Donut, NGon, Star, Text, Helix, and Section. This chapter looks at each of them. Because the Command Panel contains ways to customize 2D shapes, it’s a more convenient approach than the Main menu or the Tab Panel. Line The Line is the most basic 2D shape. You create Lines by click-and-drag movements in a viewport (usually not the Perspective Viewport). Two parameter settings in the Command Panel are especially vital in the creation of 2D Line Shapes: Initia Adding Color to Your Shape 2D shapes are not always easy to see in a viewport. You see a small color swatch at the right of the Name and Color area in the Create>Splines Command Panel. Click in the color area to bring up the System Color Palette, and select another color, preferably a darker one, for your 2D option, as shown in Figure 5-13. Figure 5-13: The System Color Palette displays all the hues at a glance, allowing you to select any color you want for a 2D shape. Transforming Shapes into ObjectsWhen placed in a 3D scene, 2D shapes don’t look the way they were created; they merely act as skeletons from which 3D objects can be created (see Chapter 9). You have two alternatives for transforming an open or closed 2D shape into an actual object that can be displayed in a scene: Using the Render options: This method works for displaying open or closed 2D shapes in a 3D scene. Converting a closed shape to a mesh: This method works only for closed 2D shapes. 2D Shape Render options Until you take specific actions, 2D shapes are just imaginary and invisible in a rendered 3D scene in 3ds max. This first action works on either open or closed 2D shapes (remember they are also called splines) to add some visible flesh to their invisible bones. Follow these steps: Create any 2D shape you like, open or closed, in a viewport. Click the Rendering button in the Command Panel for the 2D shape to open the shape’s render options. Click the radio button next to View Chapter 6: Compound Interest In This Chapter Creating Scatters Discovering the Connect operation Creating conformed objects Creating Boolean objects Creating ShapeMerged cuts Generating Lofted objects This chapter walks you through the creation of Compound objects in 3ds max. Compound Objects are the result of performing operations on multiple objects. After working with Primitive objects, Compound Objects are the next natural step in the modeling process. Compound objects reward you with much more complex 3D model designs, because they too can be used as basic elements in the construction of ever more complex forms — Scatter, Connect, Conform, Boolean, and Loft. You can access Compound Objects from the Compounds Tab on the Tab Panel, but it’s handier to use the Command Panel for access. To display the Compound Object options, choose Create> Geometry>Compound Objects in the Command Panel, as shown in Figure 6-1. Figure 6-1: The Command Panel display for Compound Objects appears only if Chapter 6: Compound Interest In This Chapter Scatter to the Winds: Creating Two-Object Compound Scatters Scattering is the process of making an object (or multiple copies of an object) conform to the surface of another target object, and it can result in some pretty complex and fantastic 3D models. Scattering allows you to use one object as the base upon which other objects are duplicated and placed, in much the way boulders are placed on terrain. To create a Compound Scatter Object, follow these steps: Create or import two objects into a 3ds max scene. For example, I placed a larger Sphere Standard Primitive and a smaller Cone Standard Primitive in a scene. Use any viewport. Choose Create>Geometry>Compound Objects in the Command Panel. For the example, make sure the Cone is selected; make the cone tall and pointed. Click Scatter in the Compound Objects list. In the parameter options that appear in the Command Panel, click Pick Distribution Object. The Distribution Object serves as the base upon which the duplicates of another ob Using the Connect Operation The Connect operation binds any two objects together so 3ds max treats them as a single object. If you build a tower of diverse Primitives, for example, you can use the Connect operation as many times as needed to bind every object to the others as part of the tower.  Remember  The original object being connected to another object (the Operand) substitutes its texture over that of the other object. When you plan to use the Connect option, remember that you don’t have to place connected objects near each other. Connect works its magic across space, connecting selected objects into one object. Creating a single object from two objects using Connect The Connect operation builds a bridge between two selected objects. The result is a single object with a connecting 3D form. To use Connect on two objects, follow these steps: Create any two objects/models and place them in a 3ds max scene. The objects can overlap, just touch, or remain at a distance from each other Performing the Basic Conform ActionConforming is a term that usually makes rugged individualists leap and twitch, but using the Conform operation in 3ds max is actually pretty creative. The Conform operation attempts to force-fit a selected object into another object’s skin, so the original object’s form is altered as a result. Sometimes the result is subtle — and sometimes quite bizarre. As an example of a Conform operation, I use the two Standard Object Primitives most often thought of as 3D opposites . . . the cube and the sphere. When you have mastered this example, you can use the Conform operation on any Primitives or imported models. Follow these steps: Place a Standard Primitive cube and sphere in a 3ds max scene. Use any viewport. Move the sphere so it is half-embedded in the cube. With the sphere selected, choose Create>Geometry>Compound Objects in the Command Panel. Select the Conform option. Click the Wrap To Object button in the Command Panel, and click the cube in any vie Booley-Booley: Creating Objects with the Boolean OperationsBoolean operations are among the most common modeling options in professional 3D programs. A Boolean operation makes changes in 3D models mathematically, in much the same way that numbers can be combined to create other numbers. The on-screen results from the following three operations look like magic: Boolean Add: Adding objects together results in a single object with one overall surface. Boolean Subtract: Subtracting one object from another produces a hole or depression in one object that conforms to the dimensions of the subtracted object. Boolean Intersection: When two objects intersect, this operation leaves only the intersecting parts of each surface. Although the following examples use a sphere and a cylinder, you can apply a Boolean operation to any Primitive, imported model, or created model. Adding ’em up Boolean Addition combines two objects into a single object with one surface. To explore Boolean Addition, follow Using the Boolean Cut Operation 3ds max offers you another Boolean option not found in other 3D software: Cut. Cut is at one and the same time similar to Subtract and Intersect, as well as being something else. Using Cut, you can perform interactions between a 2D shape and a 3D object, which is often necessary to create some special 3D forms. Follow these steps: Create a donut shape in the Top Viewport. Create a Standard Primitive Sphere that overlaps one side of the donut shape. Select the donut shape, and choose Create>Geometry>Boolean>Cut in the Command Panel. Select the sphere as the operand. The sphere cuts a spherical bite out of the shape. The shape is also fully polygonized in the process, as shown in Figure 6-8. Figure 6-8: This was originally a 2D donut shape, and now it’s a flat 2D object. Be sure to explore other 2D shapes and 3D object interactions as well to get a better idea of just what the Boolean Cut operation can do.  Tip  Selecting Boolean with any 2D shape selected ShapeMergeShapeMerge is the quickest way to transform a 2D shape into a 2D object. The difference between the two is that a 2D shape is seldom rendered in a scene; a 2D object renders as a 3D object does. This is especially helpful when you want to use a text object (meaning a line of text) in an animation, or perhaps even as a flat sign in the scene. Follow these steps: Choose Create>Shapes>Text, and input the text message you want to use. Click once in any viewport to write the 2D Text Shape to the scene. Click the 2D text object to select it. Choose Create>Geometry>Compound Objects. Click ShapeMerge. The 2D text shape now becomes a 2D object with all polygons in place, as shown in Figure 6-9. Figure 6-9: Top: 2D Text Shape before activating ShapeMerge. Bottom: fully polygonized 2D Text object after ShapeMerge. Up in the Loft: Creating and Editing Lofted Objects Creating 3D models by lofting is an essential modeling option for 3D artists and animators, and 3ds max has some of the finest lofting controls around. The lofting process requires that you have two 2D shapes placed in a scene. One of the 2D shapes acts as a path; the other 2D shape is defined as a cross-section. The cross-section is basically pulled along the path to form a 3D object or model. If you can’t quite visualize this action, perhaps this analogy helps. Suppose that someone asked you to model a sausage (it could be a tofu sausage for all you non-meat-eaters). A sausage is sort of like a cylinder, except it usually has a slight curve along its length. A cross-section of the sausage, literally a slice at some point along its length, is a circle. A curved line segment — the path — could represent the whole length of the sausage. If you had a method of pulling the circular cross-section along a slightly curved Path, a 3D sausage Part III: Applying Modifier Alchemy Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 7: Working with Modifiers In This Chapter Locating and selecting modifiers in the menu bar Finding Modifiers in the Tab Panel Accessing Modifiers via the Command Panel Using the Select Objects Panel This chapter is an introduction to Modifiers, 3ds max tools and processes helpful for both restructuring models and for creating animated movement targets (although animation itself is covered in Part VI of the book). Modifiers act to reshape any model into a new form, either subtly or radically, depending on what you require. Chapter 7: Working with Modifiers In This Chapter Finding the Right ModifierAs with many other 3ds max features, Modifiers can be accessed in a number of different ways. Most 3D users select the way that is most comfortable for their work habits, though some projects you do may commence more smoothly if you choose to work with select Modifiers in a specific location. You can access Modifiers in three ways: on the menu bar, on the Tab Panel, and on the Command Panel. In the following sections, I cover the benefits and details of using each. The menu bar You can access the Modifiers from the Modifier menu if you want to narrow your search to a specific modification parameters, like Mesh Editing, Free Form Deformations, or any of the other Modifier categories. The other two Modifier location alternatives aren’t as orderly and purposeful as the Modification menu in their display of modification topics. Modifiers have their own drop-down menu on the top menu bar (shown in Figure 7-1). Twelve submenus list the 3ds max Modifiers you can acce Where Did I Put That Spheroid? Locating Lost Objects for Modification If you have just a few items in your 3D scene, you won’t have a problem selecting any one you want to work on or transform. But most interesting 3ds max scenes can be complex, and they may contain many dozens of diverse objects, some of which may be hiding behind other objects or even out of view (as shown in Figure 7-7). When this happens and you target a single object for modification or transformation, you have to know how to navigate to the right tools to help you do the job. Figure 7-7: Here’s a nightmare of a scene. Not only do many objects intersect, some hide from view in any viewport. Labels Your first option for locating any item in a scene is a simple one. Move your mouse pointer over the scene, and stop its movement (without clicking) where you thing your needed object may be. A small label appears, showing the name of the object your mouse pointer is over. If the label that appears is the item you are lo Chapter 8: Creating Duplicated Objects In This Chapter Creating multiple object options Using copy cloning Using instanced cloning Creating arrays By now, most people are familiar with the term cloning. Images of sheep and goats come to mind readily. Cloning a life form means to create a genetic copy that’s virtually identical to the original. Higher life forms (as we humans confidently call ourselves) present more complications if we want to clone exact duplicates. Fortunately, cloning 3D objects in 3ds max is far less complicated than (say) cloning Elvis in a laboratory. Cloning is a technique common to all 3D software, though each piece of software has different ways of going about it. (The cloning operations in 3ds max are extremely user-friendly.) But why use cloning anyway? Well, cloning saves time that would best be used in other creative pursuits. Suppose that you wanted to create a flock of birds, perhaps 20 of them. You could model one, set it aside, model another, and so on. Chapter 8: Creating Duplicated Objects In This Chapter Cloning Your Own Sheep3ds max offers you several different ways to clone a selected object, each with its own purpose. In the strictest sense, you aren’t really modifying an object when you clone it — you’re just modifying the space that the object occupies in a scene. (Hmmm. Wonder what Einstein would say about that.) Keyboard entry creations I call this the look-Ma-no-hands cloning method. That’s because you don’t have to do any manual operations in a viewport to pull it off. This is a quick way to duplicate objects while maintaining some control over their position and geometry in space at the same time. This method is also a precursor to arrays, which are covered later in this chapter, and is more of a duplication rather than a cloning process. I am going to use the Standard Primitives Teapot as an example. Here’s how it’s done: Make sure the Top Viewport is active so objects are created from this orientation. Choose Create>Geometry>Standard Primitives>Teapot. Don’t create anything Lord of the Ring Arrays: Creating and Controlling Arrays An array is commonly defined as two or more similar objects arranged in 3D space. When you create a cloned line of objects, you are in essence creating an array. But cloning has its limitations. For instance (no pun intended), cloning an object is not the right approach if you’re in a hurry to create identical objects in all three spatial directions at the same time. Cloning is also not suitable if you want to create rotated duplicates in different sizes or positions as the sequence of objects progresses. For these and similar modeling needs, you need another process: creating a 3D array. Place a sphere in the scene and choose Tools>Array in the menu bar. This brings up the Array panel, as shown in Figure 8-6. Figure 8-6: The Array panel lists a number of value parameter options. The following sections describe each parameter option. Incremental/Totals The Incremental and Totals values are interchangeable. You can alter either ro Cloning ArraysEach cloned object in an array is a separate object. To perform a cloning operation on the entire array forces you to transform the separate objects in the array into a single object first. One way to do that is by Boolean Union (described in Chapter 6). Try this: Place a sphere in a scene from the Top Viewport with a radius of 20. Create an array with the values displayed in Figure 8-11. Figure 8-11: The parameters for setting up the initial array. Take a look at your viewports. You should have an array of four spheres, descending in size. Select the first sphere and then choose Create>Geometry>Compound Objects. Make sure that Union is your Operator. Click Pick Operand B, and then click the second sphere in a viewport. You have created one object from the two spheres. Click an empty space in the viewport, and then click your two-sphere object. A new, third sphere appears where you clicked. Link the new sphere to your two-sphere object by repeating the Boolean Union proce Chapter 9: Making Mirrored Objects In This Chapter Creating mirrored objects Mirroring without cloning Doing mirroring while cloning Adjusting offsets and clones Mirrors are one way the real world mimics the world of fantasy. As in Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, the mirror image of an object exactly reverses the visible features of the object — right is left and left is right. Take, for instance, your head — two nearly symmetrical eyes, two nearly symmetrical ears, and two nearly symmetrical nostrils. In each pair of features, the parts are about the same distance from an imaginary vertical dividing line at the horizontal center of your head. Normally, when you look in a mirror, your features are reversed (your left eye appears to be where your right eye should be, and so on) — no surprise there. But if you set the edge of a small, rectangular mirror on a full-face snapshot and turn the mirror perpendicular to the photo (so it divides the face vertically), what you se Chapter 9: Making Mirrored Objects In This Chapter Adjusting the Pivot PointMirroring uses an object’s Pivot Point (an imaginary point at the object’s vertical and horizontal center) as a reference. The Pivot Point is the center of gravity around which all actions take place. To change the view of any 3D object in 3ds max, you can adjust (move and/or rotate) the object’s Pivot Point. A quick review of this process (for more details, see Chapter 4) is a good way to get into mirror cloning. If you look at any object as it appears in any viewport, the Pivot Point of the object is not visible (well, of course not — it’s imaginary). To make the Pivot Point visible — yes, you can do that — select the object and click the Hierarchy tab in the Command Panel. The rollout that appears includes the Affect Pivot Only command. Clicking that option makes the Pivot Point appear in the viewports. Clicking this same command again makes the Pivot Point invisible again, as shown in Figure 9-1. Figure 9-1: Clicking Affect Pivot Only makes the selected obj Mirroring without CloningWhen Alice transits through the looking glass, she becomes her reflection — her entire body switches its axial symmetry, making her left foot her right foot and so on. Sometimes you may want a selected 3D object to switch its axial symmetry in the same way (for example, if you want to create an identical model of a car with the steering wheel on the opposite side). If this happens, you’ll need to employ a mirroring operation. Activating mirroring Mirroring an object either flips the object in reverse on a selected axis, or performs the same operation on a duplicate (clone) of the object. The mirroring operation is activated from choices you make in the Mirror: Screen Coordinates panel. You can get to this panel from either of two places: the Tools>Mirror selection in the menu bar or the Mirror tool in the Main Toolbar. Either alternative brings up the Mirror: Screen Coordinates panel shown in Figure 9-3. Figure 9-3: The Mirror: Screen Coordinates panel. If you Finding Your Twin Although you can perform mirroring on non-cloned objects, it’s far more common to do when cloned objects are involved. Why? Because the mirroring operation was designed to solve the problem of creating opposite symmetries. Mirrored cloning options Three options affect how a mirrored clone relates to the source object: the position and rotation of the source object’s Pivot Point, what Mirror Axis is selected, and what the Offset Value is. By themselves and in combination, adjusting these three options leads to differing results. Pivot Point options and mirrored clones Mirrored cloning uses the placement and angle of the Pivot Point as a reference to create the cloned object. Standard cloning does the same thing, without mirroring the cloned object. Here are a couple of examples. Pivot Point Position: Place one of the Standard or Extended Primitives in a scene. Leave its Pivot Point at its default position (the center of the object). Create a mirrored clone of the objec Chapter 10: 3D from 2D In This Chapter Creating visible splines Cloning splines Generating extruded objects Generating lathed objects Chapter 5 details the creation of 2D shapes (splines). A 2D shape is not really an object, though it’s part of the way to an object. Without some manipulation, a 2D shape will not render, and it won’t accept any textures. This chapter covers three ways that a 2D shape can be modified into a true 3D object, a form that occupies XYZ space, and that can be set to receive textures like any other 3D object in a scene. These three methods are Visibility Rendering, Extrusion, and Lathing. Chapter 10: 3D from 2D In This Chapter Making 2D Shapes Visible: The Rendering Method To turn a spline into a 3D object, you must first make it visible by adjusting some settings in the Command Panel. Choose Create>Shapes>Splines and select Circle. Before doing anything in a viewport, notice that the parameters of the circle appear in the Command Panel. Click Rendering to bring up the Rendering Command Rollout, as shown in Figure 10-1. Figure 10-1: The Rendering commands in the Command Panel for all splines. Notice that Figure 10-1 shows Renderable, Generate Mapping Coordinates, and Display Render Mesh as checked. Also, the Thickness value adds an observable thickness to the selected spline — and the higher the Sides value, the smoother the object. You can use these values as defaults when transforming a spline into a 3D object. Try different thickness values to create a wide variety of 3D objects based on splines of different shapes. This greatly expands your ability to create unique 3D objects quickly.  Remember  The chan The Renderable 3D Helical SplineSounds like a good title for a fairy tale, doesn’t it? (“Once upon a time there was a small village of splines that wanted to be rendered. . . .”) The Helix is a unique spline in 3ds max because it exists in 3D rather than 2D space. Rendering a helical spline with a suitable thickness value (a value best for you to explore) is one of the best ways to create springlike 3D objects, as shown in Figure 10-2. Figure 10-2: By making a helix renderable, you can create a wide range of springlike objects quickly. To explore the creation of diverse helical springs, use different values for the number of turns, try out different Renderable Thicknesses, and imagine how big the pogo stick would have to be for each one (well, okay, that last one’s optional). Cloning Splines Any spline can be cloned, regardless of whether it is renderable. The same cloning rules apply to a 2D spline as to a 3D object. A spline has a Pivot Point that can be moved and/or rotated as a reference for the cloning process. Shift/moving a selected spline will initiate the cloning operation, just as with a 3D object, by bringing up the familiar Clone Options or Mirror: World Coordinates panels. Figure 10-3 shows one example. Figure 10-3: Here is an interesting object that began as a renderable helix. In Figure 10-3 the Pivot Point was moved to the very top end of the coils; then a mirrored clone was created on the XY axis. Notice how the two helical springs mirror each other; the coils twist in opposite directions. Although you may want to clone some nonrenderable splines in a scene as you create a series of 2D shapes, you’re likely to have more fun tinkering up complex 3D objects by cloning renderable splines. The basic secret of this technique is to pay attention Extruding 2D Shapes In 3ds max, extrusion — in effect, pulling one shape out of another — is one of the three most common ways to create a 3D object from a 2D shape or spline. (Another is lathing, which I cover in the next section.) Extrusion involves dragging a 2D shape along a line perpendicular to the plane of the 2D shape. Imagine a circle. Now envision a line of a fixed length, starting at the center of the circle and perpendicular to the plane of the circle. Extruding the circle along that line would create a cylinder. In effect, a cylinder is an extruded circle; in this case, the perpendicular line is the axis of extrusion. (In some cases it’s called a path, but that’s another story.) Most extrusions take place with the Pivot Point of the shape left at its default position. The Extrude operation is activated by selecting either Modifiers> Mesh Editing>Extrude from the Main Menu, or by clicking the Extrude tool in the Extrude Modifier under the Modeling tab on the Tab Panel. Usin Spinning ’til You’re Dizzy If you’ve ever visited a woodworker’s shop, you’ve seen a lathe — the machine that spins a piece of wood so it can be smoothed and symmetrically carved while spinning. 3ds max provides a virtual equivalent: the Lathe function. Lathing a 2D spline (whether open or closed) creates 3D objects known as objects of revolution (and no, it has nothing to do with radical politics). The three most important parameters in the creation of a lathed object are the placement of the 2D spline’s Pivot Point, the reference axis, and the degrees of revolution value. The Lathe function can be accessed from the Main menu (choose Modifiers>Patch/Spline Editing>Lathe) or by clicking the Lathe icon in the Tabs Panel under the Modeling tab. Accessing the Lathe function reveals its settings in the Modify Command Panel, as shown in Figure 10-8. Figure 10-8: The Lathe settings in the Modify Command Panel. Lathing open shapes This is how to proceed when using the lathing operation to cre Chapter 11: Getting Hitched: Grouping Objects In This Chapter Creating Grouped objects Linking objects Generating Attached objects If you are a member of a group (an organization, an ensemble, a tribe, a family), you realize that certain circumstances demand that you surrender a degree of your freedom and individuality for the sake of the whole. As Mr. Spock said in one of the Star Trek movies, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.” Certain actions of the group pull you along with it. On the other hand, there are some types of groups that allow you to maintain your own personality, to a lesser or greater degree. In 3ds max, selected objects can participate in several grouping alternatives — each defined by the freedom (or lack of it) given to single members of the group. In Chapter 6, I detail the method of combining multiple objects into a single object through Boolean Union. Several other ways exist for reinforcing a bond between objects in a 3ds max scene. Knowing wh Chapter 11: Getting Hitched: Grouping Objects In This Chapter Using Grouping and UngroupingThe Group function in 3ds max attaches all selected members so they form one unit — in effect, one object. When you gather objects together by using the Group function, they lose the freedom to be treated as individual objects. This situation may seem undemocratic, but in this case, there’s an advantage: The numerous selected items within the group can be gathered into one unified object — functioning like one model with multicolored parts. All grouping options are contained and accessed in the Group menu on the menu bar. The options include: Group/Ungroup, Open/Close, Attach/Detach, and Explode. (Group is the only option available before a Group is actually created.) To create a group, follow these steps: In any viewport, use the Select/Move tool to click and drag a marquee around all items you want in the group. Release the mouse button when all items are selected. If you missed an item, simply hold down the Shift key while you click it. Click the Group m Linked HierarchiesLinking is a way of grouping objects so they form a hierarchical chain of parent and child members. Each member of the hierarchy has the freedom to move, rotate, and be scaled — but if you transform the chain that a member is linked to, you also transform the member’s movement, rotation, and scaling. The linkage works much like that of the human arm. You can regard your arm as a whole unit or as a series of linked parts: Your shoulder is linked to your torso; your upper arm is linked to your shoulder. Your forearm is linked to your upper arm; each hand is linked to each forearm. The digits of your fingers are linked in a chain, and each of the finger chains is linked to your hand. You can move any one of your fingers without moving your hand, but when your hand moves, it takes your fingers along with it. Your hand is the parent of your fingers, and your fingers are the children of your hand. Thus, in 3ds max terms, your upper arm is the parent of your forearm, which i Forming Attachments There is a vintage science fiction book written by Peter Lindsay called Voyage to Arcturus. In the story, the hero hugs other characters and completely absorbs them into his own body. In a sense, this is what you do when you perform a Boolean Union on objects, melding them together. There is another process that you can use in 3ds max to blend objects together, and it will allow you to get formally acquainted to a vital object modification alternative: the Edit Mesh Modifier. The Edit Mesh Modifier Okay, formal introductions first: “Edit Mesh Modifier, this is (insert your name here).” The Edit Mesh Modifier allows you to get down to the polygon level of a model to create modified forms. The quickest way to locate the Edit Mesh Modifier is to find its icon on the Tab Panel. Selecting this modification tool after selecting an object in any viewport will bring up the Edit Mesh Modifier Command Panel rollout. See Figure 11-6. Figure 11-6: The Command Panel for the Edit Chapter 12: Vital Modifier Magic In This Chapter Locating the Modifiers Using the Modifiers Command Panel Managing the Modifier List Choosing and using Specific Modifiers This chapter covers the uses of a series of important Modifiers. Although it would take several books to cover all the Modifiers contained in 3ds max (not to mention those you can add from external developers), this chapter guides you through the application of a series of the most common Modifiers. When you discover the principles involved in selecting and applying these Modifiers, you can figure out any of the additional Modifiers you may run across quickly. Nothing bores a viewer more than knowing exactly what options were used to create a model; this instant recognition robs the graphic or animation of its believability. By using a Modifier to contort and distort the object’s geometry, whether grossly or subtly, you add a certain amount of mystery to your model. Nothing compliments a 3D artist/animator more than a Chapter 12: Vital Modifier Magic In This Chapter Uncovering ModifiersAlthough Modifiers can be used to customize the geometry of any object or model, they are especially useful when you build a model from Standard or Extended Primitives. Primitive objects have some degree of variability through the manipulation of their parameters in the Command Panel, some more than others. Even with that possibility, however, the basic Primitive forms remain pretty much the same, and are easily identifiable. You can access the Modifiers in three ways. Choosing Modifiers from the menu bar. The benefit of using the menu bar is that Modifiers are grouped in different categories. Most of the Modifiers I talk about in this chapter are included under parametric deformers, as shown in Figure 12-1. Figure 12-1: Access the Modifier you need by selecting it from the Modifiers menu. Clicking the Modifiers icon in the Tab Panel on the Modifiers tab. Selecting it from the Modifiers list in the Command Panel under the Modify icon. This method is convenient when Applying Modifier PresetsModifiers remain ghosted out and unselectable until you have an object or model targeted in a scene. You’ll probably find that you gravitate towards one of the three Modifier selection methods more than the other two. I enjoy using the Modifier icons in the Tab Panel most. Most Modifiers can be applied to any of the following: Any object/model that has a polygonal mesh or Patch surface (a Patch surface is defined by three-sided polygons). Multiple-selected objects with polygonal surface attributes. Grouped objects. Please remember that Modifiers reference the Pivot Point of singular, multiple, or Grouped objects. Any Instanced Clone source object. The Modifier effect is applied to all Instanced Clones in the chain if either the source or any clone is modified. Any Referenced clone in a cloned chain, without being applied to any other clone in the chain or to the source object. A gaggle of Modifiers These are the most common Modifiers applied to entire polygon m Creating Models with ModifiersBelieve it or not, the purpose of using Modifiers (beside having great belly-laughing fun, of course) is to create 3D models. Create an object (for example, place a Primitive in a viewport). Apply a Modifier with settings that do what you want done to the object. Rotate the resulting form as needed. Move the Pivot Point as needed. Apply other Modifiers as desired. Clone to create an army of objects or Mirror Clone to create a symmetrical second half for your existing object. Repeat this process to your heart’s content. A couple of examples show how easy the process can be, even for a fairly complex model. Horns If you’ve always wanted your own virtual Viking helmet, here’s how to create some great 3D horns. Place a Cone Primitive in the Top Viewport. Apply a Bend Modifier on the Z-axis at 90 degrees. Rotate the resulting form so its base is vertical instead of horizontal. With the Pivot Point at the center, twist the form 90 degrees on its X axis. Mirror C Chapter 13: Modifying Sub-Objects In This Chapter Selecting vertices Selecting polygonal edges Selecting polygons Using the editable Mesh commands Using the editable Polygon modifications Using editable Patch modifications Cloning sub-object selections Using standard Modifiers on sub-object selections Sub-objects are nothing more than parts of an object’s polygon mesh (or patch, or parts of a NURBS model, which I detail in Chapter 14). To put it simply, sub-objects are the polygons that make up the objects and the polygon parts (face, edge, and/or vertex). Your nose can be considered a sub-object of your head, so the next time your nose itches, tell people you need to scratch your sub-object and watch their expressions! I talk about sub-objects in detail in Chapter 13. In this chapter, I cover how to select sub-objects for modification and what happens when you apply specific Modifiers to them. Chapter 13: Modifying Sub-Objects In This Chapter The Mesh Select ModifierThe Mesh Select Modifier has everything you need to select sub-objects on any targeted mesh. The easiest way to activate the Mesh Select Modifier is by clicking its icon in the Tab Panel. You must already have a targeted object in the scene to use this Modifier, otherwise it will be grayed out. When selected, the Mesh Select Command Panel opens, as shown in Figure 13-1. Figure 13-1: The Command Panel for the Mesh Select Modifier. The row across the top of the Mesh Select Modifier’s Command Panel displays five icons. Hovering your mouse pointer over them reveals them — (from left to right) Vertex, Edge, Face, Polygon, and Element. These five sub-object types determine what your sub-object will be composed of. I describe them in detail in the following sections. Vertex points Vertex Points are the points where two polygon edges meet. When you click Vertex Points, your entire object’s vertex points are displayed. To select specific points from the matrix, either cl Editable Mesh ModificationsWhy is the Editable Mesh Command Panel so important? Because it contains both sub-object options and a bunch of its own Modifiers to work on the SubSelected geometry. Place any object on the screen. I used a 12 x 12 segmented Plane in Figure 13-4. Figure 13-4: Convert to Editable Mesh from the menu that appears. Right-click the object in any viewport. A menu appears. Choose Convert To>Convert To Editable Mesh. The Editable Mesh Command Panel appears, shown in Figure 13-5, the top portion looking similar to the Mesh Select Command Panel. Figure 13-5: The Editable Mesh Command Panel. Click the Edit Geometry button. Edit Geometry commands and parameters appear. Important Edit Geometry Modifiers The Edit Geometry Modifiers and commands can be a useful way to quickly modify selected objects to create your own unique models. The Edit Geometry Modifiers are used on selected sub-object parts of the targeted object or model. Create Left-click Create to activate it. Cr Editable Polygon ModificationsIf you right-click a model in any viewport and choose Convert To>Convert to Editable Poly, another collection of geometry Modifiers appears in the Command Panel. Check out these Modifiers. The three jewels Many Modifiers are available in the Editable Polygon Command Panel. They all do their work after you have selected sub-object data from your targeted object in a viewport. Many of these Modifiers are the same ones listed previously for Editable Mesh modification — but three stand out as uniquely useful modeling tools: Flip, Collapse, and Make Planar. Flip: This command works on the Normals of the sub-object selections you choose. As detailed in Chapter 2, every polygon has a Normal — an imaginary line perpendicular to the center of its surface. Triangular Polygons have a Normal that cannot be twisted out of the plane of the polygon. When the Normals face outward from the object, those polygons are visible. When a polygon’s Normals are reversed so they fa Editable Patch Modifiers A Patch object is made up of triangular polygons. If you right-click a model or object and choose Convert To>Convert To Editable Patch, the object is transformed into a Patch object. Editing a Patch object leads to somewhat smoother results than you’d get if the same object were an Editable Mesh or an Editable Polygon type. The Editable Patch Command Panel offers much the same command options as the Editable Mesh or Editable Polygon types, so getting handy with any one of these three environments prepares you for working in the other two. Cloning Sub-Object SelectionsIf you engage in a Shift-Move operation on the sub-object selection of an Editable Patch, the cloned copy of the sub-object selection will be a Surface Patch (see Figure 13-9). Patch Surfaces are often created from larger objects and then attached together to form other models. The cloned surface will remain connected to the main object, unless and until you sub-object-select the main object and delete it. Figure 13-9: A sub-object selection, when cloned from a Patch Object, forms a separate Surface Patch. If you engage in a shift-move operation on the sub-objects of an Editable Polygon, the cloned copy is either Cloned to Object or Cloned to Element — options that you choose in a separate window that appears. If Cloned to Object, the cloned surface remains connected to the object. If Cloned to Element, it becomes a separate object on its own. The same is true for any Editable Mesh object and sub-object selections you may have cloned. Using Standard Modifiers on Sub-Object Selections You can use any of the Modifiers detailed in Chapter 12 on sub-object selections, as well as on entire objects. Three factors determine the results you get: the Modifier you select, the geometry of the sub-object selection, and the geometry of the original target object. To use a Modifier on a sub-object, follow these general steps: Create or select an object. Convert the object to an editable form. Sub-object-select the part of the object you want to fine-tune. Select a Modifier to use on the part you’ve selected. Tweak the Modifier’s settings to suit. Apply the Modifier to the sub-object. Here are some examples: To get the column shown in Figure 13-10, you’d start by creating a tall Cylinder Primitive in the Top Viewport. Then all you have to do is convert to an Editable Mesh, sub-object-select the top part of the Cylinder, and Tessellate once to create a denser poly mesh. To finish up, you’d apply a Taper Modifier with Amount = 3, Sy Chapter 14: Invasion of the NURBS In This Chapter Creating and modifying NURBS curves Transforming polygonal objects to NURBS models Working with NURBS surfaces Using Modifiers on NURBS This chapter introduces NURBS modeling. What are NURBS anyway, besides something with a strange name? If you answered Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (as a guess), you get the prize. Working with NURBS is truly like working with clay to build models. Be warned however; 3D artists either love NURBS or hate them. You should at least know about them and how they can be used. Working with NURBS requires a different thought process and a bit more manual dexterity than working with polygons. Many 3D artists prefer NURBS as a modeling method for creating organic-looking characters; the models tend to display smooth curved surfaces. In this chapter, I give you the framework to start working with NURBS. Beyond that, you can research the topic on your own as deeply as you want (and I’d suggest picking the brains o Chapter 14: Invasion of the NURBS In This Chapter Creating NURBS CurvesCreating a NURBS Curve is usually the first step in creating a NURBS object. Choose Create>Shapes>NURBS Curves. The NURBS Curves Command Panel appears, as shown in Figure 14-1. As you can see in Figure 14-1, you can create a NURBS Curve in two ways: Point Curve: This is a spline that passes through the points placed down. CV (Control Vertex) Curve: This control curve is meant to alter the geometry of the NURBS object it relates to. CV points can have the capability of affecting the associated NURBS object. Figure 14-1: The Command Panel for creating a NURBS curve. Checking AutoGrid By checking AutoGrid, you can draw a NURBS Curve that adheres to the surface of any selected 3D object. This can be useful for creating patches that follow the curve of another object’s surface (for example, a mask that fits a 3D head perfectly). Drawing a curve by Draw in All Viewports Draw in All Viewports is a special 3ds max command that can be activated for all splines. Checking it Turning a NURBS Point Curve into a 3D ObjectNURBS Point Curves are basic to the creation of 3D objects, because by adjusting the points, you shape new curves. Access NURBS Point Curves in the Modify Command Panel under Create Surfaces. Create surfaces After you create a 2D or 3D NURBS Point Curve, you may want to use it as a basis for creating a NURBS 3D object. Doing that requires some specific tools. With your Point Curve object selected, open the Modify Command Panel, and move down to the Create Surfaces options. As you can see in Figure 14-3, some familiar modification options are listed. Figure 14-3: The NURBS Point Curve Create Surfaces options in the Command Panel.  Remember  Of all the Create Surface options, please pay special attention to two old friends — Extrude and Lathe. If you’re asking, “Why not use the standard Extrude and Lathe Modifiers instead?” (and some of you were asking), the answer is practical: Using the commands in the Create Surfaces Command Panel keeps the Transforming a Primitive to a NURBS Model In my humble opinion, NURBS modeling is best used to modify an object that starts out as a polygonal mesh. Polygonal objects are easier to create initially to get the basic form. You can then use NURBS CV editing to add smoother details to the object. Follow these steps: Choose Create>Geometry>Standard Primitives, and create a sphere in the Top Viewport. With the sphere still selected, choose the Modify Command panel. Right-click the sphere at the top of the Modify Command Panel. Choose Convert to NURBS from the menu that appears. Your sphere is now a NURBS model, and it no longer shows any polygons, but just a few surrounding splines, as shown in Figure 14-5. Figure 14-5: The NURBS sphere looks naked without its polygons. Left-click the NURBS Surface name in the Modifier list. It changes from gray to yellow, and a whole new list of options opens in the Command Panel. Look at the viewports to see the NURBS sphere with its CV points displayed, a NURBS SurfacesA NURBS Surface is initially a gridded plane with no thickness. You can create a NURBS Surface by choosing Create>Geometry>NURBS Surfaces. Then choose either Point Surface or CV Surface. You can alter a NURBS Surface after creating it by applying any of the standard Modifiers. (Applying a Spherify Modifier, for example, transforms the rectangular surface into a circular surface.) Before you apply standard Modifiers to a NURBS Surface, right-click the surface and choose Sub-Objects>Top Level from the menu that appears. After you create a NURBS Surface, open the Modify Command Panel and click the NURBS Surface title to highlight it. The Command Panel modifications options appear. Right-click the NURBS Surface in any viewport and then choose Sub-Objects>Point. All the NURBS points on the Surface object are revealed. You can use the Select and Move tool to reposition any surface points, which in turn reshapes the surface itself.  Warning  Don’t move NURBS points or Control Ve The NURBS Toolbox PanelWhen you create a NURBS Surface and then move to the Modify Panel (without highlighting the NURBS Surface heading), the Command Panel Rollout displays a small button that resembles a grid. This is the on/off toggle for the NURBS Toolbox Panel. You can find it under the General heading, to the right of the Display Options, as shown in Figure 14-8. Figure 14-8: The small icon on the right is the toggle that activates the NURBS Toolbox Panel. Clicking this icon places the NURBS Toolbox Panel on the screen, as shown in Figure 14-9. Figure 14-9: The NURBS Toolbox Panel. If you plan to do a lot of NURBS modeling in 3ds max, you’ll find the tools in this panel absolutely essential. You can apply most NURBS modifications from here. All the tools contained in this toolbox are dedicated to modifying the presently selected NURBS Surface or NURBS 3D model. The three groups of tools represented in this panel are grouped according to Points, Curves, and Surfaces. I cover them Part IV: Trees of Fur and Fish of Wood Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 15: Living in the Material World In This Chapter Locating and applying Materials presets Using your own textures Filling the Materials channels You are sitting on a chair in a dimly lit room. Besides you and the chair, the only other objects in the room are a table and a sphere sitting on the table. You can make out the silhouette of the sphere, but not much else. Your curiosity starts to annoy you, so you get up to investigate the sphere, to touch it, perhaps to pick it up. When we can’t see what an object is made of, our next impulse is to touch it, to move it in some way. We depend a lot on our eyes for information about the world, so when the circumstances are such that our vision is inadequate, we shift to other senses. Back to the sphere. Just as you are about to try to budge it so you can get some sense of what it is made of, the bright lights come on. You notice how the lights are reflecting off of the surface of the sphere, and your mind immediately identifies the sphe Chapter 15: Living in the Material World In This Chapter Creating Interesting Textures for Objects A preset material is to a texture what a Primitive is to a 3D model in 3ds max. Just as a Primitive can be used as a jumping off place to create more complex models, or as a model all on its own, a preset material can be used either as the foundation for creating a more complex texture or as it is. Using a preset material is the simplest way to create a texture for your 3ds max objects. Navigating the Material Editor The easiest way to access the Material Editor is by clicking its icon under the Rendering tab in the Tab Panel. (It’s the fifth icon from the right, the one that looks like four spheres in a rectangular array.) Clicking the Material Editor icon after you have placed a model (which could be a Primitive) in your scene brings up the Material Editor Panel, shown in Figure 15-1. Figure 15-1: The Material Editor Panel. The six spheres you see at the top of the panel are all gray by default. Each represents a possible material that can be Using Your Own TexturesAlthough the terms are used somewhat interchangeably, materials and textures also refer to two different ways of creating a “look” for your 3ds max objects. Materials can be composed of different kinds of components, some generated from mathematical formulas (called procedurals) and some based upon bitmapped images or pictures, the types of images you find on a CD collection or the ones you take with a digital still camera. The bitmapped images are what we normally call textures (or in 3ds max, maps) — image data based on photographic or digitally painted information. Many material presets have both procedural and textural information embedded in them. Applying Ambient, Diffuse, and Specular texture and other preset content Follow these steps to explore a preset operation: Place an object in your scene and open the Material Editor. Select a Phong Material type, and go down to the settings under Phong Basic Parameters. In the boxed area that contains the Ambient, Channeling Your Thoughts Computer graphics people look at the world differently than other folks, especially when it comes to textures. Where the normal person might describe the apple’s texture as simply red and smooth, the computer graphics person needs other data as well to create a replica of the apple’s texture on the computer. All this separate information is collected into individual parts called channels. Each channel holds specific information concerning the textural/material components of any object. The channels that describe an object’s texture can be separated into the following channel types in 3ds max: Ambient, Diffuse, Specular, Glossiness, Self-Illumination, Opacity, Filter, Bump, Reflection, Refraction, and Displacement. In other 3D software, the exact name and quantity of the channels may differ somewhat, but generally these are industry standard channel type terms. Filling channels with texture content Just as the Ambient, Diffuse, and Specular channels can take on Chapter 16: Using Composite Textures In This Chapter Locating and applying the mapping types Determining the mapping axis Marrying bitmaps and procedural components It makes sense that the more interesting and unique your computer graphics, the more you’ll please your audience — and the more time they’ll spend focusing on what you do and singing your praises from the mountaintop. In 3D graphics and animation, the terms “interesting” and “unique” can refer to many aspects of a project. For example, the overall theme and subject matter automatically draws a crowd that enjoys that theme, but that alone isn’t enough. Consider a science fiction theme. How many bad sci-fi movies have you seen? There are a lot out there, and most of them are full of computer graphics and animation . . . done badly, and in most cases, copied from someone else. With respect to computer graphics and animation, a good presentation deserves a well-crafted story line, interesting and unique 3D models, dazzling effe Chapter 16: Using Composite Textures In This Chapter The Mapping Types Pretend you have a job in a store’s gift-wrapping department. Customers bring you all sorts of items to gift-wrap. As long as you can place the items in a box, the wrapping process is a snap. But what if you run out of boxes, and the paper wrapping has to be applied to the item itself? That can be more of a problem. If the item takes up a cubic space, it’ll be easy; it’s as with wrapping an item in a box (given that you may have to make allowances for anything that protrudes from the item). Problems arise when the items to be wrapped are not cubic at all. If someone brings you a beach ball, for instance, you have to gather and bunch the wrapping at two of the poles of the ball to wrap it securely. If the item is a cylindrical tin of candy, wrapping the sides is easy enough, but you’ll have to account for the two ends. If someone purchases a model of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, a tetrahedral form, then other problems crop up. When you apply textures to 3D objects in a Marrying Bitmaps and ProceduralsOne more option in the UVW Map Modifiers Command Panel is worth a closer look — the Map Channel number. Think of a Mapping Channel as one item in a sandwich, like a piece of ham or some Swiss cheese. Just as you can add as many ingredients to a sandwich as needed to satisfy your appetite, so you can have as many Mapping Channels as needed to create a composite material.  Tip  If you are an Adobe Photoshop user, you can equate a Mapping Channel with a Layer, knowing that image data on separate Layers in Photoshop is what creates a final, composited image. To give a Mapping Channel a specific identification number, you must first apply a texture (bitmap or procedural) to a 3D object. When you do that, the Coordinates Rollout opens in the Material Editor, as shown in Figure 16-4. Figure 16-4: The Coordinates Rollout opens up in the Material Editor. By default, Mapping is set to Explicit Map Channel. Next to Map Channel is an input area that enables you to n Chapter 17: Backdrops and Backgrounds In This Chapter Creating color and material backdrops and backgrounds Using bitmap image backgrounds Using a movie file as a background Sometimes the only actor on your 3ds max stage may be a single 3D model, with no surrounding objects to support its placement. This could happen if the model is a revolving space station or a lone flying bird. If you were to use the singular model in a story sequence without anything else in the environment, the model would look awfully lonely. Even if you did nothing more than use an interesting color against which the model was placed, that would be better than a black or white backdrop. In the case of a space station, you’d probably want to place it against a star populated section of the cosmos. In the case of the bird, it might look more believable if placed against a cloudy sky, or even an aerial view of a landscape. Backdrops and backgrounds can add to or detract from the overall impact of a 3D scene. Most t Chapter 17: Backdrops and Backgrounds In This Chapter Creating a Glorious Backdrop Your main actor or central 3D model needs some supporting elements against which to perform. If your main actor is a wooden mannequin for instance, it may be appreciated more if placed on a terrain with a sky in the distance, or on a floor in a room that has other artifacts. Sometimes, a simple color or a gradient of hues is enough to tell a part of the story, or perhaps a wallpaper-like pattern. It all depends on the story you’re telling — and the scene from that story being presented. Severe close-ups of your main actor may look best if the background is simple; views from farther off may benefit if you can see exactly what other elements exist in the actor’s environment. Selecting the right background is vital when you want to tell a visual story. Using color hues as backgrounds The simplest background is a single color hue. Color is also perceived as emotion by the human eye — reds indicate a more active sensibility and blues denote a calmer situation. Using Bitmap Images as BackgroundsWhen you choose the Bitmap option in the Material/Map Browser, you can access any bitmap photographic or painted image you have on file, and use it as a background image. Using photographic images can lend credibility to a 3ds max scene. For instance, say you just modeled an alien spacecraft. Using an image that displayed the White House as the background would immediately tell a story, and the photographic background would make your 3D-modeled alien ship look all the more believable, as shown in Figure 17-6. Figure 17-6: Left: a basic flying saucer model. Right: the same model, placed against a photographic image of a cosmic sky taken through a telescope. To use any bitmap image as a background, follow these steps: Open the Material Editor. Open the Environment dialog box. Place them side by side. In the Environment dialog box, click the None button. Choose Browse from New in the Material/Map Browser. Choose Bitmap from the list and click OK. Find the Animated Bitmap BackgroundsAlthough Part VI of this book gives you the scoop on animation in 3ds max in detail, I considered it a good idea to cover the use of animated backgrounds here; we are dealing with all sorts of different backgrounds. An animated background is essentially a movie within a movie. In Hollywood, an animated sequence is sometimes used as a backdrop for a live scene. For instance, this happens often when the camera focuses upon actors speaking in the front seat of a moving vehicle. The moving images that depict the street whizzing by are often a separate movie projected on the backdrop. In 3ds max, you can create animated backgrounds just as they do in the movies. (In fact, many filmmakers use 3ds max for just this purpose.) Using animations as backgrounds Although animation techniques and rendering procedures get a closer look elsewhere in the book (see Parts VI and VIII, respectively), you can use an animation for a background — it’s as simple as using a single im Part V: Lights, Cameras, Action! Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 18: Lights In This Chapter Placing and configuring lights in a scene Working with Standard and Photometric lights Creating sunlight effects 3ds max has some great light and shadow features, which, if used correctly, can do far more than just make objects visible. Lighting adds drama and makes the scene more interesting to the viewer. Think of all the great movies you’ve seen that use light and shadow so effectively (like Citizen Kane), and maybe some other not-so-great movies. I bet lighting played a major role in all of them. Lights and shadows have to be considered as carefully as you might think about the form of a 3D model, its texture, or the background elements in a scene. Just settling for a non-descript light cheats the viewer’s sense of the underlying parts of a story, be it a major film or a short 3D animation. Lighting applied in the wrong way can make everything in a scene look pasty and bland. Lighting applied in the right way, especially in a 3D computer-animated Chapter 18: Lights In This Chapter Placing and Configuring Lights on the SceneIn some ways, the virtual world follows common sense no less than the real world. For example, you have to create content for a scene before you can apply light to it. You can find lights easiest by choosing Create>Lights from the Command Panel. You can also click the Lights icon (third from the left) under the Create tab. Two lights lists appear in the Lights Command Panel rollout — Standard and Photometric — as shown in Figure 18-1. Figure 18-1: The Standard lights and Photometric lights rollouts in the Command Panel. The Standard lights consist of Target Spot, Target Direct, Omni, Free Spot, Free Direct, and Skylight. The Photometric lights are Target Point, Target Linear, Target Area, IES Sun, Free Point, Free Linear, Free Area, and IES Sky. Create a rectangular slab to act as a tabletop, and lathe an object to place on it. Figure 18-2 shows one possibility. Figure 18-2: Create a rectangular slab for a tabletop, and create a lathed object She Lights Me, She Lights Me Not . . . Selecting and placing the right type of lights can make all the difference in the world when it comes to presenting your best images and animations to your audience. Already having gone through the basic process for light placement, it’s time to take a look at each of the Standard and Photometric light types to see how they differ. The Standard lights The Standard lights are Target Spot, Target Direct, Omni, Free Spot, Free Direct, and Skylight. They can be accessed in the Command Panel by going to Create>Lights>Standard. Here’s what they offer you: Target Spot: You place the Target Spot by a click-and-drag movement, using the left mouse button. The click places the position of the light, and the drag movement enables you to place the position of the target. Both the light position and the target position can be moved with the Select and Move tool. The cone of the Target Spot can be either circular (the default) or Rectangular. Use the Rectangular Chapter 19: Cameras In This Chapter Creating a camera Using multiple cameras Adjusting a camera’s settings Every viewport in 3ds max represents a window into your 3D world. A Camera object is a window you can move around at will, while adjusting the scope of what you see through it. A camera also represents your eye. Just as your vision adjusts to your environment, so, too, can you tweak a 3ds max camera to frame what you look at. Your eyes work together to give you a sense of the 3D depth of the world you look at, but just one 3ds max camera is quite capable of providing you with a 3D appreciation of the virtual world all by itself. Chapter 19: Cameras In This Chapter Creating New CamerasTo create a new camera, choose Create>Cameras, and choose a Camera Type. Two camera types exist — target and free, which I cover in the following sections. Cameras are created so they point perpendicular to the viewport they are created in, so the Front Viewport is the most common place to create a camera. Click and drag to create a Target Camera’s Camera and Target, and just click to create a Free Camera. You can reposition and rotate a camera in any viewport after you create it, and you can name a camera anything you want. The Target Camera The Target Camera offers you the best opportunity for fine-tuning settings to get exactly the image you want. You create a target camera by clicking and dragging the mouse. Clicking sets the position of the Camera in whatever viewport you’re using, and dragging enables you to place the target exactly where you want the camera to point. You can reposition and/or rotate either or both the camera and its target point afterward if Setting Up a Camera ViewportUntil you tell 3ds max to look through the camera at your scene, the camera is just another object. You have to set up a Camera Viewport to see what your camera is pointed at. “Just how do you do that?” you ask with a nervous shrug. Here’s how: Place a new camera in a scene. Name it whatever you like, or just accept the default name (Camera_01). Make the Perspective Viewport active by left-clicking in it. Right-clicking changes the active viewport while maintaining the current selection, this way the camera stays selected for further editing if needed. You can transform any viewport into a Camera Viewport, though the most common choice is the Perspective Viewport. Right-click the name of the Perspective Viewport (in the upper-left corner of the viewport). The Camera menu pops up. Choose Views, and then choose the name of your camera. What was the Perspective Viewport becomes a Camera Viewport, as shown in Figure 19-1. What you see there corresponds exactly t Positioning and Configuring Multiple Cameras You’re not limited to having just one camera in a scene, but can place as many as you need. Think of a major motion picture set, or even a TV broadcast studio. In most cases, at least three cameras are used at the same time. The director sits at a console, telling the camera operators to switch to one camera or the other. That way, each separate camera can be used for its own purpose — close-ups, side shots, or zooms — after which the stored frames can be edited together to form the finished piece. You can use your 3ds max cameras in the same manner. If you had three cameras, for example, you could use three separate viewports to see what each one was targeting, just like a director sitting at a multiscreen console.  Tip  If you plan to use more than one camera in a scene, make sure each one offers a different view. One can be used for establishment shots (wide angle shots that take in everything in the scene), another for a close-in zoom, a Adjusting a Camera’s SettingsCamera settings can be adjusted in the camera’s Modify Command Panel. You always have to make at least some minor adjustments, beyond positioning and rotating it, before you get a camera to do what you want it to do. All cameras are saved with a scene, so you don’t have to worry about having to tweak them all over again after you set them. Using Command-Panel Camera controls Two groups of camera controls are available in the Command Panel: General Parameter controls (just called Parameters) and Depth of Field Parameter controls. Parameters Under the Parameter rollout in the Camera Modify Command Panel, you can adjust the following (see Figure 19-2): Figure 19-2: The Parameters rollout in the Camera’s Modify Command Panel. Lens: Cameras capture images through a lens. Lenses come in a variety of sizes, named according to their millimeter aperture. In the Parameter rollout, you can enter the millimeter size manually in the space provided, or choose one of the The Miner’s Helmet  Tip  If you create a light (Omni or Target Spot), place it just above your camera facing the same direction as the camera, and then link the light to your camera, you can ensure that no matter where you move your camera relative to the objects in your scene, those objects will be well lit. Part VI: Animation at Its Best Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 20: Making Friends with the Timeline In This Chapter Using the Track Bar controls Creating keyframes Editing keyframes Creating keyframe animations Movement is the primary seduction of the eye. When we see something move, even in our peripheral vision, our archaic senses kick in. Is that something to eat? Is that something about to eat me? Friend or foe, meal or predator, we immediately ask ourselves what the movement is all about. Science tells us that the most primitive eye spots an organism can possess are devoted to sensing movement about image, color, or anything else. Because of this, we still harbor the suspicion that anything that moves is alive. The swaying branches of a tree in the wind, a bouncing ball, the movement of waves on the sea, some part of us, an old part, believes that anything animated possesses a form of consciousness. This is exactly what Disney and the rest of the early animators realized, and took advantage of. Intellectually, the audience may know th Chapter 20: Making Friends with the Timeline In This Chapter I Was Framed!An animation is composed of a series of single images, called frames, played back at a set speed so your eye interprets them as movement. Each frame may display an object at a different position, scale, rotation, or other transformation. The speed of the playback is counted in Frames Per Second (FPS). After you determine the FPS value, the finished rendered size, the file format to be used, and a folder on your computer where the animation will be stored, the movie file can be rendered. Rendering animations/movies is covered in Chapter 26. The Track Bar The Track Bar is the long horizontal display that covers most of the bottom of the 3ds max interface, as shown in Figure 20-1. Figure 20-1: The Track Bar. If you don’t see the Track Bar, go to Customize>Show UI>Track Bar. The Ruler on the Track Bar ranges from 0 to 100 by default; 3ds max is set up initially for a 100-frame animation. Above the Ruler is a slider that can be moved horizontally, with a readout that tells you Revving Up the Time MachineBefore you create animation, start with the obvious: Add some objects to a scene. Start (for example) by adding a Standard Sphere in any viewport. Then click Zoom Extents All to center the sphere in all viewports. The Data Readout Below the Ruler in the Track Bar is a readout that displays the Position, Rotation Angle, or Scale of the selected object in a scene. The information it displays depends on the Transformation tool you have selected: Move, Rotate, or Scale, as shown in Figure 20-3. Figure 20-3: The Data Readout area following the Track Bar. Under non-animation circumstances, this is a useful display. When you are animating, it can be a vital helper. Why? Because it not only responds to your activities in a viewport, it also commands those activities. If you have selected the Scale tool for instance, you can alter the scale of the selected object on any of its axes by simply typing in a new value in the proper axis box in the Data Readout area. This g Making Post-Production ChangesIf you plan to create a long animation — one that runs for minutes rather than seconds — create shorter animations that represent separate scenes in the story. Use some different camera angles in alternate scenes to create a more interesting look. Always create your longer animations in parts. That way you can stitch the parts together in post-production software such as Discreet Combustion, Adobe AfterEffects, or Adobe Premiere. Chapter 21: Path Animations In This Chapter Creating path animations Creating combined keyframe/path animations Animating lights Animating the camera In keyframe animation, the movement of a selected object results in a path that the object will take through 3D space. The path can be simple, like a straight line, or complex, like a skater’s figure eight curve. In path animation, you create the path first, and then assign an object to it. Chapter 21: Path Animations In This Chapter Object/Path AnimatingIn 3ds max, the object that every other 3D software developer calls a path is named a trajectory. The reason that max alters the name from path to trajectory is that max reserves the title path for a lofting path, part of the lofting modeling process. Too many developers think 3D users can’t handle walking and chewing gum at the same time, and that calling an animation path by the same title that dozens of other 3D software uses will confuse the max user. In this chapter, I use the terms path and trajectory interchangeably, with a preference for path because it’s the industry standard term. Creating Animation PathsIn path animation, the path is set up first. An animation path is nothing more than a 2D spline shape. You can access 2D spline shapes by choosing Create>Shapes>Spline, and then choosing one of the options from the Command Panel list. As detailed in Chapter 5, each of the Spline Shape options has its own extended parameter rollout where the shape you draw (in this case, an animation path) can be defined. The Line option, for example, can be sharp (angular) or smooth (rounded). The Star can have multiple points. The Rectangle can have a variable corner radius. Anything you do to an animation path affects the movement of the object that travels on that path. When an animation path is created in any viewport, you can move any of the control points on the animation path in any viewport. You do this by selecting the animation path and then choosing Modify>Object Space Modifier> Edit Spline. The easiest way to reshape an animation path is to choose the Vertex icon at Motion within Motion Chapter 20 focuses on keyframe animations in the same detail that this chapter looks at path animations. You can combine keyframing and path-animation techniques to create uniquely interesting effects. Using both path and keyframing elements There is nothing to prevent you from creating an animation that contains a keyframe-animated object moving on an animation path. In fact, this is the only solution to many animation challenges. For instance, if you have a spaceship that has to be spinning on its directional axis, while at the same time making its way around asteroids, you would use both a keyframed directional spin for the ship and attach the ship to a path through the asteroids. If you want a 3D actor to walk through a patch of woods to Grandma’s house, you would first keyframe-animate the various motions of the actor’s walk cycle, and then set the actor on an animation path through the woods. Keyframing the actor’s movements A zillion possible 3D objects coul Animating the CameraA camera is more than a point of view — it’s also an object. No less than any other object, it can be easily keyframe- and path-animated. The camera as actor Remember that in an animation, the camera is your eyes. Any actions it observes are actions you yourself feel that your eyes are witnessing. If the camera speeds through a scene or flies out a window, it is as if you had wings. If a camera peeks slowly around a corner to catch a glimpse of some monster, you will feel just a bit threatened. That’s the magic of movies, at least well done movies. We don’t feel like observers after a while, but react as if everything happening is quite personal. Attaching a camera to a path Cameras are attached to paths the same way that other objects are attached to paths — by using the Trajectories process. Here’s an example of a camera path animation. Create a concentric ring of Torus Primitives standing on end, like a tunnel with breaks in it. Create a splined circle to act as Chapter 22: Materials That Won’t Stand Still In This Chapter Creating Bump channel animations Creating Diffuse channel animations Creating Opacity channel animations Creating Displacement channel animations From the beginning of animated films in the late nineteenth century, artists soon realized the potential of the medium to visually show the bending and breaking of all accepted physical laws, blurring the distinction between reality and dream. Giving life, animated movement, to inanimate objects was the first step. The world was suddenly alive with singing rocks and trees, and characters that could do the impossible. With the advent of computer graphics in the 1960s, animators started to apply their skills to more photographic scenes, instead of relying on the cartoon drawing of the past 75 years. Suddenly, it became possible to blend animated content with real actors on the screen, astounding the audience even further, making every viewer question the boundaries of reality. Initial Chapter 22: Materials That Won’t Stand Still In This Chapter Movies in Movies in MoviesAltering the surface materials of an object in an animation enables the computer animator to create movies within movies. In effect, the camera remains focused on a target object as the object moves on its own path, and, the surface of the targeted object can be going through its own animated changes. One example of this might be a planet orbiting in space, with the camera tagging along. The surface of the planet might be configured to resemble boiling lava, and the lava could be in constant, chaotic movement. You can create this effect, and many others, easily in 3ds max, which is why 3ds max is used so often in the production of major Hollywood films. Figure 22-1: Channel Mapping controls under the Maps rollout in the Material Editor. Swimming the Channel Chapters 15 and 16 cover the methods of customizing the content in various Material Channels. You can find the Material Channel Mapping controls under the Maps rollout in the Material Editor, shown in Figure 22-1. Channel Mapping controls for all Channels — and for any selected Material — are there. Clicking in the box next to any Channel’s name activates that Channel for mapping configurations. Altering the value under Amount determines how strong that Channel mapping will affect the material. The next section offers a closer look at the qualities you can adjust for each Channel, pointing out how each Channel Map’s contents affect the Material involved. Material Channel mapping components The Material Channels offer various settings that adjust the appearance of any Material you apply to an on-screen object. These settings affect color (Ambient, Diffuse, Filter Color), the hot-spot (Specular Color and Level), the Material’s surface (Glossiness, Self-Illumination, Common Animated Channel MapsAlthough you can animate the content placed in any Material Channel, four channels are more commonly targets for animated Maps — Diffuse Color, Bump, Opacity, and Displacement Channels. Animating the Diffuse Color Channel The most common Material Channel to animate is the Diffuse Channel; it results in moving patterns or movie frames whose color is preserved on the surface of the object. It is even common to select an AVI movie as the Map content for the Diffuse Channel. Reducing the amount value following 100% will result in a faded effect on the object’s surface.  Remember  You can also animate the Diffuse Color Channel by using different colors on various keyframes, instead of using Map contents. This creates hues that blend into one another over time. Mapping a Movie to the Diffuse Color Channel Here’s how to Map a movie file to the Diffuse Color Channel of a Material. Place a cube primitive in the scene. Open up the Material Editor, and click an empty M Animated Channel SandwichesIf you plan to use a single-image Map in multiple Channels, you may consider creating a series of separate Map versions first. Use an image editor like Photoshop from Adobe. Create a color pattern for the Diffuse Channel, and save it. Then create a separate Map based on the Diffuse Channel Map for the Opacity Channel, but make it a black and white image. Use the black part of the image as places where there will be holes in the surface, and solid white areas of the Map for areas where there will be a solid opacity in the color pattern of the Diffuse Map. Create a separate Bump Map of the same image by first making a grayscale image from the color data. Then invert the grayscale tones, and blur it about three times. See Figures 22-5 through 22-7 for some examples. Figure 22-5: Map variations for the Diffuse, Opacity, and Bump Channels for a single Material. Figure 22-6: The three connected image maps applied to the Diffuse, Opacity, and Bump Channels of a Mate Part VII: f/x Are Us Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 23: Particle Physics In This Chapter Creating Spray particles Creating Snow particles Creating Blizzard particles Creating PArray particles Creating PCloud particles Creating Super Spray particles Mapping particles Modeling 3D objects is one thing, but how do you model a dynamic system like an explosion, a snowstorm, billowing smoke, or a spray of water? Creating a realistic dynamic system is as important as creating a polygonal model in a scene — and sometimes even more important. Dynamic-system modeling goes way beyond traditional paint-and-ink animation processes, offering a wealth of effects to create in a professional 3D graphics and animation system such as 3ds max. The key to modeling such effects is the control of a Particle System. Traditional animators have nothing even remotely similar to a Particle System to call upon, which is a big reason why film effects make such extensive use of computer graphics and animation. One timesaving way to create fire and explosion ef Chapter 23: Particle Physics In This Chapter Defining Particle Systems A particle, in 3ds max terms, is simply a point in space; a particle is not, by itself, a 3D object. Although particles respond to their own creation controls — and can take on the appearance of 3D objects — a particle still has no actual dimensions. (Is that weird, or what?) Particles mainly identify on-screen places to apply specific animation settings — and places to apply the content of the Materials mapped to them. As you use Materials on particles, the most important mapping option is the content of the Opacity Map. For that reason, it’s a good idea to create a series of Opacity Maps in a 2D image-editing application like Adobe Photoshop. Opacity Maps play a strong role in defining the overall shape of a Particle, as well as the Particle’s capability of showing soft edges. Defining Particle Systems Setting max Particle SystemsThe six Particle Systems are Spray, Snow, Blizzard, PArray, PCloud, and Super Spray (see Figure 23-1). You can find them by choosing Create>Geometry> Particle Systems. I detail each one in the following sections. Figure 23-1: The six 3ds max Particle Systems in the Command panel. Spray Spray particles are emitted from a flat plane, emerging perpendicular to that plane. This emitter plane can be moved or rotated anywhere you need it in the scene. Create the emitter plane and its Spray particles by following these steps: Choose Create>Geometry>Particle Systems>Spray. Create the emitter plane by using the left mouse button to click-and-drag in any viewport. Use the Top Viewport if you want the particles to fall down from the top of the scene. After the emitter plane is created, keep it selected and choose the Modify Command Panel. Doing so gives you access to the Spray Particle controls shown in Figure 23-2. Figure 23-2: The Spray Particle controls in the Modif Setting max Particle Systems Mapping Particles Mapping particles is simple. Just drag and drop any Material you like on the targeted emitter. The single most important Mapping Channel for a Particle System is the Opacity Channel. If you use it with the right Map content, you can create particle shapes and objects that emulate many forms — stars, flames, smoke, water, and more. You’ll need to have some skill in an image-editing program (like Adobe Photoshop) to create the Maps to have your own accessible library of Opacity Maps. If you set the Gradient Map to radial in the Opacity channel, you can create smoke effects on particles with facings. The Snowflake If you’re working with the six-point Snow particle in the Snow or Blizzard Particle System, here’s that “better snowflake” I promised earlier. What I did was to create a six-sided Opacity Map for the snowflake, as shown in Figure 23-15. Figure 23-15: A snowflake Opacity Map created in Adobe Photoshop. When this Opacity Map is used on a Material targeted to a Sn Mapping Particles Chapter 24: Traveling Through Space Warps In This Chapter Creating Space Warps Forces Creating Geometric Deformable Space Warps Creating Modifier-Based Space Warps Creating Standard Helpers Working with Atmospheric Apparatus Helpers Snapshooting 3D Elements If anything in 3ds max represents the latest technological edge in creating effects, it has to be Space Warps and Helpers. Using Space Warps and Helpers gives you the sense that you are Merlin reborn into the twenty-first century. Just think about it. A Space Warp gives you the ability to reshape the air, the atmosphere in a 3D environment. Any object that passes within a defined boundary of the 3D space where the Space Warp is will be . . . well . . . warped, disturbed, or affected in some magical way! This is another reason why 3ds max is used so extensively to create astounding effects in the movies. In this chapter you discover how to create and customize Space Warps. Chapter 24: Traveling Through Space Warps In This Chapter Space Warp TransformationsA Space Warp is an energy field. Anything that comes close to that field is affected, or transformed. Some Space Warps are designed to affect polygonal models, while others reserve their power for particle systems. You can access Space Warps in two ways: Click the Space Warps tab in the Tab Panel to reveal the Space Warp icons. Click any icon to activate it and then click and drag in any viewport. You can also choose Command Panel>Create> Space Warps to reveal the Space Warp category list. Space Warps come in four categories, which I cover in detail in the following sections: Forces Deflectors Geometric/Deformable Modifier-Based When you place a Space Warp in a viewport, the placed Space Warp appears as what is called a Gizmo. Whenever you work with a Space Warp, the particle system(s) or object(s) affected by the Space Warp must be linked to it by the Bind To Space Warp process. You initiate this process by clicking the Bind To Space Warp icon in the toolbar, Helping You Out3ds max offers you some needed help with the Helper options. Access Helpers by choosing Create>Helpers to get a number of Helper categories. This section discusses two — Standard and Atmosphere Apparatus. Standard Helpers The Standard Helpers are located by going to Create>Helpers>Standard. You get six Standard Helpers: Dummy, Grid, Point, Tape, Protractor, and Compass. I take a closer look at three of them — Protractor, Dummy (now, there’s a convenient name), and Points, as shown in Figure 24-13. Figure 24-13: The Standard Helpers in the Command Panel. Using the Protractor Use the Protractor Helper to determine the angle from the Protractor Point to the Pivot Points of any two objects. Just place the Protractor Gizmo in the scene (preferably on an object so the angles can be determined), and then select the two additional objects. A readout of the angle appears in the Command Panel, as shown in Figure 24-14. Figure 24-14: Use the Protractor to measure the angle between Take a SnapshotI’ll bet you never thought of a Space Warp as a modeling alternative, but it sure can be used as one. Just choose any frame that displays an interesting warped alteration of an object. Select the object, and choose Tools> Snapshot to bring up the Snapshot panel. You can Snapshot a single frame of the animated object or a series of frames for a collection of 3D objects. Select Mesh to create mesh objects, as shown in Figure 24-18. Figure 24-18: Diverse bean-like objects created from a single sphere affected by a Twist Space Warp, using the Snapshot operation. Now go out and Snapshot your world! Part VIII: Pictures Perfect Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 25: Rendering Images In This Chapter Rendering with ActiveShade Using RayTracing and Radiosity Rendering backgrounds Using global lighting and exposure controls Generating render effects Rendering is all about creating a means for others to see your work. You may think that when your scene is complete, all 3D objects have been modeled and tweaked to perfection, and all the textures are in place, your work is done. You’re not done if you intend to show your work to others on something besides your personal computer. You have to consider what means you will use to store and display your work outside of your own workspace. If you think your Aunt Millie would enjoy seeing what you’re doing, it makes a difference if she has a computer or not, or a videotape player, or just a bare wall waiting for a poster. If you plan to send your work to a professional studio for consideration for employment, you have to make sure you understand the ways to get the images out there in a way that wi Chapter 25: Rendering Images In This Chapter Defining Rendering Types You can render your work in a number of different ways, all of them slightly or grossly different. Sometimes you need to let your finished 3D scene remain out of view for a while, so you can come back to it and judge it with a fresh eye, and sometimes it may be worth your while to get the input of others before finalizing the work. Render Scene The Render Scene Panel is the mother of all global rendering controls because you can control all the rendering parameters within the panel. You can access this panel in one of two ways. Either choose the Rendering menu and choose Render, or use the render icons present in the Tab Panel. Notice the last four icons at the right under the Rendering tab. Clicking the first of those icons for the Render Scene brings up the Render Scene Panel. See Figure 25-1. Figure 25-1: The Render Scene Panel. As shown in Figure 25-1, I have left three of the rollouts in this panel closed (Render Elements, Current Renderers, and Email Noti Adjusting Render SettingsThere are some important adjustments you can make before any final rendering to optimize your images for the uses you want them to serve: Setting the output size: When you want to create a high-quality rendered image, use an Output Size in the Render Scene Panel that is at least twice the size of the image you want to wind up with. When the image is rendered, copy it to a 2D image program like Adobe Photoshop and reduce it to the size you need. Everything will look much sharper than it would if you simply rendered to the output size in 3ds max. Image options: Save your images as Targa or TIF files if you’re looking for maximum quality. Save the images as JPEG or PNG files if they are to be used on the Web. The BMP format is okay if you don’t need to preserve the best image quality. Render Elements: Here’s a potentially important — but not very well known — feature of 3ds max. In the Render Scene Panel is a rollout labeled Render Elements, shown in Figure 25-3. Printing Your ImagesTo print your images, you’ll need to open the saved image in software meant for that purpose, like Adobe Photoshop. There are so many high-quality printers on the market today for reasonable (and even downright cheap) prices, that most computer graphics users have at least one on hand. Some commercial facilities like Kinko’s offer high-end printing from your removable disk or CD-ROM. Computer magazines are full of ads from companies who print your image files after you send the images online to their offices — which is especially good when you need oversized prints. The competition is keen, and the charges keep coming down. If you intend to display your print in a gallery or want to keep it for a long time, look for a service that uses archival-quality inks and paper. Standard inkjet printing fades over time, especially when it’s exposed to light. Render EnvironmentsAt the far left of the Rendering tab in the Tab Panel is button labeled Environments. Clicking this button brings up the Environment Panel. There are rollouts for Common Parameters, Exposure Control, and Atmosphere; other rollouts appear in response to choices you make. Common Parameters At the top of the Common Parameters rollout is an area for altering the content of your background. Click the color swatch if you want to choose a single background color. To choose an image for your background from the image types in the Material/Map Browser, check the Use Map box, and then click the horizontal button underneath. Next are the Global Lighting parameters. Use the color swatch to tint the scene towards any hue, or choose the Ambient color swatch to change the global light’s hue more strongly. Alter the brightness of the global lighting by raising or lowering the Level value. Exposure Control The Exposure Control reads None by default, but you can open a list of optiona Render Effects One more fancy list of options to cover in this chapter is Render Effects, which can add far more pizzazz to an otherwise dull scene. If you choose the Tab Panel and choose the Rendering tab, you will see a button at the left that reads Effects. Clicking it brings up the Effects Panel. After it opens, clicking Add displays a list of possible effects to be integrated with the rendering. You can choose as many as you like in whatever order, and they will all be processed when you render the image. See Figure 25-7. Figure 25-7: The Add Effect list in the Effects Panel. In the Effects Panel, you can choose from the following options (choosing one of them brings up a parameter rollout for the particular option): Lens Effects: These effects mimic the quirks of light that have become familiar to filmgoers (for example a lens flare that puts a momentary streak of light in the image as the camera pans across a light source) — and the presence of such “flaws” actually enhances rea Chapter 26: Rendering Animations In This Chapter Rendering animations in the Render Scene Panel Using Video Post Configuring the RAM Player Making previews Generating animation effects Creating movement and watching as an image becomes animated is so exciting. When we observe the results of our keyframing and path- animating efforts as an object seemingly becomes conscious and goes through its scripted paces, it’s hard not to think we’ve created life itself from those building blocks. Animators learn to appreciate every movement in the everyday world, studying them and trying to emulate them. This chapter is about getting your animated scenes into a format so others can appreciate the images you’ve brought to life. Chapter 26: Rendering Animations In This Chapter Render Scene (Animation)For the fidgety few who want the gist of this chapter in a single sentence, here it is: Animations are recorded from the Render Scene Panel, okay? You can go on to the next chapter now. For those who would like to hang out awhile to get a little more juice from this particular orange, read on. Chapter 24 details the uses of the Render Scene Panel for recording images. Recording animations through the use of the same panel is a further extension of the same process, with a few more concepts to explore. You can access the Render Scene Panel by choosing Rendering>Render, or by clicking the first teapot icon in the Rendering tab of the Tab Panel. Either way, the Render Scene Panel pops up. In the Common Parameters rollout of the Render Scene Panel, the default selection under Time Output is Single — the one option that won’t work for recording an animation. Select one of the other three: Active Time Segment: Select this option if you want to record all the frames in Creating Rendering Level AnimationsIn most cases, the best approach is to create animations that display your fully textured objects against whatever backgrounds have been added to the scene — and see the fancy effects you’ve created in full blazing color. But what if you want to see your animation displayed with all the display options available to you in a viewport playback, and in addition, you want to see the light and camera icons in use in the scene? These display options are also known as rendering levels. The most photographic Rendering Level is Smooth + Highlights — the option set for the viewport that uses the Perspective or Camera view. But try out the other Rendering Levels too, including Smooth, Facets + Highlights, Facets, Lit Wireframe, Wireframe, and Bounding Box. Can you create a playable animation file that uses all the viewport display options? Most certainly! Such animations are called animation previews in 3ds max. To create one, follow these steps: Choose Animatio Using the RAM PlayerIf you have enough memory (RAM) in your computer, you can use the 3ds max RAM Player to preview animations that you have already saved to disk. The RAM Player can actually play back two animations at the same time, displaying them side by side or at the top and bottom of the screen (Figure 26-4 shows a vertically split screen). You can compare animations, select one or the other as a better version, or get an idea of how to edit them together later on. The animations can be played back at variable frame rates (FPS), either forward or backward. To bring up the RAM Player, choose Rendering>RAM Player in the menu bar. The controls are simple to understand — they have pop-up labels that appear when you hold your mouse pointer over them. Figure 26-4: The RAM Player with two animations loaded. Animated Effects Chapter 25 describes how to add a number of preset effects to images. Although any of these effects can be animated using the keyframe method, a couple of effects are designed specifically for a filmlike look (Film Grain and Motion Blur), so a quick look at them is in order. Film Grain Hairs, scratches, and smudges on a film are often annoying to watch; they distract your attention from the content of your movie. Another common film flaw is apparent graininess, as if the frames had sand embedded in them. Older films are especially vulnerable to these anomalies — and everybody knows it — so you can make your animation seem more antique (even more “historical”) by adding such flaws. 3ds max doesn’t yet have a hair/scratch/smudge creator for your animations, but you can increase the graininess of the rendering. Here’s how: Load in an animation you have previously created. Click the Effects button under the Rendering tab in the Tab Panel. The Rendering Effects Panel opens. Video PostVideo Post demands a book of its own, due to its features and complexity. Even as a 3ds max beginner however, there are some things you should know about it. Video Post is used to render effects to an animation after everything else is configured. It’s especially useful for creating fast background and light effects. A quick blast through a typical Video Post project — a spacecraft in flight — shows off those capabilities (and isn’t all that different from the way the pros do it in big-budget sci-fi movies). Setting the scene Think of Video Post as an ideal place to use the classic lights-camera-action sequence that movie directors know by heart. The first order of business is to set the scene. Here’s what that looks like for the spacecraft-in-flight example: Access the Video Post Panel (shown in Figure 26-5) by choosing Rendering>Video Post. Figure 26-5: The Video Post Panel. Pass the mouse cursor over the top row of tools and options in the Video Post Panel. A label appears Part IX: The Part of Tens Chapter List In this part . . . Chapter 27: Ten Tips for Maximizing Your 3ds max Sessions In This Chapter Save frequently Optimize preview renders Use the Spacing tool Work with the Light Lister Use the Schematic view Create morphed geometry Merge content Use the MaxScript Listener Use connected springs Trace images 3ds max is like that famous pink bunny in the commercial — it keeps going and going and going. Even the most experienced max users keep discovering new features and better ways to do things, so it’s no surprise that this book hasn’t attended to every nook and cranny of 3ds max’s potential. In an effort to provide you with more ways to lose sleep (and also to remind you to do some important stuff), here is another banquet of tasty information for your dining pleasure. Chapter 27: Ten Tips for Maximizing Your 3ds max Sessions In This Chapter Remember to Save Frequently Yeah, I know, nag, nag, nag. But if you want to prevent some expensive sessions with a psychiatrist, save your 3ds max work frequently. I recommend saving your scene every ten minutes or so during a work session. After all, all it takes is a quick Ctrl+S keyboard stroke. This is especially true when you are working on complex scenes with intricate elements. Computers aren’t perfect, 3ds max isn’t perfect, and your Windows operating system is way less than approaching perfection. Every once in a while, maybe just to test your emotional control, 3ds max may crash or freeze. If you’ve been going happily along before that point, neglecting to save your work, you may erupt into a burst of creative language that will wake the neighbors and start the dogs barking. Three cautions: Save, save, save! Render Previews at Lower ResolutionsIf you need a large-resolution rendering for either professional film or print use, don’t apply the resolution you want until after you get your final rendering. Use lower-resolution renders as you put the project together. Doing so saves a lot of time, especially when you have to load the preview renders you make along the way. Use the Spacing ToolWhat if you have an object and a Splined path, and you want to create copies or instances of the object on that path? It could be a column that needs to be duplicated to form the multiple columns of a temple. Sounds like a job for the Spacing tool (trumpets sound a fanfare here!). Follow these steps to use it: Create a shape to form the cross-section for a column of your own design in the Front Viewport. Move the Pivot Point to the end of the shape so you can lathe the shape. Click the Modeling tab in the Tab Panel and Lathe the shape. Choose Create>Shapes>Splines>Rectangle. In the Top Viewport, and create a square Spline the size that you want the temple to be. Select the column object, and move its Pivot Point to its base. In the Front Viewport, move the square Spline to the same vertical position as the column’s Pivot Point. Choose Tools>Spacing Tool. The Spacing Tool Panel appears. Click the Pick Path button, and then click the square spline in the Top Viewport. Work with the Light ListerSometimes you may want to tweak the parameters of several lights in a scene. You could select each one in turn and then choose the Modify Command Panel, but that would take some time (and wouldn’t be much fun). The Light Lister is a quicker way to edit the parameters of any or all lights in your scene. To get to it, simply choose Tools>Light Lister. All parameter controls for the lights in your scene are in one convenient place: the Light Lister Panel. Use the Schematic ViewSometimes a scene can get so complex that selecting one specific object to edit is nearly impossible. Fortunately, that’s when you can use the Schematic View. Right-click the name of any viewport, and then choose Views> Schematic>New. Your viewport is transformed into a schematic chart, displaying every object element in the scene — with all links clearly visible. Selecting any element in the schematic automatically brings up its parameters for quick editing in the Command Panel. Create Morphed GeometryAltering an object to resemble another object is called Morphing. The process requires a Source Object and at least one Target Object. Morphing can alter the shape of a character’s expression in an animation, or magically transform one object into another. Morphing in 3ds max is a blast. Here’s how: Create a sphere in a scene. Press Shift and then click and drag to move the sphere to bring up the Cloning Panel, choose Copy, input 3 to create three duplicates, and close the Panel. Move the three duplicated spheres off to the side. Select one of the cloned spheres and apply a Taper Modifier to it. Use the following parameters: Amount 1.3, Curve 10, Taper Axis Z/XY/Symmetry, Limits 0.0. Select a second cloned sphere and apply a Stretch Modifier to it (set the Modifier to 1.5 on the Z-axis). Select the third cloned sphere and double its vertical scale. Apply a Ripple Modifier to it with the following parameters: Amplitude 1 to 20 Amplitude 2 to 15 Wavelength 0.1 Phas Merge ContentAs you develop new scene content and save it, you may run into a situation where what you need in one scene has already been created in another. When this circumstance arises, you can combine two or more scenes into one, so that all of the content of both scenes is available to you. Just choose File>Merge to select another scene to add to the one presently loaded in max. When you locate the to-be-merged scene and select to open it, the Merge Panel appears. Using the options in the Merge Panel, you can choose what elements of the scene you want to merge with the present one. Lights and cameras, for example, are usually best not to merge, because they may interfere with the present scene elements. The same process works if both your original and targeted merge files are animated, except you get a few more options in the Merge Animation Panel. Just choose File>Merge Animation. Use the MaxScript ListenerRepetitive tasks are a drag — boring, time-consuming, and (in this case) unnecessary. To save your time and stimulate your imagination, 3ds max provides the MaxScript feature. MaxScripts are small bits of code that do a task from start to finish. All you have to do is to run the script by choosing MaxScript>Run Script and selecting a saved script from where it was stored. 3ds max comes with dozens of sample MaxScripts. You may never have done any programming before, but don’t let that stop you from creating some code with MaxScript. It’s easy — try it out: Place a Torus Primitive in a scene. Right-click the Left Viewport title, and choose Views>Extended> MaxScript Listener. Choose MaxScript>Macro Recorder from the menu bar. This starts the recording facility. In the MaxScript Viewport, click in the pink area. This is the Macro Recorder area. Use a series of Modifiers to alter the geometry of the Torus. As you use the Modifiers, notice that a script is being au Use Connected SpringsThough you may only need it rarely, the Connected Springs modeling alternative really underscores the power of 3ds max. Here’s the drill: Choose Create>Geometry>Dynamics Objects, and click the Spring button. Click and drag in the Top Viewport to create a Spring. The Spring’s parameters appear in the Command Panel. Open the Modify Command Panel to adjust the Spring’s parameters. Then enter values to specify the following settings: Bound to Object Pivots Diameter 7 Turns 5 CCW Automatic Segments Round Wire with a Diameter of 0.7 and 6 Sides Relaxed Height 1 Constant k of 3 Pounds Per Inch Spring Works In Both Place a cube at either end of the Spring. Select the Spring, open the Modify Command Panel, click the Pick Top Object button, and choose the top cube in any viewport. Click the Pick Bottom Object button, and select the bottom cube in any viewport. The Spring is now attached to each cube’s Pivot Point on both ends. You may have to enlarge the cubes a bit if the S Trace ImagesWhen you want to model something from a photograph, it’s neat to trace the photograph inside of 3ds max to get a better idea about the shapes and proportions involved. To do that, you first look at the photo to decide which viewport (Front, Top, Side . . .) the image would be best traced in. The Front Viewport is used most often for this purpose. After selecting the needed viewport, choose Views>Viewport Background to bring up the Viewport Background Panel. Click Files to select either an image or an animation (yes, this works with animations too!). It’s best to select Match Bitmap under Aspect Ratio so the proportions are correct. Select Display Background in Active Viewport Only. Click OK, and your image is ready to be traced with Splines, or used as a template for 3D object creation. You can always use Layers to organize objects. Keep an eye on the Polygon Counter in the Utility Panel, which gives you feedback about polygon quantities. Chapter 28: Ten or So Great Plug-ins In This Chapter Great commercial plug-ins and vendors Great freebies and shareware Handshaking with max Open architecture — no, it doesn’t mean buildings with no walls — is a computer-industry term for software that other developers can enhance by contributing their own special features (plug-ins) that you can (ahem) plug right in. Granted, 3ds max comes with an astounding array of on-board tools and Modifiers — but max is also an open (or extensible) architecture. You can extend its usefulness with plug-ins — and 3ds max has more plug-in developers than any other 3D software. Plug-ins can push software to do what it can’t do on its own. As you become more experienced with 3ds max, you may want to explore the possibility of adding some plug-ins to it. Plug-ins come with their own instructions on what steps to take to install them. There are plug-ins of every type, though most address modeling in some way. Please note that plug-ins have a way of disa Chapter 28: Ten or So Great Plug-ins In This Chapter Commercial Plug-ins and Vendors A commercial plug-in is one that you pay money for. The number of commercial developers who create plug-ins for 3ds max only continues to grow. Most, however, instead of marketing their wares on their own, use a single plug-in clearinghouse for marketing purposes — Digimation. Digimation (www.digimation.com) is the largest commercial entity that both develops unique 3ds max plug-ins of their own as well as acts as a marketing and distribution center for many other 3ds max plug-in developers. Digimation’s catalog ships with 3ds max, so you should have one too. There are dozens of commercial plug-ins listed in the Digimation catalog, and other commercial plug-ins not yet listed. Here are a few you may be interested in investigating. Digimation’s Particle StudioThe Particle Studio plug-in is an event-based particle system. You alter the way the particles are created at various keyframe points on the timeline, according to the particles’ behavior at that point. If you want to freeze the particle motion, Particle Studio has a special Snapshot option in the 3ds max Utility panel. Custom Particles can be Object Instances, Copies, or Editable Mesh components. There are two ways to use Particle Studio. The first is to open its Event Map parameters panel. You can use one of Particle Studio’s preset Particle Systems or design your own. Quick Setup Presets Particle Studio Presets are ready-made animation templates that come in four categories: Streams, Transforms, Flocks, and Miscellaneous. Streams Streams are directional animations of particles, allowing the particles to target selected objects no matter where the target moves in the animation. Transforms Transforms are processes that allow you to create a Snapshot object Digimation’s Particle Studio Freebies and Shareware Freeware costs nothing, and many 3ds max Freeware plug-ins are out there. Shareware comes with a plea from the developer that you contribute something. A new type of Shareware is Charityware; the developer asks you to contribute to a specific charity. Polychop http://www.bioware.com This plug-in optimizes the number of polygons in a mesh. Polychop is more functional than the internal 3ds max Optimize modifier; you can set boundaries and protect areas of your model from any reduction of polygons (for example, Edge Length, Curvature, and Smoothing Zones). Most models can be optimized by at least 25 percent without noticeable loss of detail. Mountain http://www.effectware.com After installation, you can create a mountain in the Top Viewport if you choose Create>Geometry>EffectWare Objects, and then click and drag. The Mountain plug-in features a number of useful parameter options. Mesh Size determines the sharpness or curvature of the peaks. The Fractal Dimension va Handshaking with maxSoftware that handshakes with other software establishes mutually agreed-upon communication practices such as a common file format. The 3ds object file format, for instance, is not only common to 3ds max, but dozens of other computer graphics and animation software packages are able to write and read it as well. This means that all those other software packages have a way to speak with, or handshake with, 3ds max. If a book were to be written with just one chapter for each of the 3D software applications that addressed the 3ds object file format, it would be a much larger book than this one. There are more direct ways that one piece of software can handshake with another however. Software can be designed to handshake so closely with another targeted piece of software that the source package acts almost like a plug-in. Such relationships do indeed exist. Here are five very different and unique handshaking applications that address 3ds max in different ways, all worth Chapter 1: Reading the Roadmap Chapter 2: Customizing Your Workspace Chapter 3: Polygons, Properties, and Transformations Chapter 4: Model Movers and Shakers Chapter 5: 2D Shapes in Flatland Chapter 6: Compound Interest Chapter 7: Working with Modifiers Chapter 8: Creating Duplicated Objects Chapter 9: Making Mirrored Objects Chapter 10: 3D from 2D Chapter 11: Getting Hitched: Grouping Objects Chapter 12: Vital Modifier Magic Chapter 13: Modifying Sub-Objects Chapter 14: Invasion of the NURBS Chapter 15: Living in the Material World Chapter 16: Using Composite Textures Chapter 17: Backdrops and Backgrounds Chapter 18: Lights Chapter 19: Cameras Chapter 20: Making Friends with the Timeline Chapter 21: Path Animations Chapter 22: Materials That Won’t Stand Still Chapter 23: Particle Physics Chapter 24: Traveling Through Space Warps Chapter 25: Rendering Images Chapter 26: Rendering Animations Chapter 28: Ten or So Great Plug-ins Chapter 12: Vital Modifier Magic Chapter 24: Traveling Through Space Warps
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