Learning 3D, Questions Options

[Sir-Kill]

Woohoo! I fixed my comp!!!

[HERD]

Congratulations, SK, don't throw out your notes, will be a good tut someday!

[Sir-Kill]

well my comp is working but this new mobo's sound messed up so I have to return it. now I have to find a new one.

EDIT: Scratch that I got that fixed too, man M$ sucks the update driver function is worthless had to go to asus.com to get the driver, but now it works!!

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Jan 25 2009, 03:24 PM

[HERD]

Learning to make rubble with reactor.
 rubble3.png ( 219.12k ) Number of downloads: 12


Need help finding “World rollout” in Max.
 reactor.PNG ( 40.83k ) Number of downloads: 9


( from http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/pi..._of_rubble.htm)

This post has been edited by HERD: Mar 17 2009, 07:01 PM

[Sir-Kill]

Never tried reactor
check here

[HERD]

 reactor1.PNG ( 161.56k ) Number of downloads: 8


Looks like I don't have it in max 7, maybe only in 8

[Sir-Kill]

you are not looking at the rollout menu. every time it says rollout it is on the right.
go to the hammer icon, past the create past the modify tabs. this is the "utilities" tab. reactor should be there if not click the more button.
btw I have max 7 as well.

[HERD]

Found it. Thanks!
On the same site there is a tut "Replacing Scatter Using Pflow", it looks like a pretty good method.
But this one is definitely done in max 9.
I remember you've tried pflow before, so if you'll have a minute to scroll through it and see if it could be done in 7
(if there are enough tools)?
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/pf...low_scatter.htm

[Sir-Kill]

yeah it is nothing out of the norm just pfow.

[Sir-Kill]

yeah it is nothing out of the norm just pfow.
pflow and reactor seems like kind of a lot of work to scatter some rocks in a still shot are you going to animate any of this?

[Sir-Kill]

Also...
On that site he has some nice tuts I looked over a few and some I have mentioned and some I have not but use the same techniques.
A Study In Greens, Variety in Your Colors
Banging Up Your Geometry (tho I usually do not change the geometry to much IE rarely requires it)
Rounding The Edges, Chamfers And Fillets
Mapping Complex Shapes Using Multiple Map Channels
Reducing Memory Usage To Render A Memory Hungry Scene

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Mar 18 2009, 12:05 PM

[HERD]

are you going to animate any of this?

No, I just had some problems with scatter (mostly because I don’t know much about it), like scatter seemed to work well only with certain shapes, and if pflow wouldn’t be the solution, I’ll still have an idea what it is after going through the tut.

he has some nice tuts

I'll do all of them, even if some technics would be useless in IE. As you can see, there are tons of “buttons” in max I am not aware of.

This post has been edited by HERD: Mar 18 2009, 01:03 PM

[Sir-Kill]

there are tons of “buttons” in max I am not aware of

heh you are not alone. it is a huge program

[HERD]

SK, if you had time to try the reactor... I wonder why this happens.
Not vital , just curious.
I've tried:
1. Do the reactor inside the IE scene (with camera), using scene’s plane to create RBCollection –>.
Shadows are right.
 rubbleareashadowR.png ( 545.16k ) Number of downloads: 13

2. Do the reactor in a separate file –> “Group” the rocks–> merge with the scene (only the “Group”, no plane, no RBColection ) –>Shadows are not right.
 rubbleareashadowG.png ( 541.89k ) Number of downloads: 10

3. Do the reactor in a separate file –> merge selected rocks (no “Group”) with the scene –>Shadows are really not right.
 rubbleareashadowbadNoG.png ( 542.55k ) Number of downloads: 13


Because I never set up a camera or lights on my own, at first I thought that rocks are blocking the camera!





This post has been edited by HERD: Mar 19 2009, 11:39 AM

[Sir-Kill]

merging would not effect the lighting or shadows at all (besides creating new shadows for the new items) unless you also merged in some new lights. what might have happened you added the light in to the reactor.

to check if you have too many lights
right-click in a VP and select unhide all
then click 'select by name' button
then select all
go to on the main toolbar choose 'open'
then click 'select by name' now only choose lights

is there more than 1 target per light? are there more than 2 lights? only one light should be casting a shadow.

[HERD]

Checked, this is not it, will investigate further.

About particle flow:
I am happy with it, though works a little bit slow.
 04areapflowrender.png ( 1.02mb ) Number of downloads: 12

The problem with scatter is that it doesn’t mind pivots at all :
Can anything be done about it ?(what am I missing?)
 01branchscatter.png ( 185.45k ) Number of downloads: 4

Pflw does. (but displays only half of the objects and renders all ???)
 02branchpflowscreen.png ( 77.35k ) Number of downloads: 5
 03branchpflowrender.png ( 72.49k ) Number of downloads: 6

Same thing happens with pivots when scatter used on the plane.
Is it possible to clone the plane –> make it absolutely transparent–>scatter on it–>move it in the right place? Tried this with glass material , it does the trick, but of course shadows are all screwed.
 05areascatterscreen.png ( 104.24k ) Number of downloads: 9

[Sir-Kill]

are you using opacity (alpha) maps because that will mess the shadows every time.
if so you have to Fake Shadows or turn off 'cast shadows' in the objects properties [select object, right click select properties]. unless you use advanced raytrace shadows which, is a real expensive (very long render times) way to cast shadows.

try F10 and go to the Common tab and select 2 sided if that works un-check it and do the same but in the materials.

I am not sure what it is you are trying to accomplish (trying to make rocks or trees or...), what is the plane used for and did you mean semi-transparent because absolutely transparent is invisible.

the one time I used scatter I wanted to move some things, so I used element instead of vert, edge, or poly. in the selection rollout.
mainly I tend to stay away from the auto reproducers. except for array and the like. which I see you do not have displayed.
to see: customize -> customize user interface -> toolbars tab -> where it says axis constraints pull down and select 'Extras' then uncheck hide.

[HERD]

mainly I tend to stay away from the auto reproducers. except for array and the like

Right, forgot about array, it will work best

[HERD]

did you mean semi-transparent because absolutely transparent is invisible

I want it to be invisible to be able to see through it. Is it possible to create such material?

[Sir-Kill]

yep just dial down the opacity from 100 to 0 in the ME on whatever material you ae using on it
or go to the objects properties and un-click renderable.
but either way you might have to turn off cast shadows

This post has been edited by Sir-Kill: Mar 22 2009, 09:01 PM