Technical Talk

Topic	Replies	Latest Post
Is turbosmooth needed? Lately i've been having some cases where i could only use turbosmooth on the floating geometry and still get away with the gun looking nice. Whats the turbosmooth mainly being used for? Just to give…	25 Last	Snader Jun 2010
Edit Poly: Detach Naming Error? Using the Detach dialog in Edit Poly (in 3ds Max), I'll take a large chunk of poly's and split it into about a dozen specifically named objects; say they're numbered, for example. I split an object i…	1 Last	leechdemon Jun 2010
Reflective windows? Hi, It feels like half my questions are about making objects reflective :) I have some windows and I want to make them dark and reflective. What's the best way to make a material that will do t…	5 Last	Mr. Bean Jun 2010
Triangulate when baking normals? This may be a silly question...If i build a lowpoly mesh in quads, should i triangulate the mesh before i bake the normals? I ask this because ive baked my normals for my lowpoly as quads, it looks g…	16 Last	EarthQuake Jun 2010
Maya - can't delete verts/edges with no face I have this triangle that is floating in my mesh that has no selectable face and i can't delete by selecting it's points or edges. Maya gives me an error but it's a little over my head. I tried the c…	1 Last	them0nster Jun 2010
Anti-Virus/Spyware software? Up to now ive been using the free version of Avast, along with Windows Firewall and Spybot. Over the last 6 months or so ive had both my debit and credit cards used fraudulently online. Getting a li…	17 Last	Eric Chadwick Jun 2010
Are tri's better suited for normal maps? I have had this question bouncing around in my head for so long. Are tri's better suited for normal maps?	2 Last	cryrid Jun 2010
What programs should I be using? First of all I have to admit I am a complete n00b when it comes to this kind of thing and any help would be really appretiated. Basically I just want to know the programs I should be looking to get i…	2 Last	.Kennedy Jun 2010
32bit depth pass maya 2010? Anyone every successfully done this? I've tried a bunch of the file formats they all seem to clamp the depth pass to 8bit except the .exr file format, but that just renders out all black? What am I m…	1 Last	Illusions Jun 2010
The History of 3D Studio (Max) Max Underground posted a nice series of interviews with some of the initial engineers of 3d studio (DOS, and first windows ports). A The Interview is split into 3 sections: 1. Tom Hudson (one of th…	16 Last	gsokol Jun 2010
NormalMap baking issue Hello guys! There is a problem, sorry if somebody already talked about it. Please, see a image - whet bake, details near edge - i think - cuz ray is not perpendicular. There is a way - make details…	14 Last	Ott Jun 2010
FPS Shotgunt Texture Hey, I was wondering what is a good texture size for a FPS shotgun. Its around 2.5k polys. I know there isnt just one answer, but i was thinking about 1024x1024 is that to much?	2 Last	Racer445 Jun 2010
View image file Maya equivalent? I've tried "View image" but the window goes behind Maya rather than staying on top. I want a window that stays on top which I can move around like in Max.	1 Last	Ani Jun 2010
Maya normal map bad shading, smoothing errors I baked my normal map in maya and the results bad shading, smoothing errors. i just read somewhere that i can fix this with "Raytrace renderer" how can i do that in maya? here's my Normal map [ur…	14 Last	EarthQuake Jun 2010
baking an accurate sphere map? we're trying to use a sphere map to create a water reflection effect from a fixed camera the camera in the scene is at a bit of an angle to the water and surroundings what we're wondering is how we…	9 Last	pior Jun 2010
Zbrush navigation in mudbox Hey, I worked a bit in Zbrush and got used to the navigation. Means when holding LMB while not being on the mesh with the cursor, the camera rotates.When being on the mesh you can sculpt with holdin…	3 Last	BeatKitano Jun 2010
Turbosmooth VS Relax (to soften curves) Asked that in "how u model dem shapes" too but I feel thats the wrong place. So I want to put this question in a seperate thread. While adding extra loops Turbosmooth also seems to average the curved…	10 Last	cw Jun 2010
Ye Old Normal Map Cylinder bowl throwing me for a f##! loop. Without adding any more loops, can I do something to fix? (Basically cause it literally took about 1.2a day to set up the cage. Adding more geometry resets the cage. Tweaking existing and adjustin…	6 Last	MattLichy Jun 2010
Merging files Hullo, Here's the rundown: I've got a model that's a Wip. I have another scene where I have all the lighting set up, and the model is merged into that scene. So I have the model in the scene wher…	5 Last	Mr. Bean Jun 2010
MEL: matrix creation i have question regarding matrices in MEL. i want to store vertex color information for a mesh in a matrix. as i don't know the size of the matrix, i need to query the vertcount, which will define th…	9 Last	MoP Jun 2010
Particle Effects: Sorting I was messing around with some FX art recently and ran into a situation where I was trying to create an epic cloud of smoke rising out out of a burning building and wanted other particles such as emb…	2 Last	Lamont Jun 2010
2d shadow/lighting tile help. [IMG]http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/leon-heart65/4135457820_5ef075d500_o.jpg[/IMG] I am trying to make tile sets similar to this (created by Dev from runic game forums) and I'm having a…	6 Last	djm6007 Jun 2010
Maya depth pass and alpha channels in texture? Okay so by default rendering a depth pass out of maya mental ray does not support alpha channels, like when you have a video game tree and just renders the depth as quads, kind of useless. Am I missi…	4 Last	malcolm Jun 2010
Zapplink problem Hopefully someone can help me with this or else I will go insane! Anyway I have a low poly model I used Zapplink to fix a few texture seam problems. I save in CS3 then tab back to Zbrush, pick up the…	0 Last	Spur Jun 2010
symmetry in Zbrush? Hi, So is there a way to import a model into Zbrush using the same coordinates I exported out of MAX? I have a model with the arm pulled off to the side, I'm planning to sculpt the arm once and t…	7 Last	dolemite Jun 2010
phong shading errors in bakes Im trying to bake a simple window model and its coming out with these wierd shading errors, basically it looks like its showing all the triangles that make up the lowpoly in a very subtle way. It doe…	9 Last	Eric Chadwick Jun 2010
how to make a good specular? Hi I have this image but I am not able to make a good specular out of it couse the highlights on the texture itself when I pass it to black and white graylevbel are too much deuniform and look bad in…	10 Last	Shogun3d Jun 2010
precision when creating face from vertices (max 2010) It seems that in Max 2010 you need to be a bit more precise when creating faces from existing vertices...you need to be a couple of pixels closer to a vertex when clicking than in previous versions, …	0 Last	Kevin Albers Jun 2010
Import Textures into Mud2011 Any tips? I painted on a horrible history ridden, nasty mesh from maya in mudbox for awhile. Saved the .psd diff, passed the obj around a few programs to clean it up, re-imported to mud, works much b…	5 Last	oglu Jun 2010
What are the current texture maps to use in games? I'm in the process of getting my portfolio up together and was wondering what types of maps are currently being used in games, and whether to show them in my portfolio. The following I assume are t…	16 Last	Snader Jun 2010
Any way to tell a particular object to not receive fog in maya I want to tag a couple objects in my scene to not receive fog, is this possible in maya mental ray?	5 Last	malcolm Jun 2010
Lighting Tutorial - In the Making. So guys i'm planning on making a Environment Lighting tutorial and was wondering if there was anything specific anyone wanted to learn ? This is an outline of what i'll be covering: Ambient light…	5 Last	rumblesushi Jun 2010
Change size of O and U on edge display (MAYA) When editing a curve in Maya, the starting and ending CV points are represented by an O and U respectively. Is there a way in MAYA to make them appear larger than their default size? It is importan…	0 Last	Kylen Jun 2010
Going from XSI to learning 3DS max I haven't messed around with max too much, and most of the tutorials I'm finding seem for people completely new to 3D, so if anyone has any suggestions for decent tutorials that would be really appre…	6 Last	Ark Jun 2010
Acropora 1.0 released [COLOR=#fffffe][B][FONT=Arial][IMG]http://www.voxelogic.com/images/zeller_2.jpg[/IMG][/FONT][/B][/COLOR] [FONT=Arial][COLOR=white][I]Image rendering by Samuel Zeller[/I][/COLOR][/FONT] [COLOR=white…	1 Last	Nysuatro Jun 2010
Curly Hair I'm a bit of a hair noob, any ideas or recommendations on how to make curly hair for a character?	4 Last	Mark Dygert Jun 2010
Multitexturing and decals? I just read through this thread where these techniques were recommended for texture variations/skids etc - [url]http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=729964[/url] Could someone please expl…	5 Last	Eric Chadwick Jun 2010
Sugestion on paint in mudbox Ok I have a tree and Ihave divided it into two uv region maps , one to detail the roots and one to detail the top , I want to use tiled overlapping uvs for the branches and the top part of the tree …	0 Last	NAIMA Jun 2010
pixelated texture in Maya I'm trying to use a surface shader to flat preview some textures but they look super pixelated. Its wierd because its never happened before and all of the sudden they look pixelated. It doesnt happen…	2 Last	beartraps Jun 2010
Thrusters in maya So, I've modeled a star destroyer that has been animated, now I am trying to add a light or a similar effect to the engines so it looks like the enginge is working similar to the image below, I tried…	1 Last	r_fletch_r Jun 2010
Texturing individual faces in maya So I did a google search for this but nothing stood out, it all seemed like regular texturing tutorials, anyhow I am trying to texture a Tie Fighter variant from Star Wars, most will probably know wh…	9 Last	warby Jun 2010
Quick/Odd Max 2010 question Just started using Max 2010 again after a reinstall, and for some reason it won't let me enable Texture Correction in the Viewport Configuration. Why is this, and how do I fix it?	1 Last	Mark Dygert Jun 2010
Maya emergency: Normalmap rendering gone wtf? (Thing go unsmoothed) So hey. Haven't used maya for ages and I'm now quickly relearning the steps so employers will love me more. I'm kind of under pressure to finish this as quick as possible so any help would be greatly…	4 Last	Wahlgren Jun 2010
Artifacts in AO map Hi. I have been trying to render my AO maps using the max RTT dialog but keep coming up against the problem displayed below. When rendering the faces that are the same on the high and low polly get…	8 Last	undoz Jun 2010
Zbrush and Image Planes Hey guys, I've been looking everywhere but I can't find a definitive answer.. So I thought I'd turn to my pals at PC. How do you get image planes into zbrush? I've found a few basic tutorials, but …	2 Last	divi Jun 2010
Pixel art output Just wondering if anyone knew how to output renderings isometrically to a pixelart style. I've got the renders coming out fine isometric just need some tips of setting up mental ray (or any other ren…	10 Last	renderhjs Jun 2010
[DT3D] UDK Skin Shader [CENTER][IMG]http://www.digiteck3d.com/pages/sections/tools/dt3dUdkSkin/faceSkinLogo.jpg[/IMG] DT3D UDK skin shader is a real-time multi-layered skin model implementation in the Unreal 3.x Engine. T…	4 Last	ScoobyDoofus Jun 2010
Free Maya/max cgfx/fx Shader Hi guys [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] edit: the more recent changes on the maya shader are now stored on [url="http://www.mentalwarp.com/~brice/shader.php"]this page[/url] I recently go…	212 Last	ScudzAlmighty Jun 2010
Excluding an object from AO in max viewport? hey I'm wondering if there is a way to exclude a specific object from the ambient occlusion in the viewport? The main reason I ask is for my character's hair. I'd like to have AO enabled for the c…	2 Last	Zack Fowler Jun 2010
Environment help! hi guys i am thinking of making a small environment scene but i have never tryed it before because i am more of a Hard Surface guy but i want to give it a shot. My question is a bit dumb but i just w…	2 Last	Shogun3d Jun 2010