Technical Talk

Topic	Replies	Latest Post
display normals maps in maya anybody knows, if there is a way to display world space normal maps in maya viewports? the standard bump just has options for bump(greyscale) and tangent space. haven't found a solution for world/obj…	0 Last	fade1 Feb 2008
Hotkey 'E' to rotate not working A while back I had a problem with a keyboard shortcut not working, it was fixed by making sure the the keyboard shortcut button was pressed. This issue is not being solved by that. The issue: When …	3 Last	Saidin311 Feb 2008
Object Instancing in game engines Just wondering if anyone has some technical knowledge of instancing in game engines. Do you only save on loaded mesh data? Are they treated as a normal draw call when rendered etc... Any other knowle…	20 Last	Slum Feb 2008
Interior AO Maps? Hey guys I'm trying to bake out a global illumination/AO map (in Max9) for an interior environment and am not having much luck. Usually for AO maps I just go straight for the Skylight and lighttrac…	7 Last	Joshua Stubbles Feb 2008
Best Game Engine to use? OK, so I'm trying to get a few people together to concept a game idea out, there will be much magic, flying, weapons, guns, swords and all that good stuff. But I can't figure out what game engine to …	6 Last	Keg Feb 2008
alpha map outline transparency I have a basic .png file that has a white square in the alpha channel to so that all i can see is the color from the layer thats also just a square. When i put it on a plane within max for some odd r…	5 Last	Eric Chadwick Feb 2008
First time HUMAN modeling. How did you do it? I'm getting into human 3d modeling for an action game. I am not the greatest modeler in the world, and getting into the human aspect of modeling is a newer challenge itself. I've skimmed some member'…	11 Last	Bandit Feb 2008
Weird Alpha Error I'm working on an art test right and I have a section of torn up wood planks. The texture has no white in it yet I'm getting this white border around the alpha, anyone see this before? [img]http://…	4 Last	Eric Chadwick Feb 2008
MentalRay ambient occlusion script 3DS MAX 7,8,9 Hi ; I've found this script by hasard and I hope that this script You will find useful ,cause it's very easy to use with a cool result. link : [url="http://www.highend3d.com/3dsmax/downloads/scripts…	8 Last	pior Feb 2008
artoolkit experimentation? has anyone here tried the augmented reality stuff called artoolkit? I think my machine would explode trying to render something onto the anchor, but anyone here play with it at all? I wonder if you …	4 Last	sir-knight Feb 2008
How do you preview an image for reference? I was just wondering if anyone knows a program that can preview an image and keep the image on top of all screens so I can model and the image always be there? thanks	11 Last	fade1 Feb 2008
Maya: mental ray disappeared? Maya 8.5: I went to go do an ao pass with a mental ray shader and the option in hypershade is completly gone!??! then i went to check out the render settings menu and mental ray is gone out of ther…	5 Last	Penzer Feb 2008
displacement on sss im using 3ds max 08, mental ray to render, to create an animation of my character. now my head has an sss skin material on there but my clothing, weapons, etc are just standard materials. those stand…	3 Last	garriola83 Feb 2008
Zbrush Questions I have some more Zbrush questions I never seem to be able to find the answers to. I find there help sections have a million bits of information but never the simple things. 1. Hotkeys for changing b…	4 Last	kary Feb 2008
Mental Ray Memory Issues / AO Alternatives I'm having an issue when trying to render to texture a 2048 AO Pass using mental ray in Max. I get a memory error, which basically tells me Mental Ray ran out of memory when setting up. I've played a…	1 Last	robby_lamb Feb 2008
printing size i need some photos of my older projects for presentation (for job) what resolution do u recomend for the reders to make it look good on a photo...	2 Last	arrangemonk Feb 2008
Glowmaps? hi For my dm3 entrance, i want to use some glowing particles and effects. I looked for information about glowmaps but without succes. (im using max8) can anyone help me out? thanks.	11 Last	CrazyButcher Feb 2008
Custom rigs in 3ds max - Need help with arms. So, I'm working on this custom rig for a class (animation for games) and I'm creating my rig using bones as per the tutorial 3ds max has. My problem lies with the double rotation of the bones bellow …	12 Last	t4paN Feb 2008
Alternatives to Biped? At work we've been using 3ds Max and Biped and a mix of facial bones and morph targets. We have some down time between games and we're researching alternatives to Biped as well as tweaking our pipeli…	4 Last	hyrumark Feb 2008
Q: Editing mesh on a character that already rigged Hello folks, I'm helping my friend's project for modeling part, and got a question about it. The charcter mesh is already rigged and skinned, and the part I am about to do is 'Editing mesh (in polyg…	7 Last	El_Guiri Feb 2008
displacement maps why do my displacement maps make my characters look like they got stung by bees? i make them using zbrush and crazybump btw. and im also using mental ray to rendahr. can someone clarify on how to us…	5 Last	garriola83 Feb 2008
Screen Tearing, Screeching, and Crashing in Mudbox The past few weeks, my computer has been acting strangely, and I'm beginning to think it's on it's last leg. Most recently, Mudbox has been crashing, causing screen tearing, an error log, and loud sc…	4 Last	jgarland Feb 2008
Object space vs. tangent? (Character model) Hey guys, first post. Sorry of this has been covered, but I'm pretty new to the whole normal mapping game and basically I've modelled a character and detailed in ZBrush. Basically, I've generated bot…	37 Last	vividly_pathetic Feb 2008
Portfolio Suggestion - Environment and Character Hey everyone, I'm quite new to this site. Im currently half way done with my program ( game art and Design) , and I wanted to know how should I showcase my work if I was either an Environme…	4 Last	vividly_pathetic Feb 2008
Movable mouth construction I'm no stranger to low poly modeling, but I've come across a roadblock recently while trying to create a character using a reference found on deviant art. I've only ever dealt with characters that a…	4 Last	Mark Dygert Feb 2008
UV layout tips and tricks thread I thought I'd start a thread on this, as I've never come across anything that automates the process well. Maya's "layout UVs" is pretty crappy, although it can be a starting point to at least get you…	24 Last	sir-knight Feb 2008
XNormal and Max differences!? Here is the problem as you can see the normal rendered with Xnormal is messed up and i have no idea why is that!? [img]http://www.daxx-web.de/bilder/xnormalfail.jpg[/img] I allready tryed different v…	10 Last	Davision3D Feb 2008
Writing Letters I recently got picked up by a company as sort of a full time freelancer of sorts. I graduated this past December so I am a tad bit inexperienced still. Anyways, my question is this: I need to make …	3 Last	Richard Kain Feb 2008
hair alpha mapping yo just had a question about hair, I was wondering wats the best way to make hair, think long flowing hair, and i dont want to use hair particles in maya I rather model it or alpha it.	10 Last	TWilson Feb 2008
Next Gen 3D Painting Session @ GDC For those that plan to attend GDC in San Francisco and have an interest in 3D painting and production pipelines, I thought I would pass this along. This session is noteworthy not only because the con…	21 Last	sir-knight Feb 2008
Rendering an animation as a GIF in 3dsm I'm trying to render an animation as a gif in max,I only know how to do it as a video. I would convert the video to a gif, but that always comes out looking like crap.	9 Last	Sage Feb 2008
CrazyBump Beta 8.5 Denizens of Polycount: CrazyBump Beta 8.5 is ready for testing. This one makes better-looking normal maps. -New code makes a nicer blend of shape recognition with image detail. -Mixer combines no…	17 Last	Ryan Clark Feb 2008
Rigging for realtime meshes So I finally decided to update my knowledge about animating non vertex baked meshes (I know I am late [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] ). Thus I decided to have a look at the rigs from various…	10 Last	MoP Feb 2008
Building Houses - a few questions. I'll keep this simple. I am creating a few houses that will go into villages, I have photo reference for a few however would rather have some more incite on how to build them. I am creating them for …	4 Last	Oghar Feb 2008
How to make Windows show previews of tga? It has always bugged me that you can't see a preview of a tga file with the windows explorer in XP. Is there a way to make it show them like it does a jpg? Alex	3 Last	Sage Feb 2008
light trails hey there, does anyone know how to make a 'light trail' effect in maya? [img]http://www.amherst.k12.wi.us/USERWEBS/STUDENTS/2006/mathgryf/colored%20light%20trails.jpg[/img]	4 Last	erik! Feb 2008
Unreal Editor 3 Problem - Solved Solved Turns out laptop video card drivers aren't really 100% supported. Someone on the Beyond Unreal forums directed me to [url="http://www.laptopvideo2go.com"]www.laptopvideo2go.com[/url] for the…	4 Last	Saidin311 Feb 2008
Body paint flat view Quick question fellas, how do you take off the default lighting in bodypaint, i want to see my model like in Max's flat view. thanks in advance if you got an answer for me [img]/images/graemlins/smi…	2 Last	Master_v12 Feb 2008
Stupid Max Material Bug Simply put, all my materials are "hella bright", regardless of what scene I put anything in. Brand new scene? Super bright! The materials have the same values as the regular grey blinns, but have a m…	2 Last	Uly Feb 2008
GeForce6200 Maya 8.5 viewport issue... Im just wondering, if anyone else has a geforce 6200 like myself, its the AGP TurboCache 256 MB one, i use the XFX drivers, the high quality mode USED to work for me, but i tryed to play counter-stri…	2 Last	TheCollect Feb 2008
UT3 and smoothgroups I'm in the process of working up some modelled assets for a prototype but have hit this wall with how UT3 handles smooth groups on imported meshes that I can't figure out (it makes no sense); models …	5 Last	kat Feb 2008
CrazyBump Beta 8 Behold, ye counters of polygons... CrazyBump Beta 8! Code: -Undo & Redo, with infinite levels -New preview shapes -Refresh/Reload your source texture -Preview remembers yo…	28 Last	Ryan Clark Feb 2008
Cannot Assign Shaders in Maya This is driving me nuts! If I open Maya, and create a box for example. It has the Lambert assigned, if I assign it another shader it stays as a Lambert (but loses the connections to it, so adjustmen…	1 Last	Super Feb 2008
learning Modo (301), need some help I'm trying out modo atm, and have some questions maybe someone here can answer: 1. When I have a selection with a gizmo (move/rotate/transform) enabled I'm unable to deselect by just clicking outsid…	5 Last	EarthQuake Feb 2008
New to Max, question. Really basic question, but I cant seem to figure it out. How do I load my normal map on my material(Max 2008). When I open the Material editor I go to 'Maps' go to bump...then what? Well I don't ev…	6 Last	Tumerboy Feb 2008
Looking for a Tutorial on painting grunge layers Is there even such a thing? I don't need an explanation of what it is, I don't need to know that nothing is perfect and everything should have wear and tear (to some degree blah blah). As in a lot o…	4 Last	Eric Chadwick Feb 2008
Parallax mapping in 3dsmax/Mentalray Anyone know how to achieve a parallax mapping effect using 3dsmax's shaders, specifically for rendering with mental ray? Or a way to shift texture coordinates depending on camera angle.	9 Last	JordanW Feb 2008
Max UV Welding doesn't always work? So in max, I do some general unwrap of an object, and I have a mostly cohesive unwrap, with a few polys that got mapped weirdly. So I move them into position with the rest of the unwrap. I use snap…	2 Last	Tumerboy Feb 2008
eccentricity hey all, am trying out an eccentricity map but not working. is there a tutorial around? also, can anyone help me with some maps that would make a nice shiny super reflective plastic? takka!	11 Last	hula Feb 2008
So how much DO you know about your programs? Every so often, I'll start fiddling around in 3DS Max 5.1 and find something completely and utterly alien to me, and I'll realize just how little I really know about it - and the same goes for Photos…	66 Last	rooster Feb 2008