Technical Talk

Topic	Replies	Latest Post
UVW mapping for Normal + AO maps Hi, When Unwrapping UV's sometimes its good to share similar areas of the model with same UV space. Bearing this in mind, can I get away with this for creating AO and Normal Maps, or do I have to un…	7 Last	Eric Chadwick Feb 2007
Real time GI, subdiv surfaces, displacement maps Anyone of you know anything about the "Fantasy Engine"? A real time engine with GI, subdivision surfaces and displacement mapping? Sounds great but I want to see a whole game running in this engine, …	5 Last	malcolm Feb 2007
Maya Lighting - Light Fog I don't know what in the hell just happened, but I was breaking and making some light links to different parts of my scene, when suddenly every light has a super thick light fog. When I go into the l…	2 Last	Tulkamir Feb 2007
Normal Map differences!? Hi all Im visiting this forum for a long while now. I finally decided to make something that i can also post here. Im in the progress makeing a nextgen game character. But i have a problem with norma…	17 Last	jogshy Jan 2007
3ds Max and rig? I was wondering if there's any good tutorials out there for quick rigging in 3ds max, and which does everyone prefer using CS biped or just bones? or what ever else anyone using that seems to work th…	7 Last	low odor Jan 2007
NEED HELP! Light Ray Model Blocking Weapon Effects First off thanks for your time, I hope someone knows what the solution to this is I would be very grateful. Okay I have an elaborate overhead lamp. What I'm trying to do is create light rays using a …	3 Last	armagon9177 Jan 2007
Mudbox, normal map? Is it possible to render a normal map directly in mudbox? Like I import my low poly mesh with uv's and then sub div it, add details etc. And then 'render' a normal map for it.	14 Last	Pingpang Jan 2007
Maya 8 Mental Ray - not available in scene Alright, it's 3 months and I still havn't been able to fix Maya's stupid videocard compatiblility issue. You've heard this from me several times, and this'll be the last, hopefully. In november I re…	4 Last	Makkon Jan 2007
Rig Test .bip file Anyone know where I can download a rig test animation for biped..? [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]	0 Last	low odor Jan 2007
Grid, unit, snap settings for 3ds max to Unreal? Howdy folks. I need to know the grid, unit, snap settings that I should use in max so things will align properly in Unreal2k4 when I export them. thanks. EDIT: seems I've found the grid settings. Gr…	2 Last	erik! Jan 2007
Polycrunch equivalent for Maya 7? I'm looking for a plugin or program that will achieve the same effect of the polycrunch tool for 3dsmax. I would like to import my high poly mudbox models into maya in order to construct the low pol…	4 Last	fmnoor Jan 2007
Virtual Displacement Mapping i was bored, so i wanted to show something that i thought was interesting [url="http://www.geocities.com/vi_pr/virtual_displacement_mapping/virtual_displacement_mapping.htm"]http://www.geocities.com…	2 Last	CrazyButcher Jan 2007
Help with unwrapping in Gmax I need some help with figuring out how to UVW unwrap objects in Gmax. I can't even unwrap a cylinder. Anyone want to help, or know of any tutorials?	3 Last	Lord McMutton Jan 2007
Best XSI shader to date. Mostly because i had no idea it was possible but "benr" never does cease to amaze me. [url="http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=29;action=display;threadid=28834"]http://www.xsibase.com/foru…	6 Last	Jarrod1937 Jan 2007
So... Vista Ultimate x64 and Max9 = nonono been trying to bend my head around how to get Max 9 64 (and 32 for that matter)bit to run on vista ultimate 64bit. neither want to work at all.	5 Last	Ben Cloward Jan 2007
Zbrush - Occlusion maps Anyone know how to create an occlusion map in Zbrush?	1 Last	Mongrelman Jan 2007
art books Hi I'm just looking for suggestions on a couple art books. If anyone can suggest anything that would be great. So far I'm thinking about these two, as they are inexpensive. [url="http://www.amazo…	16 Last	nomichi Jan 2007
need hints on modeling a human head hi, I am new to organic modeling and I am trying to model a human head using a photo reference. At this time, I am on a deadpoint, where I see many errors on the model, but don't actually know how to…	5 Last	Rhinokey Jan 2007
help! 3dsmax, animatable high poly text problem need this asap.. thought I had it cracked but problems occurring. I have a spline in the shape of some text, need it high poly bevelled edges with good topology for animation/deformation.. heres the…	4 Last	rooster Jan 2007
skin shader problem I'm a noob at using shaders, so I'm having some trouble with JStyles newest skin shader. Here's an image of the result I'm getting: [img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v617/teknobabel/shaderhel…	6 Last	Technobabel Jan 2007
Problem with Maya Hello guys. I'm making a model but i ran into some troubles.after i softend the normals of the head,i saw some hard edges around the ear.when i imported the model into deep exploration,the models ear…	2 Last	movento Jan 2007
Remember these days? Remember back in the 90's when there were "polygonal" type games out such as Alone in the Dark and Virtua Fighter? I was wondering if there is a way to achieve a similar look ... basically the polyg…	38 Last	Slash Jan 2007
EdgeChEx really nice plug for mechanical modelin this is a really nice chamfering modifier, it keeps all quads with the nice cube corners. its perfect for highpoly mechanical modeling, just block out your mass, add an edgechex modifier on top(make …	8 Last	adam Jan 2007
Face map - tutorial Hi , well , few days ago I've been searching for some tutorial about the export of a character model into HL 2 and I've found [url="http://www.noesisinteractive.com/"][b]noesisinteractive[/b][/url] -…	11 Last	diZzyWalnut Jan 2007
Photoshop Hot Keys - Color Picker? Does anyone know if there is a hotkey in Photoshop to bring up the color picker palette? I am not talking about the eye dropper but the dialog window with the sliders for choosing a color. Thanks.	6 Last	AstroZombie Jan 2007
vid card direct x woes I Hae a nvidia 7300LE in my machine at work , which is a pretty new decent card. The problem is that when I enable direct x in max the material has a blue glow to it. I have tried every driver , but …	11 Last	Ruz Jan 2007
Mudbox crashing on (first) stroke I kind of experience an, to me, unsolvable problem. I worked on a model, saved it to .mud and tried opening it today. It does load the model into the viewport, but then if I hit the first stroke, it…	6 Last	pior Jan 2007
3ds max's directx9 material... i recently heard about this, i guess you cna use it to view normal mapping as you work in the viewport, and for me this would be quite nice. however i can't seem to get it working, what are the steps…	1 Last	MoP Jan 2007
particle view there seems to be a node in my max scene called 'particle view 01'. I want rid of it as its causing me problems with my scene exporter. Any way of geting rid of it, or is it part of every scene chee…	3 Last	Ruz Jan 2007
App to split up and print huge images? I'm looking for an application that will take an enormous image, split it up into however many separate 8.5x11 chunks it takes to print it out at the size I specify, and save them out to print. Anyon…	5 Last	Slum Jan 2007
Water in Maya Hey, I need to make some small puddles of stagnant/still water, so nothing really fancy, just a fairly reflective material. However, I can't seem to get it working. What's the best way to go about ma…	0 Last	Tulkamir Jan 2007
Low poly for Normal Map. Some problems. Hi all, I'm trying to make a low poly model to fit my high poly and apply a normal map on it. I have read some tips here and there, and tried to make my low poly. I didn't have any problem with the e…	5 Last	Rhinokey Jan 2007
Hair Tutorial Anyone knows of a good hair tutorial??	8 Last	Eric Chadwick Jan 2007
Some issues using Johny's seam elimination method So I'm trying to use that super useful baking technique that Johny wrote the article for on Gamasutra. Heres the link: [url="http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061019/kojesta_01.shtml"]http://www…	7 Last	gavku Jan 2007
Low to High poly unwrapping question Hey all, I'm mainly a lurker but could use a bit of help. I modelled a bunch of objects in Max 8 and took them into ZBrush for detailing. Afterwords, I realized that for a couple I had forgotten to…	5 Last	Jaco Jan 2007
How to open a .mesh file Do you guys know how to open a .mesh file? The extension is .mesh	2 Last	Pedro Amorim Jan 2007
Detail Maps..? I was wondering if anyone could explain to me what detail maps are, and what material slot you would place them in(3DS Max)? I haven't ran across this type of map before. Any help much appreciated.	4 Last	Em. Jan 2007
programmers... rule of thumb on programmers.. 1. if a programmer adds a useful feature, its most likely by accident, and will be fixed in the next version. 2.telling programmers what to fix is a game of whack-a- …	22 Last	xysdf Jan 2007
Rigging 101 Sorry if this has been posted before, I did a search and couldnt find anything.. I was just wondering if anyone knows where to start with rigging, eg tutorials and stuff. I have never done any befor…	11 Last	Blaizer Jan 2007
How to make specular maps So tell me, what are your ways? I just draw it as a new layer over the diffuse map or the UVW template with the colors i need.	5 Last	zenarion Jan 2007
Asking advice Can anyone point me in the right direction to some books and other reading material that can aid me with my 3D modelling and texturing skills for games. I mainly use 3ds max though I do use Maya fro…	2 Last	Tulkamir Jan 2007
Maya Smoothing error I'm sure this is just one of Maya's quirks that I haven't learned how to deal with yet, but whenever I try to Smooth a polygon mesh, it selects all the faces of the model, but doesn't smooth anything…	6 Last	Slipstream Jan 2007
Max Script for setting up RTT seam fix chanels Used the Macro recorder to automate switching up all the uv chanels when you're using the rtt seam fix method described here: [url="http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061019/kojesta_01.shtml"]http:/…	1 Last	Mark Dygert Jan 2007
Schematic Material Editor for 3ds Max i love love love schematic interfaces! there are a few of these out there, this one seems nice as it work with most all shaders, even 3rd party stuff. fans of maya's hypershade will like this as wel…	1 Last	JordanW Jan 2007
mudbox tips now that mudbox is out, (i purchased mine over the weekend!) i was wanting to start a thread for people to post tips and techniques for it, i really havent used it enough to develope any,, but l…	17 Last	Rhinokey Jan 2007
High poly modeling question (for normal maps) When modeling hard-edged geometry for subdivision (polygon modeling, not Sub-D) one thing that I'm still not clear on is what to do with all the extra edges you need to maintain the hard angle after …	4 Last	KevinCoyle Jan 2007
low poly hands Any body feel like giving some advice on making some nice hands for low poly models? Always a difficult part for me. Maybe just post up some shots of the ones you like to use as a base? Thanks [img]/…	17 Last	SkullboX Jan 2007
Lightwave Unwrapper Plugin Hey guys, I found this unwrap plugin for lightwave and I though I should share it! [url="http://homepage2.nifty.com/nif-hp/index2_english.htm"]http://homepage2.nifty.com/nif-hp/index2_english.htm[/u…	12 Last	James Edwards Jan 2007
Zbrush Normals and Max Unwrap? Plz Help. I'm an animation student and decided to use zbrush for the normal mapping of my low poly characters for use in my final project. The normal maps worked great its just now I realize that I cannot unw…	8 Last	rooster Jan 2007
Weird Question. Clay process for 3D graphix render Hello, this is my first post. I recently wrote and copyrighted a comic book series, and 2 companies have shown interest. I was told by an expert in the field to make clay models of the characters t…	8 Last	Steve Schulze Jan 2007