does 3ds max have mayas f8 functionality

Animas

I'm making character hair using cards.
The tutorial I'm following is doing this in maya while I'm on max. The author did two steps that seems to be rather maya specific, wonder if anyone could help locating the same functionality on max.

First thing he did was making cards that are 6 polies behave like it was quite subdivided (he mentioned optimization will follow later). I think that function was something like f2 or f3 in maya (don't have it, can't check if true).
I managed to recreate that by using turbosmooth or use nurms subdivision in edit poly modifier.
So far so good.

But the second step i can't think of effective and nondestructive way to achieve. I need to be able to move several objects vertexes (f8 in maya).
I know that I can add edit poly modifier on several objects and move them, but when I collapse edit poly I get the mesh that already has all the vertexes from turbosmooth/nurms. I also tried not to collapse but I see the mesh and textures quite quickly becomes messed up.
The last resort option i found is to add several needed cards as elements and then hide unhide them as  needed, but that only helps when wanting to move several objects vertexes and makes individual cards adjustment tedious.

So is there some similar functionality for the described maya behavior ?

pxgeek

Not sure if I follow %100...but you're using edit poly below the turbosmooth modifier right?

If so you could just collapse to that modifier and keep turbosmooth in the stack (right click menu).

Animas

Yes i tried that and it didnt work, when addedit poly on several objects and then collapse to or collapse all (tried both) the result is that all the geometry from turbosmooth is merged into both separate ones. I would need to do a lot of manual clean up, given that this is still creation phase where i should be able to easily switch from editing vertexes of each separate card to editing two or more objects vertexes thats a total no go.
Managed to get some screenies from maya and max so maybe that will help to describe what im getting stuck on. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LU8iPN-y9aVlAGWTQ6iB_pjEuKORIpMV/view

pxgeek

Animas said:

Yes i tried that and it didnt work, when addedit poly on several objects and then collapse to or collapse all (tried both) the result is that all the geometry from turbosmooth is merged into both separate ones.

That shouldn't be happening if your using a turbosmooth modifier.

I think whats happening is your using the nurms subdivision inside the sub-object properties. If you use that option and collapse your stack, max is going to bake those subdivisions down, which you don't want.

Try it using just the turbosmooth modifier- un-check the "use nurms" toggle.

Eric Chadwick

Another nice trick in Max is to use instanced modifiers. Select all the Editable Poly models (with no modifier stacks, just to keep it clean though, not a strict requirement) and add an Edit Poly modifier, and a Turbosmooth modifier. Now you can edit individually or altogether using that Edit Poly. You can also Collapse To on the instanced Edit Poly, or select all and delete the instanced Turbosmooth.

Animas

pxgeek said:

That shouldn't be happening if your using a turbosmooth modifier.

I think whats happening is your using the nurms subdivision inside the sub-object properties. If you use that option and collapse your stack, max is going to bake those subdivisions down, which you don't want.

Try it using just the turbosmooth modifier- un-check the "use nurms" toggle.

As I showed in picture I did try one version with nurms and other with turbosmooth, both didnt work.
Please take a look at little gif video I made to illustrate the results. Maybe I'm doing some step wrong or something.
https://imgur.com/a/EJDBvA3

Eric Chadwick said:

Another nice trick in Max is to use instanced modifiers. Select all the Editable Poly models (with no modifier stacks, just to keep it clean though, not a strict requirement) and add an Edit Poly modifier, and a Turbosmooth modifier. Now you can edit individually or altogether using that Edit Poly. You can also Collapse To on the instanced Edit Poly, or select all and delete the instanced Turbosmooth.

Took a bit of trying and rereading your comment, but I think I managed to achieve what you described.
It kinda works, will give it a try while waiting for pxgeeks or other replies.
https://imgur.com/a/Yaz1GQA
Is there a way for cage to not become "wild" after some time?

Eric Chadwick

It's better to embed your images directly here on Polycount (just drag and drop!)

Imgur is saying they're over capacity or something.

Animas

Ok, was pretty sure that link worked, but I'll try embeding as you suggested.

So this is the gif from last post for pxgeek . 

And this one from last post for Eric Chadwick . As I said it kind of works and I'll try to use this and see how it goes, but is there a way to make the cage less wild? As I understand I probably have to make the major work on the individual cards and only do "small touchups" on the multiple selected cards since it seems the individual cages(lower stacks) doesn't follow the multiple cards (top of the stack) geometry so if I move the upper stacks points a lot (wouldn't call it extreme thou) the bottom cage will still be relatively straight. Once again, not a deal breaker, but wondering if something can be done about it.

pxgeek

That first gif- you're applying edit poly on top of turbosmooth, so when you collapse stack, it's collapsing those extra subdivisions.

The second gif you have edit poly under turbosmooth...so it's working like you want it too.

I don't see anything weird with the cage display until you're using another edit poly on top of turbosmooth with isoline display on...which is going cause problems.

It's not generally "best practice" to use edit topology on top of turbosmooth, so I would avoid it if you can.