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I've been using the Skin modifier at work and it would be mighty useful if there was a mean of testing how verts are being moved about without the ballache of coming out of skin and then clicking on the button to get the character animating- is this possible or am I just being a lazy git?
[/ QUOTE ] Skin or Die has a toolset for this. Pretty cool actually.
Another way that I test skins is to set up a quickie animation first, then start adjusting weights to that. You can play/scrub the animation while editing the skin. Really helpful for the difficult bits like armpits and asses.
Aye, it does look rather nice, and I gave it a try a few days back after checking this thread out.
The biggest problem I have though is that I'm hamstrung by the fact I'm using Max 5.1- using any later versions is out of the question Also I can't have the final mesh state set as editable poly but hopefully this plugin will become more useful in the future
I'm using it in 5.1 for a year or so without problems. But yeah it does require Editable Poly. Bio Skin does some similar things with Skin, works in 5.1, and requires Editable Mesh. Might try that...
Illustrate! is probably the one you're thinking of, Hawken, it's a really good and versatile toon/technical illustration renderer.
You can do cel shading style in Max5 and above with the Ink 'N' Paint material type, straight out of the box. At least I think it was version 5, might have been Max6 they added that material...
Ghost_rider FYI if you have access to max 8 you might not have a need for skinordie. I found the new selection tools among other things that come stock in 8 now to work just great when rigging. Just one less script to install. Good luck.
The author of Skin Or Die is now hosting his scripts on Scriptspot. He added a couple fixes I asked for, namely saving my custom window layouts. If you have any feedback, be sure to let him know, he's quick with updates. And you can't beat free software!
I am looking for that utility that will take a .XPR file (or is it a .dds file? ) and extract the wire frame 3D Object and let you inject it back in. Any ideas?
CoolPicker is a nice replacement for the standard color picker in Max. Some interface pics here.
A friend didn't have this, so I thought I'd mention it again. Also it's been upgraded since then. After restarting Max, go to Preferences > General and you can turn it on via the Color Selector dropdown.
this maxscript allows you to directly open a bitmap texture for the selected object (although it doesn't work with multi-sub-object materials)
i suppose it might be possible to modify it, so that it opens the materials of multiple selected objects. or multi-subs.
HELLO EVERYBODY!!! (Dr Nick from the simpsons impressionation. :P)
Well, i was wondering.. Is there any tool for max, for automating lightmapping generation?
What i mean is.. Like, you only have to set up your light scheme, and then call the script and he will automate the generation of the lightmaps putting them on the correct slot and stuff.
I dont know if im making myself clear, because you will porbably say for me to use the render to texture feature. And i will say. Thats cool. but instead of that, someone could do a script even more simpler for lightbaking.
exactly the uvs are the part that i dont quite get it. i.e, for example. i use a 128x128 grass texture on a plane with 4x4 segments. and then apply a uvw map set to face.
This is all fine and dandy. but for example, if i want to render a lightmap of that plane, i dont know how to do it since its uvs are set to face.
Is there a way or im just being an ass?
Typically the lightmap is on another UV channel, and the color and lightmaps are blended together in realtime.
I don't know of any tools that do it. I wouldn't use render to texture since it actually bakes the two materials together, and will use more texture space.
Strange... I find Max's RTT does this fine, in fact it does a great job IMO. It'll bake to any UV channel you want, and has a lightmap output option, so it only bakes out lighting without the colormap/etc. There are other tools though that just bake lighting. You might try giles, or maybe Blender. I dunno, I don't do much lightmapping these days.
Generally the way to make lightmaps is you create a few (or one) lightmaps that are shared by many (or all) of the objects in the game level. You pack all those objects' 2nd UV channels into a single UV set, which they then all share. A pic of that kind of packing here. http://www.blackpawn.com/texts/lightmaps/default.html
So your grass piece would end up bing a single tiny qquad in there. All surfaces in the game level need a unique section of the lightmap.
Yo. So yeah. I was being a dork. :P
I made 2 sets of uvs, one in each channel. and BAM! it worked.
I was wondering, there was a script i downloaded some time ago, which took a screenhsot eveery X minutes or seconds of the active viewport and saved it automaticly to the Images folder. That was neat. But. what im wondering is.. is there any script that for exampple, you can set up a camera in the scene, and then even if your working in the perpective, it takes a screenshot of the camera view every x times. THis would be cooller cause this way the model would remain in the same position and we would see the detailing being done. good for making gif animations. if there isnt a script already made.. is this simple enough for being made?
I found it with a quick search in the Cameras section of Scriptspot. Handy tip: I always hit the Sort By: 3ds Version first, helps weed out the old ones, anything max4 or older probably won't work in max8.
Hey Eric thanks for the tip. That blur script is neat. But not exactly what i was thining about because what the script does is doing a render of what the camera is viewing every X minutes. What i was thinking was having it take a screenshot. Maybe its easy to change the script i dont know. what do you think?
Not a Max plugin, but this should be sticky. new nvidia normalmap filter & dds saver
Nvidia still hasn't updated their installer. I'll edit this post once they do.
Yes, but I'd rather not have another app in the pipeline, and I'd also rather not spend $150
I might be able to get one of the programmers here to write one actually...
Awhile back I posted my an overview of work flow for making levels in 3DS Max. A few people asked me for the tool I use to scatter trees around and instead of digging up the script each time and mailing it off I figured I would post the link and take the lazy way out and point to this post =P
Advanced Painter 1.5.1 http://www.scriptspot.com/start.asp?p=download&ID=1955
I use this script to place trees, rocks, debris ect.
This allows you to add any object to a que then randomly scatter those objects using the paint feature over the surface of another. It comes preloaded with a few paint objects the one I like to use the most is a line generator, it works great for painting hoses, wires, pipes ect on the ground. Normally I don't use the mesh it creates but bake the hose into the texture. Play with it see if you like it, I love it and would be crippled without it
Seems faster to me, but that may just be because Blendmodes allows quick swapping of the modes. I like that it uses the Photoshop names, and has ALL of them. Plus it has the amount spinners.
sciAnaComp doesn't have Color Burn, Linear Dodge, etc., only has two map slots, has a busier interface.
This is a -very- small script I wrote that will import all of the .obj files in a given folder without throwing up the import options dialog. It's handy for bringing in a model that's in lots of pieces. If you have any suggestions for additional features or you see a bug (I'm a rookie) please let me know!
Replies
I've been using the Skin modifier at work and it would be mighty useful if there was a mean of testing how verts are being moved about without the ballache of coming out of skin and then clicking on the button to get the character animating- is this possible or am I just being a lazy git?
[/ QUOTE ] Skin or Die has a toolset for this. Pretty cool actually.
Here's a screenshot of most of the tools.
http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/files/SkinOrDie2.03.jpg
The "test bone deform" window on the left is the one that does this.
Hmmm, looks like Andre's site is dead. Here's a mirror of the latest version I have, at least until his site pops back up.
http://www.ericchadwick.com/examples/files/SkinOrDie_2005.03.15.mzp
Another way that I test skins is to set up a quickie animation first, then start adjusting weights to that. You can play/scrub the animation while editing the skin. Really helpful for the difficult bits like armpits and asses.
The biggest problem I have though is that I'm hamstrung by the fact I'm using Max 5.1- using any later versions is out of the question
Thanks for the help anyways
-R
I had one years ago, fuck knows what it was called.
You can do cel shading style in Max5 and above with the Ink 'N' Paint material type, straight out of the box. At least I think it was version 5, might have been Max6 they added that material...
http://www.scriptspot.com/andrehotz/
Basically, it morphs a mesh to the surface of another. And let me tell you that it works as a charm.
head on to http://www.scriptspot.com/download.asp?ID=3131
Cheers
We've actually licensed that app for our next game.
http://www.maxplugins.de/max8.php?search=.x
I'm not sure what you're asking for.
nice to place "details" on your highpoly model for normalmap baking
works even in max7
A friend didn't have this, so I thought I'd mention it again. Also it's been upgraded since then. After restarting Max, go to Preferences > General and you can turn it on via the Color Selector dropdown.
this maxscript allows you to directly open a bitmap texture for the selected object (although it doesn't work with multi-sub-object materials)
i suppose it might be possible to modify it, so that it opens the materials of multiple selected objects. or multi-subs.
cybroxide: max freehandtools (fht) might be what you are looking for
zweek: That's the russian developer's site, the plugin is available there (in the list on the left).
I'm sure its something I'm not doing right...
Thanks!!!
Well, i was wondering.. Is there any tool for max, for automating lightmapping generation?
What i mean is.. Like, you only have to set up your light scheme, and then call the script and he will automate the generation of the lightmaps putting them on the correct slot and stuff.
I dont know if im making myself clear, because you will porbably say for me to use the render to texture feature. And i will say. Thats cool. but instead of that, someone could do a script even more simpler for lightbaking.
RTT does have an auto-put-to-material option (which I never use, since it voids our game output workflow. could change that, but whatever).
The biggest PITA is UVs for lightmaps, IMHO.
This is all fine and dandy. but for example, if i want to render a lightmap of that plane, i dont know how to do it since its uvs are set to face.
Is there a way or im just being an ass?
I don't know of any tools that do it. I wouldn't use render to texture since it actually bakes the two materials together, and will use more texture space.
Generally the way to make lightmaps is you create a few (or one) lightmaps that are shared by many (or all) of the objects in the game level. You pack all those objects' 2nd UV channels into a single UV set, which they then all share. A pic of that kind of packing here.
http://www.blackpawn.com/texts/lightmaps/default.html
So your grass piece would end up bing a single tiny qquad in there. All surfaces in the game level need a unique section of the lightmap.
Here's an old thread that has a maxscript for baking a bunch of objects at once. Might help you. I haven't tried it.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=211985
I made 2 sets of uvs, one in each channel. and BAM! it worked.
I was wondering, there was a script i downloaded some time ago, which took a screenhsot eveery X minutes or seconds of the active viewport and saved it automaticly to the Images folder. That was neat. But. what im wondering is.. is there any script that for exampple, you can set up a camera in the scene, and then even if your working in the perpective, it takes a screenshot of the camera view every x times. THis would be cooller cause this way the model would remain in the same position and we would see the detailing being done. good for making gif animations. if there isnt a script already made.. is this simple enough for being made?
http://www.neilblevins.com/blurscripts/blurscripts.htm
I found it with a quick search in the Cameras section of Scriptspot. Handy tip: I always hit the Sort By: 3ds Version first, helps weed out the old ones, anything max4 or older probably won't work in max8.
Good luck!
Edit... here's a script I vaguely remember, Viewport Grabber. Get it here: http://www.scriptspot.com/andrehotz/, also a discussion about it here: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=115077&page=1&pp=15
There was also one Borislav "Bobo" Petrov wrote a while back, I can't find it, but you might be able to.
new nvidia normalmap filter & dds saver
Nvidia still hasn't updated their installer. I'll edit this post once they do.
I might be able to get one of the programmers here to write one actually...
Advanced Painter 1.5.1
http://www.scriptspot.com/start.asp?p=download&ID=1955
I use this script to place trees, rocks, debris ect.
This allows you to add any object to a que then randomly scatter those objects using the paint feature over the surface of another. It comes preloaded with a few paint objects the one I like to use the most is a line generator, it works great for painting hoses, wires, pipes ect on the ground. Normally I don't use the mesh it creates but bake the hose into the texture. Play with it see if you like it, I love it and would be crippled without it
http://www.maxplugins.de/
Nothing fancy, not as pretty as MapLayers, but it's free.
Nicer alternative to sciAnaComp, same basic idea as MapLayers... except it's free...
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is it faster than sciAnaComp?
sciAnaComp doesn't have Color Burn, Linear Dodge, etc., only has two map slots, has a busier interface.
I have the src for sciAnaComp if you want to tweak those into it.