Noob 3dMax Q's, stuff I used to do in Maya

alexk

I'm trying to make a simple window frame with a round top. In Maya, I used to use the bridge function between my two highlighted edges in the pic below, and it would connect them and add nice editable curve. How do I do something similar in Max? I've tried Max's bridge tool, but it doesn't seem to work properly(?) When I use it in the below example, I get a flat mess between my selected edges that I want to brigde.. thanks




And another question.. how do I change the default colors, shading, wireframe on shaded, ect, so that they are not such eyesores? for example..



Maya's was a nice grey with dark lines for the wireframe on shaded and it wasn't so damn shiny!

Eric Chadwick

Re #2, http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?p=756025#post756025

Eric Chadwick

About #1, I don't do this kind of thing much, but I don't think anything is as easy as Maya for this. A couple options...

a. Make a Tube primitive with Slice on, then attach it. Hard to match sizes though.

b. Make a half-circle spline, then Cap one of the open ends of your window frame, and use Extrude Along Spline. Circle radius has to be same as the distance between the centers of the two holes.

c. Cap one of the open ends, use Hinge From Edge. This requires you to have a pre-existing edge in the exact middle of the span to Hinge from, but that's not hard to make (snap-copy the bottom face, and divide it).

renderhjs

#1
select one of the 2 faces,- hit shift + drag it to the center so that 1 edge of it is in the center of the window - check copy to element when you release the mouse button.

Now select again 1 of the 2 faces you have selected in the screenshot and hit the "hinge from edge button". In that dialogue click the select edge/hinge and select the edge of the before copied face that is in the middle of the object.
Adjust in the dialogue the arch angle (180° in your case) and the intersections like 16

now just collapse the 2 faces that are facing each other on top by hitting [ctrl] + [vertex mode icon] to convert the selection to vertices and switching back to face mode ([4]-key)- delete the faces ([del]-key), switching back to vertex mode ([1]-key) and weld the 8 vertices.

this usually just takes just a few clicks, once done you can delete the face that was copied in the first step for the edge reference in the middle.

#2
hit ctrl+L to switch default lighting on and off. Usually if you have custom lights in the scene objects get to light or dark shaded- this will ignore your lights and use instead a default light that is at the same position as the camera or view.
I wrote myself a script that assignes a default grey on my modeling meshes,- greyish blue works also very nice

alexk

Eric: thanks for the script, it's exactly what I wanted. For my window, I realised my problem was I kept trying to do what I usually do in Maya. So instead of trying to replicate a Maya bridge, I made a long box with some divisions, added a bend modifier to bend it downward, then extruded out the legs straight down and used the Slice Plane to cut the holes for my bottom sill. Then I just extruded one side to the other and target weld them, and presto, I got my window with a round top

alexk

renderhjs wrote: »

#1
select one of the 2 faces,- hit shift + drag it to the center so that 1 edge of it is in the center of the window - check copy to element when you release the mouse button.

Now select again 1 of the 2 faces you have selected in the screenshot and hit the "hinge from edge button". In that dialogue click the select edge/hinge and select the edge of the before copied face that is in the middle of the object.
Adjust in the dialogue the arch angle (180° in your case) and the intersections like 16

now just collapse the 2 faces that are facing each other on top by hitting [ctrl] + [vertex mode icon] to convert the selection to vertices and switching back to face mode ([4]-key)- delete the faces ([del]-key), switching back to vertex mode ([1]-key) and weld the 8 vertices.

this usually just takes just a few clicks, once done you can delete the face that was copied in the first step for the edge reference in the middle.

ohh this looks nice, I tried it, I think I may have messed up a step but I think this will do what I want, thanks!

alexk

another question.. is there a way to slow down the scaling tool? right now, it seems to be really jumpy and hard to control when doing some finer adjustments

renderhjs

perhaps F12 where you get the transform type in box (while still beeing in scale mode [R]-key ),- where you have the "spinners" to the right of each input field- with those you can adjust the values on a more accurate level.

might post a screenshot tutorial of what I wrote earlier with the next post

carlo_c

Theres 3 boxes near the bottom of the window which should control the value of the scale when you have the scale tool selected. Thats the only way I know when doing fine adjustments. They'll also work wiith the move and rotate tool.

renderhjs

ah yes,- probably the same as the F12 box, except that in the F12 interface you can adjust world scale values

alexk

both of those scale suggestions helped, thanks!

another question, I messed around with the material editor and I understand that I use MetalBump to plug in my normal map. But where do I plug in my spec map? I tried putting it into the Specular section of the metalbump but the result is very blown out compared to my actual spec map. Is 3d max able to show realtime spec maps?

Eric Chadwick

Don't use MetalBump.
http://wiki.polycount.net/Normal_Map#ShadersAndSeams

alexk

I'm having very weird problems with Ben Cloward's simple normal map shader as well as Max's included DiffuseBump. My diffuse texture either becomes extremely stretched vertically, turn black, or just doesn't seem to show in the viewport.

Just to make sure my steps are correct for using fx shaders, here are my steps:

I assign an unused material to my model
I click "Standard" and then choose "DirectX Shader"
I choose "Discard old Material" when it asks me
I load Ben's simple normal map shader
My light position is "Default light"
I then load up my diffuse and normal map

Here's a screen cap of my results:

Eric Chadwick

If the light is at the upper left, then you need to invert both the Red and Green channels of the normal map.

Not sure what the problem is with your diffuse. Could be a weird TGA format? Try saving an ARGB DDS instead, see if that solves it.
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html

Also make sure you are using power-of-two resolutions for your bitmaps (512, 1024, 2048, etc.)

alexk

quick new question, in Maya there is "pick walk", which basically, is after you selected an edge loop you can press left or right arrow key and it will select the next corresponding edge loop. Is there anything like that in Max?