Quick and easy Max question

Tom Ellis

Hey there,

After checking out the Maya 2011 demo (which is pretty good) I'm liking the gradient background in the viewport. Is there any way to set Max viewports to show a gradient background by default? I'm sure I've seen it done but I can't find the answer.

Cheers

Eric Chadwick

Yep, put a gradient map in the viewport background, then save as C: \Documents and Settings\<yourname>\My Documents\3dsmax\scenes\maxstart.max

Tom Ellis

Excellent, many thanks Eric!

Eric Chadwick

Takes a bit of fiddling to get it to work... if you use the Gradient Ramp map type instead of a bitmap, you'll get a smoother result, but it'll take longer to switch viewport sizes (since Max has to generate a new bitmap from the gradient).

1. Add a Gradient Ramp to the material editor.
2. Set the W Angle to 90 (black end is now bottom of screen)
3. Set the map's Coordinates rollout to Enviro: Screen
4. Open the Rendering menu and choose Environment.
5. Drag the map into the Env Map slot, choose Instance.
6. Open the Views menu, Viewport Background > Viewport Background.
7. Tick "Use Env. Bkg.", and tick "Display Bkg.", and OK.

elte

quick and easy max question too..

In max I notice u can have several viewport but same ortho camera (top,side, front,etc), like this..



notice the top can have different zoom and view.

Q: Does it add camera in the scene management like maya (side1, front1) or there's no additional camera added?

1 more Q, I use alt+mmb to orbit perspective view, when I have camera selected, is thr any shortcut to do that? it's botherin I have to hover my mouse and click on the button on corner bottom right, counterproductive!

Thanks.

Eric Chadwick

No cameras are created for orthographic or Perspective views. Max can convert a Perspective view into a camera if you want, using the View menu.

There's no mouse shortcut, but there is a keyboard shortcut for turning on "Pan Camera Mode." Unfortunately the button has two settings (Pan and Orbit) and the shortcut merely activates the button, so it will use whatever mode you used last (Pan is the default).

There's also the move mode, which is holding down MMB and moving the mouse. Moves the camera in a plane perpendicular to its viewing vector.

Mark Dygert

For adjusting cameras without targets I turn on walk through mode, it basically turns the viewport into a First Person Shooter, I bound this to shift-C but its normall accessible through the little foot print icon in the lower right.

WASD move the camera around, might need Keyboard Shortcut Override turned on.
LMB looks around.
RMB exits the mode.

yiannisk

uhm you simply need to press the arrow up

Eric Chadwick

Oooh, Walkthrough is so much better. Though the up arrow actually moves the cam forward a bit. I found it worked better for me to assign a hotkey to Walkthrough Assistant, which enters FPS mode but doesn't move the cam first.

elte

Woah, didn't know about that, actually I knew this earlier but I didn't realize it. Thanks @eric, @yiannisk, @vig for reminding me...oooooooo the steering wheel LOL...