3ds max's version of maya's make live

Macattackk

hey so im mainly a maya user, though im starting to use 3ds max as well.

one thing i heavily use general 3d programs like those for is creating my game model from my high poly

i export all the parts from zbrush at around division 3 where i have the main details but there arent too many polys for maya/max to handle.

i then import these medium resolution meshes and, when using maya, i make it live and start building my mesh from that. making it live ensures that my game model is exactly aligned with my high poly because i can snap vertices to its surface.

i did some research on max's version of this and the best i came up with is snapping to a frozen object, where id make my medium res import frozen and snap to it. the problem is this only snaps to the frozen object's vertices whereas maya's snaps to the whole entire surface of whatever object is live which is smooth and awesome. is there another way to accomplish this in max?

SsSandu_C

There are lots of scripts for max for retopologizing your mesh. If you have a more recent version of max(2010 up) you can use the graphite modeling tools. Go to the freeform tab and select On surface and choose your object on which you want to add your new polygons. If you have an older version then you can use this(free) or other like Wrapit(commercial) or polyboost(commercial) or any other script you might find. I think you should try out deciamtion master(included in zbrush4 r2)for zbrush so you dont have to work with a really dense mesh within max.

Macattackk

ah thank you those scripts look awesome, and yea the on the surface thing is exactly what i was talking about.

Macattackk

alright well ill keep all my 3ds max problems in one thread for good measure.

i just did an undo on a weld and now my model has dark stripe graphical errors on it.

i also am also pressing smooth in the graphite modeling tools and some edges are remaining hard.

any idea on how to fix these?

edit: well i put an edit normal modifier on it and unified the normals. it seems max doesnt do a great job knowing where to face the normals after certain commands.