switching from maya to max

Stertman · Dec 2009

Hey all..

Im in the situatio where i need to convert myself from maya to 3dsmax.
Trying to make this as smooth as i can and therefore i wonder if anyone knows any good tutorial or such where you easy can see where the important modeling tools in maya are located in 3ds max?

used 3ds max 2 years ago so dont think it will be too hard..

is there anything like this out there?

thanks for any help

Cheers..

Mark Dygert · Dec 2009

I've been there, I started out with Maya then switched to Max because at the time its what the industry ran on. Got a job using Max and now I use Maya casually every now and then just to stay current. It's taken a while but they both feel pretty comfortable. Still occasional slip of the keys.

"Switcher" Sets Max up as much as possible to behave like Maya, pretty awesome, especially view port nav.
http://draster.com/component/page,shop.product_details/category_id,7/flypage,software-flypage/product_id,18/option,com_virtuemart/

If you're looking to make the transition to native max as painless as possible?
Probably post specific questions as you encounter them. The help files included are pretty... helpful (f1). So are the tutorials (Help > Tutorials). Probably just going through a few of them will get you familiar with the work flow again.

This list helps decipher some of the names of things
http://paulneale.com/tutorials/MaxMaya/maxMaya.htm

Mostly it just takes time patients and practice?

Stertman · Dec 2009

great.. thanks=)

that list was perfect.. cheers

Stertman · Dec 2009

does that switcher plugin make any key functions in max go away?

and some quick questions, how do i zoom with the mouse? like you do in maya with alt+right mouse drag.. i dont like the scrolling zoom...

and what is the fastest way to change betweene verex, poly or edge mode?

Yozora · Dec 2009

Stertman wrote: »

does that switcher plugin make any key functions in max go away?

and some quick questions, how do i zoom with the mouse? like you do in maya with alt+right mouse drag.. i dont like the scrolling zoom...

and what is the fastest way to change betweene verex, poly or edge mode?

Not that I know of, you can zoom the same way as Maya with switcher (no alternative afaik). There is a zoom tool that you can hotkey, but its not as intuitive as using switcher or the mouse wheel.

I have all the sub selection modes hotkeyed exactly the same for all 3d apps (A, S, D, F, G).

thomasmahler · Dec 2009

You definitely need switcher. I'm using max for 7 months again and still think its navigation system is braindamaged. Switcher solves that.

Stertman · Dec 2009

alright.. i'll get that then:D

danshewan · Dec 2009

Yozora wrote: »

Not that I know of, you can zoom the same way as Maya with switcher (no alternative afaik). There is a zoom tool that you can hotkey, but its not as intuitive as using switcher or the mouse wheel.

This took me a while to get used to, but now alt + z is pretty much habit. I thought of getting Switcher, but I've spent so much time in Max now that going back to Maya's navigation throws me off.

Stertman · Dec 2009

switcher worked great=) thanks for that.. already feels alot better in max.. also hotkeyed the sub selection modes so that works great..

Any one knows if there is a use last tool hotkey? like "G" in maya.. so that if i extrude alot i wont have to go inte to graphite tools over and over?

edit: also, whats the key for frame selected? so that my camera pivots around my selected object.. like "F" does in maya

glib · Dec 2009

If you have switcher installed, it should have set 'F' and 'A' to what you would expect.

They're called Zoom Extents and Zoom Extents All. Defaults are Z and alt+Z.

The 'use last' hotkey only works within certain modifiers (such as editable poly) and only then for certain actions. It's much better to just bind hotkeys to your most-used functions.

Stertman · Dec 2009

ok, one thing that drives me crazy atm is that every object i create has different colours on the mesh and wire. is there a way to make it always have the mesh colour grey and wire black? dont wanna fix that manually every time..

and another thing, this drag to create primitives things anoyes me too.. is there a way to have it just creating a box directly at the center of the grid?

gosh, i feel so stupid when i use this software=D hope it changes

pior · Dec 2009

Hello! For your first question, it's an option in the color palette. There is a tickbox somewhere allowing you to lock it to a certain color.

As a matter of fact I would love to take this further and always assign the same mesh color (for wireframes) AND material. Any way to do that?

As for the primitives. Yes it's annoying when creating in the middle of the world like that. But I would suggest you try the Autogrid feature, letting you create primitives at the surface of existing models. In such cases (an that's 70% of the time for me) it really is fantastic.

Also regarding camera framing. Be sure to explore its options. It's located on the bottom right of your screen, near the timeline (if you have it on display. I don't in order to save space, but by default it should be here). Go there and look for a little white circle icon, the orbit tool. Keep it pressed, it will open a drop-up (!) list of icons. Be sure to select the yellow cicle in there. It will switch to the orbit tool, you can disregard that and keep working. But you will notice that from now on the camera will always focus on the currently selected components and will give you very precise control on your scene. Truly an invaluable, yet overlooked feature.

Good luck!

bugo · Dec 2009

i just have to say, good luck!

Mark Dygert · Dec 2009

Stertman wrote: »

ok, one thing that drives me crazy atm is that every object i create has different colours on the mesh and wire. is there a way to make it always have the mesh colour grey and wire black? dont wanna fix that manually every time..

Without any objects selected, in the command panel under "Name and Color" click the colored box, then uncheck use random color, set the color to the one you want and that should be taken care of.

and another thing, this drag to create primitives things anoyes me too.. is there a way to have it just creating a box directly at the center of the grid?

Next time you create a primitive expand "Keyboard Entry" give it a L,W,H and click create. As long as the coords are 0,0,0 it will be created at the world center.

Stertman · Dec 2009

thanks all.. starting to get the hang of it now.. wont be as hard to convert as i thought it would be=D

Stertman · Dec 2009

oh came up with a problem using the switcher plugin.. In max you are usually able to shift+drag an edge to extrude it. a tool I really like and missed when i used maya. But with the stitcher plugin this function no longer works. is there a way to assign this to another key? whats the name of the tool?

Yozora · Dec 2009

Theres an option in switcher for shift + MMB edge extrusion dragging.

Stertman · Dec 2009

oh.. cool. thansk man=)

Neox · Dec 2009

so any tipps out there for the other way around? so switch from max to maya?

Disco Stu · Dec 2009

Get nex moddeling tools they help a lot already.
Best would be if you know someone who works with it all the time and
helps you with getting the right scripts and plugins.

solar · Dec 2009

Stertman wrote: »

how do i zoom with the mouse? like you do in maya with alt+right mouse drag.. i dont like the scrolling zoom...

ctrl+alt+MMB for smooth zoom like maya.

switching from maya to max

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