Technical Q&A

Andreas · May 2010

Thought I'd start this thread, as I often have little questions that don't deserve their own thread. Searched for an existing one, couldn't find anything. I'll go first.

Is there a hotkey for going from 'view' to 'rotational' mode in rotation, in 3DS Max?

Eric Chadwick · May 2010

glynnsmith · May 2010

Eric's post is for the rotation tool, which you'd use to rotate your geometry.

If you're after the hotkey to rotate your viewport, it's alt+mmb. Hold them down as you move your mouse around.

Andreas · May 2010

EricChadwick wrote: »

E

Jesus lol. I'm looking for a hotkey to change the rotational axis of the rotation tool from 'view' to 'local'. I know what the hotkey for the rotation tool is lol.

Synthesizer · May 2010

Check under Customize->Customize User Interface. If the command is available in there you can assign your own shortcut if there's nothing assigned by default.

MoP · May 2010

Well, you did say from "view" to "rotational", which is probably why Eric didn't work out what you were asking for. Since what you meant was "local", which you said in your second post. There is no "rotational" mode.

Andreas · May 2010

Yeah sheeeeit I meant to say 'local'. It's weird how their isn't one assigned, it would be handy for animators. I'll try to set one myself... not so familiar with the customize user interface though.

Mark Dygert · May 2010

Yea I get what your after... now... Can't say that thread title or the first few posts helped heh.

I wrote a script a while ago to toggle between View and Local, might as well share it.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2336353/VigTools_CoordToggle.ms
Save it anywhere, run it once and it will show up under Customize > Customize UI > Keyboard Tab > Category: VigTools.
Bind it to whatever key you want.

Code looks like this:

macroScript CoordToggle
Category:"VigTools"
toolTip:"CoordToggle"
buttontext:"CordTog"

(
If getRefCoordSys() == #hybrid then (
    toolmode.coordsys #local
    )
    else (
        toolmode.coordsys #view
    )
)

Andreas · Jun 2010

Cheers Viggy.

So I'm trying out Motiobuilder, and it looks like this instead of the panels fitting into the screenspace:

When I first ran it it told me to go get CUDA 2.2, so I went off and updated my drivers, but still having this problem. Solutions?

monster · Jun 2010

BlenderHead,

In max I usually do ALT + Right Click. This pulls up the "Animation Quad." Then you can pick from any of the coordinate systems from there. Pretty fast. And it holds many other animator shortcuts like "Assume Skin Pose" and "Show Trajectory Toggle."

Andreas · Jun 2010

Cheers. Thats a nice tip actually.

Anyone with Motionbuilder know what the problem is with the panels not fitting into the screensize?

MoP · Jun 2010

MotionBuilder's UI is horrible. It always looks like that. The only solution is to move the windows around

Andreas · Jun 2010

In any video tutorial I've seen, the windows fit into the aspect ratio of the screen, I really can't see Motionbuilder being the only tool I have ever used not resizing the windows to fit the screen...Surely its just configured to display on a 800x600 screen or something? Is there any way to edit this configuration?

Andreas · Jul 2010

Working in Flash, when I export something out as a raster bitmap image, the colours are fine, but if export it out as a vector .ai file, the colours get messed up. I'm probably just doing something stupid regarding CMYK and RGB options or something. Anyone know flash?

r_fletch_r · Jul 2010

If the images luminosity looks too light or too dark it might also be a Gamma Correction problem. might want to check that aswell.

Andreas · Jul 2010

The colours change all over the place...same base colours, different shades. It was just tested in-game, and the colours are changing from internet browser to browser too...

EDIT:

Apparently it may be a gamma problem? Any fixes for this? I found talk of it on google relating to within the flash player, but not as a fix within the flash environment prior to export itself...

r_fletch_r · Jul 2010

Gamma is a pain in the arse. I have no idea how flash handles it tbh.this might help if gamma is indeed the issue.

I wonder if it is gamma though. I would expect to hear people complaining about this more.

Andreas · Aug 2010

Is there a way to copy frames from one Max 8 file to another? I need to provide all the animations in the one timeline but I'd prefer to work on them individually first, CTRL-C doesnt work though and there's no copy option when I right-click a keyframe either...

Eric Chadwick · Aug 2010

Did you crack open the Help file and search for "animation"? It would help us to know what research you've tried already.

Edit... heheh I d/l the max8 help file, did a search for animation, and guess what was the first result? Merge Animation.

Andreas · Aug 2010

Hehe that is indeed very funny!!!! Pray tell have you got a link to that download? Im searching the Autodesk site here and whatever documentation for max 8 they have is split up into over a dozen parts...which is the one you downloaded?

Eric Chadwick · Aug 2010

http://www.google.com/search?q=max%208%20documentation
First link
Down towards the bottom, click on 3ds Max 8 Reference Help

But seriously, F1 in 3ds Max is much much faster.

Surfa · Aug 2010

Don't you just shift drag the key. Maybe this isn't in 3ds max 8?

ablaine · Aug 2010

I like this idea. I often have little questions that don't deserve their own post and feel bad making new threads for them.

I have a question about the project all tool in zbrush. I'm trying to project the detail from a hardsurface armor piece to a low poly retopologized version with UVs. I've stepped up the polycount of the retopo'd version so that it has enough polys to receive all of the detail. However when using ProjectAll, I get chunky results and the edges of the mesh shrink. I've tried adjusting the Mean distance setting and the projection cage (which prevented it from exploding all over). I just can't get the clean results I want with the hardsurface pieces.

The goal is to project the detail onto the retopo'd version because it has UVs and I want to take it into mudbox to paint textures. The hardsurface highpoly has no low subdivision level sufficient enough to UV and take in. I could assign GUVtiles I guess, but.. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Andreas · Sep 2011

I am having an issue with .obj's in 3D Max and their pivot points. They are in the correct place upon export, but when I import the .obj into a new scene, the objects pivot point is not in the correct place at all. What could be causing it? Something wrong in the file the .obj is being imported to? Or some box I'm not checking in the export dialogue?

Thanks in advance.

Technical Q&A

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