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vertex paint + height at the same time

heavyness
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heavyness
Using 3ds max 2011 and I would like to create terrain that I deform and paint vertex color at the same time. Basically, as I create hills I want the vertex color to go from black to white depending on the height of each vert.

Found this tutorial (link) that does what I want it to do, but I'm using a custom material at work that only uses diffuse, spec, and bump.

Thanks in advance.
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  • Surfa
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    Surfa polycounter lvl 12
    Can't you use a displace modifier then take the vertex colour as the displacement map. This means you can also vary the overall height.

    edit: Just checked the tutorial and that should be fine as you can apply the material ontop of the vertex colour and so see the results.
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  • heavyness
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    heavyness
    That's how the tutorial had it, but the custom material I'm using doesn't have a displacement maps (it's a proprietary plugin material). So I'm trying to find a different method (maybe a modifier that changes the vertex color automatically depending on the modifiers' gizmo).

    Thanks.
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  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    Just do it like the tutorial, collapse the stack and then apply your custom material.
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  • heavyness
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    heavyness
    Yeah, tired that too. Problem is it's using Vertex Alpha to blend the maps (and not vertex color). Damn this proprietary material!

    Thanks.
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  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    heavyness wrote: »
    Yeah, tired that too. Problem is it's using Vertex Alpha to blend the maps (and not vertex color). Damn this proprietary material!

    Thanks.

    In max go to Tools > Channel Info, then copy id 0:vc and past it over -2:Alpha - that will copy your vertex color values to vertex alpha. Afterwords right click on your vertex color channel and clear it out so you aren't storing the extra data.
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  • heavyness
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    heavyness
    Justin_Meisse wrote: »
    In max go to Tools > Channel Info, then copy id 0:vc and past it over -2:Alpha - that will copy your vertex color values to vertex alpha. Afterwords right click on your vertex color channel and clear it out so you aren't storing the extra data.

    Perfect! Thanks Justin!

    Kind of now thinking of making a script (or having someone do it) to make this work in one click.
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