Lets Do Blogging

I thought that it would be nice if each one of you would tell us somthing that exists in max n we didn't knew about it, somthing that will make our work easier.

• When you draw a spline you can press I while drawing the line to switch to interactive mode.
  
  
• To dynamicly work with modifiers you can drag and drop modifiers from one object to another. I.e. you have cube 1 and cube 2, cube 1 has meshSmooth on it, you can click and drag meshSmooth onto cube 2 and it will be copied there. You can hold down ctrl + drag will instace the modifier, shift+drag will move the modifier from one object to another.
  
  
• In material editor you can rotate a shader by middle mouse button clicking and draging on it.
  
  
• If you select a file from explorer and drag/drop it onto mat editor shader slot it will add it into diffuse channel. You can drag any texture maps from explorrer into any mat editor slots, with out having to go and click (channel/bitmap/brows for bitmap).
  
  
• This one is a rather warning for max 7 users: did you know that if you instance a map in one mat two or more times, then click make unique button it will destroy the shader.
  
  
• Reactor dynamics: when you are trying to simulate two objects which have to look like they are side by side and reactor gives warrning of object intersecting, put a push modifier with a small value of -0.05 to shrink the objects temporarily, after the simulation you can turn off the push modifier and have everything looking correctly and colliding.
  
  
• Did you know that by default settings quasi monte carlo for primary bounce (Cool will render slower and more graynier image then if you turn up global QMC sampler subdivision to 4 (cleaner and faster). And making quasi for secondary bounce (exterrior) will make it render even faster, and even faster with global subdivisions to 4.
  
  
• Did you know that 3ds max maximum frame range in time slider is -10000 to 10000.
  
  
• Particle flow is terrible with max collision objects, avoid using heavy instaced objects colliding, this will result it horrible render times due to PF precalculations. Making PF cache to disk will make 3dmax files aroun 600 mb and still wont be anywhere near as helpful as one would want.
  
  
• Did you know that while working in editable poly mode ctrl + I (invert selection) does not work, but it works fine if you go edit/selection invert.
  
  
• Did you know that MeshSmooth will crash max at level 7 subdivision and TurboSmooth will still render all though at 2.5 gb of ram, but it will be fast and efficient. So since turbo smooth showed up I dont use meshsmooth that often. (test done on a primitive sphere renderer on mental ray)
  
  
• Did you know that procedural textures in vrayDisplacement Mod will render much slower then baked textures.
  
  
• Attaching multiple heavy objects in 3ds max via editable mesh/poly will perform a memory leak which will force max to jump the memory to maximum then crash. (test is done by cloning 100 (100x100) spheres and attaching them all in one batch. While if you attach them one by one your memory will grow exponentially, but you will be able to attache an nth number of them then save, close max open max and continue. (maya can do this attachement with memory under 900mb)
  
  
• Vray does not motion blur any light types, so if you have heavy motion in your scene which depends on precision lighting, do not use lights, rather use gi emmited objects.
  
  
• Vray does not motion blur lights thus does not motion blur any volumetric effects corelated to lights. Solution is to use camera multipass effect with duration corresponding to you motion blur to render a separate pass.
  
  
• Vray has hard time motion bluring particles which spawn and die between frames. If the blur is not too heavy you can use 2d effects motion blur, works well.
  
  
• Vray cannot motion blur Fluids like realFlow mesh or Glu3d, again 2d blur would work for some cases.
  
  
• When rendering single objects or passes like shadows use region to cut down on antialiasing of black unnesesserry space. Just make sure your object does not exit the region on a certain frame.
  
  
  
  

Sources : Internet

The measures have a dramatic influence in combination with lights and their fall-offs as well as atm-FX. If an object is only a few centimeters (inches) in size, don't desgin it in meters (feet) unless necessarry.

Don't forget: you can zoom your viewports to dramatic values - in both directions.

• A shell with no soul? A lot of vehicles I see on the web are modeled out as just the body with wheels & tires. That's fine, but there is a lot more to a vehicle than just the shell and wheels. There is an interior, engine, transmission, drive line, wiring, tubes, hoses, bolts, and a whole other host of parts that make up the entire vehicle. For clarity, I am not putting down a vehicle model that consists solely of a body and wheels. For some applications, this is all that's required.
  
  
• References: You will need a lot of references while tackling a project of this magnitude. Even if you are very familiar with the subject matter you will more than likely need photos to get most of the details down. www.google.com/images is a great source for images, and while I use Google a lot, there are plenty other places to find pictures or information. I for one, get magazines that pertain to the subject model. Magazines will give you pictures as well as information and write-ups about the subject. Don't over look the advertisements though; they usually have good pictures as well.
  
  A digital camera is a necessity for me, taking a picture of something specific is a very good way to gather references. A high mega-pixel digital camera can capture a lot of detail, even if you don't stick the camera intrudingly close-up. (but sometimes, you just have to) I go to car shows quite often to browse around the beautiful machines, and to take pictures (both for artistic photography, as well as reference photos). Sometimes I am forced to go to auto parts stores, and take pictures of the parts that way. I bring my college ID with me, and I never have any problems taking pictures inside the store. I even keep old parts off my car (or new ones that I have not installed yet) as reference. Just keep them in a box by the computer, and pick them up when it's time to model them.
  
  Having a dual monitor setup makes the process of modeling a lot easier. You can have a few reference pictures open on one monitor, and your 3d program on the next monitor. That, combined with magazines and parts strewn all around, should be plenty of reference.
  
  
• Knowledge: Having a little knowledge about your subject matter usually helps out quite a bit. Being mechanically minded, I like to know how things attach to each other, and how they interact with each other. You don't have to know all this, but it sure does help. For instance, if you don't know how a particular part correctly attaches as it would be in real life, you can attach it convincingly enough using your knowledge of how other parts usually attach. That may be all you need.
  
  
• Accuracy: Granted, most 3d programs are not geared to absolute real world accuracy; you can usually customize the units to SAE or Metric standards and get acceptably close accuracy. Most 3d programs are able to do this, but even then this is not enough to get perfect accuracy. Accuracy is being able to tell the distance and angle from one object to another, or the diameter of a bolt whole and angle in relation to the other holes, or bend angle and slope of a tube: and being able to do this quickly and easily. CAD programs and other mechanical design programs are more suited to accuracy, but for the most part, if you can make something believable, then it does not need to be absolutely accurate to the millimeter. Some jobs may require a higher degree of accuracy, but for the majority of models, being very close and believable is plenty good enough. I am not saying do not pay attention to accuracy, if you pay attention to accuracy as much as possible, there will be a lot less guess work and "eyeballing" to do.
  
  Sometimes, "eyeballing" is the only practical way around something. Here, it is important to know the size and placement of object in relation to their surrounding objects. For example, look at pictures and see: How many tires long is the car? (6 and 2/3 tires long, for example) How many headlights wide is the grill? How many bolts fit in-between two header pipes, how many valve cover bolt-heads wide are the valve covers? When you start thinking like this, any guess work you have to do, will be done much easier.
  
  
• Starting the modeling process: Starting a vehicle can be a very daunting task, especially if you plan to make the vehicle from the ground up: frame, engine, body and all. I suggest that you don't look at the vehicle as a whole, and don't even look at is as "the engine" or, "the interior". Break it down even further, down to the individual parts.
  
  Think of it just as you would if you were to physically build or restore a vehicle in real life. If starting out with the engine, look at the block first, look to the next part attached, and the next part, and the next. Now model them out as you study them individually. All the while hiding parts that have been completed (except to get things aligned and scaled correctly). If you think of the engine as simply a set of parts, rather than a huge contraption, things will go a lot easier. This will ensure that you don't get mind boggled by the huge task, and also that you don't skimp over any details.
  
  Back to the "physically building or restoring" example, would a vehicle run without fuel lines to deliver the fuel? Or breaks without a break line? Would the hood stay open with out a prop or struts? Would a door open with out hinges? Would the seats stay put with out seat rails? Would all those parts stay on if there are no nuts, bolts or welds? I think you can see the pattern here. Think of it literally, however ridiculous or insane that might sound.

Sources : Internet

• Real-Time Animation Tools
  Using tools that are designed for non-technical artists, you'll get instant playback of character performances, alleviating the need to preview or render your work. The real-time capabilities of MotionBuilder makes it the character animation software of choice whether for an individual artist, or as the animation backbone of a large production pipeline.
  
  
• Revolutionary Character Technology
  With its powerful full body FK/IK manipulation rig, Autodesk® Motionbuilder provides powerful automated character setup, so you can quickly setup a powerful rig, independent of your character's size or proportions. You can customize the look and feel of a character's manipulation rig easily, without the need for scripting or constraint setups. You can also repurpose an animated motion from one character to another with real-time motion retargeting.
  
  
• Unified Non-Linear Editing Environment
  The story timeline for pre-visualization and layout saves even more production time by allowing you to easily blend, edit and sequence tracks composed of animations, cameras, digital video, and audio. You can also make camera shot decisions and re-order and re-time your shots "on-the-fly", similar to traditional non-linear video editing.
  
  
• FBX®
  Autodesk® MotionBuilder™ 7.5 natively supports FBX, a platform-independent, high-end 3D authoring and interchange format. It lets you acquire and exchange 3D assets and media from a wide variety of sources quickly and easily. FBX is widely supported by the industry's leading software and hardware manufacturers and film studios.
  
  

Software (Minimum System Requirement)

Software Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Apple® Mac® OS X 10.3 or higherMotionBuilder™ 7.5 requires one of the following browsers:
Microsoft® Internet Explorer®, Netscape®, Safari™ or FireFox™


Hardware (Minimum System Requirement)
Intel® Pentium® III or higher, AMD Athlon™ processor, Macintosh® G4 or G5
256 MB RAM
CD-ROM Drive (DVD-ROM drive required foradditional Clip Art)
OpenGL® graphics card with 32 MB RAM
600 MB of hard disk space

Sources : Internet