Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Hey
Is it possible to insert a picture into 3ds as a sort of guide? Since our animation team consists of two rookies, namely me and another guy, and we are just getting the hang of the program, we're not planning on entering an animation, but as practice, im trying to model a fighter jet, and i found a top side and front view of an F14, which I really want to model, Problem is, its a bit difficult to do it correctly if I'm constantly flipping between the file and 3ds, so can I insert it tonto the background, so I can sort of extrude and stuff my box to make it look right?

~Nick/1334

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Yeah that's pretty easy.

-First select a viewport you want to have it in
-Then hit alt+b and find the picture you want to use as the guide
-Finally click match bitmap, then click lock zoom/pan as long as you want the guide not to move.

Another way is to just use planes with textures on them. That's probably the best for your jet. It's best if you use blueprints to make the jet. So basically in your top viewport, make a plane with the top view picture on it. If you don't know how to do that, just go into the material editor and click on the diffuse map. From there select bitmap and find your top view picture. Repeat this process for the side picture just in another viewport.

-Good Luck!

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

That's one way to do it, but not my favorite. I usually make a material with a lambertian shader (or just set specularity and glossiness to 0), add the reference image as the diffuse map, copy it to the self illumination channel, hit the button for "view material in viewport", then apply it to a plane with the same aspect ratio as the image. That way you can move it around more easily. You can freeze it so that you wont select it by accident, but first you should go to the display tab and make sure that "Display frozen in gray" is unchecked.

Your way is probably easier, but I like the added flexibility this method gives me. If you do it this way, it also shows up in the renders unless you hide it.


EDIT - Doh! I only read the beginning of your post. The method I just outlined is the planes method you suggested. Good for blueprints and stuff, because you can match up the planes in the different orthographic viewports.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Make sure to go into Customize > Preferences > Something about DirectX and set the maximum texture import size to the highest or "match as closely as possible."

Audio and Compositing with Video Post
 

I was confused by Video Post... What apps did you all use to compose/ edit your animation. I rendered all frames as .tif , then used 3DMax Video Post to convert to a Quicktime. I could not add our audio track (.wav), so I ended up using iMove HD on the Mac - which degraded the quality significantly.
Last year we rendered directly to a .mov and had the audio imported in the 3DsMAx animation, and thus was recorded into the .mov.
This year I wanted flexibility, so I rendered as tif...
How'd you do it?

Re: Audio and Compositing with Video Post
 

We've also tried Video Post, and found it awkward for editing multiple scenes, audio tracks, titling, etc.

Adobe Premiere Pro is probably the most popular high-end video editing program. But at $700-$800 it aint cheap. Even the educational version is pricey - $280-$350.

Then we discovered Adobe Premiere "Elements" does most of what it's big brother can do and only costs about $70. So we bought that and are very happy with the results. You can download a free trial at Adobe.com but it'll put their logo on the top right of all your output. :(

IMPORTANT: At first we were very disappointed in the quality of the .MOV when saved in DV-NTSC codec. Then I found out it had nothing to do with Adobe. It was a simple setting in the QuickTime Player. Under Preferences I checked "Use high quality video setting when available". Then our animation looked great!