3D Animation Q/A
 

I felt like making this thread since we all have questions, or at least most of us, on how do one thing or the other in 3D Max. So for the first question: I would liked to know how add thickness to an object. Ex. say I wanted to make a trash can, just a cylinder that gets fatter towards the top the one you find in your bathroom or bedroom. Anyways I need to make the trashcan look like it thick and not just a round piece of paper. If you can picture, I was if you can help me or aim me and to get better description on what I want to do.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

do you want to make it thick using materials or just modelling? For modelling, you can use the "Tube" standard primitive and then apply a taper modifier to it.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I would have no clue how to do with materails, but I will try that. Only problem now is taht my dad's computer is used as the server for 3ds max license so i cant access it till tom.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

or you could just make the trash can like you would normally, and when you want to make it have thickness, apply the shell modifier to it. this also works onplanes for making sheets of glass, plywood, anything like that instead of using boxes.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

You can just make a cylinder shaped object and extrude the top face down into it shrinking or expanding the vertices to make it smaller at the bottom

Ok, here is a problem i have already published...
I wanna export a robot that was built in pro desktop and import it with 3dsmax 8
When I import a .STL file it shows me a message:
"bla bla bla design1.stl is not a valid *.STL file"
This file was exported from autodesk pro desktop 8.0 in this way:
File --> export --> browse --> choosing the file --> save --> ok.
if you can help, pleaseeeee...

Ok, now I tried a diffrent file type: *.IGS
I exported it from pro desktop 8.0 in the same way and imported it in 3ds max.
A simple object like a square was imported perfectly to 3dsmax 8, but when I tried importing a complicated structure like a base of a robot (which was built from several other designs which were connected to one design) it didn't import nothing.
please, help.

Thanks a head, animation team, 1578.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

You mean edit poly the cylinder and then vertex extrude or polygon extrude? I have already tried polygon extrufe and it doesnt work right. Extruding the vertexes would work if there was an easy way to have the connect back to the original cylinder, anyway to do that?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I was talking about the extrude face feature.
3dsmax should have an option that allows you to select a face and then extrude it.
It will make another face with the same dimensions and connect the vertices of the 2 face with other faces.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Well, it already has,
Build a box, apply edith mesh to it, press 4 then find the extrude button, right above the the bevel button......

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

tried it doesnt work there is a gap in between the extruded faces. Works for square surface but not round ones.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

ok, i was wondering if i can put an animated character into a real life scene for our animation? is that possible? or does it have to be just animation and no rea life video?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

yes. it's called video compositing. i'm not entirely sure how to do it, but you could prolly find a simple tutorial in max or online.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Are you allowed to? Certainly!
Is it possible? Of course! :)

A simple method is to go to the Rendering menu and choose "Environment".

Set the environment map to open either a video file (AVI or MPeg) or a sequence of numbered images like JPGs or TGAs.

Now when you render the scene, the objects in the scene will appear in the foreground and the video you imported will be behind the objects.

If you need to do more complex things than that, then I would suggest using a program like Adobe Premiere or Adobe After Effects to combine your animated output from 3ds max and your video files.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

yes, i already know how to do it. I was just wondering if it was aloud to be done. Thanks for the tip anyhow, even for other members.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

you could try to export as an autoCAD file (or something else) and then from AutoCAD export as a 3ds file. Tell me if it works out.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I've found that AutoCAD's .3ds export doesn't work that well (Curves get pretty screwy), but that exporting as a .igs from AutoCAD and then importing THAT works quite nicely...odd but true

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Well i finally got around to working on the trashcan again and when I made it using a tube, I can't figure out how to close the hole on the bottom of the tube any suggestions?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

the easiest way to make a trashcan is to use a cylinder, delete the top, and adda shell modifier. shell just makes your 2-d objects have thickness.

if you have to do it with a tube, selcet the vetices on the inside edge of the end of your tube, like where the bottom will be, and scale them down until they are close enogh to weld into one vetex. that will give you issues, though. for the easiest solution, you should just go ahead and plug the bottom of the tube up with a cylinder.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Actually, the best way to plug the bottom of the tube would be to make a vertical segment in the tube, then convert to an editable poly. Using the vertex select tool, drag the vertex's for the middle segment down to just above the bottom (the height should be equal to the thicknes of the tube). Then delete the bottom inside poly's. And then cap the holes.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I did the shell modifier one and it worked perfectly and easily. A little tinkering with mesh smooth and it looks great.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Trying to make a desk light and i just cant get it to look right any suggestions. Pic below:

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Better base. make the base a tinny part of a hemisphered sphere. And make it white with an anisotropic specular.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I got teh hemispere but how do i do the anisotropic specular?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

In the Material options Under shader basic Parameters change the tab that says Blinn to anisotropic.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

That's done with materials. If you're looking for a brushed metal look, try this tutorial

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I was trying to make the lamp look like this:


But the base didnt come out well and I am not very good and cutting objects. I mess with the base some more. Also in teh picture how would i make those rings that wrap around the metal part of the light?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

That is with a bump material. go to paint and make a picture with a single black line running horizontally through the picture then apply the bump map to the stand. Make sure to tile the bitmap so it will show up as multiple rings.

If you have any questions about the bump material look it up in users reference.

:)

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

When I render through video post and add glow, my final video never shows the glowing particles even though I see it being added through the render window. Ive tried material ID and object ID it doesn't work. Any body got any other ways to make glowing fireworks?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Which is better editable poly or editable mesh? Whats the difference betweem the editables: poly mesh normals and patch? I always used editable poly to make models, but mabye i should try others.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I felt like making and xbox 360 just to have it in the animation as an easter egg.
Just wondering since I am just bitmaping a box with pictures of the xbox 360, how would I smooth the edges with effecting the pictures much. Also if I take off teh xbox 360 logo i should be ok and not get any trouble with microsoft?
Pic:

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Instead of XBOX 360 why not put XBALL [YOUR TEAM #]?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I always use editable poly. i think there are certain editing features and options that differ between the mesh and poly, but i don't really know off the top of my head. try it out sometime.

to smooth the corners, you can chamfer the edges or start the model with a chamfered box (in the extended primitives section of the objects rollout). in photoshop you can edit the corners of the bitmaps to fit the rounded edges that you add to the box. make sure the edges are not TOO round, or it will look kinda dorky.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

im no good with aimation but our team uses 3d max and it seems pretty user-friendly..

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Not really good with photo shop so i don't how i would do that. Looks better though with the chaffered box.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Try puting a mesh-smooth on it and ading a uvw modifier, try using the shrink wrap setting.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Been trying for a couple hours now to get all the pics to wrap around the box so it looks like an xbox 360, but when I try to fit one bitmap on one side of the box the other sides that I have modified get messed up, anyway to fix this. I tried appyling multiple uvw maps to the object and taht doesnt work.

edit*
Nevermind, I figured it now I wish I had a straight on picture of the sides and top of the xbox 360.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

try using the UVW unwrap feature. there are tutorials in the book and online.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Well here is what I have done and probably stop till I get some good pictures of an xbox 360 sides and top:

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

that looks fine, man. one last suggestion: take the same picutures you used for the textures and convert them to grayscale. then use them as bump maps. it will add a little more realistic that way. Other than that, it looks good.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

our animation is going to take a while to render this year, and i want to network some computers together to share the job. can anybody tell me how i would go about doing this?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

We have not yet been able to do a real "net render." theoretically, you have 1 computer run the autodesk backburner manager program, another runs the server program, and the rest run the client or node or whatever they call it program. the manager sends the scene data to the server, which splits up the data into bits, then send it off to the nodes to be rendered.

however, that is a bit tricky, and our school's network will not allow us to run the server program, or something.

the easy/ghetto way of doing this is to simply share the max scene file over your network. open it in each of your computers seperately. now you have 5 computers running independant of each other, all with the same scene loaded. then tell each computer to render a set of frames.

Computer 1- frames 1-50
Computer 2- 51-100
computer 3- 101-150
and so on...

now you have 20 little mini animations, which, when put together in a media program, form your final product.

inefficient and boring as you can get, but this is the most reliable way i can think of to render your stuff quickly.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Anyone here good at using garmet maker and cloth? I am trying to make a blanket that covers a bed but the corners don't look right. I want it to wrap around the bed and look the same in the corners as the sides, not sticking out.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

To elaborate to this. Instead of output as movie files as suggested by Capt.ArD, you can make the output a .tga, .jpg, or .png sequence (.tga and .png should preserve transparency which can come in handy if you want to put effects behind your animation in post). What this does is it saves you animation as [filename][framenumber].[extention], then you can move all the files to the same folder and use a video editor to import the sequence. (I know this works in Adobe After Effects and it should work in others, just make sure it does before you spend the day rendering it.) The nice thing about .tga sequences is that they are uncompressed so then when you compress them in post, you get better quality than if you were to compress an already compressed video.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

i actually think the corners make it more realistic.
i guess if you wanted it to fit the bed better, you can use a box with one side deleted, and is a *tiny* bit bigger than the bed itself. make sure your poly count is relatively high, then reactor it as a cloth so it drapes itself over the bed. then just take the hanging vertecies and tuck them under the "mattress." i think that's kinda what you wanted, lemme know if it is the right solution.
If you could make "hospital corners" that would be awesome!

@ rowe, yeah, that's another, better way of doing it, only it is more work and is more complicated. I actually intend on doing it that way, but use the method i described if i run out of time.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I'll try tucking them in sounds good, but I dont like using reactor, just cloth and garmet modifier since the tutorials and some vids from 3ds max use them.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Reactor isnt that hard you just need to sit down and learn it. the stuff it allows you to do is really sweet. I'll give anyone interested a rundown sometime if they want. Pm me about it.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Anyone here?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

need help :(

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Which one is better cloth or reactor cloth, I heard anything using reactor can shutdown the program do to error. If i got time later I definetly would mind you showing me some tips about reactor.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

To be perfectly frank, i never learned cloth, only reactor cloth, so i don't know which is better.

Yes reactor can crash max, but only if you do no set up the reactor correctly. basically reactor is a physics engine like what some games have, only it is a lot more accurate. the accuracy therefore makes the program a lot more picky about how things are set up.

a good example is how objects interpolate. in a videogame, especially an older game, some objects can go through others. one example i remember is in Tomb raider you can lock Lara's butler in a freezer, and his hands and face stick through the door. If any object does that in reactor, it goes crazy for a while then crashes. it looks a lot like the objects exploded. so you always have to be careful not to have objects overlapping. other problems arise from all the vertices in an object being coplanar, low substeps (which will need to be explained better later on), or odd environment settings.

The overall product of a good reactor job is a very realistic and lifelike movement or arrangement. It's also really helpful for arranging things in a random manner. if you have a desk, papers are usually scattered all over, and pencils and things are lying all over. instead of taking the time to individually placing each object, you can just put them about 5 inches over the desk and let reactor make them fall down, landing in a random and realistic-looking mess. plenty of other uses, too. it's great fun.

wow long post :rolleyes:

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Some help would be nice on the bed cover since I can't get the corners to look like i want them too.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Saw a guide online on how to make simple valance/curtain and I was wondeering if waht I did could pass as a curtain or should I mess with cloth.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Just wondering why are mov and mpeg the only video formats taht can be used as bitmaps? It gives me teh slection of avi but wont let me apply it.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

It should Ive used Avi before, It might be the compressor that the avi is using.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I know I have used Avi before as well. I don't know why you couldn't.

for the bed cover, if you want to reactor it i can help, but i don't have a lot of time right now. basically, look at the left side of the screen on max ant there is a button called "create rigid body collection" click and drop the icon anywhere in the scene, doesn't matter where. do the same thing for the cloth body collection. select the rigid one again and look at the modify panel. there is a little box where you can add objects from the scene to the collection. add your matress-thing object to that list. click the "cloth" object and apply the "reactor cloth" modifier to it. then add that object to the cloth body collection. you'll want to make sure you cloth has plenty of faces, 20x20 is pretty good. there, now the sene is set up, get ready to reactor it.

select the utilities tab at the top right of the screen (looks like a hammer) and slick on the reactor button in the list that apperas. open the first and last rollouts (should be animaiton and properties) next, select the cloth object, and in the properties rollout set the mass to about 1 or 2. this makes gravity affect the cloth. DO NOT give the mattress any mass. if you do the mattress will just fall out of the scene whene it calculates the the movement. while you have the cloth selected, look for where you define the boundary of the object and click the "define as proxy mesh" or something button. then select the cloth as the corresponding mesh.
my instructions are not clear, but you should be able to muddle it out. i'll be on CD or Gaim tommorrow night if you need better help.

when that is all set up, you can click on the "preview animation" in the animation rollout that you opened earlier. when you do, it will disaplay a list telling you if there are any errors in the scene. hopefully you will only see one that says that the object density is low. ignore it. then you will see a window with an untextured version of your scene. press "p" to initiate the simulation. your cloth shuld fall straight onto the matress, then drape itself around it. if it looks unrealistic, you can raise the substeps by using the menu at the top of that window. substeps ar the number of physics calculations per second, the more, the better. when you are pleased with the arrangement of the cloth, you can click the "update max" button at the top, and it will change your scene to cloth in its draped form.

like i said, this is a very superficial tut., but i can help more later on. my AIM is captainard2000. ill be on tommorrow night.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Hi people, i need help with my tem's animation video. Does anyone know how to change from one background to another one in an animation video? If I don't reply you soon just pm me please

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

You mean like in the middle of a scene? Like you want to change one color from black to white during the animation. I would just turn on auto key and on material editor change the material or bitmap at the frame you want it to change. That should work. I have to do taht in my animation as part of a transition between scenes.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Right, because at the start we have to have it black for part of the requirements, but I could not figure out how to change the image I want as the actually background in the animation, from the black one in the very begining.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Are you trying to make your animaton all in one go? If so, then yes, what damelvin said will work fine.

do you mean the 1 second of black at the beginning of the animation that is required? i wouldn't bother animating that, just use a movie editing program to add 1 second of black. most programs can do it.

BTW, is your signature image within size requirements? it takes up about half of my screen

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Actually it is five seconds with all that info. they want also. I'll try that material editor also though.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Okay I am a bit lost with the material editor thing

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I have never tried the material editor method, but i believe it works like this:

open the material editor, apply the texture you want as the original background (in your case, black) to whatever you are using as your background (a plane or something).

then at the bottom of the screen in max is the keyframe bar. turn on Auto key and move the slider to wherever you want the material to change. click the key button to set a keyframe there. then apply your new texture to the black background.

when you play it, it should change color at the keyframe you specified. Again, i have not actually done this, so it may not be correct. Damelvin may be able to help you better.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Do you know how to apply an image with the material editor?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

yes. open a new material in the material editor. now, in the rollout look for where it says "diffuse color" and has a color swatch next to it. next to the swatch is a little gray square (looks like a button with no text on it). click it.

in the new window that pops up, select "bitmap" from the top of the list of green thingys. it will then open a dialog box where you can specify which image you want to use as your texture.

tada! if you did it correctly, you will now have a mateial that looks like your picture repeated over and over again. you will need to adjust the tiling and offset of the bitmap in the material editor in order to get it to fit your object just right.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Yeah, I am not seeing that difusse color button thing

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

it's right there. after you click on it, select bitmap, then load your image. have fun!

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

And you make the background image apply how?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

? click the diffuse button select bitmap and make sure after u select the bitmap it tiles right. then apply it to what ever. if you want you can apply it to a plane and use it as a background. you can also uv map it and then it looks good

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

basically what i need is an image that you can load with viewport, but can change it.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

if i understand you correctly, then you are trying to do one of the few things that cannot be keyframed, and therefore cannot be easily animated. you can use a video file as your background, or you can do it the simple way and just add the splash screen and 1 second of black in another program.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

That would explain it. Is there way to add a bitmap image with material editor as a whole background?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

if you use a plane as your background, then yes. do it the way previously described.
if you want to use the actual viewport background, then no, you cant. sorry.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Using cloth reactor I came up with this for the bed cover but I still don't like the corner look. Any suggestions?

Also how would I make a model taht could look like its crumpled paper?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Can you auto key the enivroment background by chance?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Also do you guys now where to get the auto desk consent release forms at? Because i can not find them on that streamline site.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

pretty simple. take a plane with about 8x8 segments and add a noise modifier. you will have to adjust the amplitude/frequecy of the noise to get the desired effect.

if you want a wad of crumpled paper, you can do it the same way, only with a lot more noise, and you can squish the vetices here and there to make it look more spherical. you can also use a sphere with a noise modifier and an opacity map, but that gets kinda wierd, and doesn't work too well.

@ darkstar, no you cannot keyframe the evnironment background to my knowledge. and to get the forms you have to download the streamline program. in the program you have to log in to the FIRST account. I don't know what the password or anything is right now. once in, the forms are in the file "2006 autodesk visualization entry" or something like that.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Thank you very much for your help. By chance though does anyone about a free movie editting software that works good with quicktime filles?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Just download the trial version of adobe premier. Gets you 30 days, more time than you need, to put the animation together.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

where do you download it from?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Adobe.com at least the last time I check its on the company's website.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Well i am pretty much done with the bed and making a couple other models and then moving on to texturing and animating.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

COOL, WHAT'S WITH THE BED AGAIN? :confused:

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Well I have been working with cloth for a while and finally got it to look ok and since time is getting short I got to do other things. The textures won't be there in the actual animation there just fillers.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

looks real good. i like how the edges of the sheet turned out, kinda like there is a crease or a fold there.

how did the paper turn out?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I only got teh bed down then had to study for some tests and work on projects. Ill finish the paper today and post tonight hopefully.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Yay! My animation is almost done! :D

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Since were getting closer to due dates for animation I felt like releasing a pic from my animation to ask for help on how to get a certain effect.

I want to zoom in on teh computer and its turned off. I want the screen to have a small light source in the middle of the screen like it is just starting up, then flash or blink whiting out teh screen for a second and then it goes back to teh computer and it somehow opens and looks like a vortex or black taht would pulls the camera inside teh computer. If anyone can picture this and help me would be nice.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Also I made some trophies are team has earned so far.

cant get a glass look some of the parts of the trophy though.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

On the entry form for the ava, the part taht talks about music. I have some non copyrighted songs that I didnt create but want to use. How would I write taht on the form?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

for the entry form, there is a line on the the form where you write the name of the song and artist. be sure to include a copy of a paper that gives you permission to use copyrighted material with the forms.

for the glass, turn up the specular level and the glossiness of the material. that will help a lot.

for the screen thing, you can use a gif or an avi file as a moving texture for whatever happens on the screen. for a glow, use a omni light with the glow and ray lens effects on it. put it inside the monitor so it won't show, then pull it out whe you want the glow to show.

for the vortex, use a tube with a cool swierly texture on it, and hide it inside the monitor, only to expand it when the time comes for much vortex-pwning.

i had written a better tutorial on this, but my computer messed up on me, so if you need a better explaination, let me know an ill type it up again.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Do you guys know how to export something from adobe preimere pro 2 to quicktime, with out the video looking super blury?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

What I meant for the music is how would I put non copyrighted songs in the paper work or should I jsut say it was created for my animation. THese songs are NOT COPYRIGHTED, so i shouldn't need any paper work.

Ill try that on teh glass.

I want the screen black then it glows in the middle, but then opens up or swirls towards teh center and opens into teh vortex anyway tyo get the swirl effect or a black hole effect?

Would there be an easy way to have alot of colors flashing or would I have to individual set the each light and color change?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

render it at a large format like 740X680 or whatever the requirements are. when you save it as an avi file and click save, the little menu that pops up make sure to go under the tab and choose "no compression." that should do the trick.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

k sorry, i saw that just after i posted. ur right, if it's not copyrighted, then it's fine. no worries.

so this vortex, is it within the screen, like an image, or does it come out of the screen? that is still unclear.

for the dot that begins to swirl, easiest way would be an avi texture. i actually can't think of a way to do it other than that. do you have flash to make a swirly thing with? sorry i can't help more than that.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Pretty much the picture I want to get acrross is the monitor is opening you to inside the computer or inside teh internet and its pulling you in. Then the vortex will take you a TRON looking place where are robot is. This all happens once the monitor screen fills up the whole viewpoint.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I am trying to add a material to a wall and a took a picture of my wall just to mess with and I noticed the little bumps in the wall are huge and I trying tiling it done and then I get this darken colored lines taht go through the picture. Anyway for these to go away or do I have to get a wider shot of the wall picture I took?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

Do you guys know how to add adio by chance?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

sounds like you took a picture too close to the wall. the dark lines are probably unequal shadows in the picture. try retaking the picture with good direct lighting on it.

ok, if the monitor is going to fill up the whole screen before it starts moving, then just use a avi for a texture. no other effects necessary.

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I don't why, but each time i use adobe priemere pro 2 make a video the text i made in 3d max comes up blurry. Does anyone have any suggestions to clear up?

Re: 3D Animation Q/A
 

I don't know anything about adobe premier. sorry.

does anyone know if we can subit our animation only once per competition, or only once total. our team is registered to go to two competitions, so can i submit to both, or must i pick 1?