3D Animation Q/A

[rastermon]

Originally Posted by team 2244

HELP US ! ! !
We are from Free Access Evolution Team and we are having problems trying to upload the animation. We developed the animation with all the specifications provided in www.autodesk.com/firstbase, but the upload didn't run. So now, we are thinking of making a new site to put our animation there, so we could tell FIRST the password to enter on the site. What do you think of this? Do you think t's possible?

P L E A S E A N S W E R U S ! ! !

Pedro (#2244)

You could put it on your website, but who knows if it will get included on the DVD, or judged.. send the link to FIRST.
I assume a mentor - or someone with upload authority was trying to upload the movie? I had no problems last night.

Rob

[team 2244]

yes it was a mentor who was trying to upload, but we received the answer from autodesk and they told us to stay calm, and try to upload...xD

we are trying to stay calm...xD

Tamires(#2244)[Hyniora]

[legotech25]

ok, so we got turned the file size down quite a bit, but now we can't figure out how to put in audio while in 3ds max 8... can someone help us out? (again)?

[Setsanto]

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

[Theflexmaster]

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!

[DinkyDogg]

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.

[Mazin]

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."

[Mike Ciance]

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?

[Capt.ArD]

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.

[Damelvin]

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.

[Capt.ArD]

Originally Posted by Damelvin

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.

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.

[Damelvin]

Originally Posted by Capt.ArD

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.

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.

[Capt.ArD]

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.

[darkstar]

Anyone here?

[darkstar]

need help