Max 5

Technical 3D Animation and Competition
#1

Well, i got Max 5 installed today. I was looking though the new features and just messing around.

What do you think of the new lighting? I really haven’t had time to look at the Avdanced Lighting, but from the included pics, it looked pretty cool.

Also, they changed the way you key your animation. I just skimmed over it, and was a little confused. Does anyone know what the real difference is?

Other than those two things, and a little re-done UI (the gizmos) it is pretty close to Max 4

PS: This year we got the Education Version. (Did we get the Edu. last year or a norm?) In the very least, whenever you open max, there is a pop-up that reminds you that you aren’t to use it for commerical use. Might get a little anoying, but i did get expensive software for free, so i’ll learn to live with it. :slight_smile: :cool:

#2

Yes, every year they give us an educational version. Maybe your school/sponsor had a commercial version or Discreet messed up shipping (which has been known to happen) but they officially give us Education.

#3

Humn… I like the new poly-editing tools, too, and the mapping. I made this low poly cow just today: Cow (One skylight, one spotlight)

The lighting? It’s going to take some practice to get the Radiosity to work, but the Light Tracer and skylights are wicked cool.

#4

*Originally posted by Suneet *
**The lighting? It’s going to take some practice to get the Radiosity to work, but the Light Tracer and skylights are wicked cool. **

Ya… Except when i gust threw them on, it took FOREVER to render. Mabey w/ more setup it might go quicker, but i still think that due to the long render time, they will have to be used in small ammounts

#5

oooooooooooohhhh

how about the new physics engines in reactor

that’s sweet

#6

…we still havent gotten our kit :(… but, we’ve got some kickin computers to render on this year… i think there are 22, but i’m not sure… but specs are:
Intel Xeon 2.0 ghz
1 gb rdram
64 mb? video cards
80 gb hard drive
gigabit network cards

key words being XEON and 2 GHz… and 1 gb rdram… if we disconnect it from the rest of the school and put it on a gigabit hub, netrender is gonna FLY

:wink:
Rob
-Anxiously awaiting our kit

#7

We havent gotten out kit yet either, does it come through the mail? or how do we get it?

#8

i like the new ink 'n paint material. I think you could get some really sharp animations with that…don’t steal my idea! runs hehe :slight_smile:

#9

*Originally posted by Trashed20 *
**i like the new ink 'n paint material. I think you could get some really sharp animations with that…don’t steal my idea! runs hehe :slight_smile: **

Yes… i do like that new material. Haven’t really played w/ it yet, but from looking at the demos, it looks like one could make some pretty cool ‘computer’/cartoon animations with it.

Originally posted by Team93FIRST *
**
We havent gotten out kit yet either, does it come through the mail? or how do we get it?*

We got ours on monday. I beleave that the orders went though as soon as you registered for your first regional. Everybody should be getting theirs withen the next few weeks.

*Originally posted by RobDeCotiis *
**
…we still havent gotten our kit … but, we’ve got some kickin computers to render on this year… i think there are 22, but i’m not sure… but specs are:
Intel Xeon 2.0 ghz
1 gb rdram
64 mb? video cards
80 gb hard drive
gigabit network cards

key words being XEON and 2 GHz… and 1 gb rdram… if we disconnect it from the rest of the school and put it on a gigabit hub, netrender is gonna FLY

Rob
-Anxiously awaiting our kit**

Man… our school has a cad lab w/ ~30 computers (1.8 GHz && 512 ram) not as good as yours, but would still be cool to do a net render on. BUT… because our schools admin’s are a bunch of stuck-up computer know-nothings (yes… i really do know more about computers than our admin. (except Novel) Lets not go into it :slight_smile: ) I can’t use them. So… I’m stuck rendering on my home pc (800 MHz && 384 ram && 32 mb video card) unless i can get a better computer donated. (or… good idea of mine. Get a lan party, have some fun, then ask everyone to let me have their stuff for a night. :cool: )

Oh Well…

Jack

PS: Max 5 is way cool!

#10

quote:

Originally posted by Suneet
The lighting? It’s going to take some practice to get the Radiosity to work, but the Light Tracer and skylights are wicked cool.

*Originally posted by Jack *
**

Ya… Except when i gust threw them on, it took FOREVER to render. Mabey w/ more setup it might go quicker, but i still think that due to the long render time, they will have to be used in small ammounts **

Remember that radiosity is how light reflects off other objects in a scene. Because every object in the scene is affected, even if you play with the settings it will take a while to render (Longer than raytraces). For faster renderings you can fudge radiosity with colored lights (Especially in earlier versions of 3dsmax). The effect is still convincing, but radiosity is an extremely realistic effect.

#11

When i went to open one of the examples (the ink’in paint) it gave me an error that i needed a geforce 3. I was using DirectX. When i switched to OpenGL, it worked fine.

Did anyone else get the same prob.

Next: Which graphics mode do you use?

#12

How did you texture that cow? I am a bit of a newb in animation, so please forgive my ignorance.

I’ve been playing around with max5 for a bit, and i like all of the new stuff, but i still prefer 4’s keysetter thing

#13

*Originally posted by VanWEric *
**I’ve been playing around with max5 for a bit, and i like all of the new stuff, but i still prefer 4’s keysetter thing **

That’s why they have ‘Auto Key’. (the way it was done in max 4). It is good for the small projects. I think that the new way may come in handy when working on more complex objects

#14

*Originally posted by VanWEric *
**How did you texture that cow? I am a bit of a newb in animation, so please forgive my ignorance.
**

Ok then… the cow mesh was a single piece of Meshsmooth NURMS, the horns, hoofs, udder; it’s all one piece. I put a UVW Unwrap modifier on this, and left the default mapping coordinates it generated. I applied the textured cow material to that, and the applied a UVW XForm modifier to adjust it a bit, but there is a visible in seam in the render. I didn’t use the new UVW Unwrap methods, as this was a quick job really ment for just that one render. To texture the horns and udder differently, you make a new material for each texture, put an edit mesh modifier on the mesh, select the polygons you want the different texture on (like the horns), and drag and drop it into the selection from the material editor.

When you have some time to kill, you can do the tutorial on Pg. 122-131 in the MAX 5 Tutorial book… That book is a great resourse if you want to learn MAX.

I always use OpenGL… I decided that by opening a complex mesh and getting a feel for the framerate of either OpenGL or DirectX, and I thought OpenGL was faster

#15

*Originally posted by Suneet *
**I applied the textured cow material to that, and the applied a UVW XForm modifier to adjust it a bit, but there is a visible in seam in the render. **

OK… So then i’m not going crazy. :slight_smile:

When i looked at the cow, and saw the seam, i thought that i wasn’t seeing something.

I really like the head. - Great cow :cool:

#16

Thanks for the tip – ill be materialing some stuff now…

#17

*Originally posted by Suneet *
**Humn… I like the new poly-editing tools, too, and the mapping. I made this low poly cow just today: Cow (One skylight, one spotlight)

The lighting? It’s going to take some practice to get the Radiosity to work, but the Light Tracer and skylights are wicked cool. **

For those of you who are having trouble with radiosity, there are several things you have to set up for it to work.

  1. Turn radiosity on under the advance lighting dialog.

  2. Use photometric lights. Under the create tab panel chose lights and then choose photometric lights from the pulldown list.

  3. Turn on exposure control. choose the Logarithmic Exposure Control.

  4. you have to calculate the radiosity from the radiosity portion of the advanced lighting dialog.

That should make it work. Refer to the user reference if you have any problems.