Football Ball Maker

After many modeling tutorials about how to make football ball, today come MaxScript to do this in secs.

Rolling Dice

A very simple "How To" tutorial for beginners
to quick modeling dice and animate it in reactor.

Go With The Flow

Go With The Flow is the section of Boboland web site which provides some additional tutorials related to the Particle Flow Extension for 3ds max 5.1 and MAXScript. These examples are in a format similar to the "How To" and Particle Flow examples found in the MAXScript Online Help and might be included in future versions of the Online Help.

I recommend Borislav's PF tutorials for everyone who want to learn Particle Flow in depth.

Sprite Buffer update

I was wrote a script (Sprite Buffer) by user request to add in 3ds Max frame buffer feature similar to existing in Maya. I don't plan to extend or update this script, but today David Svantner send me him modified version of my script which add Autoappend function using postRenderFrame callbacks to can easily render animated sprite sequences. I attached it right now as is to be available for downloads, but when i've got more free time will modify it to work with checkButton instead of popup dialog for convenience with turn on/off Autoappend.

Links: Forum post My version Modified version

Links changes

Maybe there is nothing to worry about last ScriptSpot maintenance changes. Accidentally the admin start moving my scripts first. Let's hope it's true. For now I'll slow down my contribution out there.

There is new URL's for 5 of main scripts which moved:
Hump: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/hump
HollowCube: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/hollowcube-1
Obelisk: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/obelisk
Step Pyramid: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/step-pyramid
CirPyramid: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/cirpyramid

Upside down

This making-of by Mathias Koehler is intended for intermediate users. In page 5 tutorial refer to a script called ''MousePlanter'' written by Roger Hyde. It allows you to paint objects on the surface of others in a very intuitive way. The downloads link out there is dead, so here I found it.

Anatomy References for Artists

FineArt.sk is a source for human anatomy references for 3D and traditional artists.

Artist-3D.com

Artist-3D.com is another good source site for free 3d models (.3ds, .max).

Future City

Modeling tutorial with good rated stats, which requered Greeble plug-in. At least important notes added: "There will be millions of polygons and dozens of lights to render. I’m using 4-core Intel processor with 4GB of RAM and my 3DS Max crashed several times before I made the entire scene and managed to render it."

Conclusion - nothing "awesome" here, waste of time :/

Translated Bounding Box

My last script relevant to Autodesk forum topic. Create Box or Dummy (if CTRL key pressed) for each selected objects using their bounding box in coordinate system matrix3. The script can be found on ScriptSpot.

Switching Cameras in an Animation

Louis Marcoux release an series of video tutorials covering different techniques to switch cameras in an animation in 3ds max.

Free Motion Capture

CGSpeed is a nice source for free motion capture in BVH format. Their database contain download links to a 3dsMax-friendly .BVH release of 2548 human motions from the Carnegie-Mellon Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database.

Introducing Google Building Maker

"Our early beta testers insist that Building Maker is more like a game than a tool"

More at Google's Lat Long Blog

CirPyramid

CirPyramid is a Procedural object scripted plug-in for 3dsmax. Install it by copy the .MS file to Max "stdplugs\stdscripts\" folder. Then you can find it in the 'Create/Geometry' tab in the 'Scripted Primitives' menu. It is open source, like all of my scripts online, so unless it's ready for use, the code is open to learn from it and future processing.

More details and download the scripted plug-in here.

Step Pyramid

Step Pyramid is a Procedural object scripted plug-in for 3dsmax. Install it by copy the .MS file to Max "stdplugs\stdscripts\" folder. Then you can find it in the 'Create/Geometry' tab in the 'Scripted Primitives' menu. It is open source, like all of my scripts online, so unless it's ready for use, the code is open to learn from it and future processing.

More details and download the scripted plug-in here.

Obelisk

Obelisk is a Procedural object scripted plug-in for 3dsmax. Install it by copy the .MS file to Max "stdplugs\stdscripts\" folder. Then you can find it in the 'Create/Geometry' tab in the 'Scripted Primitives' menu. It is open source, like all of my scripts online, so unless it's ready for use, the code is open to learn from it and future processing.

More details and download the scripted plug-in here.

Animate an Iceberg

Animate an Iceberg Turning into a Desert Island
Video tutorial by Evan Schaible.
Dreamscape plugin requered.

Description:
In this hour long video tutorial, we will follow the complete process of animating a 3d iceberg as it transforms into a desert island. We will take an in-depth look at using the many complex features of dreamscape, in conjunction with hand painted displacement maps and animated the meshes, and even go over some of the more classic principles of animation.

Snapshot To Shape v.1.E

This is new requested UI version (v.1.E) update for my Snapshot To Shape script. Utility interface added, so now you can pick or enter object and shape names, choose copy type and amount via UI.

Read more end download here.

Design Reform

DesignReform.net is another web source for video tutorials related to 3ds Max.

Layers of Control 2

Ok, to clarify what I said in previous post, will sketch a brief example to compare Grayson Chalmers rigs method with built Max constraints. I'll do this just to be sure so someone dont say I'm not right. Maybe Grayson think so he has discovered new and creative methods? The truth is that Max has a suitable controllers for the cases covered in him video tutorial.

So there is my example (see the video for final result). Here I use Link Constraint for the ball (sphere) and 12 surrounding rods (Line shapes) for its targets. Also LookAt Constraint for the arrow object (Line shape) and ball as its target. So you can finish this simple example - modeling plus animation for less then 5 minutes, and here no rigging or special setup needed. Well, only to setup the animation using Grayson rigs will take an hour or more.



(or download SWF flash video - 341 kb)

So, let for convenience, world center [0,0,0] to be the center for our "clock" device. Create Line with 2 knots with length = 20. Be sure it pivot is centered. Move it +60 by Y, ie to position [0,60,0]. Slide to frame 30, turn on Animation, and rotate it 180 degrees, and turn of AutoKey. I do this with the thought that we work of 30 frames per second.

Now you can create a Dummy or Point helper in the world center [0,0,0] to use it as rotation axis, and make new 11 independent copies (ie Clone type Copy) by using Angle snap tool. They must by 360 / 12 = 30, ie in 30 degrees. Also can do the same by next script:

for i=1 to 11 do (c = copy $; about [0,0,0] rotate c (i*30) z_axis)

What's next?... We need to move the keys for each spline object (rods). Select Line02, select its 2 keys end move them by 30 forward, so now it animation start from frame 30 (where Line01 animation ends) and end in frame 60. Select Line03 end move its keys 2 * 30 = 60 , end so on for all of the 12 objects. if you wish to speed up this procces by script:

select $*Line* -- select all splines
all = selection as array -- collect 'em
for i=2 to all.count do (moveKeys all[i].rotation.controller ((i-1)*30))

Now create a shpere with radius 5 and move it to [-16,60,0]. Go to frame 0 and from Animation menu add Link Constraint to it and pick Line01 as first target. Go to frame 30 and pick Line02, and so on, repeat this for all slidding by 30. Immportant: if you add new target at the same time (forget to move time slider), it will overwrite last existing target. So, as you see, even 12 targets in this case - whole task take a seconds.

Finally create another Line for arrow object. Align its first knot to [0,0,0], also and it pivot to [0,0,0]. move it second knot to [37,0,0]. Length more than 37 will intersect with the sphere. While "arrow" still selected, from Animation menu add LookAt Constraint and pick the sphere. This task also done. Play the animation.

I leave the conclusions to you :)

Layers of Control

I shall be quite pleased when I saw new video session published on Area Autodesk site, still does not happen very often, especially when it comes to animation, also to learn from practitioners is the best choice (at least so it should be the best choice).

The full article name: GDC MasterClass: Layers of Control: Animation controllers, constraints, and layers in 3ds Max

Judging by the rank and experience of the lecturer (Grayson Chalmers – Outsource Manager for Sony Online Entertainment Austin), it should be an awesome video tutorial, major and essential for animators, right? But its not, and I'm disappointed.

The "core" of the tutor is about animating weights of position and orientation constraint, and setup some simple rig system which is just to show us how flexible is to work with custom attributes. Ok, good to know, but the final usage of this rig system is too complicated. Yep, even in Max R4 has methods which is more quick and easy to setup, more flexible and better contrloled, which ultimately produced better final result.

So what going on here? Whether the level today is really fallen very low?

Andy scripts

Andy E shared some scripted plugins and tools.

Building Generator

Interesting scripted Building Generator for 3d Studio Max released.
It's still in beta testing stage and maybe this is why it is free.

Batch Loader

Batch Loader is my last script designed to quick Merge/Import multiple files. I noticed that there is interest in scripts like "Batch Merge". I also read the comments and requests at ScriptSpot.com, so here's what I created.

Features

• Merge multiple .MAX files
• Import multiple .* files (ie all that can be imported)!
• Log all files where failed to load to Listener (if any)
• Multiple history for recent used paths available
• Limit count of recent paths to keep in history added
• Group option available
• "Auto" option (if is checked no prompt for Merge/Import) *
• Dialog window is resizeable

[*] If "Auto" is unchecked then default Max Merge/Import dialog appear for each file. It is slower alternative, but it is important and useful in some cases.

Read more and download the script as usually here.

V-Ray tutorials

I find two of Max Attivo blogs that will benefit to V-Ray users.

1. Free Professional High Quality 3D models

English version: http://maxattivo.blogspot.com/
Russian version: http://ru-3d-model.blogspot.com/

2. Free Professional High Quality 3D Tutorials

English version: http://attivotutor.blogspot.com/
Russian version: http://attivotutorru.blogspot.com/

The movement of points in space

Some nice reference images and animations on creating 3D models for animation.

Pure Shot

Here's something from me which I think will be useful for other people. Quick render selected object(s) on pure background color without mess renderer settings & while keep last rendered VFB intact.

Features:

• Render selected object(s) on desired size & background color
• Keep renderer settings & last rendered VFB intact
• Each "shot" comes in a new virtual slot which gives you freedom to
• work with multiple slots which is a bonus when comparing images.

Purpose:
We all know that Max Render Selected mod past new rendered shot over last rendered frame as background. I always wondered why this option is designed to work like this. This is not real-time post-production compositing feature. It's designed to save time when our focus its work over an object(s) and to do this on flat background color is very clear and more useful.

Installation:
Copy this script to your Max\Scripts\Startup folder, and use it at any time from the Utility panel.

Read more and download the script here.

Underwater scene

Series of tutorials for working with underwater scenes released by Alessandro Cangelosi.

1. Underwater scene in 3D Studio Max 2010
2. Underwater lighting in 3D Studio Max 2010
3. Underwater Scene Exploration

CG Swot tutorials

CG Swot is a relatively new but promising site for 3d tutorials.

Quick Mask Selected

There is my new MaxScript what I wrote by the way for about 5 minutes just right now :) It's assist you to get quickly black and white mask from the selected objects. Read more and download the script form here.

Character Lectures

Free lectures
on 3D animation
for beginners
by Billy.


Contents included:

1. NAVIGATING THE MAX INTERFACE
2. MODELLING PRIMITIVES
3. TRANSFORMING OBJECTS
4. ADVANCED MODELLING TECHNIQUES
5. Materials, Cameras and Lighting
6. BASIC ANIMATION
7. MODIFYING ANIMATION
8. ADDING SQUASH AND STRETCH
9. ANIMATING ALONG A PATH
10. CREATING AND ANIMATING A HIERARCHY

Character Process

Character modeling tutorial.