Lazy UVW editior – Procedural UVW layout and texture baking tool for 3dsMax

The Lazy UVW editor is a way to procedurally create seamless textures without having to unwrap uvs.

It accomplishes this by using multiple uvw channels to cover pinching, stretching, or seams of the basic uvw mapping options, and the resulting map may be baked down to one channel if desired.

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Lights wirecolor – simple workflow script and tip

Even after having worked in 3dsMax for so long, I find myself thinking of small workflow improvements that aid in daily workflow. Today while I was lighting a character, with multiple lights with different colors to them, I thought it would be nice to see the target line represent the color value of the light. So it would change something that looked like this:

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Stretch point – making cheap muscles in max

Often times while skinning a character, as you can see in my lazy skinning and binding video, sometimes I used helper or faux muscle bones to help with some areas, like around the legs/crotch, or the armpit/chest area. Adding a bone that is connected on both ends to different bones, and stretches and squashes in between them can help preserve volume by adding nice subtleties to the skinning, or just flat out make it possible.

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Chain Parent – Macroscript

Recently I was asked for an alternate version of the macroscript ‘Slap Parent’ that speeds up the parenting process in 3ds Max. The alteration was to have each object parent to the next, by order of selection. Well, you can get it here . Simply put it in your max directory/macroscripts and assign it to a keyboard shortcut.

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Fast ‘End Task’ for trouble programs – 3ds max, After Effects

If you have used 3ds max of after effects in production, you have had it stall or crash. Sometimes even the crash can crash its crashing, and you end up with tasks running, that you have to go through the task manager to kill. Sometimes going to the process, or process tree and terminating that. And then waiting for windows to politely quit the program, asking you if you really want to do that. Sometimes you need to do this process multiple times a day, and just get fed up with it. Well here is the solution I have. .bat files that just cut to the chase and stop the program.

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3ds Max sppd tip 04 – Rule of Three

Fourth in the series of speed and workflow tips for 3ds Max.

I hate doing things three times. Here is how to use Maxscript and the built in listener to make batch changes to things in your scene. Also how retrieve variables from objects quickly to develop scripts that actually save you time, the first time you use them.

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3ds Max sppd tip 03 – Slap Parent

Get the macroscript here: www.aarondabelow.com/v1/scripts/slap_parent/SlapParent.zip

Using the 3ds Max select and link thing is terrible. Using the provided macroscript, when bound to the suggested keyboard shortcut makes this process a snap. Saves a bunch of time, and a real nice way to streamline your workflow.

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3ds Max speed tip 02 – Lazy UVW Mapping

Second in the series of speed and workflow tips for 3ds Max.

This one covers a way to get around uvw coordinates of unusual objects. It shows you a technique on how to use multiple uvw channels to create a tile-less, seamless, unwrap free texture on your objects, without any visible stretching or pinching. It is a quick method that lets you power through an often undesirable task.

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3ds Max speed tip 01 – Active Type

Hey everyone, I am starting a series of speed and workflow tips for 3DS Max that I have picked up over the years of working production. I have seen my fair share of tutorial videos, and am tired of slow paced ones that are 45 min long, and you only see 1 or 2 new things. So I’ve made an effort to keep these videos short and fast paced, and targeted at an intermediate experience level in 3Ds Max.

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Camblock motion control – Scale match

Here is a little motion control scaling test I worked on at MAKE as a proof of concept for doing scaled shots. There is no tracking or fudging going on in either of the two composited shots, they are just garbage keyed and laid over each-other. Using some simple math, and a plum line we were able to scale the camera move to match the same subject, just 1/6 the size! The motion control setup we were using is the super lite and configurable camblock products.

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Debris Maker – Crystal module update

Just finished up the crystal module for the debris maker, so now you can make all the types of crystal that you want, over whatever objects you want!

I have a few more of these I haven’t posted anywhere yet, and more yet that are in development, and they will be coming soon!

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Mincraft to 3ds Max

I did a little messing around with some minecraft exporters and bringing it into 3DSMax for a little bit of fun. This was just a quickie, and I think with a bit of work, it could yield some nice results!

The software I used to get the obj that I brought into max was Mineways and was really easy to use, but kind of slow. and as you can see, there are some alpha issues i need to look into.

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