In the world of 3D design and modeling, efficiency is key. The ability to streamline your workflow can save you hours of time and significantly improve your productivity. One tool that can help you achieve this is the transform toolbox in 3DS Max. This toolbox is packed with smart tools that can save you time and make your 3D modeling process smoother and more efficient.
The Transform Toolbox: A Swiss Army Knife for 3D Artists
The transform toolbox in 3DS Max is like a Swiss army knife for 3D artists. It allows you to rotate objects by a specific degree of your choice, based on the viewing angle. This is much faster than selecting an object, turning on angle snaps, and rotating by five degrees.
The transform toolbox also lets you scale objects to a certain size. Even better, you can select an object from your scene and find out its size. This is incredibly useful because it means you can scale your object to fit the reference object you want to replace.
Align Pivot: Centering and Grounding Made Easy
The align pivot tool in the toolbox allows you to center or ground pivots and much more. This is much quicker than going to hierarchy effect pivot center to object or turning on snaps and trying to snap it to the bottom of your object.
The toolbox also allows you to center an object to the scene, which is much more efficient than selecting the move tool and right-clicking in each axis to center it.
Cloning and Shortcuts: Speeding Up Your Workflow
The toolbox allows you to clone next to your object, again based on the viewing angle. Holding shift and clicking will make it an instance, holding 'alt' and clicking will make two copies, and holding shift and ALT will make two instances.
To access the toolbox quickly, you can set up a shortcut, such as Ctrl+Shift+T. When you press this combination, the toolbox appears. This is much quicker than going to find it each time from edit transform toolbox.
Conclusion
The transform toolbox in 3DS Max is a game-changer for 3D artists. It's packed with smart tools that can save you time and make your 3D modeling process smoother and more efficient. By unlocking this toolbox and learning how to use its features, you can significantly improve your workflow and productivity.
So, go ahead and unlock the secret 3DS Max toolbox, and save yourself hours of time. Let me know in the comments what takes up most of your time and we can take a look at speeding it up.
This blog post is based on the video "UNLOCK The Hidden 3DS Max Toolbox You Should Be Using" by Jake, a CGI artist from the UK. He freelances, teaches, and travels the world because of Luxury Visuals. He has been lucky enough to work with some of the world's most exciting designers and brands.