Category: Private Client Services Provided: Feasibility, Concept, Appraisal, Local Authority Representation, Green Belt Planning Consent & CGI Visualisation Location: Hoghton, Lancashire
Interview on CG Alter
Harpers Bazaar and a BMW rendered in Corona A7
A couple of pieces to report this month, firstly I went to EUE in Utrecht back in June, as usual it was great to catch up with the CG heads and learn lots of interesting things about 3D. Particular highlights were meeting Eric de Broche of Luxigon fame and Nils Norgrens from Neoscape's talk on leadership and starting a company. Write up coming soon. Whilst I was at EUE I bumped into Adam Hotovy who was kind enough to give me an early release of Corona A7. I took it for a spin with the new BMW i7. Corona is unbelievabley easy to use, get the conversion script from the forum and pretty much hit render and your good. I left it overnight and this is what I got, I did some minor color adjustments in Photoshop, but here that is now built in to the release version.
Harpers Bazaar also did a piece on the super yacht I have been working on recently. The images they used included a double page spread and some older interior images.
3Ds Max Vespa Making of
I originally created the Vespa model back in 2008 as part of a 'mods vs rockers' video game project based in 1960's Brighton. I was highly influenced by the 1979 film Quadrophenia. When I moved down to Brighton in 2011 I was inspired to revisit the project. The model I originally created was for a video game a few years previous so it was quite low poly. This time round I wanted to push the realism of the model. Before this project I had not used the Mental Ray render engine very much so it was good to take the opportunity to develop my knowledge of the engine. I wanted to push the engine and show you could create a good amount of realism with Mental Ray. There were a lot of 'firsts' for me in this project, the use of mental ray, a HDR image for lighting and the use of Ambient Occlusion.
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The reference was originally taken from a book on Vespas. I also watched the film quadrophenia a few times. It was great to have a low poly base mesh already modelled so I could start work on the fun stuff I really enjoy, adding details to the model. There was not many special modelling techniques used. The flag was made using the cloth modifier, which was pinned to the pole. The mirrors were made using splines and the headlight were made like this.
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For the paint material I really wanted to get a nice reflective coat on top of the paint layer itself. I really like the amount of reflections I could get from the vehicle because of all the chrome and mirrors. Most of the materials are very basic and looking back now I maybe could have added some bumps and reflection maps to add to the realism but I do like the clean, crisp effect I got from not adding imperfections. I used 10 materials show below.
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To light the scene I used an interior HDR image from the Introduction to mental-ray-in 3ds-Max course from digital tutors. I put the HDR in the self illumination slot in the of a Standard Material and applied it to a inverted sphere and rotated it until I achieved a result I was happy with. There is a short post about that here HDRI lighting in 3ds Max and Mental Ray.
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Setting the camera is an important part of the image, I tried very much to abide by the basic photography rule of thirds. I tried many angles with various paint colours, some I was more satisfied with than others. I ended up with three shots that I wanted to develop.
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I then set the render engine to Mental Ray and began testing some settings. See below for the final render settings. I would recommend watching Rendering and Texturing in 3ds Max with Ramy Hanna.
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I put a ground plan down to get a shadow pass for the floor using a dark blue colour. I rendered an image without this plane and then render the floor using a region selection. I also created an ambient occlusion pass. More information on Ambient Occlusion How To: 3ds Max, Mental Ray and Photoshop.
Although when I created this image I did not use a Wire Colour Render Mask I recommend it to be able to control each material in post production. To create this pass I recommend Render Mask by Ivan Tepavicharov a excellent free script that has been develop to do a lot more than just wire colors including Z-Depth, AO, Reflections and many more. For other handy scripts and plugins check out the Top Five Free Scripts and Plugins.
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This is also a part I really enjoy, post production. Most of the work was done by Mental Ray so the post production was minimal. I began by bringing the passes into Photoshop, I overlayed the floor/shadow pass and put the AO on top using a multiply layer. I then painted in a gradient in the background matching the floor colour, this can also be changed in post. I then also put some gradients of colour to add some variation to the light and to set the mood of the image. Below shows the layers in Photoshop.
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I was happy with the result of the image and very proud that it was features on the front page of Autodesk's Area and to see it in 3D World Magazine. I hope that this Making Of has been helpful and if you enjoyed it or have any questions please leave a comment. I like to think that this site will speed up your development as a 3D Artist by trying to explain things that took me so time to learn.
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A 10 step guide on how to add a pop up notes in 3ds Max with pictures
A 10 step guide on how to add a pop up notes in 3ds Max with pictures. This guide will take you through every step in this simple process.
If you have downloaded one of the 3ds Max scenes from the downloads page you would have noticed a pop up note when you open it in 3ds Max. These can be useful for adding notes about the file for future reference or for a college who is going to use the scene or 3D model. To add pop up notes in 3ds Max is very simple just follow the steps below.
1. Right Click on the Main Toolbar in 3ds Max and select Customize from the drop down list.
2. Click on the Menu tab at the top of the new window.
3. Now you can choose where you want to add the button to Add a Pop Up Note. I recommend Tools. So click the + next to the word Tools.
4. Now drag and drop a Separator bar across from the left side to the bottom of the new list.
5. In the Action list in the top left of the Customize User Interface window Drag and Drop Add a Pop up Note underneath the new Separator you just added.
6. Close the Customize window.
7. Now when you click on Tools in you should see Add a Pop up Note at the bottom of the list.
8. Click Add a Pop up Note.
9. In the Pop Up Note window make sure that Show Note on File Open is checked. Here is also where you can add the Authors Name, Date and Description. Click Add Note.
10. Now save. Now when you open the file the Pop Up Note will appear.
And there you have it you can now add pop ups note in 3ds Max. If you found this post useful or informative please help me by commenting and sharing. Thank you.
Related Content:
Expose 11 - Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe
I am extremely proud to say I am in this years Expose from Ballistic Publishing. I am very happy to be featured next to the best artists in the world. This year had over 8000 images submitted from 58 countries. My image the Red VW Camper can be seen in the Transport section of the book. You can see more of my publications here. The Red VW Camper is available for download over on Turbosquid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVpWOGRGRFk
Camera Focus Studies
I am happy to present a some new renders from a Vray Physical Camera study. In this study I wanted to looking deeper into the Vray Camera focus and motion blur settings. The table and chairs scene was very basic using three Vray Lights.
For the paper clips I used a studio with a HDRI and Rayfire to animate.
How To Record Actions in 3ds Max like in Photoshop
I was looking for a way to repeat some of the most common tasks I perform in 3ds max. It turns out that using MAXScript is the way to do it. Don't let the word 'script' scare you, it is pretty easy. The task I wanted to create an 'action' button for was. -Apply UVW Map -with Box Mapping and Real-World Scale
To create the Script we need an object to record the action from. So just create a box.
Click on MAXScript (next to Help) on the top menu. Select MAX Script Listener
This Box will pop up, Click MacroRecorder and Enable from the dropdown.
Now what ever you do will be recorded, like in Photoshop actions.
Apply a UVW Map > Mapping to Box > tick Real-World Map Size Turn off the MacroRecorder by hitting enable again.
This is what you have. modPanel.addModToSelection (Uvwmap ()) ui:on $.modifiers[#UVW_Map].maptype = 4 $.modifiers[#UVW_Map].realWorldMapSize = on $.modifiers[#UVW_Map].utile = 1 $.modifiers[#UVW_Map].vtile = 1 $.modifiers[#UVW_Map].length = 1 $.modifiers[#UVW_Map].width = 1 $.modifiers[#UVW_Map].height = 1 Select all the text and copy it.
At the top of Max go to MAXScript again and New Script. Paste in the code.
At the top copy and paste this... macroScript UVWmap category:"Jaked3d" buttonText:"UVWmapRWS"
You can change the name of the Script (UVWmap) category:"(Jaked3d)" and buttonText:"(UVWmapRWS)"
Add brackets to the top and bottom of the code like below
Now in MAXScript > File > Save where you like In MAXScript > Tools > Evaluate All
Now in the top menu in 3ds Max Select Customize > Customize User Interface In the Toolbars tab in Category you should find what you called your category you can now drag it 'Uvwmap' onto the Main Toolbar.
You can now select any object in your scene and apply your script. You can download this one here. Jaked3d UVWmapRWS
You can then combine your 'actions' with other scripts. For example I recorded the same action in the above example with the Centre and Reset script from Frodos Magic Bag to centre the pivot of an object > reset xform > apply uvw map with box mapping and real world scale, in one hit of a button.
Search Macro Scripts in 3ds Max Help for lots more info.
Exterior Yacht Render
I am happy to present an image that is on the inside cover of three magazines, Yachts International, Showboats and Boat International. The representation of the 48 metre SuperSport Yacht was created using 3ds Max, Vray and Photoshop.
VW Camper Van
I have finally got around to uploading my Volkswagen Camper Van to Turbosquid.
It was originally created with 3ds Max 2011 using the Mental Ray renderer. (2010 and 2012 .max included)
Containing both a high and a low poly version.
High Poly- 436,176
Low Poly-17,509
This model is suitable for use in advertising, design visualisation, films and games.
The model can be switched from high poly to low poly by turning on and off the turbosmooth in the modifier stack.
3ds Max Cleaner, Remove Missing Plugins and a cool iPhone App and More
Here are a few things I have learnt this month.
1. If you can not Group objects in 3ds Max then with the objects selected hit the unlink button on the left of the main toolbar. Then try and group it and it should work. This happens to me when I import files from AutoCAD and other software.
2. Camera Converter. To quickly add cameras I hit Ctrl+C in the 3ds Max viewport this is great when selecting views with others. But if you are using Vray it can be a pain to line the Vray Physical Camera up. This is where Anything to Physcam from Lele's Vray Tools on script spot is really great. There is a good video on how to use it from Alex over at Vray-Studio.
3. Cleaner. I was having trouble with a scene that was taking ages to load and save. I also had to turn off autoback and it really got hard to work with. Then I found Cleaner on script spot. This amazing tool got my file down from around 1gb to 200mb!
4. Remove Missing Plug-ins. I started to use Rebus Farm and I had a plug-in that Rebus did not. They are quite good with having Plug-ins but I could not send it until I sorted it. This can be quite a pain to resolve, but not with Remove Missing Plugins from Martin Breidt. Really easy to use and extremely useful.
5. How to setup Depth of Field in 3ds Max. A great reminder on setting up a DOF pass in 3ds Max from Onno Van Braam.
6. Wireless Trackpad and Keyboard iPhone App. This great app from Logitech turns your iPhone into a mouse and you can type to. This is handy when watching films on the TV from the laptop and not wanting to have to move.
Polygons to Solids for 3D Printing
The reason for this blog article is to save you from the terrible time I had exporting a polygon mesh into a solid. Basically taking a mesh file and turning into a .iges or similar for 3d printing. After searching the forums and testing out tools that claim to do the job with no luck I had to get busy...
It is possible to take a mesh into Rhino and use the MeshToNumb command, but the mesh needs to be under 20,000 poly and once it is converted it is not smooth and for 3d printing you probably want it smooth. In 3ds Max there is a way to turn your model to Nurbs and export as an .iges. For small models this may work but not for me. If you right click on the model and Convert to Patch and once that is done right click again and Convert to Nurbs. I have not successfully used this method because I have never had the time to wait for the conversion so be warned it does take sometime.
So in 3ds Max there is an export to .iges file in the export box. File>export but unless your model is in Nurbs rather than ploys then this option won't work. So here is how I managed to get quite a heavy max scene into a solid format. This is in no way the correct method but if there is one I would love to know about it.
So here we go with my method. In 3ds Max select your mesh and go to File>Export as .obj. Then open this great tool called 3d Exploration which can be downloaded here. Navigate to the .obj file in here and save it out as a .stl file.
Open up Rhino and import the .stl file. Select the mesh and type in the command bar MeshToNurb. Once this is done select the mesh and delete it, then you should be left with the nurb object. Now all you have to do is export it as an it as an .iges :)
Top 5 Free 3ds Max Scripts and Plugins
Recently I have been trying out quite a few scripts and plugins to speed up my work flow in 3ds Max. I highly recommend browsing scriptspot.com for useful scripts. But to save so time and kick you off here is what I have been using recently. Please note that not all of these are available on Sciptspot but there is a link to each download. So in no particular order here are my Top Five Free 3ds Max Scripts and Plugins. Wireframe Render jokermartini.com/2010/04/30/wireframe-render/ Wireframe Render is a script from John Martini over at jokermartini.com. I have found this one very useful for creating wireframe renders for Turbosquid for example. Wireframe Render uses a simple interface that enables the user to quickly and easily create wireframe renders. I would also recommend checking out some of John's other cool tools available at jokermartini.com/extras/ including cobwebs and Select Intersectors.
Render Mask www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/rendermask
Render Mask allows you to quickly render masks such as object ID's and Materials ID's which I find extremely useful. It is possable to do this in 3ds Max Render Elements but this is handy after you have rendered and maybe you need to get a mask without re-rendering. This plugin is a massive time saver when trying to create varous types of masks for use in post production. It is by Ivan Tepavicharov and this video should explain how to use it.
https://vimeo.com/26107414 Center and Reset www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/frodos-magic-scripts-pack This neat script is from Frodo's Magic Scripts Pack. It resets the xform on an object and centers the pivot point in one click. I use this alot and find it to be a big time saver.
Copitor www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/copitor
This has to be one of my favourites. I have posted about Copitor before here and I am still using it all the time. Copitor lets you copy and paste objects between 3ds Max scenes. I also find it useful to grab the material off the object rather than having to export it.
Ivy Generator www.guruware.at/mainIvy Generator hass been around for a while now and I think it is great. I am always looking out for places I can put it in my scenes because it looks great and it is so easy to use. It is also very customisable with your own leaves etc. Here is a great video tutourial from Sachin Joshi over at CGTuts.
Vray Embree, EUE write ups, The Rule of Thirds and Britney Spears
An update of a few useful things knocking around the community this month.
Jorge Baldeon's post Britney Spears Big Fat Bass Backdrop Making Of on his blog jorgebaldeoncg.blogspot.com is well worth a read, especially if you are a Mental Ray user. He talks about how he went about creating the background animations for Britney Spears Femme Fatale Tour using Mental Ray and 3ds Max.
Samuel Enslin, who I meet at EUE this year has done a write up of some of the talks that went on there at www.insertmesh.net. This was very useful for me as with so many great talks going on it is impossible to make it to all of them.
Ciro Sannino's blog post on The Rule Of Thirds In 3ds Max over at Cg Blog is a great read and very useful for working out how to get the best shots from your 3d models.
Finally, if you want to speed up your renderings in Vray check out Vray Embree. It can speed up your Vray renderings by up to 30%. Definitly check it out, it is very simple to use. Watch the video below for more info.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iJaPhuxepIs
Latest 3D Work - The B-Town Series
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This set of images are influenced by my time in Brighton, you may have seen the Vespas before as I started them a little while ago and they were in 3D World's Portfolio section of the magazine. The VW's were inspired by the VW show I saw when I first moved to Brighton, I posted some pictures of that back in October here. The Vespa took two days to model and adding materials, rendering and post-production took another two. All the images are rendered using Mental Ray.
End User Event 2012
I headed over to Utrecht for the End User Event this week. The event is held in the Florin Pub where the rooms for the talks also are. A total of 5 rooms made it difficult to decide what to see or not. Luckily a lot of the speakers presented their talks more than once. I arrived in the afternoon on Thursday and started with the 3ds Max Expert Panel which was made up of of Neil Hazzard, Zap Andersson, LouisMarcoux, Alex Horst and Jamie Gwilliam. In this session we could ask anything we liked about 3ds Max and any issues we had, this was a great start to the event.
Next up I saw Ted Boardman's workshop, Ted Gets Push-y where Ted demonstrated a range of modifiers that often get overlooked, most of which I had not used before. The Volume select, Push and Slice modifier all got shown and the Snapshot and the Shape Merge tool also look like something that I can introduce to my workflow.
The evenings were great with an open bar and a tasty dinner included, this was a great time to meet fellow 3D Artists and discuss workflow, tools and anything else. My ‘to check out list’ has quadrupled.
First thing on Friday I saw the Unity guys present ‘Doing Magic with Unity in Architectural and Design Visualisation.’ Here they showed how Unity could be used as an interactive architectural visualisation tool. Next was Jamie Gwilliam, from Jamie’s Jewels, presenting an interesting discussion on ‘What Makes a Good Render.’ I learnt a lot of valuable lessons from this talk and enjoyed hearing from everybody about what they thought made renders look good or not.
After lunch Joshua Newmanfrom Meshroom presented his 15 Do's and Don'ts of Visualisation. Again I learnt a lot from this presentation and also had the opportunity to discuss issues I was having in my workflow. One of my favorite talks was from Evert Vandenberghe called Meeting Insane Insane Deadlines! I think the title appealed to a lot of the community and some of the tips and workflow were incredible, a lot of ideas that I can hopefully take into my workflow. Evert went through how he worked using basic examples but they can be used for more complex things. The day finished up with Master Zap and Neil Hazzard talking about the renderers that ship with 3ds Max.
Autodesk 123D Catch Beta
I was very excited to hear about Autodesk's 123D Catch. 123D Catch lets you take ordinary photos and turn them into 3D models. Here is a quick introduction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6aU2s85Zw3A
So I downloaded the software from here. The software comes with some good tutorials and the program is pretty straight forward to use. For the object I wanted to create I took 42 photos spinning around the object. I uploaded them and waited for Autodesk to email to let me know it was completed. A couple of the images were too dark so the object I received was not 100% but 42 images is probably the minimum I would suggest.
It looked pretty good if I do say so myself. Next, what I was most excited about was getting it into 3ds Max. This was simple, File, Export, FBX and import into Max, this is what I got below.
The scene contains cameras where all the shots were taken from, which could come in handy. I then opened up the Material Editor and selected the material from the object. There were two in this case. The file Autodesk emailed me contained to texture sheets which I remapped to the correct location and below are the 2 texture sheets and the result i got.
I then added a Mental Ray Daylight system and applied a smoothing group to the whole object and rendered. Below are the results. The mesh was very heavy and if I had more time I could have cleaned it up a lot and patched up any broken areas in the model.
Catch 123D is an amazingly powerful tool which I am sure will come in handy in future. Definitely give this free software a try and let me know how you get on.
iRay
A great Autodesk University class that converted me from Mental Ray to iRay for rendering. The talk by George Matos concentrates on how iRay is different from previous rendering technology and goes through the advantages and disadvantages. Later the talk moves on to cloud rendering with iRay and where it is all heading. Definitely worth a watch.
"Key Learning
Describe the hardware required for iray and explain how to use cloud rendering with iray
Explain what iray is
List the advantages and disadvantages of iray
Describe the differences between iray and previous rendering technology"
... Autodesk University
Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 Announced - New Features Videos
Autodesk 3ds Max 2013 has been announced and here are the latest New Features videos. Personally I am looking forward to using iRay Active Shade in a viewport (video below). I understand that iRay Active Shade was only available in 2012 in the subscription pack. I have started making the move from Mental Ray to iRay now and I suggest trying Niveda's iRay out if you have not done so already.http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pji7hLREtoc Check out all the new feature videos here.
Copitor is a must have for a 3ds Max user
Copitor is a 3ds Max script by Mathieu Jacquin which allows you to copy and paste selected objects to another 3ds Max scene or to another window if you have more then one 3ds Max open. It is also useful to back an object up before you try something, such as booleans!
You can download it here.
To install... Drop The file in max viewport and go to Customize ==> Customize User Interface ==> Category: zOffTy Tools ==> Copitor