Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Arts & Talents => Topic started by: LOKO on July 17, 2004, 11:57:17 am
-
hi, im getting 3d max im going to be new to it, i want to learn how to use it, to start helping with freespace 2 mods. are there tutorials on how to use it?. thx.
-
:welcome:
3ds Max, well yes and I will post them all if you wait. :)
-
There's more, but here are the best I know of :)
http://tutorialoutpost.com/top-20-3d-studio-max/
http://www.3dm-mc.com/index.php
http://www.3dbuzz.com/
http://www.3dkingdom.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&catid=&topic=9&allstories=1
http://www.3dlinks.com/links.cfm?categoryid=13&subcategoryid=105
-
max usually comes with a good set of tutorials. With regards to Freespace modelling, max 4 had a brilliant tutorial on the basics of low poly modelling (which i would presume is in some way replicated in the newer versions).
-
Max's tuts are very good. Use them. :nod:
-
Max's help file is incredibly useful. 'Course, I suppose I already had a rough grasp of the basics when I got it, but still- everything I've learned was from it, and pretty much every time I set up a new model in MAX I end up learning more from it.
-
ok guys i got something called 3d max 6 discreet, it a trial version, it dosent look like the thing comes with tutorials, so yah.
http://www.skillreactor.org/cgi-bin/index.pl?baschead
im trying to do this, but it dosnt say how big the box should be, when i put in the segments nothing happen th box stay the same?
maybe this is a bit advance ill try to find something else, is there a tutorial out there that teaches u how to use all the buttons? thx.
-
ok guys I found something simpler so dont worry.
http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tutorials/hat/hat.htm
im just going to keep doing tutorial like this for now.
but what would be the next step?
thx
-
You build on what you know progressively, as you need more. Studio MAX has an absolutely freaky number of functions, after about a year of using it on a pretty much daily basis I still don't really know how to use half of the things it can do- they simply never came up as an issue, because I haven't and probably won't ever need them. And that's even before you get into plugins...
Oh, by the way, that'd be a good step for MAX. Plugins. MAX is behind some of the other major modeling programs in a few fields, and ahead in others, but with the right suite of third-party addons you can fill in all those holes (things like textures- Simbiont, or renders- Brazil)
-
well, what would be the most thing's i need to learn so i can help in free space?
modeling, texturing, what else?
-
Learning to skin'd probably do you good. Unfortunately, there's something where I've got not a ****ing clue, and would rather like a tut on how it's done myself.
Other than that- box modeling. Most Freespace vessels are composed of a single, coherent mesh, so you need to learn to build up a primitive into something that looks like a fighter, or a capship, or whatever. Basically, the Mesh Edit modifier is your friend- just apply it and move the vertices around.
Aaand... well, get that stuff down, first. That's all you really need for the most basic stuff, and everything thereafter that you can do in MAX is pretty simple by comparison.
-
Learn the interface;) knowing where a tool is and what the tool does is 1 big step in the right direction, Max like Maya's interface are abit advanced when you first look at it and might scare you, but when you start learning the things its very logical.
Like stryke said study the help file, and buy yourself a book, the max 6 bible is a very good start it covers the basics and intermediate options of max 6 from the interface to animating.
-
well ok, that all sound good, about the skin is that wat mostly need to help in the mods?, can start learning, does max to the skins tho?
also i got a problem with max i cant deselect the YX axsis i just want the x, but max 6 dosent have the X Y Z XY thing on the top, is there any other way i canselect just x coordinates?
where can i buy the book? local book shop il go there 2morrow
-
You just hover your mouse over the arrows around the object (if its already selected) to select an axis, hold your left mouse button down and drag. Thats it.
-
LOKO, you can model all you want in 3dsMax, but in order for you to texture it or even put it in the game, you need to get Truespace. (http://www.caligari.com/Products/trueSpace/ts65/Brochure/ts66.asp)
-
Originally posted by LOKO
well ok, that all sound good, about the skin is that wat mostly need to help in the mods?, can start learning, does max to the skins tho?
also i got a problem with max i cant deselect the YX axsis i just want the x, but max 6 dosent have the X Y Z XY thing on the top, is there any other way i canselect just x coordinates?
where can i buy the book? local book shop il go there 2morrow
just use the axis you want ( want to move the object along the X axis? well, click on the X axis of the object), or use F5 -> F8 to choose the axis.
-
Originally posted by Carl
LOKO, you can model all you want in 3dsMax, but in order for you to texture it or even put it in the game, you need to get Truespace. (http://www.caligari.com/Products/trueSpace/ts65/Brochure/ts66.asp)
or TrueSpace for Free (http://forms.caligari.com/forms/ts3all_free.html)
Bear in mind this is an older version, but should still work for what you need it to do.
-
ok I'm downloading it now so should I use only use truespace to render, and max to model? or should I use truespace
for both?
too bad i couldnt just used max, I was rendering with something called texmax or something like that :(
-
Uh, MAX is basically better than Truespace at everything, though Truespace is needed to convert to a Freespace-usable format.
-
but then can I render in max and just format with it with truespace?
-
Do everything in MAX if you can. Max is quite simply better. If all you wanted to do is make ships and do renders of them you wouldn't have to use anything else.
However the tools to convert a ship to the pof format that Freespace uses only work with Truespace .cob/scn files which means that if you want to see your ship in FS2 at some point you'll have to use Truespace.
-
well that cool then. now that's that done what next? what type of rendering plugin should I use on max to texture the ship?
Im not shore how difficult it will be tho, even tho I modelled a ship and renderr it, I'm scared that maybe the way I learnt, cannot be used for freespace 2.
-
Welcome to HLP, LOKO. Another Aussie? Awesome. :) (I'm a Sydney-sider. ;))
:welcome:
-
Don't worry too much about the way you put it together, as long as there aren't missing faces or anything truly wrong with it, it should convert fairly easily. Once you figure out the steps involved you can play around with it until you get it like you want it.
-
can someone give me a link to download a sample? in max and render to if possible, just to check what I have to do?
also i dont like the rendering tool im using it's too cheap. need something better. any recomendations?
also 1 more thing, can I model and render it in max and then use truespace to format it?
Setekh im in brisbane, I used to live in sydney but moved up to the gold coast 6 years ago. only 1 problem with brisbane tho, all the shop and everything close at 5pm which means nothing to do after that except cinemas, and my computer :D.
:thepimp:
:hopping: :hopping: :hopping: :hopping: :hopping: :hopping: :hopping: :confused:
-
If you're using a plugin for 3DS Max to render stop now and just use the built in renderer. :D
Max costs around $2000 so I don't know how the renderer can be too cheap unless you're used to Maya or something used by the movie industry :D
-
no sorry i was usng a plugin, ok ill use the Max renderer, but which one?
-
Alot of people prefer Brazil r/s. Supposedly it's actually better than the defult scanline renderer. Mental Ray renderer is good too. Very good.
-
If you've seen the renders that come out of it, Brazil is ungodly. Photo ****ing real.
Problem is, Rio (free version) kinda sucks. Doesn't let you render anything over 500x300-ish, which is pretty worthless.
VRay has a free version, though. And while the scanline renderer is, well, all right, and you really won't need any plugins until you get actually good at using MAX and your stuff won't look bad no matter what, there is a bigass difference.