Tag Archives: 3dsMax

Extra iRay tools for 3dsMax

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A helpful guy from autodesk showed me some useful tools for 3dsMax and nvidia iray. A special iray material , and a maxscript that allows you to access a lot of features hidden from the default render dialog

iRay material plugin

There is a sticky thread on the mental images forum which allows you to download the plugin from their ftp site.

It has a host of features.

  • 3 layers: Glossy Coating, Metallic Flakes, Glossy/Diffuse/Transparent Base
  • Backscattering (for realistic fabrics)
  • Metallic flakes (for great car paint)
  • Sub-surface scattering
  • Thin film coating
  • Spectral dispersion
  • Anisotropy on each layer
  • Emission (self-illuminance)
  • Displacement, bump, round corners, cutout

iRay manager script

There are a bunch of hidden features in iray that can be access using scripted commands. The iRay manager script was originally written by Artur Leao then later updated by Thorsten Hartmann. As a result we now have two slightly different version of the script, as both parties seem to be now publishing updates independently.

  1. Resources
  2. Interactivity Performance
  3. extended progressive Options
  4. FireFly Filtering (to remove 1 pixel hot spots)
  5. Matte Ground
  6. Background
  7. Clay Render
  8. Save/Load Options

You can download Artur Leao’s version from his blog.

Thorsten Hartmann version is available on his web page.

The nividea forum also hosts a thread on iRay Manager script.

iray dev Blog

Nvidea have a site dedicated to iRay at http://irayrender.com/

If you browse through the blog you can find the matte material for iray

Scripting Tip: Useful equation to blend between two values.

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This is a simple but very useful equation to blend between two values A and B.

( A * w ) + ( B * ( 1 – w ) )

w is a weight value.

Blend maths for compositing and rigging

When w = 0 the answer is B,
and when w = 1 the answer is A.

( A * 0 ) + ( B * ( 1 – 0 ) ) = A
( A * 1 ) + ( B * ( 1 – 1 ) ) = B

This equation is used all over computer graphics. It the basis of compositing pixels, and can be used to make controls for technical animation ( see this eye rig setup for 3dsMax )

Tutorial: Using the maths as an expression in Eyeon fusion.

In this tutorial I use an expression script to animate a blend between two changing positions. This allows the creation of a new point based on the current position of two other points.

You can download a sample file here

 

Note: using *  in algebra …

The convention is write equations concisely without the * for multiplication like this:

A w  + B ( 1 – w )

This is because hand written algebra tends to use single letters for variables, and multiplication signs can get confused with the variable x. While this form is easier to read, it can be confusing were people are  used to reading computer code, and are expecting * for multiplication and long variable names.

Rigging eyes in 3dsMAX

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3dsMax script controllers are enormously powerful tools for creating custom character rigs. This tutorial will show you how to make a very simple eye rig in 3dsMax and introduce script controllers to make an animator GUI.

Setting up the scene

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Max Tips: UI Tweaks

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A couple of 3dsMax UI tweaks I use to make things a little slicker and quicker.

Fix view cube ‘drift’


The view cube‘s animated rotation feature can cause the scene to drift. You might notice that after clicking on a face of the cube the viewer says orthogonal when we’d expect it to say: left,or top, etc. When the view is slightly off axis, it can cause problems if I’m trying to animate or model accurately.

Also if I’m trying to work quickly waiting for the UI update is a pain so I like to turn this feature off.

  1. Right click on the view cube.
  2. Chose options and turn off use animated transitions when switching views.

Use the home button

The home button is useful for getting back to the same custom view. I find it useful to quickly return to the same point of view while I’m working on a particular feature.

To set a ‘home’ view:

Right click on the home button and pick > set current view as home.

Organised Keyframing

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Organised Keyframing: A method for 3d animation.

A few years ago I sat down with my friends from AvP and we went through our individual approaches to animation. My hope was to pick the best ideas to create something we could teach new animators. What we discovered was that over the years and with very different backgrounds we had all gravitated to the same idea.

The idea was this…

Keep it Simple

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