Tag Archives: maxscript

Selectively backup and restore 3dsMax.ini settings with my new tool

2

Selectively backup and restore 3dsMax.ini settings with my new tool .
It’s part of my scriptpack . Check out the installation instructions here.

IniFileBrowserDialogClick on a item in the tree. Use the ‘Save Settings’ button to backup that sections settings.

Use the ‘Load Settings’ button to import saved settings from a file. This will over right the current 3dsMax settings.

Use the ‘explore 3dsMax.ini location’ button to open the Windows Explorer at the folder.

Note: You could also type this code into the MAXScript Listener

shellLaunch ( GetDir #maxData )

There’s some more info on the GetDir function in this post.

currentdefaults.ini

A bunch of settings are base on class ids ( long hexadecimal numbers  ).

For example 0x795c4168 0x669a1835 is the Radiosity setting for Advanced lighting there’s more in docs.autodesk.com Market-Specific Defaults

Dumb max tip of the day : lost time slider

Reply

Max_time_slider

Arg I lost the time slider, it took me 15mins to find it again… deadline panic..

It seems to happen when opening the mini curve editor and switch to the dope sheet.

To recover the time slider go into the menus

  • Customize > SHOW UI
  • tick on track bar
  • Lastly click on the ‘mini curve editor’ button twice. ( far left on the time ruler )

 

There’s a few MaxScript commands that many help.

Open the MAXScript listener and type

timeslider.setvisible = true

if you lost the trackbar as well, then use

trackbar.visible = true.

Reduce Motion capture with the Crude Biped Key Reduction Tool

11

CrudeBipedKeyReducer
Motion capture is great but it almost never quite fits the location or the character rig. Often it requires a little tweaking or, worse still ,modifications are needed that take the data further and further from the source file ( Rifles are changed to pistols etc).

Animation layers are useful but only get you so far until your simply fighting the data trying to figure out when and where things are happening.

Eventually we have to dismantle that wall of motion captured key frames into something more manageable.
Continue reading →

Extra iRay tools for 3dsMax

Reply

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

Rigging eyes in 3dsMAX

1

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

Continue reading →