Topic awaiting preservation: I'm not sure what to call it..

Its a jack.. sorta.. like a playing jack i guess.. but it looks funny, so i suppose it could pass off as a futuristic cure for aids, in a nano-machine thingie.. o_O Righto.

Image: [clickie]
App: 3DsMAX 4
Lights: 3
[1] direct light from the bottom
[2] spot light left of camera (~45° up)
[3] omni light close to where camera is
Maping:
[Small balls] Just an image
[capilary pieces]
[diffuse] a nice icky cyan
[opacity] falloff map
[reflect] reflect/refract map
[refract] raytrace (yeah.. i waited for it..) >_<

In my opinion the reflections looks a little too busy, but its better than some other things i've done. Comments? Suggestions on how I can make it look more like a clear blue plastic/glass?


» THOAN.net (..soon to come..I hope)

[edit] darn punks at angelfire wouldnt let me link my picture.. all better.. =P [/edit]

[This message has been edited by Bmud (edited 11-04-2001).]

Always click your own link after making a post, to see if it works or not.

I did.. but your too fast slime! O_O


» THOAN.net (..soon to come..I hope)

I dunno what to call it either, but that's cool. A scaled down version would be good as a symbol image for a website, or a company logo. SOme good work there BMud.

I also pondered the thought of a logo, but having numbers on the ends of the balls made me not want to shrink it down b/c then you wouldnt be able to distingish it.. perhaps I'll make it into a sig one say when it loses its glory. I'm still open to suggestions on the reflections.. Would radiosity help this at all? I've never used it before. =/

(and an added ?, anyone know where i can get the "cloth" plugin?)


» THOAN.net (..soon to come..I hope)

Yeah so long as your prepared to pay for it.

it aint freeware, or even shareware I think

eh.. a friend of mine found me a cheap one. its good enouph for me. =P Yeah.. anyone with deleting powers can kill this post now i guess.. I just wanted to show you all.

hey thats really cool. i like the "stalk" bits. But i was wondering did you want the numbers to be on the backside of 4 out of 6 of the balls? cos you might want to rotate the mapping co-ords so they come out on the top. Just an idea...

Also for radiosity/Global Illumination you could try BRAZIL www.splutterfish.com/sf/ its freeware. or it was freeware the last time i downloaded a copy.


[This message has been edited by Relain (edited 11-09-2001).]

Hey. Thanks a lot for the link. The demo pics look awesome!
[heres a second version]
[its spinning! woo!]

-Bmud-

[This message has been edited by Bmud (edited 11-14-2001).]

hey, that sputterfish thing was interesting, i still caan't figure out how to activate the radiosity in it however.. maybe tutorials in the help files. In any case, heres a new thing.

brazil is a bit odd to start with. first of all it is a global illumination renderer as opposed to a radiosity renderer. I'm not quite sure what difference this makes to the images look but they're not the same.
anyway just incase you haven't got yourself running, here's an easy guide as to how to set it up:
1) make sure the plugin is installed
2) set brazil as the default renderer for or both the draft and final render settings in max. its in the preferences menu. [i guess you've got this far]
3) model away happily
4) reboot the computer, because max has crashed again. sigh
5) make sure that you assign a brazil test material type material to all your objects
6) twiddle the materials until you have something pretty
7) now here's the important bit, scroll down the rendering options rollout until you get to the ray-luma server params window.
8) click enable secondary lighting. this allows light to bounce off stuff and is bascially radioisty.
8.5) you can also enable a skylight for primary lighting and light up the whole scene without an actual lightsource.
9) render away
10) cry as the 60 day liscense runs out before you finish rendering. heh

Okay, this is just going to turn into my little posting place, just so i dont have to make a new topic ^^;
Yay! New problem!
um..
Right, I am trying to make a three-dimensional 'mask'. (ie, a sort of dynamic boolean) Now wait, before you get confused or thrash me for using incorrect terms, I'll try as best I can to explain what i'm going to try to do...

[hard to explain] Suppose there is an object, such as a large 3 dimensional letter 'M'. Secondly, suppose there is a bar, larger than the M that is moving downwards on the z-axis. The M is an invisible object, or hidden rather. So, as the bar moves to apoint where the M and the bar intersect, all that would be rendered is a shape that represents an intersection of the two. I'm not sure if such a thing is even possible. If I thought that doing frame by frame booleans was FUN, I'd do that, but I really don't enjoy such an activity. Plus that, I can't get much motion blur effect out of something that is only there for a single frame.[/hard to explain]

If you have any ideas whatsoever, please help me out. I dont need too many detailed descriptions.

I have 3DsMAX4, which I favor, but I have access to Lightwave 7B if MAX absolutely can't handle such things.

[edit] WOO! My 100th post! I'm so happy! *sniff* [/edit]

[This message has been edited by Bmud (edited 12-15-2001).]

It is possible, but the different textures you use would have to be perfectly matched. Create two amimated image files, preferably gif, completely in black and white, not colour. Create your M...no wait, scratch that idea, here's a better one, don't know if it works though...Create your M and your bar. Place the bar above the M on the Z axis. Boolean them together, boolean mode set to Subtract A-B. After the boolean is performed, switch to animation mode. Under The boolean, select subobject:Operand (DO NOT do extract operand, or you WILL bugger it up), and select the bar. Go to frame 100, or however long you want it to go for (I suggest also setting your framerate to PAL (25 FPS), so that you can get an exact time figure), and move the bar to below the M. Exit animation mode, and turn off subobject. With any luck, you have just gotten MAX to perform the boolean with the M that is intersecting the Bar, being taken with each incremental movement of the bar....hopefully

Yeah, I had the idea of using materials too, but The idea of it actually working seems a bit unlikely. Now, what you were proposing with the boolean does not work.. At least, I can't get it to. Boolean is one of those no-going-back sort of things, and plus, there is no 'sub-object' section..

-Bmud-

Scratch that! I did it! =D Majorly cool beans! WEE!!!!!!!
Okay, for anyone else, this is a super l33t technique..
1. make the M (and clone for each individual bar)
2. animate the bar to go through the M
3. select the M, then add a boolean.
4. Pick operand B as the bar
5. Select intersection
5. press play =D
6. repeat the process with each new bar with a seperate M

Right, its not over yet however.. My next feat will be to make the bars act much like repelling magnets. I tried using a bone system, and then the Flex modifier, on each individual bar. This worked out great. The only problem is that if I apply a bar to the boolean system, the flex modifier loses its effect. Is there a way that I can convert the Flex actions to a set of regular keyframes?

I've uploaded the max file to my download page [here]

-Bmud-

[This message has been edited by Bmud (edited 01-01-2002).]

*poke* um.. help? >.<

-Bmud-

I'm sorry, what exactly did you want help with again?


"...when I'm high like heaven, when I'm strong like music, 'cause I'm slow like honey and heavy with mood..."
ICQ: 67751342

Okay, I have objects moving dynamicly using a flex modifier. In order for this movement to be accepted by the boolean, I need to convert it to regular keyframes. Is this doable, or will I have to make a path, and animate manually?

poke poke?

Path and manual would be my guess, I've never seen anything that would allow you to convert a dynamic object to a keyframed animation. The Flex modifier only creates its motion one you have done the animation of the object it is applied to (see the Max tutorials on creating their bug)

Daaa...poop.. Okay. Thankyou everyone for your help =D I'll post back a long time from now when my little short film is complete. Expect me buzzing in your ears if I run into any more funny situations.

-Bmud-