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Just had a listen to Jenny. Sweet. Along those same lines have been digging 'Royal Blood' lately. Specifically 'Out of the black'

Did I hear a niner in there? I thought I did but I'm not sure.. are you calling from a wawkie tawkie? jokes.. Joking aside, enjoying the geek out session here. Very fun to follow this thread.. quoted for agreement

I wasn't really referring to a modeling question. Not quite sure I understand your response.. If you are in the camarea, and press alt-q or isolate selection, then un-isolate, you will notice your viewport has jumped from the camera to raw perspective mode.

max 2013 has a bug where if you isolate an object, it pops you out of your camera and just stays in perspective mode.. but it looks like the same exact angle. Any chance you came out of isolation mode right before you rendered?

I've found some odd behavior when I'm using xref's as well lately.. In particular when I first open a file and am using nitrous. Sometimes I find that if some strange geometry is displaying and/or not displaying I can do a shift G off and on a couple times to have the geomerty show up/turn off according to my layers on/off status. Another fix that works for me sometimes is to change the viewport mode from 'textured -show maps' to 'wirecolor' and toggle them back and forth sometimes. Not sure why or how this works, but maybe worth a shot.

do you have a screen shot of the camera, exposure settings side by side? and perhaps the resulting renderings side by side? Might help to troubleshoot if we can have a look at the screenshots.. Off the cuff, sounds like odd behavior, curious if you found a solution or figured out what was going on.

Sometimes if you have geometry way off the origin, like a couple miles, max starts to act really wierd with geometry.. If ditching AEC objects doesn't work might double check to make sure everything is somewhat close to the origin..

Good tip my friend, I'm going to have start using that one Awesome. Very cool of you to upload your images and share with the community. I think a lot of artists browse here, and see work like this, and feel like they are in your same position ... of how to make it better. I think posting these is a great, and helps some of us understand the what you are asking. These images are a great start but could use some love that has not so much to do with the people integration.. sometimes.. like clients.. they ask for one thing, but are really wanting another... I'd push if I were you and surprise the client with something they weren't expecting... 1. Pick some composition (GET IN THERE!) i.e. use the walkthrough tool in 3ds max to approach.. - I learned from an architect a long time ago, foreground, middle, and background will really help the image.. currently you have some background but the image wants foreground trees, people, water, whatever will help these a lot.. and then add some background fascination... while not adding too much distraction... sometimes the project wants isolation, while other times it wants intgreation.. just gotta feel it out I guess.. Thats where the skill comes in I suppose 2. Pick a story that you feel the developer/architect really gets excited about (*sometimes it's the thing that makes them money, sometimes is's about makng their design feel prolific. sometimes it's the thing that makes them feel like they are changing the world for the better, which is my choice l'd feel it out with your contact.... but that's the real skill.. in my opinion.. 3. Once you have your story, that will help inform all your people and integrate them.. sad.. happy .. active mountaineers.. SAAS ceo's ... timber manufacturers... Tech employees designing the future? who the hell knows really... Anyway, thanks for sharing and look forward to seeing where it all goes. Cheers. Mike

I'm quoting for agreement, this function is most valuable when used the right way I think. May times when I think my people aren't sitting quite right, I'll do this> 1. Merge and flatten all current layers with ctrl - shift - alt - F 2. open an image from my inspiration folder that I think has some nice tones 3. Gaussian blur my inspiration image beyond recognition 4. Apply the match color effect to the flattened layer 5. Play with blending and opacity settings as desired 6. When used as a blunt tool like Corey mentioned, it's a terrible filter, But sometimes it can be a great time saver. Alternatively, when I'm not feeling so hot on some inspiration image.. I'll paint the lighting for each person, but rather fast. Generally I'll spend 30 min painting in some evenly lit people with the following method if I'm feeling up to the task: 1. Have all people on a ctrl-click easy selection in photoshop 2. In general the ideas is to go to each person and dial in lighting in photoshop with a top lighting layer and a lower contact shadow later 3. I tend to adjust the tones on top of the person before adjusting a 'master' layer below them that has contact shadows. 4. Take a step back and 'see' every person in the scene, start with the person that stands out most. Delete them Joking.. You can make most people work I think as long as they are evenly lit. 5. Side note, if you render you people into the max scene, as look at me camera planes, make sure to have them as a select-able multimatte that you can seperate into separate selections 6. Select your first person(s) with ctrl click layer bounds in PS 7. Sample your colors for darkish tones and light tones (never use black and white). I generally use the eye dropper alt shortcut to sample a darkish blue and brightish orange/yellow from my scene. 8. ctrl click the later of your first people you want to adjust 9. set your over top layer to overlay and start painting with 1-10% opacity with a soft brush to tune in brights and darks depending on where you light source is on TOP of all the people layers individually, *use cliping masks if you get tired of making masks for each set of people. 10: hint, use a wacom pressure sensitive device or use shift-[ or ] to adjust your sofness. 11. After painting to your desire, set the under layer contact shadow to multiply. 12. There are 2 layers of contact shadows you want to apply... those right next to their feet, and those that fade further away.. Use some distinction.. sometimes I brush in the immediate contact shadows, and sometimes I use the quick shortcut to (g) to use a circular gradient for the 'further away' at around 10% opacity at a time. remembering to use blues and warm tones instead of white/black. 13. People matter and it's best to get a couple right than add to many that stand out as eyesores (*in my opinion). So take your time. 14. Once you get it dialed in this should take about 30 min, unless you are doing a stadium, or huge public space... then I would suggest something like MIR did for the french soccer stadium... or similar... 14. Share some of your renderings, I know we would all love to see what your up to and it might help give some better direction. Cheers, M-

Is it a still image? if you need to animate it I'd keep going with the material settings. If it's only a still, I'd save the headache and render out a simple 32 bit zdepth and play with it in Photoshop until you can get the masks right..

two firms that come to mind are Focus 360 and Kilograph.

Hello there, I've searched a bit and can't seem to easily find it. Anyone recall that animation posted here a while back that was a pretty nice changing seasons bit? I think about 30 seconds and was a visual of some house/corporate complex across a bit of water in the foreground. I slightly remember some lighting bolts etc. Ring a bell? Thanks ahead of time for any help. Cheers, Mike

I think Kristoffer is on the right track with using exr's, however I'm not sure why you would disable exposure? Care to elaborate Kristoffer? If you save out a 32 bit exr, you will have much more exposure adjustment capabilities in Photoshop. i.e. bring detail back in from over blown out hot spots, etc.

Looks like a good time. Wish I could make this one, but I will be traveling and out of town next Friday. Hope it's a good time and to make the next one. Mike

In Jeff's interview with him, he mentioned he was going to get out of the world of 3d. Perhaps he's working on other exciting endeavours.