Erik Lund

Hey, Did U folks know that you can create profiles and paths for max modeling in photoshop? If u wanted to model something simple from an image, like lets say a weathered and warped fence post. And you wanted to then use that image as the texture map. Well all you have to do is go into Photoshop: #1 Cut the image out from it's background. #2 Then create a selection mask. #3 From that selection mask go to your paths tab: select "creat path from selection". #4 Now you can export that path to illustrator format. #5 Now that you have the path(s) in illustrator format U can import them into max and extrude or turn to mesh,.. what ever! Then apply the image as the texture,.. it looks FLAWLESS! This works great for things like walls, fences, gates, brick or stone work,... ect. Anything you want to look a little more natural. If your good with the selecton tools in Photoshop you'll realize how quick and simple this is compaired to manualy drawing the profiles in max. If you folks would like a better tutorial i'd be happy to put some images together and post it. [ April 15, 2003, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: Erik Lund ]

That sounds logical,.. thanx!

I prefer the stucco bitmap in the the bump channel,... then what ever color u want in the diffuse channel. Looks great! Check out this example: http://www.drealm.net/ws_4_14.htm If you look @ the walls you'll notice a very subtle effect,.. it looks much better in the hi-res renderings though.

Hey yall, I'm back from several months of impossible deadlines and moving. I'm now living in sunny Redondo Beach! I Luv it! Well I'm trying to get my boss to start using Radiosity now so I’m working on a few test renderings to sell him on the idea. But I keep running into a major issue with bump maps and radiosity. The issue is that my bump maps seem to be extremely exaggerated in my GI renders. Even if my bump amount is turned to a value of "1" it looks as if it were @ 200! I've tried everything,... adjusting the contrast on my bump bitmap, adjusting the bump value, using different sampling methods,...etc. Please!! Someone help! The rest of the rendering looks awesome,... but the bump issue ruins the effect Here is a sample of my problem. I circled the problem areas. The issue seems to be more visable where the lighting is less direct. [ April 15, 2003, 04:10 PM: Message edited by: Erik Lund ]

I agree, The best way to work with dwg files is to first of all pay attention to the import dialog in max,... uncheck "cap closed entities" first of all. And if there is any 3D objects in your imported file make sure u go through an delete the "extrude" modifer from all 3d objects. U should NEVER import 3d geomitry into max. Doing so only makes a mess of your scene. When working with a DWG file in max ALWAYS do it from the 2d data. You will have to re-trace each componet of your structure with the max spline tools set then convet to editable mesh. When doing this your basicly using the floor plans and elevations as snap points. This may sound like a pain in the ass,.. but your model will be much cleaner, contain a lower poly count and will save u a world of head aches when it comes time to texture and render your scene. Also a qwick tip: there is a "Reverse spline" comand in your editable spline tool set. So no need to draw your lines in Autocad all one direction. Although this tip is Irrelevant if u fallow my first advice. [ April 15, 2003, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: Erik Lund ]

I'm sorry to say that i'm not impressed with the Nvidia Quadro 4 900 XGL. I just bought one made by PNY and my Elsa Gloria 2 (Quadro 1) card with the Maxtreme driver is much faster!! Why?!?! The only performance gain i notice is with textures and not geometry. Infact geometry performance is better on the Quadro1 with the Maxtreme driver. Anyone have this issue? Is there a Maxtreme driver for the Quadro 4 i'm not finding? I know this is an issue with the card and not my system. I feel jipped [ July 05, 2002, 02:55 AM: Message edited by: Erik Lund ]

Hey guys, Has anyone here heard of a liquid cooled system? Only 1 fan and does a better job than 20 fans!!! Here is the website: www.sharkacorp.com This liquid cooling system is very quiet and more efficient than fans or heatsinks. It easily installs in to most mid to full sized cases. There are also adapters avalible for VGA/GPU procs and HDDs. The base system is priced at $199-239 U.S. This is an ideal cooling solution for those of you who like to overclock your procs. There is also a link on the site to a downloadable video tutorial on how simple the cooling system is to install. They also have a wide selection of other (cheaper) CPU/GPU cooling sytems on their website. I havn't tried this system yet, "yet" But I will soon! Hope this helps!

Hey guys, Has anyone here heard of a liquid cooled system? Only 1 fan and does a better job than 20 fans!!! Here is the website: www.sharkacorp.com This liquid cooling system is very quiet and more efficient than fans or heatsinks. It easily installs in to most mid to full sized cases. There are also adapters avalible for VGA/GPU procs and HDDs. The base system is priced at $199-239 U.S. This is an ideal cooling solution for those of you who like to overclock your procs. There is also a link on the site to a downloadable video tutorial on how simple the cooling system is to install. They also have a wide selection of other (cheaper) CPU/GPU cooling sytems on their website. Hope this helps! [ July 05, 2002, 02:25 AM: Message edited by: Erik Lund ]

I would have to say that LightWave does suck all around when it comes to it's modeler. I started off in 3D with LW5 and still continued to use it all the way up to LW6.5. I found that the LW modeler isn't very accurate, but has some great tools. The problem is it lacks the major key features that are required when it come to modeling such things as architecture and products that require accurite measurments. The biggest example would be the lack of "snaps" and because the Modeler and Scene editor are seperate apps there is no "real" world center or origin to referance when building your models. Maybe Newtek has addresed these issues in their latest version of LW7.b But untill they do, LW will never be accepted as a power player in the 3D community. I don't mean to bang LW, I LOVE ALOT of the features LW has to offer and hate that these fetures are not available in 3dsMax. My favorite feature is LW's HyperVoxles (a.k.a. volumetrics). I love LW, but it's realy only pratical for organic and impressionistic modeling. I eventualy matured my modeling skills in 3DsMax/Viz, it's realy the only app that should be used for architectual modeling. Not to mention the fastest workflow around!

Thanx, i've tried that, but the result isn't quite what I am looking for. I see that Max 5 has fixed this feature for a better looking tranclusency. Thax for the help though! [ July 05, 2002, 01:23 AM: Message edited by: Erik Lund ]

If you plan on getting real close to your wood siding I would suggest using a lofted profile of your siding then boolean out the holes. I HATE to use booleans but in this situation they work fine. The other advantage to using a Loft in this situation is that you have mapping control in your loft dialog. And if you instance or ref. your loft profile you can easily go back and edit your profile to tweak it to your liking. [ July 05, 2002, 01:12 AM: Message edited by: Erik Lund ]

I was wondering what rendering engines you guys (and gals) like to use? I would strongly suggest Ceabs Final Render. http://www.finalrender.com/finalrender/default.htm This Rendering plugin Is solid, Fast, and simple to learn being that it ships with a bunch of video tutorials on how to use every aspect of the plugin. I was up and running with it in less than an hour, and a pro at it in a day or two. It has all the high-end features and settings you would expect from a production quality render. Like in Viz4 you can quickly generate a rough G.I. solution to preview your progress to give you a good idea as to where your lighting is being distributed. And at around $695 U.S. it's a great deal. Oh, did I mention it also does texture baking? Has anyone els here used it?

Anyone know how to make objects Translucent in max/viz? For example a light shade or frosted glass. Is there any native rendering abilities in max that will do this? I also have Mental Ray,Cebas Final Render, and Brazil. I know these plugins can do it but I would pefer to use a native max technique, if max can do it without a plugin renderer. Thanx in advance.

Just a bit of helpfull info. In the real world, there are on average 3,000 blades of grass in 1sq. foot of lawn. I hope this helps you when trying to figure out the density for your grass creations.

One good technique I like to use is to build your terrain splines at a higher resolution and apply the Normilize Spline modifier befor you turn it into a compound terrian object. The normalize spline modifier will keep the same shape of your spline but "normalize" your veticies at set incements. Example: if you set the increments to 6 inches you will then have a vertex on your spline every 6 inches. This will give you a better looking mesh and give you controll over your serface resolution without drasticly changing its shape. I highly recommend that you use this technique every time your working with a terrain. Good luck! [ June 25, 2002, 05:19 PM: Message edited by: Erik Lund ]