whale Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 I was going thru the forums in cgarena and i found a similar thread like this in their 3d max section. I went thru it and i learnt a lot.... Although after going through them there wasnt much information on subjects like vray, lightning and even post production.............bla....bla...bla.. So i thought that starting that kind of thread here would be educating..... so please ...... DECLARE... i am not a guru yet but i have some little secrets 1. SAVE SAVE SAVE and SAVE your work always 2. Disable the x key that toggles your gizmo on and off to reduce stress since its not that usefull 3. Time is money so try and make your rendering times shorter 4. When working on large scenes, pressing o would reduce the amount of memory being worked by Max 5. What sepertates the Best from the rest is the little attention to details 6. When working on large scenes, Object Culling Display could also be used to speed up viewport response 7. Pressing 7 gives you the polygon count of a particular object. 8. When using vray, try not to any form of Max default raytracing to any of your objects. 9. Post Production can save you a lot of time and money, You dont have to waste time on rendering for hours when you can finish up your work in minites with post production 10. last but not the least......//. a 3D comprises of three 2D planes so to be a good 3D artist you have to be a better 2D artist... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ipxstudios Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 Thanks that was good information. Here's one - right click on any spinner to get back to 0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alrawli Posted July 6, 2007 Share Posted July 6, 2007 Heres a good one when working with drawings or reference images in the viewport. Alt + X turns the primitive or object your working on transparent so you can see through the model in smooth shaded mode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalmarjan Posted July 7, 2007 Share Posted July 7, 2007 Heres a good one when working with drawings or reference images in the viewport. Alt + X turns the primitive or object your working on transparent so you can see through the model in smooth shaded mode. Another good tip is this: Make sure you have smooth unshaded active in your working viewport. (Press F4 and/or F3 to get this.) Make a modeling material, any color that you want. Go into your animation timeline settings and set the max frames to a number like 5. Go into your material editor, make sure the timeline is at 0, and press auto key. Place your timeline bar to the max time, and right click on opacity (in material editor) to set it to 0. Press autokey again, and presto, you now have a material that has multiple stages of transparency. Very handy. If you just need to see through the model, then you adjust it down. If you need to see wireframes, then you drop the timeline all the way up. Sandeman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mechadus Posted July 7, 2007 Share Posted July 7, 2007 Ive got a couple to throw in too... When drawing a spline, hold Ctrl, and it will constrain the spline to 5 degree corner increments Holding Ctrl while scrolling through max's endless roll-out menus will make them scroll 2x faster If you make a new scene, and set everything you always have to set in a new scene (renderer, Unit setup, viewport settings.......) and save over the maxstart.max file in your install directory, MAX will start with the saved settings applied every time -Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whale Posted July 10, 2007 Author Share Posted July 10, 2007 i am so glad to see that you are all sending your replies.. i hope this thread would be of good help to everyone.. thanks and keep on posting those TOP SECRETS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted July 10, 2007 Share Posted July 10, 2007 I'm sure these are widely known...but someone may find them handy. Shift + T = Asset tracker (handy way to look at and manage your maps and files) Alt + W = Maximize current viewport Ctrl + W = Zoom window Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hughie Posted July 10, 2007 Share Posted July 10, 2007 Shift + T = Asset tracker (handy way to look at and manage your maps Bloody brilliant how long had that being there? If you use a graphic tablet: i = easy way to navigate viewport Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sterealkey Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Nice tips guys. Heres a more obvious one, but I'm sure there are people out there that dont know it. Use the 'archive' function in the File menu to gather all files associated with your scene, including the scene file, all your textures, all your RPCs and HDR's. It then saves it all into a zip file. Comes in really handy if you need to take work home, because theres nothing more irritating than opening a scene on your home PC and some textures are missing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redzuan3828 Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Nice tip Guy I want to share something I'm using proboolean to create wall but only have in 3ds Max 9 for free. That was very good. I'm love it. Another one don't forget to use xref object and xref scene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gfa2 Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 Use the 'archive' function in the File menu to gather all files associated with your scene, including the scene file, all your textures, all your RPCs and HDR's. This is nice, but I don't think it will capture any of your environement files. At least not in max 8. You'll have to grab those manually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 simple shortcuts no one told me when i was starting out that make working alot faster: z - zoom selected 1,2,3,4 subobject level - vertex, edge, poly, element Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gus_Rayvus Posted July 11, 2007 Share Posted July 11, 2007 make a hotkey to reset your pivot. you need to make a macro script then assign it to a key the code is as follows b = $ b.pivot = b.center Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whale Posted July 14, 2007 Author Share Posted July 14, 2007 this thread is becoming very interesting.... thanks guys and keep posting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugga_Guy Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 Alt-Q: Isolation mode. If you are working on a scene with many objects and want to isolate only the thing that you are working on clicking Alt-q hides everything but the thing selected (good for working in groups) Ctrl-N: numerical express calculator. good when you want to add stuff to numerical spinners - work like a mini calculator when you are lazy to add up the numbers yourself (only works in numerical spinners though). I: (I am sure everyone knows this) moves view in your viewport where your mouse cursor is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITryMyBest Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 I didn't know the 'Ctrl-N' I will have to check that tomorrow. What I do to quickly add values is type the letter 'r' followed by what I want to add to it. For example if I have 1'6 13/16" as the spinner value and I need to add 7 5/16", I simply type r7 5/16" and it automatically adds it to that value. You can also type r-5/16" if you need to subtract values. This has been a huge time saver for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tayrona Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 Tools - grab viewport......... let you save the image you have in viewport... shaded, wireframe..... (I used to make print screens before discovering this!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mechadus Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 make a hotkey to reset your pivot. you need to make a macro script then assign it to a key the code is as follows b = $ b.pivot = b.center Thats a really fun trick.. Check this out: http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/affect-pivot-and-center-pivot I LOVE this script - centers the pivot just like your code, but the secondary mode allows you to place the pivot with one mouse click - when combined with Snap its amazing... Theres a couple other scripts I cant live without.... Basejump - automaticaly goes to a given level on the modifier stack (handy for editing geometry that has UV maps or other modifiers on it http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/basejump-0 Randerizer - Invaluable for foliage - will set random translation, rotation and scale values http://scriptspot.com/3ds-max/randerizer -Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sterealkey Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 Ctrl+C creates a camera from your current viewport. Comes in handy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notamondayfan Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 change X from hide gizmo, to show last render. change ";" to goto right viewport. crtl + N brings up calculator in a numeric box change crtl + shift + S to save as. prob more but its too late to be straining my weak mind!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notamondayfan Posted July 17, 2007 Share Posted July 17, 2007 ohh ohh f5 f6 f7 change constraint axis! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 1,2,3,4 subobject level - vertex, edge, poly, element do you know a way to de-select the sub-object level, and return to the object? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vince Paske Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 do you know a way to de-select the sub-object level, and return to the object? control-b at least for splines that works or you could assign a shortcut to Next modifier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Homeless Guy Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 control-b at least for splines that works or you could assign a shortcut to Next modifier. hmmm control b didn't seem to work. with edit patch you simply hit the number again, and it de-selects, but that doesn't work with edit mesh. the next modifier doesn't work if edit mesh is at the top of the stack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalmarjan Posted July 19, 2007 Share Posted July 19, 2007 1,2,3,4 subobject level - vertex, edge, poly, element Depending on what you are editing, (poly, splines etc..) pressing the next number in the sequence will take you to object level. In your case, by pressing 5, you will be out of sub-object mode, and back into the object as a whole. I have not tried it with splines, but I believe it will work. Sandeman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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