Rendering a wire frame image out of Max

[jphelps]

I need a clean wire frame image of a site model in Max. I'd prefer white lines and a black background. Is there a way to do this besides doing a screen capture? The site and bldgs are modeled in AutoCAD and linked into the Max scene. Is there a way to get a wireframe image out of AutoCAD without using screen capture? We have Max 9 and V-ray. Ultimately I need an image file that our marketing art director can use. Thanks for any tips

[jphelps]

DUH! Thanks.

 

Now, is there a way to change the color of the lines? I'd prefer a black background with white lines. It rendered with black lines.

[jphelps]

Ok, did that but it didn't seem to change the color of the lines in the rendering.

[SandmanNinja]

1) set your render engine to scanline

2) select everything in the scene

3) materials -> new slot -> make it white and tick wireframe

4) render -> environment -> black

 

that should do it

 

I like adding a skylight and turning on advanced light tracing

[Fran]

I need a clean wire frame image of a site model in Max. I'd prefer white lines and a black background. Is there a way to do this besides doing a screen capture? The site and bldgs are modeled in AutoCAD and linked into the Max scene. Is there a way to get a wireframe image out of AutoCAD without using screen capture? We have Max 9 and V-ray. Ultimately I need an image file that our marketing art director can use. Thanks for any tips

 

You can do this using Vray. In the Max Environment dialog, go down to Atmosphere and Add... VRayToon. In the Material Editor, create a Vray light material with default settings. In the Vray render dialog, enable Override mtl in the V-Ray Global switches rollout and drag your light material onto the material slot. Disable GI in the Indirect Illumination tab. If you are using a Vray physical camera, disable exposure control for this.

 

ETA: Invert the image in your photo editor of choice.

[Claudio Branch]

Joel,

 

can you please post up something using this approach? I have played around with setting my mat to wireframe and increasing the wire size to reduce the aliasing it creates, but still not satisfied with the results. Just not crisp enough for my tastes.

 

Instead, I take a model, select all the edges, and "Create Shape from Selection." I will take that shape and make the splines renderable.

[SandmanNinja]

Hey Claudio,

 

Your method gives you far more control over the thickness. Couple more steps, but far worth it.

[Tommy Burns]

I would usually just start with a standard material turn on wireframe and a little self illumination. then I would put this material in the material overide slot turn it on and render. This way you don't have to save another drawing or reassign materials.

[tecton3d]

final toon is a very robust tool for making wire animations

 

to get the ultimate control, you could trace over the geometry and assign rendering attributes to each of those splines (thicknesses, materials, etc) then hide the base geometry when rendering

[louis.cho]

Jef Patton made a simple method using a gradiant ramp and Face UVW map. It's really esay to control since it's a procedural. You can put in the override mtl or simply add to some objects.

 

http://jeffpatton.net/Tips/Wire-gradient.jpg

 

you can also play around it with mix and opacity map or wathever you want.

 

hope this help

Louis

[Brian Cassil]

You can search the forums for info on using finaltoon for this type of thing. I don't think you can beat it for doing line renderings, although it may be overkill for what you need if you already have max and vray.