3ds Max: Random distribution of object with incremental rotation

[Fr3Drick Law Olmstead]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm trying to scatter/distribute an object in a scene and would like to limit the rotation of the objects in certain ways.

The idea is, somebody dumped a bucket of Lego blocks in a room. When they come to a rest they won't stand up on a corner but lay flat on one of the sides. So I want to restrict the rotation to 90 degree increments in the x-axis, 0 degrees in y (the block is very unlikely to rest on one of the short sides and top and bottom are already covered by x) and free 360 degree rotation in z.

It seems like there should be a simple solution to this, doesn't everybody want to do something like this all the time? I feel like I'm missing something an I'm going crazy over this.

I tried "Scatter" which allows you to restrict rotation to a certain angle, e.g. 90 degrees, but it automatically set all three axis to the same value and I also don't get 180 deg only +/-90 deg.

The rotation event in PFlow doesn't seem to allow rotation at certain values at all, is there another event I can use? I am not terribly familiar with PFlow.

Can I use WireParameters? Again I'm not all that familiar with those either (I know of their existence, that's about it)

Are there any plug-ins that could help with this problem?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I have hit a dead end.

 

Thanks

Tobi

[Corey Beaulieu]

Try using Mass FX. I think it will do exactly what you want.

 

 

(this is the first tutorial I saw, hopefully its right)

[Scott Schroeder]

Many scattering programs will want to randomize the piece using intervalues. For example, if you say you want them between 0 and 90, you'll get random values all the way in between those. You can probably set up a set of conditional rules to delete any object that gets scattered and has a rotation between 1 and 89 degrees.

 

Quite honestly, the best way to achieve this would be to not use scattering but instead use MassFX. Put a bunch of blocks in the air at all randomized rotations (use the Soulburn Randomizer script), then run the MassFX sim to scatter the blocks along the floor.

 

It'd be really similar to this tutorial, only use the floor instead of a bowl.

http://viscorbel.com/massfx-fill-bowl-with-objects-tutorial/

 

EDIT: Yeah, what Corey said.

[Fr3Drick Law Olmstead]

Thanks guys, both tutorials look very promising, I had a feeling I was going in the wrong direction with my approach.

[Guest dialog]

MultiScatter Plugin is great

[Fr3Drick Law Olmstead]

MultiScatter seems to provide the option I was looking for with the ability to set the rotation to a constant value, this is just a project for playing around though and I was looking for a free solution. Not that I think that the $270 for MultiScatter are too much for the tool, it just wasn't money I wanted to spend right now.

Seeing that I will have to pre-rotate the objects when I use MassFX I figured I can still do that and then use Object paint or PFlow. Maybe I'll create an initial state with one of those options and then use MassFX for the actual dumping.

 

Thanks again for the help, I'll keep you posted on progress.

Tobi

[Guest dialog]

Will it cost you more per hour to do it with MassFX or invest in the plugin? Food for thought