2016 look at constraint for billboard people

[SgWRX]

first, i have to say i searched and found an older thread somewhere on the interweb and the poster used the term "sprite" to describe an image haha. old-school!

 

ok, so i have 200 2d billboard people and have them setup in my scene. i've create a point helper for 10 of them so far, linked the billboard to the helpers individually, then i add a lookat constraint and select my camera.

 

the bummer is, there's more work to do. i have to select each of the point helpers and set the lookat axis to Y and check the flip check-box. i can leave everything else the same.

 

am i doing it "old school" in max 2016 sp3, or is there perhaps a quicker way?

 

the 200 billboard people are already setup with individual widths and heights (to match the image haha sprite) in another file and i merged them in. all of their pivot points are aligned to the bottom center, and this is where i align my point helpers before adding the look at constraint.

 

the reason i do it this way is, i'll be able to delete the helpers without affecting the billboard people.

 

overall the PIA is that i can't easily switch to a different camera or easily re-orient or delete.

 

thanks!

 

PS - i'll end up using about 50 different people not all 200 although from a different camera i could use others.

[SgWRX]

NOOO!!! i just realized that deleting the point helper does not return the billboard to it's original orientation!!! i still have to go into the point helper and delete the constraint, then the linked billboard returns to it's original orientation.

 

ugh. also i'm getting crazy rotation of the billboard when the camera moves, i suspect has something to do with upnode?

[SgWRX]

eh. so i created a new camera orientated to in the direction of the billboards, so "front" camera view. now when i assign the lookat to all the point helpers i just need to check the keep initial offset box and the billboards seem to follow the camera around nicely without flipping and such. so i just have to move this camera into position of the other camera which was initially picked for it's placement. you know, setup the camera first to a pleasing point of view.

 

still run into angst over the whole deleting constraints on multiple objects all in one go. i think i researched this a long time ago. haven't had to worry about it until now. ha!

[SgWRX]

i totally remember now! of course, after setting up 50 people with lookat constraints! create a point helper as a point to look at. then, i can just move the point helper to whatever camera location i want and the people will always be pointing the right place. the "master" point helper then can be animated along with the camera or linked to a camera for animation. good thing it's a weekend

[Fooch]

Lots of scripts on scriptspot which will save you time.

 

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/billboard-generator

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/billboard-manager

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/multi-assign-scripted-billboard-controller

[SgWRX]

thanks! i may just have to DL those. i think what i did was so far pretty good. no worries about switching camera angles because all i have to do is move the look at target to the new camera. but there's a few things in the scripts look good to me.