Lots of Tips, Tricks, and other Useful Stuff
The Weasel
information through posts from the experts on this group. I saved them all in
this text file and I thought some of you might like it.
MESH SITES
Mesh Mart
http://cedar.cic.net/~rtilmann/mm/index.html
???
http://www.blarg.com/~peterw/spectral.html
German Site
http://sunserver1.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de/~pannozzo/3dsobjects.html
people
http://www.loop.com/~hhc/
http://www.worldnet.net:80/~rougier/
http://www.loop.com/~hhc
http://www.virtualynx.com/staticdesigns
>Anyone know where I could pick up some decent models of insects?
>Accuracy isn't an issue, but they have to look at least a bit
>"bug-like".
>---
>Eradicator
>drwe...@mailhost.ecn.uoknor.edu
>OU IEEE President
I have some models of insects from ftp site 'avalon.viewpoint.com \pub'
I hope you will find it.
**************************
>i need some good plug-ins, ipas, tricks, tips or hints to create explosion
>effects with 3DS R4. as source i want to use several meshes consisting of some
>objects. who has some tips for me ????????????
To do really good volume metric explosions require quite a few IPAS
routines mixed together. The basic steps that I use to do explosion
is as follows.
1. Take the object to be exploded and boolean it up into several
majors pieces to act as large pieces of debris. Animate these these
pieces as if the exploding out by either traditional keyframing,
using Keyfactory, DMM, or keyscripting.
2. Next create several small spheres and place them inside the object
to be exploded and assign EXPLDODE.AXP to fill out the explosion with
smaller particles. Set the parameters of the axp so that the velocities
match the motion of the large hand aniamted chunks (actually you want the
small debris to go a little faster than the large ones).
3. Now create several more spheres inside the exploded object and assign
the DISINTEGRATE.AXP to them. Set the the texture of these objects to
a 100% self luminating yellow/orange. And set the velocity of the disintegarte
to just a little slower than that of the EXPLODE.AXP objects. Make sure
the disintegrate particles dissappear pretty quickly.
4. Now use tha GLOW.IXP to glow the disintegrate objects by keying it to
the color of the disintegrate object.
This will give you an OK looking explosion. You can add some more by linking
VAPOR.AXP and FLAME.AXP objects to the large debris so get that trailing
smoke trails behind the debris pieces. Also placing VAPOR and FLAME objects
where the initial explosion took places helps. The textures of the Flame
and vapor object depends on the type of explosion you want. Other effects
that help are using using LENS FLARES during the initial explosion. Adding
intense lighting that fades off during the explosion helps also.
Note this is pretty processive intensive thing to do (especiallty the
VAPOR and FLAME objects).
*****************************
>>I'm running a Pentium 100/ 16Megs. How would an additional 8 or 16 megs
>>effect rendering time, etc? Also, for kicks, how would it render with only 8
>>megs? And yeah, I know with more memory it would render faster, but how much
>>faster, maybe a ratio or two.
>>
>
>Extra memory only helps if you are page faulting(that is the 3d Studio
>is using your hard disk as extra memory). You can find out if you
>are page faulting by looking on the menu under INFO/CURRENT STATUS
>and if your memory used is greater than memory available you are page
>faulting. How much it slows down rendering depends on how much you
>are swapping to disk but typical it will slow rendering down 2 to
>3 times.
>
>
I should correct myself you should probably check the SWAP FILE
field and if that is geater than 0 you are page faulting.
*******************************
Subject: re:fli to screen saver
Date: 8 Nov 1995 09:11:11 GMT
In <47dscc$a...@oveja.u-net.net> da...@burgess.u-net.com (daffy) writes:
>
>hi
>downloaded the program from this newsgroups but could not sort it out
>have any tips or could some one send me another fli to screen saver
>i would be very grateful. thanks
>
>
>
You need a UUDECODER that will read all of the files together and
decode them into one file.
If you still can't seem to figure it out, I posted the same program to
the Avalon site at:
ftp://avalon.viewpoint.com/avalon/utils/misc/ssflic11.zip
Best 'o luck,
*************
Subject: Re: autodesk ftp site
Date: 13 Nov 1995 17:16:48 GMT
try "ftp -v ftp.autodesk.com"
I assume you're using 3DS4. Look around the net for the hundreds of
Adobe Type 1 fonts available - if you have CorelDraw 5 you have 850
available fonts. Just put the .PFB files in your 3DS\FONTS directory.
*******************
Subject: Re: What Do I Charge for 3d Graphics
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 00:02:55 GMT
Graphic Man wrote:
>I have recently benn asked to create 3d presentations and
>graphics for a computer company, as I have only just started to
>sell my graphics I dont know the 'GOING PRICE' for the graphics I
>do.
>I have given a price of £400 per day (approx $600) is this over
>the top, I know that pricing something per day is strange as I
>could take 2 days over something that takes 1 day or vice versa,
>I would like to hear from other professionals and give me a
>broad pricing structure.
>Would appreciate any replies,
>Regards M
For broadcast digital video, the going rate is $1000 per finished
minute. That's what the guys that have alot of credibility and
experience are getting.
**************************
Subject: Re: how do I bend a cylinder?
Date: 19 Nov 1995 18:36:22 GMT
In article <48lfth$10...@cadvision.com>, ka...@cadvision.com (todd) says:
>
>I'm working on a camera flying down a fiberoptic cable and would like to
>have some twists and turns in it to make it interesting. How do I bend
>an entire cylinder? Right now all I can do is bend on entire side of
>the cylinder. Any ideas? Thanks
>
I've experimentred with camera's flying down tubes before, and I've found
that creating and modifying the tube in the 3D-Editor is very limiting.
I think that the best solution is to create a path in the 2D-Shaper, then
import this into the Lofter as a path. Then, pull a 2D circle along this path
(remember to turn tween and contour on). This allows you to ccreate a varity of
complex and really cool tunnels that you coudn't make with the
modify/object/bend
command.
As a bonus, you can also import the same 2D path into the Keyframer, aand use
it as the
path for the camera, using Camera/Path/Get/Shaper (I think thats the order).
Hope I was A Help...
> How do you load IPAS routines? I know how to load KXP's and PXP's
>(in 3d editor and keyframer), but how do you use IXP's, SXP's and
>AXP's?
>Justin Schell
You access .ixp's from Video Post rendering, .sxp's from the materials
editor, and .axp's from MODIFY/OBJECT/ATTRIBUTES.
dave
******************
Subject: Re: Spiral camera path?
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 10:54:11 GMT
sspe...@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca (Steven Sperber) wrote:
>Is there any easy way to produce a spiral camera path in the editors?
>Thanks for your help.
> Steve
>sspe...@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca
Sure. In the Lofter, use path/helix. Then go to the keyframer, paths/get/lofter. This
should import your 3D path from the lofter.
*****************
>Hello everyone,
> Last week I tried to import some logo I created in Corel Draw into 3D
>studio. I enountered some problem because 3D Lofer told me that I have
>some opened paths on certain vertex. However, I remembered that I closed
>all the path on Corel Draw since I could change the color of the inner
>region. If there any trick or tidbit about making sure that shapes have
>closed path before importing into 3D Studio?
1) Export from Corel with Illustrator 88 format.
2) Enter 3DS.
3) Enter shaper and import AI file.
4) Select all.
5) Modify/vertex/weld with selected ON.
++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: How do you repeat a animation sequence ?
Date: 6 Mar 1996 19:46:59 GMT
ECH...@news.salford.ac.uk wrote:
: I have just got 3d studio and am trying to do an animation of the dinosaur
: (ik_dyno) running, I have got it looking quite good but how do you get it to
: repeat a sequence in keyframer, ie. loop continuously frames 1 to 55 ?
: I can't seem to get it working in key info or track info ?
: Also it looks a bit to jerky at the moment so I wanted to stick in extra
: frames ie double every frame number, is there any easy way to do this, rather
: than go through every point in track info.
: Thanx in Advance
: Mark.
To double the frames got to TIME\SEGMENT\DEFINE and set the segment
length to first and last keyframes, then go TIME\SEGMENT\SCALE and scale
it to twice as many.
To make the anim loop:
set the total # of frames in keyframer to the number of frames in your
walk cycle, then go to TRACKS\LOOP and click on all the moving objects to
loop their animation tracks.
Now set the total # of frames to more. (say from 30 to 90) now your walk
cycle should repeat over the new frames. You can't add any new keyframes
to the walk cycle after the point you looped it, but inside the loop you
can still tweak and it will still loop fine. (within reason)
Michael Packard
Lord Generic Production
http://exo.com/~lgp
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4108
+++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: How do I make a flat mirror?
Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 18:56:41 -0800
The Programmer wrote:
>
> In article <DnDx3n....@cs.vu.nl>, jvroegop says...
> >
> >Can anyone tell me how to make a flat surface that looks like a mirror? What I
> >mean is that I would like to see other objects reflected in a flat mirror. So
> >far I have been able to make non-flat mirrors, but for some reason I can't
> make
> >flat mirrors!
> >
> >Thanks for reading,
> >
> >JAV
> >
>
> Flat mirrors only work if the mapping is assigned to flat faces, use the
> select faces options and assign the mapping to faces not the object.
Hey. The best way that I have found to make flat mirrors is to assign to
flat faces ( like earlier mentioned by someone else ) but align the
planar mapping coordinates to the same faces. Also, apply the mapping
coordinates to the object by name ( use the "H" hot key for names ). I
noticed this saved me tons of grief under certain circumstances. Have fun
with it.
++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Electricity in 3DS4
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 00:22:16 GMT
in the begining there was csc...@compusmart.ab.ca (Twilight Wolf). And he did
writeth:
>In 3ds4 what i am trying to do is create what looks like electricity
>curling around some of the pieces of the chess board that i am working
>on . Would some one be able to help me.
> Twilight Wolf
>----{ab initio, in medias res, ad finem}----
> Translation:
>{From the beginning ,in to the mist of things ,to the end}
>
Try having a few blue/cyan lights moving around the object in question, then go
into a 2d program such as animator pro and make some curly blue/cyan/white lines
crackling up the object.
Another obtion might be to creat an ecact copy of the piece, but make it
slightly bigger. Use a material that has 100 sel illum., and an amimated
blue/white map. You could create a plasma fractal, then chance the pallete so
that only the lightest bits are visible (and animate the pallete with colour
cycling), the rest is black. Now if you make black transparent the white/blue
bits will swirl around the object.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Clouds in the skyyyy
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 14:44:52 -0700
Eric J. Forman wrote:
>
> I'm trying to make realistic looking clouds for a short anim -- they are
> viewed only incidentally, so they don't have to be truly volumetric.
> Anybody have any good ideas or IPAS's for this? I'm twiddling with
> using some SXPs (like Marble and Stucco) as opacity maps on a flat
> polygon hovering over the whole scene but it looks crappy so far.
i made some cool, real looking clouds by creating a tiled
material with the sky.jpg as a texture. i placed the material
on a giant sort of bent cylinder half. i made the atmosphere
kind of foggy (0% near to 10% far (blueish/white) and rotated
the object slightly as the animation progressed. i got the
illusion of far away clouds moving slowly. if you have
spotlights, casting shadows, you need to exclude this object
from them, and make it self illuminating. also, in the material,
you can make the texture blurry to make it seem far away.
++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: HELP !!! PharLap CFIG386 problems.
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 16:08:07 GMT
++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Does anyone have a patch to get Animator Studio 1.0 to run under win95 ?
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 22:52:49 GMT
sc...@telepost.no (Einar Schau) wrote:
Quote:>Do you have it ?
Quote:>Please mail me
Quote:>sc...@telepost.no
hello,
delete aas24c.drv , aasc.drv , and aaseqfil.dll out of your system directory,
and startup animator with animator.exe.
++++++++++++++
>>After upgrading to Win95, my dos mouse driver not seem to work with 3d studio.
>>I am not having similar problems with other Dos programs.
>>Any suggestions??
>>Thanx.
>>Please post replies.
>
>I am having what I believe is a similar problem. When running 3ds4 from
>Win95, my mouse 'jumps' around the screen. It sort of locks up briefly every
>few seconds. If I 'restart computer in DOS mode' my mouse works fine.
>
>Please help. It's driving me nuts!
>Thanks
Hi. I had the exact same problem. The way I solved mine was to go to the
3ds icon, right click it, select properties, goto misc, then turn the idle
sensitivity all the way down. This fixed it for me. If you have any more
problems email me, Ive experienced them all. With win 95 anyway.
++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Vid cards + 3ds
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 08:30:28 GMT
>1. He has a Gateway computer running Win 95 and an ATI-Mach 64 video
>card. The card and 3DS do not get along. Does anyone have any
>thoughts?
>2. What is THE BEST video card to run with 3DS on a PC?
The most compatible whith enough performance are the S3 cards in my
opinion, ie DiamondStealth VRAM/DRAM. Havn´t had any problems in any
program, ever!
/Jonte
*****************
Subject: Bones Pro
You may have received this message before - problems,
problems.
O.K. If an object is called "test" then call the bones
"test_01", "test_02" etc. That should sort it out.
If you have any problems with this then by all means
mail me, it's just that I don't like posting my address ;}
Bones must have the same naming scheme as the mesh.
i.e. mesh (the original mesh's name)
mesh-bone1 (first bone)
mesh-bone2 (next bone)
mesh-foot1 (next...)
etc...
All you have to do is give the bones the same name as the main mesh object.. ie "Cow" would
use"Cow01" or "Cow Head"
+++++++++++++++
> How do I get an object to have the same number of vertices as another?
> In other words, now to reduce or increase the number of vertices in an
> object? I'll just puke if you say an IPAS routine!! :)
No, it's not an ipas routine.... Just use Modify/Vertex/Insert to add
vertices until you have the correct number. You can do it from the
Shaper with Modify/Segment/Refine.
or
The way to make morphing predictable is to create your objects in one
of three ways :
1. Loft different shapes with the same number of vertices along the
same path with optimize turned off
2.loft the same shape along paths with the same amount of vertices with
optimize turned off
3. copy the objects in the 3d editor an edit them.
++++++++++++++++
>Ok my proplem is to make some hair for my female head. I have tried to
>make it hair by hair or to modelate it out of a solid box but this
>seamse not the best way. Do have someone a good solution for my little
>proplem, then please answer. I am useing 3d-Studio rel.
Here is an old response to a similar question about fur, perhaps with
some experimentation you could get an easy hair effect also.....
---------
One simple and very effective way to do fur in 3D Studio is to first
make a shell around your object. Usually this is just a copy of the
object slightly scaled up so the shell sits at the height that you
would like the fur to be. Next, use a texture and opacity map to map a
fur-like texture to the shell. Make the opacity map highly variegated,
with sections that are completely white. This way the skin is still
visible through little holes in the shell. This creates a 3D Spongy
appearance which is very close to fur. Obviously, experimenting with
the texture and opacity map will produce various results.
+++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Modeling human head with pictures
Date: Thu, 04 Apr 1996 19:17:00 +0200
Hi Wayne,
A few daweeks ago I saw at a homepage a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop 3.0,
that create a dxf file from some b/w pictures. Threre were also some
screenshots with a human head created by an image. I think it's called
CyberMesh (http://www.asi.com/psarchive.pcplugs.html). There's only the
demo version, but i hope it helps...
+++++++++++++++++
Subject: Re: Modeling human head with pictures
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 09:01:12 GMT
W.Huang <wa...@mechtech.com> wrote:
>Hi,I need some recommendations for a commercial software package
>that will allow me to creat a 3D model of a human head based on
>pictures.
>Basically, I am trying to creat a bronze statue of a famous dead
>person. All I have is a couple pictures of this dead person. I
>wonder if there is a software that will allow me to scan the
>pictures into the modeling program and try to fit it with a 3D
>model. I need to know the dimensions in order to creat the statue.
>Any suggestions are greatly appreciated with regard to this issue.
>Wayne
As someone who has modeled my own head, it's fairly easy.
Do you have a profile shot? In Photoshop, load up the picture. On a
separate layer, draw multiple contours of all the ins and outs of the
face. Delete the underlayer. Save and load it as the background in
3DS. View it in the shaper and trace all the contours, with the same
# of vertices. Use these as loft shapes.
**************
Subject: Answer: How to have reflection rippling on surface of water
Date: 7 Apr 96 18:26:02 +1200
After using this newsgroup mainly to just ask the odd question every now and
then, I thought I should "put something back into the group" again :)
A few months ago, I saw someone asking how to get reflections off the surface
of rippling water, such that someone standing over a pool would have their
reflection distorted by the ripples. (y'know, like in real life :)
At any rate, AFAIK he never did find out, and from a later post in another
newsgroup, I think he gave up on using 3ds for the job. Yesterday, I discovered
I needed the effect, I worked out how to do it today, and thought I'd post how.
(yes, I know most experienced users wouldn't have a problem doing this, but
hopefully this will help someone, somewhere... :)
First, make your water material using an animated bump map (I used the
water2.sxp, but the noise2.sxp is also good, though any bump map will work) and
automatic reflection mapping (note: this means you must use Metal shading, and
not Phong, or the reflection mapping won't work.) Give it appropriate shine
(Roughly shineyness 40, strength 100, but it's always best to experiment :) etc
etc.
The water in the scene should be a box, not a plane, because the reflection
maps are rendered based on the bounding box, and work "best" when the bounding
box is roughly cubic.
Now, just stick the scenery/object over the water, and viola, you have
realistic animated reflection dancing accross the ripples.
Except you won't...
There are two things that need to be finely adjusted to get the effect perfect,
the first is placement and proportions of the water object - these, if wrong,
will result in the reflection being detached and in the wrong place on the
surface. It's kinda hard to explain how to get it right, so I won't - play
round with it :)
The second is the wave size -(ie a combination of the bump map percentage
slider (ie height), and the size of the bumps on the map or ipas.) Cut this
right down to the point where the preview in the materials editor barely looks
distorted at all (depending on the size of your water object, you may need to
take it down further), this should result in the reflection being steady enough
for you to accurately place it (by changing the water object), and then you can
finetune the ripples to the type and scale to get the water in the scene
looking right.