3-D max studio

[DarthTofu]

Anyone here know how to use the program? The robotics club at my school might be able to get a sponcership deal witht them, but we have to make a short program about our robotics club using the software. I'm not asking anyone to do it for us (Though that would be nice) but if anyone knows how to use it really well and can offer pointers, or something, then they might be helpful to have.

[Darth_Rob]

Thats so cool! My school never had a robotics club, though we DID have a "hacky sack" club (reminder- that was like 6 years ago).

[DarthTofu]

Hacky sack... Whee... Its actually pretty popular here, and you'd be surprised what people can do with it. THey're going around kicking it up and behind them andother freaky stuff... But I still need 3D max stuff if anyone's got it!

[Mad78]

I use 3ds max. What do you really want to do?

[DarthTofu]

Basically (I'm not in charge of it, so I don't entirely know) we need a short, sweet film about robotics. This probably means importing video clips from other programs (I know that it was on realplayer live when the competition was happening last year- watched as our team won on my compy!) anyway, I think it needs text, video clips, and, possibly, music. I'll see if I can get our president to sign on at school sometime with the specifics. he enjoys being ridiculously vague about what is needed...

[Mad78]

Well once you have a slightly more detailled description of what is necessary, give me a shout

[Krytos]

Well, to my knowledge at least, myself, Mad and The Mask now how to use 3d Studio Max - and do so on a regular basis.

There may be others on the forum, but to my knowledge.

 

Basically (I'm not in charge of it, so I don't entirely know) we need a short, sweet film about robotics. This probably means importing video clips from other programs (I know that it was on realplayer live when the competition was happening last year- watched as our team won on my compy!) anyway, I think it needs text, video clips, and, possibly, music. I'll see if I can get our president to sign on at school sometime with the specifics. he enjoys being ridiculously vague about what is needed...

 

Hmm, well 3D Studio Max is for creating 3d objects and effects in a 3d world and rendering that to different mediums - so if you're planning on making the film computer generated or with special effects requiring computer generation then Max might be what you're after.

However, if you're just after a program that can import multiple file types to edit or convert them (acting like a file Hub), you'd want something like After Effects.

Or Pro Tools (Well, actually something easier and cheaper) to edit the film clips to add text or music - however, I think you can add sound through 3ds, though not entirelly sure.

 

So, yeah like Mad said - once you find out more give us a call

[Mad78]

Oh and Tofu. What Kryt just wrote makes me think: If you are intending to create a 3d film using max i HIGHLY recommend that you set up a render farm before rendering it or you shall spend a hell of time just waiting for the thing to render [though if you don't intend to add any 3d special effect such as particles or advanced lighting you don't need to bother about the render farm).

[DarthTofu]

Umm, what's a render farm? lol, I'm a n00b when it comes to CAD software- like I've said before, I have some limited abilities with Auto CAD 2005 and AutoDesk Inventer. I haven't actually used the program- I just fofered to ask some people who might know how to use it about it.

[Mad78]

Well basically a render farm is something you use when you have alot of rendering to do and instead of using one computer and it taking a very long time you just network several computers so that they render simultaneously and speed up the rendering.

[DarthTofu]

Okay... I don't think that's beyond the school's ability. We sure as hell have enough computers, and I don't think networking them'll be an issue... Anything else that you feel is a really good thing to have?

[Mad78]

An idea

I just think that all you need is motiviation, an idea and a pc with the software.

Look at me, I made a two minute film and won a competition with it using a 500Mhz PC and a copy of 3ds max. Just goes to prove you don't need much

[LordCaptain]

Or get a decent computer (Dual Cored, like mine) and do all your work and render over-night while you sleep.

 

I use Maya, and when I tried to use 3D Studio... it seemed they took all logic on interface and tossed it out the window

 

But yeah. If you can't get a network I hope you have a fast comp...

[Krytos]

Well, I've used both Maya, 3ds, Blender, Bryce and Wings (ok, doesn't count as a renderer).

This is pretty much what I've found:

Maya has a quick interface, simple - but at the same time lacking functionality that 3ds has.

It allows you to reach most functionality quickly with the space bar. It's good, but I've also found whilst using it the only reason I used this function was to try and find how to do something in Maya. I found a lot of things disorganised to my tastes.

Maya has a more powerful pipline - however doesn't treat low powered CPUs well at all and acts as if you're viewing a high poly model. Most of it's tools are simplistic, allowing you to both quickly pick up on the tool as well as implement it - though also limits its functions.

Maya's materials seem to take the other side - they're complex and confusing to set up properlly as well as they didn't seem to allow much in the form of textures (ie. diffuse and bump map were the main, whereas 3Ds supports a lot of different texture maps).

Animation is relatively simple again, and Maya's particle system . . . well, owns! It's really good in other words

 

 

Now for 3Ds.

3ds' interface suits me to a T. Everything is where I expect it and it allows me to find a wide range of new functionality with ease. 3Ds' tools are wide in variety and powerful - from my experience more so than Maya's (with exceptions of NURMs - which I havn't tried in 3ds though have heard are hard). 3ds goes a little over board with some aspects of the interface - to many ways to do one thing. On my version of 3ds (version 6, which I have a pulg-in to get bring back the tab menu in the earlier versions) I can create scene objects etc. 3 different ways! What's the point

Also, there seems sometimes to be to much control over things. While it proves to be very useful in some occations - learning what the hell everything does gets teadious. Though, that isn't too much of an issue.

I also find that 3ds way of doing effects is more to my likings. While Maya's is quicker and simpler to produce a high quality effect - it also does to much by itself.

3ds has things set up in the way the work. Which for me, makes things better to control and make more sense - but that's just me.

3DS' pipeline is very linear. Low poly is fast, and the higher you get the slower it gets as to be expected - though the point is low poly models run extremely well in comparison to Maya on lower end PCs. At that token, 3ds' pipeline has gotten cluttered over the years of upgrades and needs a re-build. However, at the same token it's has very high capabilities - as so many plug-ins prove. If you have a look at some of the plugins available (After Burner for example).

The downside of this is simple - these plugins cost money! Bloody annoying considering you've forked out 3000 odd dolars for the program.

I prefer the material editor in 3ds, easier control, more accesible and more functions. And if you're into games as of late - 3ds6 and on allows viewport game shaders allowing you to test your game graphics in 3ds without having to export to the game engine (and for any game creator, this is extremely useful so you dont have to try and port to a half created, buggy engine).

 

Now, I use 3ds Max - so there is some bias in my statement above. But the end fact is the same. They're both fantastic programs with the only real limitation being the user.

Maya, as of late, has had great publicity from Pixar who had an agreement with them. And was also used in the creation of the Episode II's pre-renders before ILM used their own software to do the final animation, mainly due to its inbuilt particle system.

 

My personal choice is still 3ds Max though.