max modelling conundrum!

[Joril]

Why tools like these aren't just included as part of max is a mystery
Because the people at Discreet like to put all their time and efford in making a good UI and making sure there are no more bugs in code. Oh, and making a killer renderer.
All at a reasonable price of course.
:love: :D

[Iain McFadzen]

Originally posted by Joril

Because the people at Discreet like to put all their time and efford in making a good UI and making sure there are no more bugs in code. Oh, and making a killer renderer.
All at a reasonable price of course.
:love: :D

lmao

(or I would be if I wasn't fighting with max bugs and trying to use it's crappy renderer)

[Bluemilk]

I think what you need is to extrude along a path???,Max 5 has this built in, i know this is no use to you at the moement, but surely someone can write a script for this?
Good luck with your new tools, they are great.

[LFShade]

Extrude along spline is also in Meshtools for Max (or was it csPolyTools? I use them both so much I can't remember which has what). There's also a script out there somewhere that lets you "paint" splines and such on the surface of other objects, it's called Freehand Tools and you can find it at www.scriptspot.com.

So here's what I propose as a solution to your problem: use Freehand Tools to draw a spline on your object; using the offset feature you can actually draw it a set distance off the surface. FHT also lets you set the "sample" distance of the spline -- in other words the distance between verts. Make sure you set this to something appropriate so that you end up with a nice, clean and well-spaced spline. Then use the result as the basis for your spline extrude, and you should get something that at least approximately follows the surface of your object! It still won't be perfect, though, because it won't 'bank' to take into account contours of the model that run lateral to the spline.

Am I making any sense?

[sugna]

Still it looks cool, all grey 'n all. I love the improvements they made in the material editor and uvw unwrap too. Software just doesn't get any more subtle or easier to use. We like to display our copy of Max on the monitor in the studio with the furry leopard skin cover. Just to keep things in perspective and not to get overwhelmed with the beauty of it all. There've been so many great changes in the look of the interface since Max 2.5 it hurts sometimes just to look at it. It must be really hard to follow such a gruelling design schedule. Especially hard to balance all the greys out so well.

[sugna]

Thanks Shade, that's great. I'm downloading Freehand Tools as I write this. Haven't seen the extrude spline feature in meshtools or polytools yet but I'll check it out. Thanks again. Much appreciated.

[LFShade]

The spline extrude feature is part of csPolyTools and is called "faceLoft". The icon looks like a plane with a little curved line sticking up from it.

[sugna]

Thanks Bluemilk too. I'm going to wait a while on Max 5. We just got dumped on by discreet pulling all it's development on edit just after we upgraded to 6.5, so we're still hurting. Also we only just got our heads around max 3.1 before 4 came out. I don't mind spending money on upgrades because I do understand that software companies have to earn. It's just that for my money the learning curve from 3.1 to 4 wasn't worth it. 4 had some fancy sliders and things but nothing we couldn't do in already 3.1. The only thing I really cared about or hoped they would change was the texturing controls (uvw unwrap etc.) which the upgrade did nothing on. Okay so there were a few more material types. Who cares? You still have to rely on texporter to make max work and it's easy to get and install but why doesn't discreet just include it, and about 2 dozen other really basic things. Max 5 probably is quite cool, but unless discreet have addressed their texturing inadequacies then I don't see the point. We only got into Max about 3 years ago to do basic titling in our edit suite, and I'm only just getting into character design now. With the texturing problems and also looking at Mirai which seems to be a fantastic polygonal modelling package a max upgrade may not be worth it quite yet.

[sugna]

thanks shade.

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