3d max help needed please

[Equinoxx]

do you have ANY max experience at all ??

[lildragon]

hmm this is one very vague question bud... you asked me to help but I have no idea where to start :shrug:

What's your movie based on?
What timeline do you have in mind?
Did you read the manual regarding animation?
Do you know anything about kinematics?
In which way would you like them to move?

and on and on...

I would highly suggest reading the manual :wise:

cheers

[Taoizm]

Don't seem to sound rude or anything but do a search for tutorials based on what you need to do. Go to the bookstore and grab some books. Then after you've started post what you have and ask for feedback. Asking to have your hand held on such a broad subject without looking for resources on your own wastes ours. Sorry, but that's my 2 cents.

[Dasickone]

well, i downloaded a droidek(k)a for 3d max, and no, i dont know nything bout it, i thought animating it wasnt very hard, is it???

P.S. i want it to shoot and move like a droideka, where can i find a tutorial on that? and how can i paste/whatever needed to get it in my movie.:airguitar :buttrock:

[Dasickone]

i now know how to animate the droideka('s) but how can i paste/export this so i can use it in my movie?

[lildragon]

Well it's obvious you're not listening to our advice, so I can't help you... also we're not mind readers, we don't know what app you're exporting from in the first place...


P.S. i want it to shoot and move like a droideka, where can i find a tutorial on that?

Impossible there's no way to find a tut on every character or other you wish to animate...

do your homework, read the manual, or the help file by pressing F1.

We can't hold your hands thru everything bud, and for future questions, please please stop asking them in such a vague fashion

cheers

[Dasickone]

sorry, im jst vague..
i downloaded a droideka for 3d max, now i want to use it in ulead mediastudio pro, well, i just want to get it in my movie.

:beer: hope im not very vague anymore:buttrock: :bounce:

[Chris]

Ok, so mediastudio pro is a video editor right? So if you are ready to put together your film in an editor, you must have already:

Modelled your scene & characters (or obtained models)
Textured the aforementioned models :)
set up lighting within the scene
applied rigging to the characters (if required)
set up the animation
& you are ready to render.

If that is the case, you need to figure out what format it will be displayed on & render to the appropriate size & file type (making sure that your video editor can open that file type). As an example: if the final product is outputting to PAL DV, set your output size to 720x576, pixel aspect ratio 1.0666, render to fields on even, motion blur (if required)

If you are rendering out a droid to be composited over some live action or pre-rendered footage, you will need to save an alpha channel. AFAIK with mediastudio pro that would leave your file type options to be either TGA's (32 bit, straight alpha, not premultiplied) or quicktime animation if you dont want to save frames (millions of colours+, maximum compression setting)

then hit render & have a few beers. You should then end up with a file or directory of frames suitable to import into Mediastudio for your filmic masterpiece... :)

[Dasickone]

thanks for the reply, i only have one (big) problem:
making the model move, i downloaded a battledroid and a droideka but i cant get them to move.......

[Chris]

that is a bit of a problem isnt it? :)

Ok, to make it move in max - select your droid, drag the time slider to the last frame in your animation & click the big square 'animate' button (it will turn red) now with the move tool, drag your droid to another position. Now if you scrub the animation slider, your droid should move! Ok, its probably not exactly like in episode 1 yet, but its a start :buttrock:

Everything else is just variations on what you have just done - setting keys. If you want the droid to roll, rotate him with the animate button on, it will set a rotation key at the frame you are - interpolating between that & any other keys at different time positions.

The next hurdles I can see you encoutering are "when I try to move one of its legs it comes off" - have a look at IK in the help file, you will probably have to connect the leg pieces together by 'parenting' pieces together & assign an IK chain to them (also have a look for 'select and link' and 'link' in the online help...

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