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101 Things You Didnt Know In 3Ds Max ...in Fact, It's 104 Things!
Modelling
- Meshsmooth only the selected faces by un-checking the 'apply to entire mesh' box in the options.
2. If you use Non-uniform scaling (scaling in less than all 3 axes at the same time) on a model it will cause distortion problems when animating, however non-uniform scaling within a sub-object mode will not cause the same problems.
3. When in Edit Poly or Mesh, hitting 1,2,3,4 etc will cycle through the sub-object selections, and when in edit poly hiting 6 will take you out of the subobject mode. Also, Ctrl + B will cycle in/out of sub object mode.
4. Alt+X = See-though or X-Ray mode
5. To rotate around a particular vertex, select your object (or set of sub-objects) lock the selection, choose either or from the drop down list, turn on vertex snap and rotate it all by clicking on the vertex you wish as the pivot. (CLICK HERE for a tips and tricks and 3d models)
6. When in sub-poly mode, creating your own keyboard shortcuts can save oodles of time. Rather than scrolling up and down looking for "connect" and "target weld". Just assign "ALT-C" and "ALT-W" for example.7.When modelling things at odd angles, (ie, arms, hands, feet etc) it helps to create an instance of the object, straighten it out and work on that instead.
8. Pressing + and - changes the size of the transform gizmo.
9. A sub-object selection in Edit Poly can be transfered over to another one by holding down Ctrl and clicking another mode button in the modifiy panel selection rollout. This is particularly good for the 'Ring' and 'Loop' commands in edge mode of edit poly.
Alternatively selecting the edges/verts .etc around and area (in effect, selecting a perimeter) and holding Shift whilst clicking a different selection mode will transfer over only the parts within the perimeter of the original selection.10. The FFD modifier is a good tool for deforming meshes, its can be applied to a single mesh or multiple meshes simultaneously.
11. In later versions of max, hitting Ctrl+Backspace will remove both the edge and the vertex when in edge subobject mode.
12.Holding down CTRL when creating a a sphere, cylinder, teapot, etc. will allow you to rotate as you create. Holdings down CTRL when creating a box, pyramid, plane, etc. will create an object with even length/width.
13. When modeling wrinkles, folds, etc, on a curved surface, instead of moving your row of edges on 1 axis, convert the selection to Vertex (Ctrl + Click Vertex button under the stack) and switch your coordinate system to Local. Now, moving the slection on the Z axis will move them perpendicularly to the surface.
Alternatively you can use the 'Normal' constraint found in the edit poly modify panel for the same effect although this is only in later versions of max.14. Modifiers such as Push and Noise can be applied to a soft selection on the previous modifier so their 'strength' varies accordingly.
15. To stop an object turning grey when freezing it, uncheck the 'show frozen in grey' in the object's porperties window.
16. Some spinner values that are limited can have that limitation overridden. But ONLY if they are animatable. Create a key in Track View for that parameter and edit its value there.
Now you can Relax by a negative amount or Spherify more than 100%.
Lighting
1. Ctrl+L switches of you lights and go back to max default 2 point lighting. Hitting it again will switch back to your own lights.
2. Pressing '9' above the letters on the keyboard will bring up the advanced lighting window
3. Selecting a light then pressing Ctrl+H lets you drag over the surface of an object to place the highlight.
4. When using a target light, selecting the line inbetween the light and its target will enable you to move/rotate both objects together.
Texturing/Materials
- To remove an assigned material from a mesh, drag the NONE material from the 'Material/Map Browser' via the 'Material Editor' on to your mesh, or use the UVW Remove utility in the utilities panel (click the 'more' button to open it).
2. To hide the materials in the viewport select 'Object Colour' in the Shaded section at the top of the display tab.
3. You can apply a single UnwrapUVW modifier to multiple meshes simultaneously to allow them all to be unwrapped onto the same texture map a lot easier.
4. If a material is assigned to anything in the scene, small triangles appear in the corners around the material slot in the material editor.
5. Material editor is not the list of all materials in the scene, here is how to list them: Material editor > get material > scene).
6. To display an assigned texture map in the viewport click the 'Show Map in Viewport' button (the blue/white checker cube) in the 'Material Editor'.
7. Click the eyedropper tool next to the material name then click on an object the viewport and it will copy the objects material to the selected sphere.
8. An easier to use alternative to the Morpher material is to create a multi-sub material with the different materials in it then use a Material modifier on the object and animate the material ID over time. This is particularly useful in Mental Ray as that doesnt support the Morpher material.
9. You can rotate the sphere (or custom shape) in the material editor slot by holding down MMB and dragging your mouse. (you can't rotate it if you enlarge the slot window though)
10. When unwrapping uv's using copy and paste is a HUGE time saver.
11. When unwrapping selecting certain chunks and use flatten mapping to get a head start. (instead of using flatten on everything)
12. You can drag and drop images/video right into the viewports from windows explorer to create a new material with that image/video in the diffuse slot. (just use the eyedropper tool to place it in the material editor) Additionally, when dropping images/videos to different polygon selections, max assigns material IDs as needed and with the eyedropper you get a Multi/Sub-Object material.
13. Saving your uvs in .eps format will allow you to work with them as vector lines in Adobe Illustrator and wont decrease in quality as you zoom in.
14. The 'Render Map' option (right-click a sample sphere whilst in the diffuse/bump/spec slot .etc in the material editor) is great to create bitmaps using all the procedural maps, compositors, etc, available in max.
Even better, you can render animated maps to video files.15. To unwrap in about 45sec do the following:
Select the head. Add Relax + Spherify modifiers. Crank up the relax iterations. Add an Unwrap UVW on top. Perform a cylindrical mapping (make sure the seam is at the back of the head). Delete both Relax and Spherify modifiers.
Et voilà! Now you have a pretty decent base to work from
16. A Gradient Ramp can do pretty much everything a Mix map does, PLUS a lot more!
Add more flags as needed.
Right-click the flags to access their properties and add your maps there.
Set the Interpolation to Custom to edit that property independantly for each flag.
Set the Gradient Type to Mapped and add your mask in the Source Map slot.etc.
And last but not least, Gradient Ramp has a nice set of Noise settings.
Navigation/Viewports
- When in camera view you can lock the camera from panning by selecting the camera itself and its target (if applicable) and checking all the position boxes in the Link Info tab in the Heirachy panel.
2. Ctrl+C in perspective viewport adds a camera to the scene and effectively saves the view you have set up in perspective mode.
3. If there are mutliple cameras in the scene "C" will bring up a list to choose from. Alternatively hitting "C" whilst a camera is selected will change the current view to that of the selected camera.
4. ALT+W = Toggle Full Size View.
5. Ctrl+X = Expert (Full screen) Mode.
6. Pressing the Up key in either Camera or Perspective viewport will enable the walkthrough mode, you can then use the cursor keys to navigate (the rest of the controls are in the help files under 'Walkthrough Navigation'
7. 'G' Toggles the maing grid from viewport
8. 'J' Removes annoying selection brackets around your objects.
9. 'I' Pans the viewport to center on the cursor position (handy if you want to draw lines/shapes which are bigger than your viewport and regualr panning cancels the command)
10. Pressing "Z" will center your zoom on the selected object. This is particularly useful when the middle mouse stops zooming in whilst in perspective mode.
11. Shift+Z will undo the last view change without undoing any commands you have performed and Shift+Y will redo the view change.
12. Mousewheel+Alt+Shift = Arc Rotate
13. Mousewheel+Alt+Ctrl = Zoom
14. Holding Ctrl down whist zooming in increases the zoom speed
15. Holding Alt down whist zooming in decreases the zoom speed
Particles
- Use the 'Mesher' compound object to convert your particle system into an editable mesh object.
2. Snapshot also converts particles to mesh, and automatically converts it to an editable mesh whereas Mesher (above) doesn’t.
General Shortcuts
- Pressing the letter 'O' turns off the bounding boxes when panning.
2. Pressing X with toggle the transform gizmos on and off
3. Right click a spinner to zero its value
4. Press the 7 above the letters on the keyboard for an in-viewport poly/vertex counter.
5. Hit Ctrl+N in any numeric input field you access the 'Numerical Expression Evaluator', a simple calculator.6. Right clicking the transform controllers brings up the Transform Type-In window.
7. Right clicking any of the snaps toggles will bring up Grid and Snap Settings.
8. Hitting Q repeatedly toggles through different selection modes.
9. F3=Smooth/Shade view toggle.
10. F4=Wireframe overlay (Show Edges) toggle.
11. both Ctrl+V and Shift-Dragging clones the selected object.
12. W, E & R are the shortcuts for Move, Rotate and Scale respectively.
13. H = Selection Box (Select by List) shortcut
If you have the new selection box (max 2008+) and want the old one do the following...
find your CurrentDefaults.ini
(usually in something like... C:yournameyournameAppDataLocalAutodesk3dsmax2009 - 32bitenudefaultsMAXand change :
[Scene Explorer]
SelectByNameUsesSceneExplorer=1to
[Scene Explorer]
SelectByNameUsesSceneExplorer=0save ini file and restart max
14. Spacebar = Lock Selection, this can be hit by accident and you will be unable to select/deselect objects so its good to know to deactivate too.
15. Alt+Q enters isolation mode allowing you to temporarily hide all non selected objects and zoom extents selected.16. F12 will bring up the keyboard input window for the currently selected transform tool allowing precise values to be used.
17. ALT+D toggles the 'Snaps Use Axis Constraints'. With Vertex Snap, lets you quickly align vertices in only one or two dimensions.
18. SHIFT+X toggles the Edge Constraint. With Vertex Snap, allows you to align vertices in one or two dimensions without deforming the edge(s)
19. Ctrl-Tab switches to different tabs in dialog windows (i.e. render setup dialog).
Animation
1. Ctrl+Alt+Left-Mouse-Drag on the time line will adjust the starting frame.
Ctrl+Alt+Right-Mouse-Drag on the time line will adjust the end frame.
Ctrl+Alt+Hold down the Mouse Wheel on the time line will pan the time line.
2. Starting in Camera View, switch to perspective view, turn on autokey, adjust the view, move the time slider on some frames, select the camera again and press Ctrl+C, the same camera will now animate to the new perspective position.
3. Got stupidly large file sizes that take ages to save and your using biped? Delete the copy collections under copy and paste in the biped menu thing, you might have loads there and they bump the file size up alot.
4. Right clicking the time line and going to Configure-->Show Selection Range will give you a bar under the keys where you can scale, move and even reverse the selected keys
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101 Things You Didnt Know In 3Ds Max ...in Fact, It's 104 Things!
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I have an old Belkin KVM switch which is analog and a different KVM switch from another manufacturer that allows dual digital, analog, or a combination. The mouse and keyboard are still analog on this switch, but it serves me well.
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