Opening Max 2010 and seeing mostly the same curve editor tools since Max 8 (which I’ve been using up until now) got me to give it a much needed update. Unzip this to the Max directory with folder names enabled. Look in the monsterBlues category. (Works best as a tool bar for the curve editor and then save the curve editor layout.)
I put together some animated gif of what the buttons do…
Grow and Shrink key selection.
Click Continue to see more animated demos:
Continue reading ‘KeyTools’
This is something I’m excited about. I’ve been working on it for quite a while. Hopefully it’ll be released soon.
Place the MS file in …\3ds Max 20XX\ui\MacroScript\ Look in the monsterBlues category after you restart max to bind to a hotkey.
Assign this macro to a hotkey, also assign Shift + the hotkey. For example, if you assign the script to the “D” button. Also assign Shift+”D”.
Pressing the hotkey will add increments to your selection. Pressing shift + hotkey will reduce increments. Also I set an upper limit of 5 and a lower limit of 0. You can open the script in a text editor and increase the upper limit.
1. Copy MCR files to the UI/MacroScripts folder.
2. Copy MS files to the Scripts folder.
3. Copy BMP files to the Scripts folder.
4. Copy GUP files to the Plugins folder.
5. Restart Max.
6. Look in the monsterBlues category to bind to a hotkey.
On a final note, you may report and review bugs in the comments section. Sometimes my e-mail gets crowded with with the same bug report. Thank you, and happy scripting.
I was getting a the error above when Windows Defender would try to start with a clean install of Windows Vista Ultimate. For people with XP or a non-clean install of Vista, this error meant that the Defender Beta was out of date and they needed to uninstall/reinstall. Of course, with a clean install of Vista, you can’t uninstall (or install) Defender. After hours of tryng some solutions for other error codes, the real solution turned out to be pretty simple. You need access to a computer with a working Windows Defender preferably of the same Windows version.
I made my User account the owner of the broken C:\Program Files\Windows Defender folder. Deleted the files inside it. I was able to delete all but one file. I copied the files and folders inside the working Windows Defender folder in Program Files from my Vista Ultimate laptop. I pasted into the broken folder (all files pasted except for the one that didn’t delete.) I noticed the Laptop’s folder had one extra file and two extra folders that were not in the Desktop’s folder. I restarted the computer and now Defender starts and operates normally.
As a side note, I also did the following before I restarted :
I wrapped up another Animation for Video Games class at the Guildhall. Every time I teach the class it’s a very rewarding experience. The students have so much to teach me. This particular group of students were hard workers and will probably be very successful when they finish the program. Fair well on the internship guys!!
I’ve also been scrutinizing the character rigging DVD’s by Paul Neale over at CG Academy. I’ve never personally met him, but I had the pleasure of working with his custom character rigs on an Xbox video game called Stacked!. I’m glad to see that most of my hackery and foolish techniques are in fact not hackery and foolish techniques. I do wish he focused on rigging specifically for video games. But in any case they are excellent DVD’s, and I recommend them to anyone interested in character rigging.
Penny Arcade made a small mention of Enemble Studios and Halo Wars. It’s nice to see they haven’t forgotten about us, and may even be a little excited about the game.
Halo is actually a great fit for a tabletop strategy franchise, and would be so even if it were not one of the most potent brands in the Western world. Having begun its life as a RTS, I imagine that Ensemble is enjoying their romp through the universe quite a bit.
I’m proud to be on the development of Halo Wars at Ensemble Studios. We are developing Halo Wars as an RTS game exclusively for the Xbox 360. As an animator I’m having a lot of fun working on all the characters and cinematics. At Ensemble we always try to push the boundries of PC games, and now we get to do the same with a console. I’m looking forward to it being released and reaching success. Development so far has been smooth and Ensemble’s relationship with Bungie, the makers of Halo, is excellent. I’ll post more about the game as news unfolds.
So I just played the 1st of 6 episodes of Sam and Max. The game is totally fun. The art style and animation is very simple and very successful. I recommend this game to anyone that loves to laugh, and might be tired of playing fast paced action games. The second episodes is just days away and I can’t wait. What are you waiting for!? Go buy the full season of Sam and Max now!
By the way, Tell Tale Games is my new favorite developer. I’d also like to say I’m so glad there’s a developer out there that is focusing on fun games and not letting all this “Next-Gen” tech go to their heads.
It bugs me (just a little) when people say they don’t like to animate with biped because you can’t scale limbs. So…I made a tutorial that teaches you to create Custom Attributes and Wire them to a Biped. The tutorial download contains a short Step by Step PDF file and a sample Max file with animation.
(There have been reports that this tutorial is not compatible with Max 9)
Here’s a little script that lets you interface with Biped’s TCB controllers with familar words like “Linear” “Slow” “Fast” and “Smooth.” I know you can switch Bipeds controllers from Quaternion to Euler, but I’ve found that to be a little buggy at times. Anyway give it a try. Put the MCR file in the \Max\UI\MacroScripts folder, restart Max, and look in the monsterBlues category for Biped TCB Tool.
And tell your friends.
This script will remove an edge loop and all it’s verts or remove and edge ring by collapsing it. It’s pretty simple stuff. Just select one edge and then click Remove Loop or Remove Ring. In Max 8 and above, with a Loop selected holding Ctrl while removing will do a clean remove.
By popular demand here is a tool that lets you convert skin to physique and back to skin using the vertex number. If you edit the geometry other than just moving verts between modifiers it won’t work. Next to each button is a help button with further instructions.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, this script only works for Max 4-9. Max 2008 and up are not supported. This is because the iPhysique.gup plugin that it relies on has not been recompiled for the newer versions of Max.
Here is a small collection of macro scripts to help speed up skinning. Some of these features are in Max 8, but if you are using 7 or lower you can use these.
SkinClear
SkinTo1
SkinToHalf
SkinStart
SelectionToSkin
SkinRing
SkinLoop
SkinGrow
SkinShrink
This handy script will Mirror Morph targets on the X axis. If you use Z-brush you can use it to quickly edit your base object in Max, mirror the changes and re-import the tool.Instructions for use:
1. Select a symmetrical model. (The model doesn’t need to be entirely symmetrical, only the parts you intend to mirror.)
2. Adjust the threshold or leave the default. I don’t recommend high numbers.
3. Hit the Initialize button and wait for it to process.
4. Once processed you may close the window. The data was saved to a temp file in your Windows temp directory.
5. When your ready, reopen the menu, select some verts that you modified, and hit the Mirror button and wait a few seconds.
6. With the same selected verts add a Morph modifier, make a reference to your base mesh, and this will let you set those back to the original position.
Fun isn’t it?
So the biggest bug in the Mirror Physique script was that people didn’t download the accompanying file. So it is now included in the download. So now it supports Max 4 thru 9. I also fixed a bug where certain weights were cleared without a replacing value. I’ve also removed Anthony Delen’s ClearWeights function. It’s a perfectly fine function, but I was misusing it resulting in said bug. Anyway, enjoy…again.
Mirror Physique – DOWNLOAD NOW
Max 9 Iphysique Plugin – DOWNLOAD NOW
This script will cycle between Nurms Off, Nurms Level 1, and Nurms Level 2. This script in particular has sped up my modeling quite a bit.
Simple tool that displays the triangle face count on Editable_Poly and Editable_Mesh objects. You can select multiple objects at once, and it works in Sub-Object mode.
This simple script will select all of the non-Quad polies in an Editable Poly Object. Nice for all you Z-brush users.
New Script in the House! I’ve only tested it in Max 5 and up. (I’ve altered the interface by removing the company logo, and allowing more space dedicated to the file names.)It’s pretty simple really, it can load a directory of Bip files and lets you step through them one by one. It’s perfect if you have hundreds of bips from an unorganized MoCap shoot. 
This one was made by request. It’s really simple. It just centers the pivot of every object and moves it to the origin.
