3DsMax Tutorial for sculpt prim

EDIT: 6/22/2008
For the best way to build scuplts created by Shack Dougall please visit:


below is a very old method to making sculpts but if you are brave and feel like doing it the old fashion way then be my guest but it is labor intensive and time consuming.

This is a very rough tutorial for Max5.
till I have time to do a better one

http://www.joe-brown.net/SecondLife/SculptTut/SculptTut.html

If you have problems with this let me know.

I'm just using a cylinder as an example. Other methods of modeling with will work with this texture in this file as well. It just projects a RGB gradient in the XYZ plane. You are not limited to just a cylinder.

I can confirm that these steps do work in 3ds Max 9 as well without any changes. The screens look slightly different, but that's only in so much as things have been added. No wordings have been changed on buttons, and they're practically in the same places.

I tried this unsuccessfully on a model of a sword I just made today though. Got me a black texture render. >/
I'll try again, perhaps I just messed something up. Thanks for the file though, if I can't get this working with custom models I can at least futz with prims and mold them into the shapes I want.

the black happens to me in the Render to Texture secion when I forget to tell which mapping channel to use. You should have two mapping channles on the object. Channel 1 will be the one where the UVs fill one tile of a texture in a grid like pattern and channle 2 is the one where you apply the planer map. Baically you are rendering the complete map of what is applied to the object in channel 2 using channel 1 UV. make sure when the object is select it says Use Channel 1. Or maybe that texture I made in 5 does not work in 9. but it uses very basic texture types Gradient, Tint, and Shellak. I may write up a tut on making the texture if that is the problem.

For max9 there is an option in the Render to Texture window that needs to be checked before you render to texture. In the Mapping Coordinates section select Use Existing Channel and then select Channel 1. This is the biggest difference I could see between 5 and 9 as far as using this method.

anyone tested this with version 4?

thank you

Does 4 have shelac material, gradients or ramp textures and able to render to texture? if so then it should be able too.

Having a small issue with the RBG Blend, mine comes out complete white, any suggestions?
I can't find a premade material by that name, I'm using max 8.

My try with using this method with Max 9 ended up in this..
I attached 3 jpeg..
1) bowlsculp 3d is what i made in Max..
2) try64-64 is my try on a texture of 64 by 64
3) try32-32 is my try on a texture of 32 by 32

On the 64 scale it wraps an diffuses alot..so i try`d it on 32 an it looks better..the gab an the diffusion is almost gone but the deforming still stays a bit..

Any of you already got that figured out or am i doing something wrong here??

This method is a think one of the better working ones..ill keep trying an post my resulds..

Regards Miranda aka Eyeless Tilling

got the same problem, I follow the tutorial, but for some reason, when I render it, it first complains about not being any target map (and I can't select any ) and when uploading the texture the prim more or less just becomes a wierd cylinder

My stuff is coming out distorted. Is there no way to make a straight shape with prim sculpting?

I'm not able to open the tutorial file in 3dsm9. Is there anything you have to do to the file to get it to open properly?

Yeah I'm using 9 also, i don't follow this method though it looks to be good. I have tons of things I've made, I'd just like to get them into sl as fast as possible. Tried the tutorial but I'm using 9 and I never used 5 though I used the dos based original max, 1 and skipped all the others up to 7 through 9. English though I can read and type it pretty well, isn't my first language. I tend to get lost on some instruction. I really want this to work though!

Do I have to remake everything that I've made in 3dsmax? Or is there any ways to uv map the models I've created so far?

I'm not sure on that. When I opened it in the Trial version of 9 I did get and error but ever thing still worked. It just detect some old data and throws them into the Material editor.
what was the problem when you opened it?


Sorry about that I sort of rushed this one out. There are alot of thing I need to change now. Step that are not need and so on.


I am afriad for the most part yes. The sculpt prims is very picking with the geometry. There are some methods out that I have not tried but work for the most part to a limited degree. There is no perfect method that woks for every model out there.

Thank you Gearsawe for that interesting tutorial. But i'm wondering how you managed to avoid the "render to texture" problem in 3DsMax 5. It works perfect if you use Windows XP with Servicepack 1. After installing SP2 it doesn't work any more. It's a known problem and i never saw a solution for that problem but to stay at SP1. But that's ridiculous - one cannot run WinXP without SP2. So i never used the "render to texture" again. But if i understand that right, it's very important for sculptured prims... damned - i don't want to update to the actual version just because of the "render to texture" function. So is there a way to bring "render to texture" back to live after installing SP2?

Thanks and Greetings

CC

hi can anyone help me with a small tutorial on how to import objects or files made in 3ds Max to second life??
and what type of file i can upload to second life? .3ds or other and how to do so
thanks

I've completed the tutorial in max 9 e it works perfectly.
Now I would like add textures to my model: is there a method for texture my model in max and generate a map with the same aspect ratio of the sculpt map, so in SL it appears the correct map for my object?

it works with a cylinder a sphere but it doesen't works with a quader, why ?? whata must i do that it also works with an qauder?

thx for help... best regards from germany...

Can anyone help me? I need to know if it is possible to project a texture on to a sculpti cube with the same end results as if I was to use an ordinary cube prim? For instance, If I want a checkered material to wrap around evenly on all sides of the rounded corner sculptie without the image scrunching up where the vertices all meat at a single point on the top and bottom axis...

I've seen a few tutorials that show how to use projection mapping and texture baking - but all mostly for normal objects and not sculptie prims. I assume there is a particular technique to do this? I have access to 3dsmax 9 and 2008. I also have Maya but little experience with it. Please somebody help me!! I've been going demented the past month trying to figure it out.

I'm trying to build realistic furniture (antique and modern) in SL which require sculpties. Any knowledge passed on to me I'll happily share with anyone. I'll even give you a free range of my furniture!

Cheers!!!

To solve the scrunching problem, you need to use a plane or cylinder topology on the sculptie in SL. Sculpties support 4 different topologies: sphere (the default), plane, cylinder, and torus. The sphere topology is the default and results in the scrunching on the top and bottom of the sculptmap. To change a sculptie to a different topology, you must use a LSL script.

You can find some more information about the different topologies, plus a script for changing the topology in the SculptGenMax FAQ (http://liferain.com/downloads/sculptgenmax/faq/).

--Shack

I have Max 9 and can't get the file open.

"Obsolete data format found. The file may have been saved with a previous release. Please resave file."

Importing it in didn't help either, same thing.

Weird. It appears to be the same KB size as an empty max file. I don't think there's any thing in it.

Same problem as writer above, I can't open teh file since I have 3DS Max 9... Anyone? HELP!!!

Just in case newer folks aren't aware of it, check out SculptGenMax.

http://liferain.com/downloads/sculptgenmax/

Also, next week I'll be releasing the first version of Prim Composer which lets you create both sculpties and regular prims within 3ds Max and export them to both Second Life and OpenSim.

http://liferain.com/downloads/primcomposer/

Oh man, I can't wait! This is going to be just in time for a big project too!