INSIDE 3DS MAX® 7 [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Printing and Exporting

We've got our images rendered. Now what do we do with them? Max offers several modest printing and exporting functions you may need to call upon. In this section, we will review them.

Print Size Wizard

When you get ready to print your images, a visit to an image-editing program is typically in order. 3ds max has supplied us with the Print Size Wizard, found under Rendering > Print Size Wizard, but it doesn't take the place of the other program. In fact, you can't even print from it! It's good for getting an approximate size, but the settings derived from the calculations don't take into account paper margins or printer capabilities.

Panorama Exporter

Sometimes you want to dive right into a scene and be able to interactively show how the area looks from a central vantage point. Using Panorama, with the included viewer, allows the user to look about the scene.

In Figure 19.34, you see a normal rendering of a jail cell.

In Figure 19.35, you see the 360-degree panorama created of the same scene. A free camera was placed in the middle of the cell, at about head height.

To see the panorama, open the Utilities panel in 3ds max. Click the More button, and select the Panorama Exporter from the subsequent dialog. Click the Viewer button, and use the File/Open menu command to go to the DVD and select jailPano.jpg. Clicking and dragging will move the camera around, and clicking the middle mouse button will zoom in and out.

Rendering a panorama is simple: merely place a camera in a central place where you want the viewpoint to be, and click the Render button in the Utilities panel. You want to select a large size for the rendering, as there is a lot of area to display. A size of 2048 by 1024 is usually a good choice to start.

Note that the Render Scene dialog for the panorama looks very similar to the standard variety that we're used to; however, it is modal. It must be closed before you can go back to editing your scene. It also won't remember which camera is your panorama camera, so you must remember to select it every time from the bottom of the dialog.

To be able to view your work outside 3ds max, or on the Web, you need to export your render to a standard panorama format. There are a number of applications, but probably the easiest to implement is QuickTime VR. After your panorama finishes rendering, choose File > Export > Export QuickTime VR. Once the software is installed, you can view the panorama with the QuickTime viewer.

Note

You need the full "Recommended" QuickTime installation to be able to access the Export function. Go to www.apple.com/quicktime/download to get the current version.

With third-party software, virtual tours can be authored that enable the user to jump from panorama to panorama. These are very popular with real estate and tourism clients, and my architectural previsualization clients just love them. A good Web site to see all of the available software is the IQTVRA Links List, at www.360geographics.com/IQTVRA/IQTVRALink186. Another good site for an overview of panoramas in general is panoguide, at www.panoguide.com.

Shockwave 3D Exporter

Macromedia Shockwave 3D enables 3D animation to be viewed and manipulated on the Web; sort of a mini game engine. The reactor physics engine is supported, so games can be modeled that use real-world forces. The Macromedia Director feature Havok Xtra must be loaded; if you don't have a current version, it's available at