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

1.

Open the file called DuvalSt.max on the DVD. From the File menu, choose Save As, point to an appropriate subdirectory on your hard drive, and click the plus-sign button to save a new file with the name incremented to DuvalSt01.max.

2.

From the Rendering menu, select Environment. Click the None button under Environment Map, and in the Material/Map Browser, select Bitmap. Navigate to the same location as the 3ds max file that you just opened, and select duvalSt.tga. Once the file has loaded, close the Environment and Effects dialog (Figure 21.20).

Note

You might take a minute to examine the Duval Street image. Photoshop was used to remove all the people in the shot and to add brake lights to the car. Selective cropping removed a waving flag on top of the building. One of the secrets to using static shots is to make sure there aren't any objects that would suggest movement. An alpha channel was also cut in to allow the sky to be replaced.

3.

Now that we have the background for the rendering, let's use it in the viewport to aid our scene construction. Click in the Perspective viewport. From the Views menu, select Viewport Background. Click the Use Environment Background and the Display Background check boxes, then close the dialog. The Duval Street picture appears in the viewport (Figure 21.21).

Choose Render. In the Output Size section of the dialog, select "NTSC DV (video)" from the drop-down menu. The width changes to 720 by 480, in digital video format.

4.

Right-click the Perspective viewport's title, and select Show Safe Frame. Right-click again and turn off Show Grid by selecting it. Our background is now lined up with the way the Environment will render. Close the Render Scene dialog.

5.

Right-click inside a viewport, and from the upper-right quadrant of the menu, select Unhide by Name. You want to unhide Camera01 and its target. In the Perspective viewport, press C, the hot key to switch to the Camera view.

6.

From the Create panel, select Geometry, and in the Top viewport create a plane that's about 630 pixels in length and 720 in width. The Length and Width Segs value should be set to 8. Maneuver the Plane object until the lines in the plane match the curb lines in the Camera01 viewport. You will have to move it down a bit and center the segment lines. Once you get a feel for this, you can use your plane, or unhide the ground object (Plane01). Your project should look like Figure 21.22.

Tip

By using this prepared file, you can get a taste for how the process works. There's nothing like trying it on your own from a blank viewport, however. Don't be afraid to experiment with pushing and pulling the objects around to get the right lineup.

7.

Still in the Camera01 viewport, you'll now build a box as a shadow-receiving object for the main building. Starting from behind the parked van, draw a box that approximates the size of the building. Use the Move tool to get it into position, and adjust the dimensions so that the far edge matches the building by reaching up to the same height. In this case, the dimensions are Length, 333; Width, 600; and Height, 508.

Figure 21.23 shows how the front edge of the building doesn't align with the corner of the building closest to the camera. It's difficult to get an exact match between a virtual camera and an actual one. The Camera Match utility requires exact measurements, which are almost impossible with buildings such as these. In this case, we'll cheat.

8.

Right-click the Box object, and from the Quad menu, use Convert To to make it into an Editable Mesh. Click the Zoom Extents All button to get all the viewports centered.

9.

With the Box selected, go into Vertex mode. In the Right viewport, select the upper-left set of vertices by dragging a selection rectangle around them. Move them toward the camera in the Y axis until the vertices are parallel to the front line of the building in the Camera viewport. Select the lower set of vertices and adjust them as well, until your model matches the one in Figure 21.24.

You can practice on your own, building stand-ins for the buildings, trees, and cars. If you're having problems, don't worry, as these models have been provided for you, hidden in the scene. Don't bother with the large tree on the left, as it is too complex. Remember that this will be a quick two-second shot, so don't go overboard with detail.

10.

When you are ready to continue, choose "landscape" from the Named Selection Sets (Figure 21.25). Click the Yes button when the dialog comes up, asking if you wish the selection to be Unhidden. Do the same for the "ship" selection in the Named Selection Sets. Now, all of the necessary geometry is in place. You can use either your creations, or the ones provided.

Along with the geometry, two direct lights have also been added to the scene. The settings for the upper light are at the default values, except that Shadow Map shadows have been enabled. The light was positioned with the stand-in geometry. During experimental renders, the light was moved until the cast shadows matched the ones in the background. The lower light is positioned to give only the underside of the spaceship some light.

11.

If you do a test render, your scene should look something like Figure 21.26. The shadows cast in the street look fairly close to the ones in the background. A test rendering at frame 32 shows the saucer in place, also casting a shadow. We need to change the material so that only the shadows are visible in the scene.

12.

Press the M key to open the Material Editor. Select the first material slot, and click the Standard button. From the Material/Map Browser dialog, change the material type to Matte/Shadow (Figure 21.27).

13.

From the Named Selection Sets drop-down menu, select "landscape." Assign the Matte/Shadow material to the entire selection.

14.

If you test-render frame 32, you can see that the shadows are a bit too dark. Going into the Material Editor, in the Matte/Shadow Basic Parameters, and increasing the Shadow Brightness to 0.2 will put the shadows more in line with the existing ones in the background.

The matte part of Matte/Shadow material acts like a "hole," hiding any geometry behind it. You can see straight through to the background. By making sure that the Receive Shadows box is checked, you allow only the cast shadow component to render. If you click the small black-and-white circle in the top of the Render Frame Window, you can see that the alpha channel looks like Figure 21.28.

15.

All that's left to do is to render the animation. In the Common panel of the Render Scene dialog, click the Active Time Segment radio button in the Time Output section. In the Output Size section, set the Width value to 360 and Height to 240. Enter a filename and location, and render an .avi file to check it against DuvalSt.avi. You can also examine the DuvalStFinished.max file if you discover any unexpected errors (Figure 21.29).

If you plan to composite 3ds max objects in another program such as discreet combustion or Adobe Photoshop, render the objects against a black background. Otherwise, a fringe of environment or background color can appear around the 3ds max objects.