Scene Assembly CHAPTER 4

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 4 Scene Assembly Scene assembly in the 3ds Max production pipeline is the process of tracking and assembling your scene assets for the complete presentation. A typical production workflow usually consists of multiple teams of production artists working at different levels: 2D maps and materials, scene lighting, 3D objects and scenes, rendering, and postproduction. Even if your production team is only one person, you are still generating many different assets and saving them to your hard drive to access later. Good asset management should be a concern throughout your 3ds Max workflow. One of the first things you learned in this book is that naming objects logically is very important, and this chapter will highlight that lesson. Logically named objects can be easily found using the Asset Browser utility in 3ds Max while searching your hard drive. The Asset Browser can also filter your assets to show only the 3ds Max files or the different types of image files, for example. There are of course times when someone forgets to name objects logically and you end up with a series of objects that might be called Box001 through Box050. You will learn about a utility called Rename Objects to help you avoid renaming the objects individually. Creating and maintaining libraries of 3ds Max objects, either 2D or 3D, can also save immeasurable amounts of time in the overall production process. 3ds Max has tools and commands to build and manage those libraries of objects. You can select a single object or multiple objects in a scene and then save copies of only those selected objects to an appropriate folder so that others on the production team can access the files at any time. 21

2 Getting Started in 3D with 3ds Max Working in 3ds Max is always faster when you have a minimum number of polygons in your scenes, and so 3ds Max has a file command called Replace that lets you quickly substitute complex geometry in place of simple geometry just before the final render. With multiple teams or multiple production locations, it is often necessary to transfer projects or files from one location to another. It is important to make sure that all elements of a scene, 3D objects, and maps are included when you transfer the project. There is a 3ds Max utility to help with that process also. Some of the topics covered in this chapter are as follows: The production pipeline : Good management of the assets that make up your visualization project is critical to productivity. Object libraries : Learn about tools that help you keep track of all the objects in a 3ds Max scene, 2D or 3D. Archiving scenes : When a project must be shipped off to collaborators, you need to know the tools available for collecting all elements. Let s begin with a bit of a discussion about a potential scenario in the production pipeline The Production Pipeline Typically, a project starts with the preplanning stages of storyboarding and collecting reference material as mentioned in the beginning of this book. The next step is often a layout process where 3D scenes are blocked up with simple geometry to establish the location of the objects, cameras, and basic lighting in the scene. These simple scenes can then be used by others, animators, for example, to perform motion tests and camera angles without the overhead of complex geometry to slow them down. In the meantime, artists are editing the 3D assets to add more detail and refine the geometry. Another team is busy creating maps and materials and then applying mapping coordinates to make everything fit. The lighting team could also be using the simple layout geometry to position lights to avoid distracting shadows or bright spots and adjusting proper lighting levels to establish the mood of the scene. Some projects will require many more steps and some projects fewer steps, but the fact is there are always numerous files that are created and must be saved and documented so that a minimum of production time is spent searching for assets or recreating objects that can t be found. There are tools built into 3ds Max to help with the management of all the files and resources associated with a project. In this chapter, you ll learn a few of the useful tools and utilities that can help the process of organizing your project assets a bit easier. This is by no means a comprehensive list of the tools you ll need, but it will give you an introduction to some new workflow methods to enhance your productivity. It is important to note that none of these tools are particularly useful unless you have a management process in place so that everyone is aware of how and where they can access project assets quickly with reasonable assurance that they are the latest updated versions. A written document or a schematic mind-map of the locations of each type of file should be posted at every workstation for quick reference. Users should be held accountable for mismanagement of assets that can hinder production.

3 Scene Assembly 4.2 Object Libraries Object libraries can contain different types of 2D images, 2D shapes that are used throughout the project, or 3D objects that must be accessed by multiple team members or for other projects to avoid recreation slowdowns. Object libraries should be organized on a central server in a production environment with multiple teams. Each team member should have access to the files that are relevant to their part in the production process, and you might consider making the folders read-only so that if someone opens a 3ds Max file and edits it for their own purposes, it won t be automatically saved back to overwrite the original. A team member should be delegated to manage saving new files and overwriting existing files. Again, distribution of assets is as much a management issue as it is a technical issue. Let s learn about a few of the commands, tools, and utilities that can help make asset management easier in 3ds Max, including the following: Asset Browser utility Save Selected command Replace command Rename Objects utility Exercise Asset Browser Utility 1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the website called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser01.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. This is a version of the file from Chapter 34 that has bitmaps used in the materials assigned to some of the objects from a folder on the Chapter 4 website (see Figure 4-1 ). FIG 4-1 A simple 3ds Max scene with 3D objects and materials with maps. 23

4 Getting Started in 3D with 3ds Max 2. In the Utilities panel, Utilities rollout, click the Asset Browser button to open an empty Asset Browser dialog. In the Asset Browser dialog, Display pull-down menu, choose Directory Tree (see Figure 4-2 ). This opens up a new pane on the left with a directory tree display of your hard drive that will enable you to search asset folders on your hard drive. FIG 4-2 You can search for assets on your hard drive with the Asset Browser Directory Tree. Note Your 3ds Max Asset Browser may already show the directory tree pane. If this is the case, just proceed to Step In the Address text field, enter the URL for the Chapter 4 website location for Max files; you will see thumbnail images of the two 3ds Max scenes in this folder. If you don t see any thumbnails, click the Startup button at the lower left of the Asset Browser dialog (see Figure 4-3 ). 4. Navigate to the Maps folder for Chapter 4 to see the images used as bitmaps in the scene materials. In the Filter pull-down menu, choose JPEG File to display only that particular type of file in the thumbnails pane (see Figure 4-4 ). 24

5 Scene Assembly FIG 4-3 Browse the website URL containing the 3ds Max files for Chapter 4. Note When you first use Asset Browser to open locations with many assets, it can take a while for Asset Browser to cache the information into memory. The next time you open the same location, it will be much faster. 5. Drag and drop the Simple_Metal_Mtl_DiamondPlate_pattern.jpg thumbnail image onto the Tire001 object in the Camera001 viewport (see Figure 4-5 ). A Standard material type is created for the object using that bitmap as the Diffuse color map. 6. Close all windows and dialogs and save the file. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser02.max. The Asset Browser is a tool that can simplify your search for 3ds Max assets on a hard drive or on the web with thumbnails and filters. 25

6 Getting Started in 3D with 3ds Max FIG 4-4 Filters can be set to display only certain types of files. FIG 4-5 You can drag and drop bitmaps from the Asset Browser to objects to create new Standard material types. 26

7 Scene Assembly In Exercise 4-2-2, you ll learn about a command in the Application button, Save As options called Save Selected. This command is handy for copying selected objects from your current scene into an object library on your hard drive. Exercise Save Selected Command 1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the previous exercise called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser02.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. 2. In the Camera001 viewport, select the cylinder called Tower001. Click the Application button and then hover your cursor over Save As. In the new menu that appears in the right pane, click Save Selected (see Figure 4-6 ). There is a short description of the command in the menu. FIG 4-6 Save Selected saves the selected object(s) to a new 3ds Max file. 3. In the Save File As dialog, navigate to an appropriate folder on your hard drive, give the file a name, and then click the Save button. In the case of a single object, the file name can be the same as the object name. For an ensemble of objects, perhaps an office desk, chair, and computer, for example, you might name the file Office_ensemble001.max so that others in the production team can use the Merge command to retrieve the whole file or only certain objects from the file. 4. Save the file. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser03.max. The Save Selected command is simple to use and can increase your productivity by organizing objects into object libraries that will be reused over and over by other team members. Again, management and tracking of these assets are key to increasing productivity, so make sure the file is documented. 27

8 Getting Started in 3D with 3ds Max You might have noticed that the teapot in the scene from the previous exercises has an extremely low polygon count. It was placed in the scene as a stand-in object for a higher resolution teapot that will be in the final render. The stand-in objects could be part of the basic layout files that allow animators to check interactions of objects without dealing with high resolution geometry. However, it will be important to replace the low resolution object with the high resolution version, as you will learn in Exercise Exercise Replace Command 1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the previous exercise called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser03.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. In the Camera001 viewport, select the Teapot001 object. In the Modify panel, Parameters rollout, you can see that this teapot contains only 1 segment, making it extremely of low resolution (see Figure 4-7 ). The name of the object is important because the Replace command you will use next can only replace objects of exactly the same name. FIG 4-7 You can replace a low resolution object with a high resolution object from another file. 2. In the Application button, hover your mouse over the Import option and then choose Replace in the menu (see Figure 4-8 ). 28

9 Scene Assembly FIG 4-8 The Replace command is found in the Import menu. 3. In the Replace File dialog, navigate to the website for Chapter 4 Files and doubleclick Exercise 4-2-1_Save Selected01.max. In the Replace dialog, highlight the object Teapot001 in the list (see Figure 4-9 ). Click OK. A dialog appears asking Do You Want to Replace Materials along with Objects? In this case you do, and so click the Yes button. FIG 4-9 The object you highlight in the Replace dialog must have the same name as the object in the scene. 29

10 Getting Started in 3D with 3ds Max 4. The high resolution teapot appears in the same location as the low resolution teapot (based on pivot points) and has its own yellow material applied to replace the original low resolution teapot s material. Render the Camera001 viewport to see the result (see Figure 4-10 ). FIG 4-10 The low resolution teapot is replaced with the high resolution teapot and its material. 5. Close the Rendered Frame Window and then save the file. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser04.max. The Replace command works well in a collaborative environment where other teams are working on new versions of objects in your scene or in scenes where high resolution objects slow viewport performance. There are a number of yellow boxes in the scene that someone forgot to name logically and they still have the original creation names of Box002 Box015. The objects are heavy barriers and should be named appropriately: Barrier001, etc. In Exercise 4-2-4, you ll learn to use the Rename tool to make this task easier than individually picking each object and renaming them in the Modify panel. Exercise Rename Objects Tool Open the 3ds Max scene from the previous exercise called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser04.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. Select one of the yellow boxes in the Camera001 viewport. In the Edit pull-down menu, choose Select Similar (see Figure 4-11 ). This will select all the other boxes.

11 Scene Assembly FIG 4-11 Select Similar is found in the Edit pull-down menu. 2. In the Tools pull-down menu, choose Rename Objects. In the Rename Objects dialog, enter Barrier in the Base Name field. Check the Numbered option and then enter 1 in the Base Number numeric field (see Figure 4-12 ). Click the Rename button and then close the Rename Objects dialog. FIG 4-12 Enter the new object base name and give the new objects a base number. 3. Select any one of the boxes in the scene and you ll see that it is now named Barrier0?. Save the file. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser05.max. Again, the Rename Objects tool is often necessary when team members neglect to name objects appropriately as they create or clone them. 31

12 Getting Started in 3D with 3ds Max 4.3 Archiving Scenes Whenever you need to transfer files from one computer to another, whether it is to pass the scene on to another team or to finalize the project by archiving the files to a hard drive, it is important that you collect all the information associated with that scene into one place. 3ds Max has two options for archiving scenes: Archive command and Resource Collector utility. The Resource Collector utility is recommended for archiving 3ds Max scenes because it has been written to include more of the associated files such as bitmaps and photometric lighting files that might be used in your scene. Warning Displacement maps and maps used as projector patterns in lights are not saved by the Resource Collector utility. You must remember to add those to your archive manually to the zip file that is created. The process is simple; you open the Resource Collector utility in the Utilities panel and then choose the options you want to save. The utility will then create a zip file with your archived scene. Exercise Resource Collector Utility 1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the website called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser05.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. In the Utilities panel, Utilities rollout, click the More button. In the Utilities dialog, choose Resource Collector (see Figure 4-13 ). Click OK to open the utility in the Parameters rollout. FIG 4-13 Use the More button to find a list of utilities. 32

13 Scene Assembly 2. In the Utilities panel, Parameters rollout, click the Browse button under Output Path, then navigate to an appropriate folder on your hard drive, and then click the Use Path button in the Choose Output dialog. In the Utilities panel, Parameters rollout, Check all the options under Resource Options (see Figure 4-14 ). Click the Begin button. This will copy all the bitmaps and photometric files (except displacement maps and projecting maps), the Max file with updated materials, and compress the files to a zip file. FIG 4-14 Check all options to ensure you are collecting all resources. 3. Use the Windows File Explorer to navigate to the folder on your hard drive containing the archive, then open the file called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser06.zip and you should see the Max file and associated bitmaps for the materials (see Figure 4-15 ). 33

14 Getting Started in 3D with 3ds Max AQ1 FIG 4-15 The zip file on your hard drive should contain all the resources associated with this file. 4. Close all windows and dialogs and then save the file. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser06.max. Using the Resource Collector utility is a safe and reliable way to make sure you are sending all the associated files, except the displacement and projecting maps, to other team members or you are archiving files in a central location at the end of the project. Using these techniques and tools will improve your productivity by helping to organize your project assets quickly and efficiently. Reducing the search time to find assets and avoiding re-creating assets that already exist can be a major boon to efficiency in any project. 34

15 AQ1: Page 34 Edits is not clear. Please advice. Author Query