Miraz Tutorials

I have started off with 3ds max because this is what the best dragons in sl are made from. This software is not a free software infacts its quite far off to those that do own it "lucky you". I am also going to learn alot more about the sculpting side of 3ds max as i have a copy so why not. for those of you also if you are a 3ds max user let us know about it as there are far few tutorials with sculpting.  I may also write a few tutorials on sculpting with max so keep an eye out for those.

In the screenshot below you can see the head model. To prepare it, I’ve capped the holes in the mesh (the eyes and neck) and I’ve centered the pivot point to the object. I’ve also created a simple lighting setup and textured the object (with just a default gray texture. I’m lazy, what can I tell ya?). This could be any mesh, but in general this technique works best with organic shapes without a lot of complex protrusions.

This tute has a lot of pictures and has been done on version 5 of 3ds max so it does show that earlier software’s do support it

.

Build the object in 3D Studio Max.
Full tutorial on how to do this is:
- here, and
- here. The tutorial uses Max 5, but apparently works the same in Max 9. Some notes on Max 9 vs. 5 below.

Some tips:

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.

Back in the day, we had to hack a lot of things for uber coolness. One of the coolest tricks involved using special renders for use with Displace in Photoshop. What made this trick so cool was the idea of mixing RGB and XYZ. After all, both are 3d spaces. This mixing of spaces is absolutely present in sculpties. So, using my old tricks and uber brains, not that hard for me to come to grips with. Now I’m gonna try to pass the savings on to you.

A sculptie is basically a sphere that gets molded. There are like 32 verts from pole to pole and 32 verts around the equator. Or maybe it’s 31 verts here and there. Or maybe it’s 16 verts from pole to pole. I’m not really sure because these things confuse me. Dividing by two, multiplying by 2, and offsets of +/- 1 really confuse me. Ain’t it grand being a genius?

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