I need your VOTE

Hey Everyone,

I could use your vote. Ron Howard (yes, Opie) is having the first ever photo contest to inspire a Hollywood Short Film. I've entered some photos and one of them is of the 30 Semi-Finalists. Votes are what decide who wins. Please take a minute to vote for me. To vote you don't have to sign up for anything or use an email address it appears.

Here is the link to the Contest Info:  http://www.youtube.com/Imagination  and where you vote.  It's not the best designed site for figuring out how to vote so below is a screen shot I made to help. It's attached also in case your ISP strips out inline images.

Go to the site and click on the red "Enter Contest/Gallery" tab. It's under the countdown clock.

1. Next click the "Time" category.

2. Scroll back and forth to find the icon I've pointed out. It's just really white looking with a darker lower right corner. On my machine it's the 3rd from the end if you click "Right." (It looks like a Civil War battle once you are on it)

3. Click the Share/Vote button and it opens up.

4. Click "Vote for This Image"

I appreciate it everyone. Thanks for your vote,

Rob Holmes

YouTube - 3DSMAX - Fixing a corrupt Editable Poly object

YouTube - 3DSMAX - Fixing a corrupt Editable Poly object

Filter Forge is Awesome

I've discovered a new program that is going to be incredible. It's not free but it's reasonably priced. The Professional version is a bit more, especially when they aren't running the 33% discount but they do that occasionally so you can wait for it.

Go have a look at the site (filterforge.com) and you'll see what all the excitement is about. You can create Photoshop Filters and procedural textures for your 3D work without writing one line of code. It's a node based app so it takes some time to get used to but it's very, very powerful.

I've created a filter and submitted it to Filter Forge for inclusion in their catalog and it was accepted. They have a great program that if you submit filters and they get used (downloaded) by enough people, they go as credit towards a free copy of the program and ultimately, a free lifetime license. It's a pretty sweet offer. So, go have a look and get to work making filters and textures. It's a lot of fun and a powerful new tool.

Here is a link to my filter:  http://www.filterforge.com/filters/9135.html . I needed a texture to simulate an urban area as seen from a very high altitude and couldn't find the right texture. So, I created one in the trial version of Filter Forge and was hooked.

Helpful UVW Mapping Tip

There are lots of 3d tips on the web and it's difficult to come up with fresh ones. I've used 3ds Max for 15 years now and from time I forget about a setting that is useful. After all, there are 1000's of settings and it gets a bit mind boggling sometimes.

Here is a handy thing to remember. Today I was working on a complex organically shaped model. It had a perfect UVW Unwrap modifier applied to it at one time and then the stack was collapsed so I didn't have access to that modifier. The mesh was pretty heavy so I added a 'ProOptimizer' to it to reduce it. I go to render and get a message that the object has no 'UVW Coordinates.' Drat...

So what I have now is an 'Editible Poly' on the bottom and a 'ProOptimizer' above it.

I had 6 of these objects so I go in and recreate the UVW Unwrap for one of them and it took me an hour. I was about to do the second one and I happened to see a setting under the 'Edit Poly' modifier. I'd certainly used this switch before but had forgotten about it. It's the 'Preserve UV's' switch.

I clicked on it and like magic, my texture mapping reappeared. I just saved 5 hours.

I hope this saves you a ton of time one day.

How to make Axis Constraints behave

This is one of those tips that seem silly. For years when I've been moving vertices around or moving the handles of bezier vertices I've been frustrated by the restriction changing on me. I'd move a few verts in 'xy' and then somehow click on something that would flip the restriction and the next vertex would now only move in the 'x' or the 'y' axis. I was constantly going to the icon in the menu bar and resetting the restriction back to where I had it.

I don't know why it took me years to figure this out but say you were working in 'Restrict to XY' and it gets changed. All you have to do is click on the 'axis transform gizmo' and it selects whatever you want. Look at the image capture I included. Click on the green 'y' axis arrow and the icon of 'Restrict to Y' is activated on the menu bar. Click on the yellow 'xy' axis box and the icon of 'Restrict to XY' is activated on the menu bar. You get the picture. You now don’t have to keep moving to the icon bar all the time.

I know this seems very elementary but it's these little quirks that slow us down and we all suffer from them. Once in awhile we figure one out and life is a little better. Now I hope the red mark on my forehead goes away where I slapped it...duuhhh!

Nothing New Yet -

I've been snowed under lately with jobs so I haven't had a chance to put up any Tips or Tutorials. I'll get some rolling soon. I promise...

Exchanging Color Values between Max and Photoshop

This is something I figured out a few years ago and it has saved me a lot of time. Max's 'Color Selector' uses values from '0.0' to '100'. '0' is the same as '0' in the 0-255 scale and '1.0' is equal to 255. This makes exchanging colors between programs that use the more widely used 0-255 system a bit cumbersome. After a search I found a tip explained that by simply multiplying the 255 by the Max decimal value you will arrive at the 0-255 value. For example, a Max value of .655  multiplied by 255 equals an RGB value of 167.

I've found an easy way to just grab colors and have the values without any math or calculators. This works better if you have two monitors but will work with one monitor if you minimize Max so that you can see Photoshop underneath. The Max 'Color Selector' has an eyedropper icon. Click it so that it is active then click it again and hold the 'LMB' (left mouse button) down as you drag off of it. Now any color you drag over becomes selected in the Max 'Color Selector' and the typical RGB value is converted and displayed in Max's RGB fields using the 0.0 - 1.0 ranges. When you let the button go over a color, you have that color.

What's also cool is that Photoshop's eyedropper works the same way. If you have a color in Max just click the eyedropper in Photoshop and move the cursor into an open file. Hold 'LMB' as you move off of it. Drag over a color in Max and the color will be placed into Photoshops foreground color complete with the standard RGB 0-255 value.

What's also handy is that if the 'Color' panel (F6 in CS4) is open in Photoshop, you can see the values change as you drag over different colors. Play with it a bit and you'll find it a very handy way to move colors around. Don't forget that in Photoshop you can go into 'Preferences' and set the RAM usage to something very low if necessary should you not have a great deal of RAM to give away by having both programs open.