Business and Computing Deanery 3D Modelling Tools Week 10 File formats and exporting models

3D Modelling Tools 2 Last week - materials Materials Shaders Rendering Colours Shininess Self-illumination Not textures, or bitmaps or maps

3D Modelling Tools 3 This week File formats and exporting models 3DS Max 7 Bible Chapter 3 Files types Collecting resources Saving your work Exporting XRefs Other ways of viewing files

3D Modelling Tools 4 File types 3ds Max has its own proprietary format.max But it does not save any extra files that you may have used Archiving a Max scene makes sure that it includes all necessary files Important for handing in your project work! It will zip up your work and all associated files Murdock K.L., (2005)

3D Modelling Tools 5 Resource Collector Utility The Resource Collector gathers the resource files used by a scene into a single directory Bitmaps Photometric distribution files (IES) The scene itself, optional This is important for handing in your work 3ds max v7

3D Modelling Tools 6 Lost work Do not work over a network at Hope Copy all work down onto a local drive Lost or corrupted work is not a reason for an extension of time Save your work regularly Use a folder to organise it An option with Max is to set Increment on Save option in the Preferences May not work for you in the labs May fill up your disc quickly

3D Modelling Tools 7 Exporting There are many export files Standard with 3ds max 3D Studio (3DS) Shockwave 3D Wavefront (OBJ) VRML97 (WRL) and more…… Plugins TurnTool (TNT) and more……

3D Modelling Tools 8 Export to 3DS The following information is exported: Position, Rotation and Scale animation Basic material color/parameters from the Standard material Single maps with their amount, offsets, scales, etc. Auto-cubics and Mirrors Target cameras, target spotlights and omni lights. Most "static" parameters for cameras and lights, and animation tracks for Roll, Falloff, Hotspot, and FOV The following is not exported: Composite and procedural maps Grouped object transformations. There's no concept of group hierarchy in the 3D Editor Global shadow parameters 3ds max v7

3D Modelling Tools 9 Director Export 3D scenes and animations in Shockwave 3D (W3D) format for use in interactive presentations in Macromedia Director Bones require special consideration when being exported to Shockwave 3D format. Hidden objects are not exported The exporter supports specular lighting for light sources with Specular turned on in the General Parameters rollout > Affect Surfaces group Some types of mapping distort or disappear on export 3ds max v7

3D Modelling Tools 10 VRML Virtual Reality Modelling Language VRML is a scene description language Simple ascii text files which can be parsed by a VRML interpreter VRML browsers Cosmo Cortona Flux Exported from 3ds max.wrl extension Being replaced with a new standard, X3D

3D Modelling Tools 11 Referencing external objects You can also share scenes and objects with others working on the same project using XRef functionality. The software allows you to use two kinds of externally referenced files (XRefs) XRef Objects XRef Scenes Options for updating and protecting external files 3ds max v7

3D Modelling Tools 12 XRef scenes Use referenced scenes to bring in a file that cannot be selected or inadvertently changed. An animator can bring in the environment or set as a referenced scene and won’t have to worry about mistakenly selecting walls and floors while trying to animate legs and arms The file renders as part of the animation, but will not hinder the workflow Referenced scenes can be bound to an object in the scene so you can scale, rotate, or reposition the scene if necessary 3ds max v7

3D Modelling Tools 13 XRef objects Referenced objects appear in the scene and can be animated You may be able to edit the object’s modifier stack You can add modifiers or transform animation to the referenced objects, but you cannot inadvertently change the model’s structure. Referenced objects allow for the substitution of a proxy object, so you can animate a low- polygon version of a complex model and then render the polygon-intensive version 3ds max v7

3D Modelling Tools 14 Turntool A plugin to 3ds Max Based on a game engine Free, but with a logo Pay for no logo Requires a plugin to Internet Explorer

3D Modelling Tools 15 Activity Export a model as Max file with all the resources 3DS file VRML and view TurnTool model and view

3D Modelling Tools 16 Questions What do you have to do to your files to hand in your work? Describe how a team of modellers can work on a large project Describe how you prepare a model for use in an OpenGL project Or Describe how you prepare a model for use in a Director project Or Describe how you prepare a model for display over the web

3D Modelling Tools 17 Impendent study Work on model A, due in Week 12

3D Modelling Tools 18 References 3ds max v7, (2005) User Reference and Tutorials Murdock K.L., (2005) 3DS Max 7 Bible, John Wiley & Sons Inc, ISBN: