3DS Max questions...

[octoburn]

alright, so I decided to get a trial of 3DS Max to see how things work... mainly to try out making scabbards for my weapons... I have a few questions after fiddling around with it though...

how do you change "hard" edges (that's what they're called in wings anyways) in 3dsm? when I import something I made in wings into 3dsm, and then export it to BRFEdit, it loses the hardened edges and looks like crap, in general. is there a command for doing this in 3dsm?

how is the vertex animation done exactly? I've imported a md3 file from the game, and tried editing it, but when you delete it, it deletes the mesh from all the frames of the animation. how do you make different meshes in each frame?

 

[Yoshiboy]

For hard edges you need to find out how to use smoothing groups. I had a quick google for a tutorial but i couldn't find anything. Maybe you'll have more luck. Don't worry, they are pretty simple.

Vertex animation is a little more complex. You see that big long slider bar at the bottem of the window. Thats basically what you will be using to make different frames for the animation. Talk to someone with more knowledge of vertex animation to get the low-down. Possibly HEW or highlander.

 

[Highlander]

how is the vertex animation done exactly? I've imported a md3 file from the game, and tried editing it, but when you delete it, it deletes the mesh from all the frames of the animation. how do you make different meshes in each frame?

I've just rescaled my swords /100 and moved them into the scrabbards in the second frame, I believe this is the only way.

 

[Reaper]

I know in XSI i can freeze something I don't want to delete then hide it on a different layer or do whatever I want with it maybe you can freeze it or move it to another layer for that frame, you can also do this in Blender

 

[Thorgrim]

A simple way to do hard edges in 3ds max is just to select and detach the polygons you want a hard edge around.

For vertex animation, you must have the same mesh for the whole animation, just with the vertices adjusted each frame.  You can adjust the vertices in a number of ways: the two main ways I do it are using morph targets, or using edit mesh, with vertex position keyframes each frame.