Yeah...so...have I mentioned lately how sometimes really hate 3D Studio Max?
So I'm trying to put together some updated renderings of a library I designed in school a few years ago. Downloaded a few 3D AutoCad files from a library furniture manufacturer to add to my renderings.
All the other pieces of furniture seem to render fine *except* the shelving units.
For whatever reason the left and front faces (if viewed from the front) won't render in 3DS Max. However the right faces (and I'm assuming the back sides as well) DO render.
When viewed in the normal 3d view, the problem faces show up as only black, even though they have the same materials, while the faces that are working show up with the normal materials on them.
What's a normal? lol, I'm pretty much self taught on this, folks, so of I haven't needed it yet I might not have used it. Also, some things I just know, "Oh, when I want to do this, I just push this button with the little thingy icon on it", without knowing it's actual name. Oh my undergrad arch degree has prepared me so well for the real world.
Anyway, I just went ahead and made a 3d model of the darn thing in AutoCad using solids (the manufacturer used planes it seems, though the planes in their other models have seems to work ok). From what I can tell it seems to have worked, it was all just rectangular pieces anyway, faster just to redraw it myself I guess. But, I would still like to know what the problem might be, in case I want to import some more complex model that I couldn't just draw myself...like a stripper pole.
for your rectangular shelf, a normal basically tells the plane which direction is front and which is back.
Outside of flat surfaces its a bit more complicated. It's something along the lines of a vector tangent to the surface (or perpendicular to the tangent. sort of confuses me sometimes). Since I'm pretty sure the direction of the normal doesn't actually have to be related to the tangent, I wouldn't put too much faith in the above explanation :)
I would suggest, to learn how 3ds max works, you should search You-Tube and model a car. It's fairly straight forward and there are lots of resources. Not that you'll be making many cars in architecture, but you might start to understand why planes are better than solids and use that to your advantage. Also, AutoCAD is really not very good for modeling in.
I'm also mostly self-taught, so the above information is pretty much made up.
it will give you some very good, platform independent, basics about using polygon and subdivision surface modeling tools. the tutorials are short and very well put together. i think normals are covered in there somewhere
Jan 22, 11 12:39 am ·
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3D Studio Max Issues
Yeah...so...have I mentioned lately how sometimes really hate 3D Studio Max?
So I'm trying to put together some updated renderings of a library I designed in school a few years ago. Downloaded a few 3D AutoCad files from a library furniture manufacturer to add to my renderings.
All the other pieces of furniture seem to render fine *except* the shelving units.
For whatever reason the left and front faces (if viewed from the front) won't render in 3DS Max. However the right faces (and I'm assuming the back sides as well) DO render.
When viewed in the normal 3d view, the problem faces show up as only black, even though they have the same materials, while the faces that are working show up with the normal materials on them.
Any ideas?
broken normal?
normals
What's a normal? lol, I'm pretty much self taught on this, folks, so of I haven't needed it yet I might not have used it. Also, some things I just know, "Oh, when I want to do this, I just push this button with the little thingy icon on it", without knowing it's actual name. Oh my undergrad arch degree has prepared me so well for the real world.
Anyway, I just went ahead and made a 3d model of the darn thing in AutoCad using solids (the manufacturer used planes it seems, though the planes in their other models have seems to work ok). From what I can tell it seems to have worked, it was all just rectangular pieces anyway, faster just to redraw it myself I guess. But, I would still like to know what the problem might be, in case I want to import some more complex model that I couldn't just draw myself...like a stripper pole.
for your rectangular shelf, a normal basically tells the plane which direction is front and which is back.
Outside of flat surfaces its a bit more complicated. It's something along the lines of a vector tangent to the surface (or perpendicular to the tangent. sort of confuses me sometimes). Since I'm pretty sure the direction of the normal doesn't actually have to be related to the tangent, I wouldn't put too much faith in the above explanation :)
I would suggest, to learn how 3ds max works, you should search You-Tube and model a car. It's fairly straight forward and there are lots of resources. Not that you'll be making many cars in architecture, but you might start to understand why planes are better than solids and use that to your advantage. Also, AutoCAD is really not very good for modeling in.
I'm also mostly self-taught, so the above information is pretty much made up.
Check "force 2-sided" in Render Setup( f10)
In modifier list, pick Normal, then try render again, its a classic normals problem, when your faces are flipped inside out.
it will give you some very good, platform independent, basics about using polygon and subdivision surface modeling tools. the tutorials are short and very well put together. i think normals are covered in there somewhere
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