I am new to max and maya but not to autodesk. I have been using AutoCAD since Release 10, ADT since 2004 and am now transitioning to Revit. I write for some guidance. Currently I use either SketchUp or Rhino for Conceptual Design, Vray for architectural visualization and then into Autodesk Architecture or Revit for project development. I am now back in graduate school working in a lab on developing interactive/responsive environments. The PI’s would like me to learn animation software so that we can mock up anticipated scenarios in order to:
1 - assess design decisions prior to committing to them
2 - for presentation purposes.
These animations will be more complex than simple walk-throughs. There will be multiple components interacting, such as a person or two + a surface or two + a light or two. I don’t think (at this time) that the animations/simulations will be more complex than this.
I have spent a couple days looking at:
- modo
- cinema 4d
- softimage
- lightwave
- maya
- 3dmax
Most especially, I’ve been looking through forums including area.autodesk, archinect and cgarchitect in order to see what people think of each. As of now, I’ve narrowed my choice to 3D Max Design or Maya Complete. I will be building some test models in each over the next month and animating them to make a final decision. In addition, given the intended usage described above, I am interested in any advice seasoned users of these products have to offer. Also, are the scripting capabilities of these softwares such that I can eventually move beyond simple representative animation into simulation in the sense that we load algorithms and explore how they react to stimuli?
I should mention -- in narrowing my selection to just these two options, I've played with each of the softwares at least a little bit. And I've actually got a bit of experience, though it was several years ago, with Maya. I find Maya's interface intuitive, though I fully understand that there is a substantial amount to learn to utilize its power. I find 3dmax's interface a bit clunky but familiar, even though I have almost no experience with it, as a result of my experience with various CAD packages and rhino. I believe that both app's will work. My preference leans toward Maya. My reasoning suggests that 3dmax may be the more ubiquitous for arch vis and there are benefits to using it for this reason.
I would go for max if you are going to be working with Revit they integrated 3ds stuff into Revit, so that would be easier I guess. check the designreform website for tutorials.
One of the best things about Max is that you can link live AutoCAD (.dwg) models. If you update and save an AutoCAD drawing in AutoCAD, the changes will automatically be reflected in your 3d Studio Max file when you refresh. It also works very well with AutoCAD's layer system. If you don't plan on using AutoCAD in conjuction with Max, I would suggest learning Maya. The overall package is slightler more powerful and highly respected. You really can't go wrong either way.
F11 (enable - Macro Recorder) - maybe Maya has this, but if you want to learn the scripting quickly and intuitively, hit F11 and choose from one of the menus to 'Enable' Macro Recorder. Then proceed to model or do something you know you may want to repeat in varying manners and a 'For...Next' loop may be able to solve it. Just to warn you though, no all things will be recorded in basic script language, especially already scripted plug-ins. Which is what you are kind of making if you drag and drop your script into a menu bar.
'Reactor' by Havok - unlike Maya this animator of physics is very close to reality, granted with complex objects you may have to resort to ore simple 'shells' that are used for the collisions and any other possible physics.
there are already zillions of Max scripts out there that make complex things simples.
one of my favorites is the -'Particle Baker', Max particles are unlike the Havok reactor, they are essentially points and react only with other 'Particle' dynamic tools, so you can fake the movement or in other words not be constrained to the virtual material properties such as density and gravity that Reactor uses. What's cool about the Particle baker script, (try scriptspot.com) you can take a particle flow scenario and convert every frame and paritcle of the scenario into editable Meshes. I did this once, shot a bunch of particles at a building like structure, put a dynamic particle modifier in front of the building, made the particles spawn upon collision, and then when done I baked the whole scene, found my favorite frame, and turned the particle spawning on the building into architecture.
additionally with 3DMAX, if you use 'radiosity' for your rendering solver you can input real 'IES' files to get real studies of what a light might do. I used this on an art installation in Florida and the actual install looks just like the lighting rendering study. I didn't design the lighting, but I took the lighting engineers recommendations, he sent me an IES file, I input it into my model and the final result matched exactly what I did. So it wasn't shear luck, it was designed, and the virtual study proved it true.
fruther more, you have RPC by archivision, which you on your own can make the RPC characters, animated as well. Remember the Matrix film trick, you can make your RPC characters that way as well.
It is becoming clear that, for a number of reasons, 3dmax is the way to go. So I have a followup question for you.
I will be attempting to quickly optimize a workflow. From reading comments in forums and from knowing how I like to work in Rhino, it seems I will have to add some plugins in order to optimize my usage of max.
At the moment the only plugin I'm set on is Vray. But I"m also considering power solids and polyboost. I haven't tried these yet - though I'll download them in the next few days. Are there any other tools I should consider for rapid modeling and streamlining basic animation? I think that my animation will mostly involve movement along path, basic rigging and some cloth-like movement. I don't anticipate liquids, fire, fur, dust, mist or wind at this time.
it's been a while, maybe 5 years, but there was on 3DMAX 5 a tutorial via F1 for rigging a camera along a path, haven't used it since.
basic riggin?
cloth-like movement, cloth is available via the Havok Reactor plug-in but from my experience the intial energy and tension in cloth is hard to control, I recommend going the 'Cloth' modifier route.
let me know if you have any other questions.
as far as work flow, something I am very good at refining, give me more descriptions and I can help...
you could even make custom buttons to speed up your work. i'm currently doing this for an animation, as I am going to assign 1000 differnt texture maps to 1000 differnt objects...
Jun 19, 09 9:53 pm ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
arch vis -- animation -- max or maya
Hello Everyone,
I am new to max and maya but not to autodesk. I have been using AutoCAD since Release 10, ADT since 2004 and am now transitioning to Revit. I write for some guidance. Currently I use either SketchUp or Rhino for Conceptual Design, Vray for architectural visualization and then into Autodesk Architecture or Revit for project development. I am now back in graduate school working in a lab on developing interactive/responsive environments. The PI’s would like me to learn animation software so that we can mock up anticipated scenarios in order to:
1 - assess design decisions prior to committing to them
2 - for presentation purposes.
These animations will be more complex than simple walk-throughs. There will be multiple components interacting, such as a person or two + a surface or two + a light or two. I don’t think (at this time) that the animations/simulations will be more complex than this.
I have spent a couple days looking at:
- modo
- cinema 4d
- softimage
- lightwave
- maya
- 3dmax
Most especially, I’ve been looking through forums including area.autodesk, archinect and cgarchitect in order to see what people think of each. As of now, I’ve narrowed my choice to 3D Max Design or Maya Complete. I will be building some test models in each over the next month and animating them to make a final decision. In addition, given the intended usage described above, I am interested in any advice seasoned users of these products have to offer. Also, are the scripting capabilities of these softwares such that I can eventually move beyond simple representative animation into simulation in the sense that we load algorithms and explore how they react to stimuli?
Your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
I should mention -- in narrowing my selection to just these two options, I've played with each of the softwares at least a little bit. And I've actually got a bit of experience, though it was several years ago, with Maya. I find Maya's interface intuitive, though I fully understand that there is a substantial amount to learn to utilize its power. I find 3dmax's interface a bit clunky but familiar, even though I have almost no experience with it, as a result of my experience with various CAD packages and rhino. I believe that both app's will work. My preference leans toward Maya. My reasoning suggests that 3dmax may be the more ubiquitous for arch vis and there are benefits to using it for this reason.
I would go for max if you are going to be working with Revit they integrated 3ds stuff into Revit, so that would be easier I guess. check the designreform website for tutorials.
One of the best things about Max is that you can link live AutoCAD (.dwg) models. If you update and save an AutoCAD drawing in AutoCAD, the changes will automatically be reflected in your 3d Studio Max file when you refresh. It also works very well with AutoCAD's layer system. If you don't plan on using AutoCAD in conjuction with Max, I would suggest learning Maya. The overall package is slightler more powerful and highly respected. You really can't go wrong either way.
max for architect since u can import .dwg file and much much more stable when using vray rendering while maya crush in no time.
3DMAX.
F11 (enable - Macro Recorder) - maybe Maya has this, but if you want to learn the scripting quickly and intuitively, hit F11 and choose from one of the menus to 'Enable' Macro Recorder. Then proceed to model or do something you know you may want to repeat in varying manners and a 'For...Next' loop may be able to solve it. Just to warn you though, no all things will be recorded in basic script language, especially already scripted plug-ins. Which is what you are kind of making if you drag and drop your script into a menu bar.
'Reactor' by Havok - unlike Maya this animator of physics is very close to reality, granted with complex objects you may have to resort to ore simple 'shells' that are used for the collisions and any other possible physics.
there are already zillions of Max scripts out there that make complex things simples.
one of my favorites is the -'Particle Baker', Max particles are unlike the Havok reactor, they are essentially points and react only with other 'Particle' dynamic tools, so you can fake the movement or in other words not be constrained to the virtual material properties such as density and gravity that Reactor uses. What's cool about the Particle baker script, (try scriptspot.com) you can take a particle flow scenario and convert every frame and paritcle of the scenario into editable Meshes. I did this once, shot a bunch of particles at a building like structure, put a dynamic particle modifier in front of the building, made the particles spawn upon collision, and then when done I baked the whole scene, found my favorite frame, and turned the particle spawning on the building into architecture.
additionally with 3DMAX, if you use 'radiosity' for your rendering solver you can input real 'IES' files to get real studies of what a light might do. I used this on an art installation in Florida and the actual install looks just like the lighting rendering study. I didn't design the lighting, but I took the lighting engineers recommendations, he sent me an IES file, I input it into my model and the final result matched exactly what I did. So it wasn't shear luck, it was designed, and the virtual study proved it true.
fruther more, you have RPC by archivision, which you on your own can make the RPC characters, animated as well. Remember the Matrix film trick, you can make your RPC characters that way as well.
Thank you for the feedback.
It is becoming clear that, for a number of reasons, 3dmax is the way to go. So I have a followup question for you.
I will be attempting to quickly optimize a workflow. From reading comments in forums and from knowing how I like to work in Rhino, it seems I will have to add some plugins in order to optimize my usage of max.
At the moment the only plugin I'm set on is Vray. But I"m also considering power solids and polyboost. I haven't tried these yet - though I'll download them in the next few days. Are there any other tools I should consider for rapid modeling and streamlining basic animation? I think that my animation will mostly involve movement along path, basic rigging and some cloth-like movement. I don't anticipate liquids, fire, fur, dust, mist or wind at this time.
NURBS are also possible in 3dMAX.
it's been a while, maybe 5 years, but there was on 3DMAX 5 a tutorial via F1 for rigging a camera along a path, haven't used it since.
basic riggin?
cloth-like movement, cloth is available via the Havok Reactor plug-in but from my experience the intial energy and tension in cloth is hard to control, I recommend going the 'Cloth' modifier route.
let me know if you have any other questions.
as far as work flow, something I am very good at refining, give me more descriptions and I can help...
you could even make custom buttons to speed up your work. i'm currently doing this for an animation, as I am going to assign 1000 differnt texture maps to 1000 differnt objects...
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.