Two Questions- Max Plugins and Charecter Modeling.

[mayro]

What max plugins are Absolute Necesities? What are nice to have? I keep hearing about something called rihno and a better boolean than regualr 3ds max?

For charecter modeling, what do you use? If you are useing the extrudeing of one box method how do you keep it from getting all messed up?

 

[Beldor]

Texporter, which is for free is one thing you really need.
http://www.cuneytozdas.com/software/3dsmax/#Texporter

Rihno is a standalone modeler for NURBS. Good if you use that because NURBS is not that good in MAX.

For character modeling I always start out with a box.. I guess experience is what keeps it from getting all messed up. Its good to make the mesh simple first then refine when you got the shape and proportions in. Always good to have reference images.

Lots of tutorials for this on the web. http://www.3dbuzz.com/ is a nice place to start.

 

[SidewinderX]

there is the power booleans plugin..... but booleans are the devil.

 

[clarky003]

For charecter modeling, what do you use? If you are useing the extrudeing of one box method how do you keep it from getting all messed up?

knowledge practice and patience, if you want a controlled mesh which is much easier to rig, then you do it point by point, face by face, improvising along the way where needed, starting in key areas, eyes, mouth and nose. and weld it all together as the face starts to take shape, same for the body if your looking for detail and a realistic shape in the mesh... if you want a quality character model be prepared to spend a week or more doing it.

booleans are the devil.

lol , no there not if you when to use them. They are quite handy in some situations, and the mesh can always be edited afterwards . Shag hair is a wonderful plugin,, so is ground crew, ... afterburn, particle studio... and Id say Sea scape, but if you want to make proffessional looking characters, shag hair is really what you want , its great fun too (obviously not for game models)

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Greebles !

 

[SidewinderX]

greeble is awome...

clarky: most of those plugins you listed are profession ones that cost a CRAPLOAD of money.

 

[clarky003]

well ,, there the best around, .. start saving, or get bitorrent I say .

 

[Shinobi]

if you're using max I suggest you try the famous joan of arc tutorial

I think it's at www.3dtotal.com

if not it should be easy to find with a google search

 

[mayro]

Ya ive tryed jone of arc quite a few times now, ive got around to the ... the... chest area and when i made them i got alot of triangles..... how do you turn triangles into 4 sided polys?

 

[ankalar]

how do you turn triangles into 4 sided polys?

Manually by removing edges.

 

[mayro]

How do you remove the edges? just del them? Wont that make it like open in a spot?

 

[ankalar]

You can do it in Editable Poly. If you're in the edge sub-object mode, you can remove edges by either selecting the edge(s), right-clicking, then clicking Remove in the quad-menu, or selecting the edge(s) then clicking the Remove button in the modifier panel.