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CHAPTER 4

Scene Assembly

Scene assembly in the 3ds Max production pipeline is the process of tracking and assembling your scene assets for the complete presentation. A typical production workfl ow usually consists of multiple teams of production artists working at diff erent levels: 2D maps and materials, scene lighting, 3D objects and scenes, rendering, and postproduction.

Even if your “production team” is only one person, you are still generating many diff erent assets and saving them to your hard drive to access later. Good asset management should be a concern throughout your 3ds Max workfl ow. One of the fi rst things you learned in this book is that naming objects logically is very important, and this chapter will highlight that lesson.

Logically named objects can be easily found using the Asset Browser utility in 3ds Max while searching your hard drive. The Asset Browser can also fi lter your assets to show only the 3ds Max fi les or the diff erent types of image fi les, for example.

There are of course times when someone forgets to name objects logically and you end up with a series of objects that might be called Box001 through Box050. You will learn about a utility called Rename Objects to help you avoid renaming the objects individually.

Creating and maintaining libraries of 3ds Max objects, either 2D or 3D, can also save immeasurable amounts of time in the overall production process. 3ds Max has tools and commands to build and manage those libraries of objects. You can select a single object or multiple objects in a scene and then save copies of only those selected objects to an appropriate folder so that others on the production team can access the fi les at any time.

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Working in 3ds Max is always faster when you have a minimum number of polygons in your scenes, and so 3ds Max has a fi le command called Replace that lets you quickly substitute complex geometry in place of simple geometry just before the fi nal render.

With multiple teams or multiple production locations, it is often necessary to transfer projects or fi les from one location to another. It is important to make sure that all elements of a scene, 3D objects, and maps are included when you transfer the project. There is a 3ds Max utility to help with that process also.

Some of the topics covered in this chapter are as follows:

• The production pipeline : Good management of the assets that make up your visualization project is critical to productivity.

• Object libraries : Learn about tools that help you keep track of all the objects in a 3ds Max scene, 2D or 3D.

• Archiving scenes : When a project must be shipped off to collaborators, you need to know the tools available for collecting all elements.

Let’s begin with a bit of a discussion about a potential scenario in the production pipeline.

4.1 The Production Pipeline Typically, a project starts with the preplanning stages of storyboarding and collecting reference material as mentioned in the beginning of this book. The next step is often a layout process where 3D scenes are “blocked up” with simple geometry to establish the location of the objects, cameras, and basic lighting in the scene. These simple scenes can then be used by others, animators, for example, to perform motion tests and camera angles without the overhead of complex geometry to slow them down.

In the meantime, artists are editing the 3D assets to add more detail and refi ne the geometry. Another team is busy creating maps and materials and then applying mapping coordinates to make everything fi t.

The lighting team could also be using the simple layout geometry to position lights to avoid distracting shadows or bright spots and adjusting proper lighting levels to establish the mood of the scene.

Some projects will require many more steps and some projects fewer steps, but the fact is there are always numerous fi les that are created and must be saved and documented so that a minimum of production time is spent searching for assets or recreating objects that can’t be found. There are tools built into 3ds Max to help with the management of all the fi les and resources associated with a project.

In this chapter, you’ll learn a few of the useful tools and utilities that can help the process of organizing your project assets a bit easier. This is by no means a comprehensive list of the tools you’ll need, but it will give you an introduction to some new workfl ow methods to enhance your productivity.

It is important to note that none of these tools are particularly useful unless you have a management process in place so that everyone is aware of how and where they can access project assets quickly with reasonable assurance that they are the latest updated versions.

A written document or a schematic “mind-map” of the locations of each type of fi le should be posted at every workstation for quick reference. Users should be held accountable for mismanagement of assets that can hinder production.

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4.2 Object Libraries Object libraries can contain diff erent types of 2D images, 2D shapes that are used throughout the project, or 3D objects that must be accessed by multiple team members or for other projects to avoid recreation slowdowns.

Object libraries should be organized on a central server in a production environment with multiple teams. Each team member should have access to the fi les that are relevant to their part in the production process, and you might consider making the folders “read-only” so that if someone opens a 3ds Max fi le and edits it for their own purposes, it won’t be automatically saved back to overwrite the original. A team member should be delegated to manage saving new fi les and overwriting existing fi les. Again, distribution of assets is as much a management issue as it is a technical issue.

Let’s learn about a few of the commands, tools, and utilities that can help make asset management easier in 3ds Max, including the following:

• Asset Browser utility • Save Selected command • Replace command • Rename Objects utility

Exercise 4-2-1 Asset Browser Utility

1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the website called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser01.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. This is a version of the fi le from Chapter 34 that has bitmaps used in the materials assigned to some of the objects from a folder on the Chapter 4 website (see Figure 4-1 ).

FIG 41 A simple 3ds Max scene with 3D objects and materials with maps.

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FIG 42 You can search for assets on your hard drive with the Asset Browser Directory Tree.

3. In the Address text fi eld, enter the URL for the Chapter 4 website location for Max fi les; you will see thumbnail images of the two 3ds Max scenes in this folder. If you don’t see any thumbnails, click the Startup button at the lower left of the Asset Browser dialog (see Figure 4-3 ).

4. Navigate to the Maps folder for Chapter 4 to see the images used as bitmaps in the scene materials. In the Filter pull-down menu, choose JPEG File to display only that particular type of fi le in the thumbnails pane (see Figure 4-4 ).

Note

Your 3ds Max Asset Browser may already show the directory tree pane. If this is the case, just proceed to Step 3.

2. In the Utilities panel, Utilities rollout, click the Asset Browser button to open an empty Asset Browser dialog. In the Asset Browser dialog, Display pull-down menu, choose Directory Tree (see Figure 4-2 ). This opens up a new pane on the left with a directory tree display of your hard drive that will enable you to search asset folders on your hard drive.

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5. Drag and drop the Simple_Metal_Mtl_DiamondPlate_pattern.jpg thumbnail image onto the Tire001 object in the Camera001 viewport (see Figure 4-5 ). A Standard material type is created for the object using that bitmap as the Diff use color map.

6. Close all windows and dialogs and save the fi le. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser02.max. The Asset Browser is a tool that can simplify your search for 3ds Max assets on a hard drive or on the web with thumbnails and fi lters.

Note

When you fi rst use Asset Browser to open locations with many assets, it can take a while for Asset Browser to cache the information into memory. The next time you open the same location, it will be much faster.

FIG 43 Browse the website URL containing the 3ds Max fi les for Chapter 4 .

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FIG 44 Filters can be set to display only certain types of fi les.

FIG 45 You can drag and drop bitmaps from the Asset Browser to objects to create new Standard material types.

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Exercise 4-2-2 Save Selected Command

1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the previous exercise called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser02.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name.

2. In the Camera001 viewport, select the cylinder called Tower001. Click the Application button and then hover your cursor over Save As. In the new menu that appears in the right pane, click Save Selected (see Figure 4-6 ). There is a short description of the command in the menu.

In Exercise 4-2-2 , you’ll learn about a command in the Application button, Save As options called Save Selected. This command is handy for copying selected objects from your current scene into an object library on your hard drive.

FIG 46 Save Selected saves the selected object(s) to a new 3ds Max fi le.

3. In the Save File As dialog, navigate to an appropriate folder on your hard drive, give the fi le a name, and then click the Save button. In the case of a single object, the fi le name can be the same as the object name. For an ensemble of objects, perhaps an offi ce desk, chair, and computer, for example, you might name the fi le Offi ce_ensemble001.max so that others in the production team can use the Merge command to retrieve the whole fi le or only certain objects from the fi le.

4. Save the fi le. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser03.max. The Save Selected command is simple to use and can increase your productivity by organizing objects into object libraries that will be reused over and over by other team members. Again, management and tracking of these assets are key to increasing productivity, so make sure the fi le is documented.

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You might have noticed that the teapot in the scene from the previous exercises has an extremely low polygon count. It was placed in the scene as a “stand-in” object for a higher resolution teapot that will be in the fi nal render. The stand-in objects could be part of the basic layout fi les that allow animators to check interactions of objects without dealing with high resolution geometry. However, it will be important to replace the low resolution object with the high resolution version, as you will learn in Exercise 4-2-3 .

Exercise 4-2-3 Replace Command

1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the previous exercise called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser03.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. In the Camera001 viewport, select the Teapot001 object. In the Modify panel, Parameters rollout, you can see that this teapot contains only 1 segment, making it extremely of low resolution (see Figure 4-7 ). The name of the object is important because the Replace command you will use next can only replace objects of exactly the same name.

FIG 47 You can replace a low resolution object with a high resolution object from another fi le.

2. In the Application button, hover your mouse over the Import option and then choose Replace in the menu (see Figure 4-8 ).

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FIG 48 The Replace command is found in the Import menu.

3. In the Replace File dialog, navigate to the website for Chapter 4 Files and double-click Exercise 4-2-1_Save Selected01.max. In the Replace dialog, highlight the object Teapot001 in the list (see Figure 4-9 ). Click OK. A dialog appears asking Do You Want to Replace Materials along with Objects? In this case you do, and so click the Yes button.

FIG 49 The object you highlight in the Replace dialog must have the same name as the object in the scene.

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There are a number of yellow boxes in the scene that “someone” forgot to name logically and they still have the original creation names of Box002–Box015. The objects are heavy barriers and should be named appropriately: Barrier001, etc. In Exercise 4-2-4 , you’ll learn to use the Rename tool to make this task easier than individually picking each object and renaming them in the Modify panel.

4. The high resolution teapot appears in the same location as the low resolution teapot (based on pivot points) and has its own yellow material applied to replace the original low resolution teapot’s material. Render the Camera001 viewport to see the result (see Figure 4-10 ).

FIG 410 The low resolution teapot is replaced with the high resolution teapot and its material.

5. Close the Rendered Frame Window and then save the fi le. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser04.max. The Replace command works well in a collaborative environment where other teams are working on new versions of objects in your scene or in scenes where high resolution objects slow viewport performance.

Exercise 4-2-4 Rename Objects Tool

1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the previous exercise called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser04.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. Select one of the yellow boxes in the Camera001 viewport. In the Edit pull-down menu, choose Select Similar (see Figure 4-11 ). This will select all the other boxes.

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FIG 411 Select Similar is found in the Edit pull-down menu.

FIG 412 Enter the new object base name and give the new objects a base number.

2. In the Tools pull-down menu, choose Rename Objects. In the Rename Objects dialog, enter Barrier in the Base Name fi eld. Check the Numbered option and then enter 1 in the Base Number numeric fi eld (see Figure 4-12 ). Click the Rename button and then close the Rename Objects dialog.

3. Select any one of the boxes in the scene and you’ll see that it is now named Barrier0?. Save the fi le. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser05 .max. Again, the Rename Objects tool is often necessary when team members neglect to name objects appropriately as they create or clone them.

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4.3 Archiving Scenes Whenever you need to transfer fi les from one computer to another, whether it is to pass the scene on to another team or to fi nalize the project by archiving the fi les to a hard drive, it is important that you collect all the information associated with that scene into one place.

3ds Max has two options for archiving scenes: Archive command and Resource Collector utility. The Resource Collector utility is recommended for archiving 3ds Max scenes because it has been written to include more of the associated fi les such as bitmaps and photometric lighting fi les that might be used in your scene.

Warning

Displacement maps and maps used as projector patterns in lights are not saved by the Resource Collector utility. You must remember to add those to your archive manually to the zip fi le that is created.

The process is simple; you open the Resource Collector utility in the Utilities panel and then choose the options you want to save. The utility will then create a zip fi le with your archived scene.

Exercise 4-3-1 Resource Collector Utility

1. Open the 3ds Max scene from the website called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser05.max and save it to an appropriate folder on your hard drive with a new incremental name. In the Utilities panel, Utilities rollout, click the More button. In the Utilities dialog, choose Resource Collector (see Figure 4-13 ). Click OK to open the utility in the Parameters rollout.

FIG 413 Use the More button to fi nd a list of utilities.

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2. In the Utilities panel, Parameters rollout, click the Browse button under Output Path, then navigate to an appropriate folder on your hard drive, and then click the Use Path button in the Choose Output dialog. In the Utilities panel, Parameters rollout, Check all the options under Resource Options (see Figure 4-14 ). Click the Begin button. This will copy all the bitmaps and photometric fi les (except displacement maps and projecting maps), the Max fi le with updated materials, and compress the fi les to a zip fi le.

FIG 414 Check all options to ensure you are collecting all resources.

3. Use the Windows File Explorer to navigate to the folder on your hard drive containing the archive, then open the fi le called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser06 .zip and you should see the Max fi le and associated bitmaps for the materials (see  Figure 4-15 ).

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Using these techniques and tools will improve your productivity by helping to organize your project assets quickly and effi ciently. Reducing the search time to fi nd assets and avoiding re-creating assets that already exist can be a major boon to effi ciency in any project.

FIG 415 The zip fi le on your hard drive should contain all the resources associated with this fi le.

4. Close all windows and dialogs and then save the fi le. It should already be called Exercise 4-2-1_Asset Browser06.max. Using the Resource Collector utility is a safe and reliable way to make sure you are sending all the associated fi les, except the displacement and projecting maps, to other team members or you are archiving fi les in a central location at the end of the project.

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