file referencing

[arkitek62]

Hi 3dsMax Community,

Quick question from a Maya user.

I'm really thinking about switching to Max, but one point is really important for me. It is about file referencing (XRef ?).

Can we, with Max, for example, prepare a car with its rig, reference it in a master scene, and animate it in this same master scene (and not in the asset/car file) ?

Merging the asset in the master scene is an absolute no go. If an update on the car is done (new rims, new bumpers or so), I want to be able to have the update in all the scenes the car has been used.

Animating the car within its own file, is a no go as well. The same car may have a différent animation in different scene.

This is a really important question for me, and maybe for other CG guys.

Thank you very much !

CG yours,

Julien  

[lightcube]

Yes, you can. Max 2016+ has better workflow for this... so don't go for older versions of Max.

[arkitek62]

Thank you LightCube,

This gives me good hope.

I'll give a try in the next days and come back here.

[arkitek62]

This is indeed working 🙂

Thx for your  help !

[arkitek62]

But... Looks like grouping Xrefs (or add in dummies, or link them to another object) doesnt work.

My scene, to render just an image:

2 cars are racing on a track.
I want to create a "camera rig", means, the camera is following the 2 cars (they have the same speed).
Then I'll get motion blur on the background, and the 2 cars will remain sharp.

The way I would do in Maya, would be this:

_Camera Rig (Main Group)
     _Car 01 (Sub Group)
     _Car 02 (Sub Group)
     _Camera (Sub Group)

So, I can group this way, but my objects, after grouping, take different and crasy positions in the 3D space.

Everything is my scene can be grouped without any problem, except the cars.
I just tried by merging them, and it looks like it works.

But this is a bad news, cause having them as Xrefs is really usefull for updating...

Maybe I've loaded them worng (there are differents modes, maybe I've used the wrong one).

What do you think ?

[lightcube]

These docs should help you:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/3DSMa...

[arkitek62]

Thx LightCube 

[arkitek62]

Xref problem solved !

And it works great !

In my case, I had to set the Xref as "rig to animate" (if i remember the exact words...), which basically assist you to merge or not controller ect ect.
Other options are available.

Thank you 🙂

[arkitek62]

Hello guys !

Something came in my mind.

Is there a way to replace an Xref with another one ?

For example, I have 2 cars stored in the project, one blue with a type of rims, one white with another type of rims or even another type of bumpers.

I need to replace the blue car (which is an Xref) with the white one, but I don't see anyway to replace the Xref (like in Maya > Replace Reference).

Thx guys ! 

Here is the first picture I've done in Max, thanks to your advices 🙂

https://www.behance.net/gallery/36294289/Full-CG-Alpine-Vision-Concept