parameter based modeling

[Anonymous]

for a class i am taking at my college my professor (who knows very little about max) would like me to explore parameter based modeling... ie. cause and effect. "do this and it makes that happen." for instance if the sun moves across the sky the shades automatically adjust to block the sun. it can be anything really i just need to set up a cause and effect situation. i am looking for both ideas and how to make this happen. maybe even the sun shines on this object and casts a shadow, then something is extruded from that shadow. the sun moves casts a different shadow and then something new is extruded form that shadow.

[Anonymous]

Some of this can be achieved in Maxscript with some work but not too tough probably, and some will be pretty tough meaning quite thorough grasp of Maxscript. Some thankfully could likely be achieved without too much Maxscript if you also work with Parameter wiring inside the main UI.

Sun angle can be queried I believe, so you can make scripts that determine other actions based on angle of the sun... for example, if sun angle is so, then shade blade angle is so and so. Ascertaining whether something is in the shadow of another object was recently discussed and some methods explained via Maxscript so look for that thread... making something extrude if it's in shadow should be doable.

Let me think a bit and see if I can come up with any ideas for you to consider.

[Anonymous]

alright so maxscript... i know very little to nothing about it. i have been trying to learn but i never seem to be able to get anything to ever work. so any advice you could provide in that direction would be great. thank you for pointing to another thread i will look for it!

[Anonymous]

This is one I was thinking of.

area.autodesk.com/forum/Autodesk-3ds-Max/maxscript/solved-select-objects-visible-to-camera/

[Steve_Curley]

How about the Reaction Manager? Takes a bit of getting used to but is quite powerful.

[Anonymous]

I never really spent any time with Reaction Manager, but it may prove to be useful... I tried once or twice but couldn't get it to do what I was trying... no I did not read the Help... I was in a hurry. 😮 My bad. 🙂

[Anonymous]

hippie,

You should really start by working with some particular task... keep it simple for now, and try to figure out how to make it work in Max. Use Maxscript tutorials or examples that are similar and start piecing together a test script... or try Reaction Manager or Wired Parameters, whatever... but start building test scenes that you save with the working test techniques. As you try things, things will start to make sense and it will give you new ideas.

Post your questions as you progress here, so we can try to help when you encounter bumps... but it is not likely that anyone has time to teach you Max.

Maxscript101 or some such ... there are Maxscript learning resources available... tutorials and explanations... I believe they are DVD videos. The Maxscript Help is also very very good.

[Anonymous]

well i dont need someone to teach me max, i use it quite a bit and am pretty good, its reaction / wired / maxscript stuff i dont know. never have much use for it in architectural animation. but alas i am trying to expand my horizons and so i need to figure out maxscript. i am trying to figure out how to get max to cast a shadow of an object onto a plane and then have that shadow extrude. so no matter where the sun is max can calculate that shadow and extrude a form from it!

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this will help you but i keep a blog specifically on this topic. How to use 3ds Max as a parametric modeler. In this post i make a panel that responds to the sun angle http://designreform.net/?p=77

Let me know if i can help at all.

[Anonymous]

thank you all for your help..... dave fano i have now been directed to your site twice on two different forums i think it will be of great help to me, thank you very much!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Good stuff Dave... small world. I know some of the principals of your firm through a mutual friend. 🙂 Funny.

Good to see you here, especially since you also seem to teach. Your site looks interesting and informative; I'll have to take a look when time permits. 🙂

Hippie... sorry, I did not mean people would not have time to teach you Max, I meant Maxscript... that's why I recommended you look for the tutorials or DVD training... to speed up the learning process.

http://www.lyric.com/maxscript101/index.htm

http://store.cgsociety.org/browse/training/cg_academy_(3ds_max)/maxscript/

[Anonymous]

no worries.... you have been helpful maneswar. i going to be playing around with some of this stuff and i'll be sure you post what i come up with!

[Anonymous]

Dave, i just again would like to thank you for you advice on my thread and i have been spending a lot of time on http://designreform.net/ the tutorials on parametric modeling you have there for 3ds max are great! i am trying to use what i have learned going through them to create an animation where a tile floor is built in front of you. where the tiles rise up (through the current floor), rotate over 180 degrees and and end in place. so it looks like they are flipping into place out of no where. any help you could give me would be great!

[Anonymous]

Actually i think a way you could do this (warning this is a super work around!!!) Have you ever used the door object in max? i think if you turn off the frame and wire up a door's open % based on the distance of a point object it will look as if the are rotating into place from the floor. i guess you could also wire a simple plane wire it based on it's rotation, But this way you are going to have to change it's pivot point.

I'll take a try at it tomorrow,

Thanks for comments,

[joshpurple]

(Brilliant idea Dave! I wish I had your brains!
...cause I'm a zombie, heh, heh, heh 😄 )

[Anonymous]

well i tried to wire the rotation of a plane to the distance from a point but i could never get the plane to rotate. i'll have to give the door a try when i get into studio tomorrow!

[Anonymous]

ok i have been playing with getting the door to work on the pivot using the open parameter and wiring it to the position of a point. i can get the door to open to 180 degrees and stop but i cant get it to lay flat at open position 0 degrees. and the door opens no matter which direction the point is from the door i want it to only open then the point is on this side not that so i can copy 100x doors and have them all start at the same point and end at the same point (in space) but them them open in alike a wave. i'll post what i have so you can look at it and tell me what you think.

7317_esq5iDosiTIqiAkuDh9D.zip

[Anonymous]

Sorry, i didn't get to this today. I'll look at it tomorrow. Check out this tutorial (http://www.arch.columbia.edu/gsap-online/files/00/00/00/60278/Tutorial_02.pdf) this help you figure out the rotation issues.

I'll take a crack at this tomorrow,

[Anonymous]

Here is a video for that tutorial, I thought it was on my site but i guess i forgot to post it.

http://designreform.net/2008/04/14/3ds-max-wire-parameters/

Hows it going?

[Anonymous]

i dont think your video tutorial works... i cant get it to play.... also i tryed going through the pdf and had some troubles i dont know if i missed a step or something i am going to go back through it again. i do have a question though how can i get this wired up? When Plane 1 reaches a certain angle, that triggers Plane 2 to begin rotating.
When Plane 2 reaches a certain angle, that triggers Plane 3 ...