Render options for my portfolio

[adabrownRTV7B]

Hi everyone. I am trying to make a portfolio piece in Max to add to my portfolio now that I have finished school. My original idea was to build the model in Max and render it in UE4, then take a fly through of the object, it's a beach house, to show everything off. I am running across a few problems and I am hoping someone here may have some advice.

I tested the export to fbx and import into UE4 to make sure it was going to work. I have about 23 materials on a multi/sub-object in max. But when I exported it UE4 found over 100 materials. Turns out for some reason my model was broken up into a 100 different materials, making importing it into UE4 a bit of a pain. It also didn't pull hardly any of the textures from U4, meaning that the normal maps and things are not showing up in UE4.

My question is whether there is a way to get a 3d rendering of the model in ANY program that I can use to make a video of and add to my portfolio. The renders in Max look great, but they are just the 2d pictures and I'd rather not put it on my portfolio in just pictures. Not to mention that Max wont let me render the inside of the house without hiding walls. Does anyone know of a really good way to get a great video rendering of it out of max? I can screen capture the model moving around, but the textures are not showing in the viewport, so again I could only use a rendered pic. Can anyone think of some options I may have? I am not sure why the exported fbx is in so many pieces or why none of the textures are really exporting into UE4.

[RobH2]

This is likely a post that might work better in the Unreal Engine forum since it's more of an Unreal Engine thing instead of a Max thing. Max is not designed to seamlessly export models to UE by default. That does not mean it can't be done.

You have not mentioned what Max you use and what render engine you use. I use Max 2022 currently with V-Ray and use the UE free plugin 'Datasmith' to get models from Max to UE. They come into UE beautifully. However, Datasmith is not currently available for Max 2022, just 2021. This link may help:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/4.26/en-US/WorkingWithContent/Importing/Datasmith/SoftwareInteropGuide...

And downloads here:  https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/datasmith/plugins?sessionInvalidated=true

Max is capable of doing beautiful animations without even knowing the existence of UE. It's not that Max "won't let you do animations without hiding walls", it's that you probably don't understand some of the basics of doing an animation in Max and setting up a camera. Max can do animations much more photo real than UE. Don't get me wrong, we are all excited about the real-time rendering that we have access to in the modern UE and how photo real it is. But it's still not as photo real as a good Max animation. 

If you don't fully grasp Max, then you'll have an even harder time in UE. Material construction in UE can be quite daunting and is its own creature, believe me. Plus, even as it's faster to render out from UE, setting up a Sequence with a Cinecam is not for the faint of heart. There's a significant learning curve there as well, as with most things in UE. 

I'd encourage you to do a few tutorials on Max animation with a camera. Google it, you'll find a lot of tutorials. It might even be worth your while to pay for a course on Udemy or something. When they are in a SALE, you can pick up fantastic courses for cheap. I've done a few of the Udemy tutorials that teach incorporating Max files into UE and animating. They were fantastic and taught me everything I needed to know to successfully do it. Since you are a student, then you certainly realize the value of good instruction and tutorials. 

Think of it this way, if Max and UE were so easy that a "caveman could do it" then you'd not be able to go off and start a 3d career charging $50, $75 or $150 an hour. Learning Max and UE so that you can do "amazing" things is what will make you and "expert" and will allow you to compete in a very competitive profession that has potential for really good incomes. But to do so, you have to be willing to pay your dues and learn to do things the hard way, the way that a lot of people aren't willing to take the time to do. That's how you compete and make a living. 

[adabrownRTV7B]

Thanks for the reply. I think what I haven't picked up yet is how to render the camera animation. I know how to do an animation. I need to figure out animating a camera view and having it show the final rendered version. I would have no problem exporting it in UE, but when I do it breaks the model into pieces and creates about 80 extra materials, so texturing it in UE would be a pain. But since that is where I am most familiar with camera motions, that was my first thought. I will check out Datasmith and see what it can do. You wouldn't happen to know why it breaks up my model into 100 different materials would you?

[RobH2]

I'm not an expert in UE but I am using it more and more. In my experience, for each material UE finds assigned to a Material ID on an object, UE creates a material. But, if the same Green is used on two separate objects, it only creates that Green once. That same Green is then applied in both places. If you have a cube (see attachments) that has 6 material IDs and just one material (say Green) assigned to all of them, UE just generates 1 Green material. But if you assign a 6 Multisubobject material, having 6 different textures, UE will generate 6 materials. 

So, if you have 100 materials in your scene, UE will generate 100 materials. I assume that's working like normal for you. Maybe what you are saying is that it isn't. 

I'm exporting FBXs and 'Embedding' the materials in the export dialog.