- RAY TRACING: SPEEDING UP THINGS (OBJECTS)
- RAY TRACING: SPEEDING UP THINGS (GLOBALS)
- RAYTRACING: INDEX OF REFRACTION (IOR)
- RENDERING: FILTERS FOR STILL IMAGES VERSUS VIDEO
- RENDERING VIDEO: RENDER FRAMES, NOT FIELDS
- RENDERING VIDEO: MAKE SURE VIDEO COLOR CHECK IS ON
- RENDERING VIDEO: CHECK YOUR GAMMA!
- RENDERING GREAT BIG, GIANT, HONKING, ENORMOUS IMAGES SUCCESSFULLY
- DON'T RENDER MOVIES—RENDER FRAMES!
- SPEAKING OF THE RAM PLAYER...
- RERENDERING FROM THE ENVIRONMENT BACKGROUND
- OKAY, SO YOU REALLY WANT TO RERENDER YOUR ANIMATION...
- IFL = IMAGE FILE LIST
- YOU CAN'T CREATE .IFL FILES ON READ-ONLY MEDIA!
- MANIPULATING IMAGE SEQUENCES USING .IFLS
- CREATE NESTED .IFL FILES
- A CHICKEN AND EGG PROBLEM: HOW DO YOU SET UP AN ANIMATED BACKGROUND FOR A SCENE IF YOU HAVEN'T RENDERED THE BACKGROUND YET?
- COULD YOU MAKE THINGS MORE COMPLICATED, PLEASE? (WHAT ABOUT USING A COMPOSITING PROGRAM?)
- COMPOSITING USING VIDEO POST
- RENDERING WITH SCANLINE MOTION BLUR: MULTI-PASS AND IMAGE
- RENDERING WITH SCANLINE: MIX IMAGE AND MULTI-PASS MOTION BLUR
- RENDERING IMAGES FOR PRINT: TEACH THOSE PRINT FOLKS A LESSON (OR TWO...)
- RENDERING IMAGES FOR PRINT: OH YEAH, ANOTHER THING...
- "THOSE PRINT PEOPLE"—MAKE IT EASIER ON THEM WITH 3DS MAX 6
- THE PRINT SIZE WIZARD (ENOUGH WITH THE PRINTING STUFF ALREADY!)
- MENTAL RAY IS IN THE BUILDING!
- MENTAL RAY IS ON THE COUCH!
- USE MENTAL RAY'S IMAGE SAMPLING WISELY
- IN MENTAL RAY, CONTRAST CAN SAVE YOUR DAY!
- HIDDEN LINE RENDERING: RENDER TO VECTORS IN MENTAL RAY
- TRIM YOUR (BSP) TREE IN MENTAL RAY
- MENTAL RAY PREFERENCES: PLEASE LEAVE ME A MESSAGE
- RENDERING AESTHETICS: OUTER SPACE SCENES
- RENDERING AESTHETICS: UNDERWATER SCENES
- RENDERING AESTHETICS: DISTANT LANDSCAPES
- RENDERING AESTHETICS: STILL LIFE AND MACROPHOTOGRAPHY
- "HELLO... YOU'VE GOT RENDER!"
A CHICKEN AND EGG PROBLEM: HOW DO YOU SET UP AN ANIMATED BACKGROUND FOR A SCENE IF YOU HAVEN'T RENDERED THE BACKGROUND YET?
Here's a wacky scenario: Sometimes you might want to do a network rendering of several sequences in order, in which Scene A renders a .TGA bitmap sequence that you want (ultimately) loaded as an Environment background for the following Scene B. However, how do you load (or create) an .IFL list of an image sequence that you haven't rendered yet?
Well, one thing you could do is load an existing .IFL file (that has an equal or greater number of rendered frames as the new sequence you want to render) in a text editor such as Notepad or WordPad. Then just do a search and replace on the words/letters you need to replace with the new words/letters (to correspond with the Scene A rendered frame filenames), and resave the file with a different filename. You'll also have to make sure the frame count equals the frame count of your current sequences.
Here's a fast and dirty way to create the A bitmap sequence and its associated .IFL for the background of Scene B. First, reset 3ds max to an empty scene, set the frame count to be the exact amount as your A animation sequence, set your render resolution at 2 x 2 pixels (I'm not joking), and then render a series of blank (black) frames with the A sequence filename. The incredibly tiny frame size makes this black "proxy" sequence render incredibly fast. When you're finished, load Scene B, and load this proxy bitmap sequence as the background (which creates a properly named .IFL). Now, resave the Scene B file, and then load Scene A and render the "good," final A Background bitmap sequence, overwriting the tiny 2 x 2 pixel files you just rendered. If you're doing network rendering, you can then load Scene B and queue it up after Scene A; when Scene B renders, it renders with the new A Bitmap Environment background.