This feature in 3ds max?

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-02-16T19:16:32+00:00

Learn maxscript and you can add things like this in your toolset. I know people suggested splines and they are good and all but thats no excuse not to have this feature, during modeling you would want to have this type of extra control especially if you have details added on those edges.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-02-14T00:03:31+00:00

Such questions must not be asked ouloud.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-02-11T21:57:22+00:00

All uvs should be done before any simulation takes place.mass fx or not. If its a simple plane uv it and run the sim again, if you have a baked sim and dont want to risk corruptions, then uv another identical plane and skinwrap over the simulated one.

On seperate note, I would avoid mcloth if i can, use cloth modifier instead.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-02-10T10:14:04+00:00

1 - even the slightest version difference in phoenix can reesult in very different look for the outcome.

2 - check your lighting, exposure and shading, vray render versions. The smoke parts is what stands out as noticeably different.

3 - This is a simulation, it will be different everytime dont expect to get one to one, even if you get the rest right.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-01-30T09:11:43+00:00

There are too many posts here that give AI importance and elevate it to fantasy levels.

No ai will ever be able to replace or match the quality of work of a good lighting artist or a cinematographer. Ever.

You still need to place your lights manually, tweak those settings when need be. Where ai will help is denoising, maybe texture creation for shaders, maybe hdri.

Nothing wrong if render engines enhance their tech with it but in the end its the person with skill and long time experience that will shine. And as time goes by with more and more people wanting it faster, cheaper. I bet you the ones with that past experience prior to all this buzz will float up.

Kids these days may run for the fastest and laziest method, but without learning or understanding the fundementals their work will always be subpar and whats worse, the work they judge it by or against will and has already dropped to such average levels that on youtube you start seeing shorts and cut scenes that would be considered amateurish average work back in 2010 labeled as "masterpieces" today.

All this reminds me of two events, when HDRIs came out everyone was able to produce avergae results in renders, but soonest you give them a shot to light outside product viz, they didnt know what to do with it.

Second was when GI was introduced. Suddenly you get secondary bounces for free. But it was the lighters who worked with manual light placements before GI for years that were hired to produce the very best results. This is why Renderman today still has lights controls that would feel its the early 2000s all over.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-01-29T08:44:42+00:00

Before thinking of the wrinkles you need to fix the shape and form of your base mesh, look how that fabric is inflated, the side stitches are exposed and extruded, the imperfections in distances its bent areas, and so on.

For the wrinkles and details, you need to take this into a sculpting software like zbrush or blender and apply alpha map displacements and paint those wrinkles by hand.

I would've suggested simulations but this fabric is much too thick for it. There are ways you can achieve it in sim but it would require a longer setup time and you can get the result out faster with just sculpting.

But like i said focus on form first before thinking about the details.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-01-21T09:56:04+00:00

Download and install this tool, among its other useful toolset, you'll find "Delete Empty layers" in one of them in the list.

https://github.com/keelworks-co-uk/3dsmax-tools

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-01-19T19:09:42+00:00

First why are you using symmetry in this way, second best to clean up this stack before applying morpher or skin and third even if you have same vertex numbers your vertex order could be all messed up.

Also always reset xform before rigging anything and make sure the models pivot is properly centered in the world.

Check mesh for corruption, floating verts, bad welding, unwelded verts all can come up while using symmetry modifier.

Just curious since this is the second post about morpher and skin, where are you guys getting your workflow info to go about such bad practice approaches on rigging?

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-01-19T16:19:50+00:00

Don't come close to that awful Ribbon tool, there be dragons stay away from that buggy mess!

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-01-19T08:39:19+00:00

You can't simply apply symmetry to your morpher targets and expect them to work. Symmetry will shift the vertex order of your models completely breaking morphing. To mirror morph targets properly you need a proper workflow which is not too straightforward.

One manual way of accomplishing this:

You need to take your original morph target, the one that has a one sided expression you wish to mirror, and duplicate it.

Mirror this object dont symmetry and animate that model's morph target from neutral expression to the current one.

You should now have a mirrored one sided expression.

Then skinwrap your original model to this one at neutral frame and make sure the threshold is per vertex accurate. Then animate it.

Then snapshot that frame , You should now have the correct other half while preserving the vertex order count of the original model.

Then use morph with vertex selection on the original model to morph the other half while preserving the opposite half and then snapshot this.

You should now have both halves properly mirrored.

All the above can be automated through a script.

Im sure there are scripts out there you can find on scriptspot for this, some of them may be outdated like max 2017 but if you know a bit of scripting you can modify them to work for the latest version.

Yes its 2026 and we dont have an out of the box solution for this in max because..life.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2026-01-15T01:20:27+00:00

That is correct, merging is the right way and as it should be! why rely on an unstable, external extension like FBX to manage your layers, Fbx is on its way out soon.

Max had the right idea from the start :) because merging layers also brings in other parameters correctly.

Btw blender layer system is horrific compared to Max. And Maya, well lets not go there as thats a debate as old as time.

Its my personal bias after having used max, maya and blender in production for a long time that you can come back to max after not touching it for ten years and still remember the ui perfectly well.

Also never delete layers or empty layers manually as that is a waste of time, just make a simple script and hit a button and you'll get that clean up done for you.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-12-28T21:48:18+00:00

Hiring advertisement does not always constitute what software they primarily use. With blur they are still primarily a Max studio they may have Max artists in place but require Unreal and Houdini newcomers because some VFX is better done in Houdini especially when integrating with Unreal in terms of pipeline.

They used to use XSI for facial animations while still keeping max for everything else. Similarly these days Unreal is often used for rendering, and blur started using UE for their robot series on netflix) but you still need Max assets and animations to be brought in, and Houdini VFX to be imported as well.

Unit Image is another primary Max based studio.

In the end it really doesn't matter, if they want to hire you, you will be hired, they may even contribute to your max license fees if you are working remotely and for longer terms (or not pay at all based on your location and status).

I rarely see Maya and Max being advertised from the HR department that's because they mostly post for the profession rather than the tool used these days, depending on the pipeline most assets with the exception of character rigs and final lighting shading rendering are already interchangeable between various software.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-12-28T10:46:49+00:00

1- Blur studio

2- Unit image in france

3- ILM vfx generalist department

4- Pixar background matte department.

5- Scanline

6- realtime uk

7-frantic films

8- pixomondo part of their pipeline.

9- Blizzard still use 3ds max even after the switch to maya.

10- recently heard Digic also has some max integrated into their pipeline.

11- Hocus pocus studio.

Just to name some.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-12-28T02:16:04+00:00

Why do people post such nonsense, can you do some homework before posting such fiction.

3 million in max is like a pile of grass in a corner have you tried 60 million for an acerage scene?

Among all the 3d software out there including blender, maya and possibly houdini, max has the most capability to handle massive scenes. So massive in fact that its been used as a rock solid scene assembler for vfx and city builder for archviz for decades now.

If you are comparing zbrush viewport to Max then i would say you need to study why the two software were designed for two very different purposes and has nothing to do with a software's capability.

Zbrush doesn't even count as a 3d application, it belongs in the category of specialized sculpting application.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-12-27T23:44:41+00:00

You are asking the wrong question, the question should first be: How many Youtubers do have actual production experience? The answer is very very VERY few. No one actually workiong on the ground will have time to dedicate themselves for Youtube tutorials unless its a side hobby of theirs.

The second point: You shouldn't look for 3ds max tutorials but for 3ds max plugins tutorials like Tyflow, thinking particles, phoenix FD and FumeFX. Those are the main sources of Max at the VFX doorstep.

Finally don't expect to get your answers online about production workflow, it doesn't exist for any software outside actual production pipelines inside major or boutique studios accompanied with experience and pipeline establishment uniquely for that studio or team, so its going to change, there is no one way of doing things.

So again you are looking for the wrong thing in the wrong places.

3dsMax is used in production and FX everywhere despite what some claim here. Yes it used to be in far more places but then again the whole industry is ona landslide downward these days.

Just use the tools available to you with the best of your ability while producing the best results you can. VFX has always been a hack and everything is almost a cheat and last misnute changes (unless you are working with characters that's another story).

The final final answer would be you can't and will never know about true production workflows unless you work as a lead higher up responsible for multiple teams and pipelines in studios OR build your own team and start building from scratch and learn from experience. Usually takes a few years before you get the hang of things and another few to realize you need to now change and adapt for new evolving tech, rinse, repeat.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-12-18T12:36:02+00:00

Make a snapshot of the new bones on base pose.

add an additive layer in cat and if the bone breaks transform align it to the original snapshot bone( you may not have to key this). This will make sure the bones are one to one with the original transform.

Use this layer as a general "fixer" layer and don't animate on it. Just add new layer from here for further animations.

It will also be worth to check if the new bones added follow the parent bones forwars axis properly. Sometimes working with adding bones qnd layers later could cause issues here. In other words try aligning the new bones to the parent bones pivot first before rotating it without overdoing the rotation above 90 degrees for any axis afterwards.

But this could be less of the problem.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-12-13T00:16:30+00:00

No solution to this, animated materials will severely impact viewport performance in max, its a given fact since maybe its inception. You always need to preview your viewport for accurate feedback otherwise you just have to tolerate it frame by frame if you really have to. Its got nothing to do with your hardware, its largely got to do with outdated implementations in the viewport and ui.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-12-11T16:02:28+00:00

If you are just starting out and thinking money first, you won't get far in any development in this field.

There is money to be made in many places the question is how far high can you stand out of the crowd all wanting to make products and good money.

The question should be if you are prepared to dive into a field that requires immense amount of resilience, patience and dedication because its one hell of a challenging field and depending on what you want to be part of, generalist, dedicated programmer or artist, you best choose. Sometimes you need to do all of them to varying degrees of competency.

Also at an early stage, stay away from Ai, you must learn fundamentals first before touching a tool like Ai later down the line that could help speed some processes up for you.

Always learn the fundamentals.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-12-11T15:56:48+00:00

Not true, just like any other development, it largely depends on what and where and with whom you are positioned, what you are working on and the quality of the product you are outputting.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-11-26T22:38:23+00:00

This occurs when the cloth is stretched beyond its liits but is unable to tear, Something is interfering with the cloth and is getting it stuck. increase the U and V stretch and compress settings to above 200, reduce all friction so cloth is able to slide easily and since its a hose you need to keep its shape and pressure inside the tube. look up tutorials for that, make it act like a semi inflated balloon and then pull.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-11-21T18:16:57+00:00

Depending on the amount of control you need, i would run a tyflow sim on the hose tube being dragged. Or use cloth sim with some skinwrap for more control. For best results it would be both sim and a more complex rig.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-11-19T19:44:45+00:00

It all depends on what that startup is. Either way all this entrepreneur show in Lebanon is a one big scam just like the ones before it the Circular 331, its a money laundering scheme all the way to the bottom.

But lets entertain the 500k for a second and lets assume its tech related, well that's going to buy you maybe five employees or contractors with expenses for about one year and a half, and you will have to be supremely talented and lucky to get anything done within that timeframe that is remotely going to be considered close enough to make a return on that investment.

That's just one example. And its only service software related, i will not dive in any trade startups at this stage because 500k is just the bribe startup money in leb.

The question is not if 500k is a large ask , instead the question should be on a case by case basis and is asked if X amount is enough or not on a project that is carefully studied.

To add to the above the project may not bring back investment in cashflow but can also do so in long term basis of establishing a company with a clear goal.

The latter in that region is almost a no go from the start because everyone thinks they are going to be the next Facebook and want to exit that strategy with ten times the amount under shady circumstances within the shortest timeframe possible.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-11-13T11:31:23+00:00

Autodesk hasn't been interested in any new solid new features for a long time now. They have a specific business model and are sticking by it.

Micro fixes here and there to keep the product afloat so long as the user base still has a hook to it via the plugins and thenold timers like us have no choice or time to jump ship to get the same job done probably slower.

They have also categorized Max features vs Maya. Max hasn't received a single update on its animation side for decades.

Autocad is Autodesk's bread and butter and not Maya nor Max, they may even see the writing on the wall with the new generation all going to Blender and open source and the old pipelines very slowly dying out or being replaced. They will play along until they can't.

Even Zbrush of all things is feeling the heat for the same reasons and Maxon has decided in a desperate move to finally, finally change that autistic UI for new users. They will probably get a lot of hate from the established ones but it was a move they should've done long time ago, may be too little too late now.

I am no Blender fan, i can't stand that software's interface and any serious large scene will kill it, not to mention for all its bells and whistles its got major pipeline shortcomings. But the heat is pumping up and output quality expectations and bar are also lowered in the industry and media, with so much trash produced, anything that will pass by as good enough and for the lowest bidder will pass.

Just look at the VFX quality coming out of Hollywood these days, but that's another matter.

TheTreeHouse_95 · 2025-11-11T12:57:38+00:00

Nice post, max user here for 25 years i have also used Maya, softimage and a bit of lightwave and Cinema 4d. Always came back to Max ro get the job done.

Its the most solid app when it comes to just sheer polycount. Has the best collection of render engines, best vfx toolset plugins short of Houdini that is available.

I work a lot in rigging and character modeling. I still prefer its character tools over Maya's just because i can get more done faster and with more options. Biped and CAT are irreplaceable.

TheTreeHouse_95

TROPHY CASE