Third-Party Help for 3ds Max
There are some incredibly powerful add-ons for 3ds Max®. These include Redshift, Vray, integration with programs such as Substance and Keyshot, and many more—produced by professional software companies. Often though, some powerful tools to help us with our daily production come from independent artists and smaller teams focused on sharing the tools they’ve made to make work easier, simply so that our work and lives can be easier as well. This article will focus on a few of those.
Paul Neale
3D Technical Director and Trainer
Paul Neale has worked within the animation industry for several years. He creates tutorials, speaks at public events, writes scripts, builds custom Creation Graphs, and more. Today, his site includes several scripts, but I’d like to focus on the Max Creation Graph he shares called Clone on Spline. Clone on Spline allows users to array an object along a spline while simultaneously draping that object onto a surface (see Figure 1). If either the spline or surface adjusts, the objects are updated dynamically. This is incredibly powerful for fencing, rails, barriers, paths and trails, and many more applications.
Figure 1: Paul Neale’s Clone on Spline Max Creation Graph
In addition to the MCG, Paul offers several free scripts for download, including the following.
- A Track Editor
- Pose Saver
- Pen Attribute Holder
- Auto Material
- Batch It Max
- Control Objects
- Find Modifier
- Pen Helper
- Math Functions
- “M” Group
- Mirror Objects, and several more
KM-3D
KM-3D is created by programmer and 3D technical artist Kamil Małagowski. His website, KM-3D.com, is packed full of powerful tools for 3ds Max. The site includes scripts, plug-ins, free stuff, and more. Free scripts include:
- An Angle Loop
- Autostretch (based on motion)
- DeltaMush to Skin
- Printer Script
- Smooth Boolean
- Spline Scatter
Kamil’s product, Random Master, has been particularly useful as it combines everything necessary for randomization in one spot (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: KM-3D Random Master Version 1.0
Random Master allows you to randomize:
- Position
- Rotation
- Scale
- Material maps
- UVW Mapping gizmo
- Keyframes
- FFD modifier points
- Noise
- Selection of objects
- Selection of faces/vertices/edges
- Material ID
It has a wide range of capability and is useful for an enormous number of applications.
Brian Chapman is an Autodesk Authorized Developer, creator of Pro-Cad.Net and a Senior Designer for an engineering firm located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Contact him at procadman@pro-cad.net.
