Max/Gmax Modelling Tip; Cutting Out Panels

[Lionheart]

Hey all,

This is for the developers.

Ive created a technique where you can cut out doors, windows, panels, etc, 'after' you have mapped the area with a texture.....

This involves placing Vertice points in by hand, then connecting the Vertice points with Edges, but amazingly, you have 'no' distortion.

This enables you to actually make your cut lines 'on' your texture 'line art' instead of the other way around. (If you have ever created lines on your art, you know how difficult it is to align your edges onto your actual object edges).

This does not use Boolean or Shape Merge, but you end up with less Vertices this way and actually can cut the parts out faster (in the long run).

Here's how;
1. Create a very nice Spline template that is the shape of the panel to be cut out, such as a door line. Use the art to create the Spline line with, making it exactly over the artwork on the object.
2. Adjust the Spline so that you can see it over the surface of the model (not 'in' the model, but hovering over the model part).
3. Make sure the model is an Editable Poly
4. In Edge Mode, click 'Ignore Back Side'
5. Go to Edge/Divide
6. Begin placing Vertice points at all intersections of edges that the Spline pattern hovers over, making a trek along the Spline.
7. Now, if you have a curve that treks into polygon area's and you need to make that curve 'in' the polygons, do this. Convert object to a Editable Mesh
8. Go to Edge Mode/Divide
9. Begin placing Vertice points 'in' the polygon area(s). This can get radical as the placement of a Vertice 'in' the polygon area will create several Edges to other Vertice points, so you may have to create 'some', then stop, redo the cycle, then do some more, as the lines can get pretty thick if you do 'a lot' of these Vertice points in polygons.

NOTE: You must convert object to Editable Mesh for this step as Editable Poly will not allow precise placement of your Vertice's when doing Polygon/Divide in Editable Poly objects.

10. Now convert object to Editable Mesh. Go to Edge Mode/Create. Start connecting the various Vertice points, making a clean cutout of the panel alone the Spline pattern. You can hide the Spline to better see your cut line you are creating.
11. At this point, you may need to go back and create more Vertice points 'in' polygon area's. You will need to bounce back to Editable Mesh mode/object to do this.

NOTE2; In Editable Poly mode, you can delete unwanted Edges that are not used. That is why you bounce back your object to 'Save As; Editable Poly' on the final run of this cut technique. You will take out all of the unwanted rays or Edges from your Vertice placements 'inside' of Polygons.

NOTE3; You will need to repeat this for each side.

I jumped from FSDS to Gmax because I could easily cut nicely rounded windows with Boolean. Then I learned Shape Merge, using Splines to cut out doors and windows and various panels with. But with both techniques, I always had tons of excess Vertices that I needed to get rid of, (welding together precariously, taking alot of time to clean up and hopefully not distorting the object). With this technique however, you cut once, exactly, you have Vertices where you want them, and you can do this on a mapped object, prepainted, making your cuts 'on' your edge lines in the art, and no cleanup is required.....

Works awesome.

Here is an example. I have created the plane, mapped it, created art (paint scheme) with door lines. I decided to make panels animate out 'after' doing all that work. With this technique, in quick order, I can cut out these panels with zero distortion to the object UVW Mapping.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2680/4312952443_c17e5a6afd_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2764/4313688310_964d531f1e_b.jpg

Hope that helps modellors out there.



Bill

[Mathias]

Why so complicated, Bill?
The cut tool in poly mode will do it all in one go without the need to connect vertices by hand or to convert your mesh forth and back.
Cut tool in subobject level poligon: right-click quad menu - "cut".
Use the 2d or 3d vertex snap tool in an ortographic viewport (left-right-top-down) along with your spline template to place the cuts where there should be.

[Lionheart]

Dang.. Is this in Gmax or a Max only tool..?

I learn so much with every plane build. How can there be so many tools in a single program?



Bill

[Bjoern]

Might come in handy. Thanks Bill and Mathias!

[mike_cyul]

I must say that is one super crisp looking model. And thanks for the tip, Bill. :applause:


Mike

[Henry]

im still as confused as when i woke up this morning
i am glad the there are people smarter than I
thanks gentlemen
H

[Lionheart]

im still as confused as when i woke up this morning
i am glad the there are people smarter than I
thanks gentlemen
H



<-- the more I learn, the more I realize how much I do not know....

[Lionheart]

I must say that is one super crisp looking model. And thanks for the tip, Bill. :applause:


Mike

Thanks Mike. Hopefully she will come close to your amazing level of realism and quality. That Super Piper is amazing.



Bill

[FelixFFDS]

The "cut" tool is also in gmax (quad menu and in the side tab rollouts)


Dang.. Is this in Gmax or a Max only tool..?

I learn so much with every plane build. How can there be so many tools in a single program?



Bill

[Lionheart]

The "cut" tool is also in gmax (quad menu and in the side tab rollouts)

Thanks Felix,

I'll check that out. It would make it alot quicker. I havent seen the tool before. It needs to be able to cut without distorting the UVW mapping. Thats the whole idea. When cutting new Vertices into a Poly in Editable Poly mode, the Vertices never land where you want. They land in general areas, which make it useless to use, thus you jump over to E-Mesh and divide up the Poly's there, then back to E-Poly for 'connect the dots' and then cut-out.


Sure is nice though now to have a smooth system of cutting out windows without tons of extra Vertices all over the place. Boolean, as powerful and nice as it is, was really unstable. Sometimes you really have to doctor it to get things to cut right.



Bill

[Tylerb59]

Thanks Felix,

I'll check that out. It would make it alot quicker. I havent seen the tool before. It needs to be able to cut without distorting the UVW mapping. Thats the whole idea. When cutting new Vertices into a Poly in Editable Poly mode, the Vertices never land where you want. They land in general areas, which make it useless to use, thus you jump over to E-Mesh and divide up the Poly's there, then back to E-Poly for 'connect the dots' and then cut-out.


If you're using isometric views the accuracy is much higher, although I prefer to work in perspective views some cuts require you to press "U" to convert that view to iso.

Enable "preserve UV mapping" and using edge constraints to slide vertices into a more exact position is a great way to preserve proper mesh topology and 9 times out of 10 has zero impact on UV coordinates.

Beauty of 3d is there is always more then one way to achieve the same result ... and if something is a bit tedious/complicated there is probably a more efficient way of completing that task. :) Ultimately it's just a matter of preference on how YOU want to work, and develop your own technique. I generally avoid boolean/shapemerge cuts unless they're unavoidable.

[Lionheart]

Thanks TylerB,

Ive been working in Left/Right/Top/Bot views for cutting. I hadnt thought of being able to cut in Perspective. That would be wild. Visibly seeing and sliding your Vertices into position over the line art on the surface of the model would be easy and just as precise as a straight in side-view.


Bill

[N2056]

This will be something worth spending some time playing with this weekend :d
I'm always up for a new way to do something in Gmax! :jump:

[Piglet]

One never stops learning. Also every one has different ways of doing things. Doesn't make it right or wrong. Some of the stuff I do in Max would prolly make some gasp! But each dev finds their own way, and things get done, which is the final desire.

[FelixFFDS]

You might also want to look into the poly/cut tool in eMesh . I think it produces a "cleaner" cut than if done in ePoly mode.

[Bjoern]

I think it produces a "cleaner" cut than if done in ePoly mode.

It's been a while since I last used the cut tools, but I think for cutting, EPoly produced better results than EMesh which tended to produce unnecessary extra vertices.

[Mathias]

It's been a while since I last used the cut tools, but I think for cutting, EPoly produced better results than EMesh which tended to produce unnecessary extra vertices.

In Gmax yes, In Max no since quads in E-mesh are treated just as such. Basically Max treats invisible edges in e-mesh like e-poly.
The advantage of e-poly in max are the polgon tools in the rollout and a better uvw math, handy for rendering.

[n4gix]

Why so complicated, Bill?
...
Cut tool in subobject level poligon: right-click quad menu - "cut".
Use the 2d or 3d vertex snap tool in an ortographic viewport (left-right-top-

Why so complicated, Mathias?

Using the quad-menu's "cut" button simply switches to the Edge subobject level and turns on the "Cut" tool's button...

Simply going the Edge subobject level to begin with saves a few mouse clicks... :bump:

[Mathias]

Why so complicated, Mathias?

Using the quad-menu's "cut" button simply switches to the Edge subobject level and turns on the "Cut" tool's button...

Simply going the Edge subobject level to begin with saves a few mouse clicks... :bump:

There we go and save one more mouse click. :bump:

[Bjoern]

In Gmax yes, In Max no since quads in E-mesh are treated just as such. Basically Max treats invisible edges in e-mesh like e-poly.
The advantage of e-poly in max are the polgon tools in the rollout and a better uvw math, handy for rendering.

Well, I *am* using Max.

Hm...maybe I confused it with the slice plane.
Last night is apparently still taking its toll on me. xP

[Mathias]

Yes, the slice tool still adds vertices to the invisible edges.
The cut tool does not and so don't shape merges and booleans.
Actually booleans do work better in e-mesh than in e-poli.

[krazycolin]

one thing to be aware of with the cut tool: you must be sure about where you place the verts (cuts) because if you need to move them, your UV's can and will suffer....

[Piglet]

This all goes to show that foreward planning will help to keep last minute changes to a minimum.
Now to go change that droptank...
I want to design bathrooms cuz I like to plan ahead...:running: