Posting "Work In Progress" (3ds max)

[requiem2d]

To get the most out of your WIP stages, or better said, the best feedback from other viewers or forum-goers there are a few simple things you can do.

1. Sharp Renders

A lot of people post images that are either too small or too blurry, the solution to size is clear, yet to sharpness there is a simple trick in max which won't cost you any extra rendering time at this stage.

Go to Render, select the tab Renderer and switch Area to Catmull-Rom



The difference as you can see is quite evident:




2. Wire Frames

Another very important bit during the WIP stage is the need for wireframes, people will not be able to understand your model or offer criticism towards your model without some wire shots from different perspectives.

In 3ds max, there is a nice effect you'll be able to use wherein you make a duplicate of your current model and then apply a push modifier like so:



As you're not particularly interested in just seeing a copy of your existing texture, you'll want to add the wire material to the model you've justed "pushed", like so:



Take note that the opacity value is up to you to decide, a lower value doesn't take away from the underlying texture of your original model as much.

The final result should be something like this:



3. Hints & Tips

• Usually 2 to 3 images of your model will be enough for constructive critcism
• 800x600 is a reasonable size for WIP shots, anything below or under may just get less feedback if extreme enough
• Don't post updated WIPs for every change you make, but rather when you've done significant work, this creates less clutter in your thread and will provide you with better feedback

Hope this was helpful and look forward to seeing your work in progress

[ragupasta]

Another thing I notice new MAX users do is, when saving as a jpeg, jpg, when the screen pops up for 'jpg image control', dont put any smoothing on. If you do, the more you put on, the more blurry it will look.

[requiem2d]

Good point, thanks for bringing it up

[SureShot]

I'd just like to point out that picking a background colour that clashes/is the same as your model's texture is no-no. Pick something dark but coloured, especially for models without texture and just a default render texture.

[BakerCo]

you could also reduce the wire size by pixel or unit (I prefer pixels)and have a cleaner looking wire

[benclark]

For the few Maya users on this site....

You can achieve the same sharpening effect as the 3dsMax Catmull-Rom filter by turning off Mulit-pixel Filtering in the render globals window and assigning your diffuse texture as a Mipmap or turning the texture filter off completely

[kratos]

Umm shouldn't this thread be in the work in progress forum ? May I suggest that it be a sticky aswell. Thanks again requiem2d

[decs]

Didnt see this one before.. thought i should mention a few things aswell

Personally i tend to prefer Blackman as an image filter, its a filter very similar to Catmull Rom but without the edge sharpening and halos.

Also, if you're bothered by the map filtering in max, it can really blur things if you're working at low resolutions then turn map filtering off and if you feel that its too pixelated you can turn super sampling on instead. Its a good solution for when max is blurring your textures too much ;P