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Hello everyone, my name is Francesco – and I'm sorry in advance for my bad English,
but you can turn on subs, I hope it will help!
In this short tutorial, we will talk about a little known object of 3D Studio MAX, the GRID,
to use for changing the reference system inside the virtual universe.
As a matter of fact, sometimes, could be necessary adopt an alternative reference system,
than the native one of the 3D Studio MAX’s scene, to insert or transform the objects;
for example, because we must place several items on a inclined plane or upon a wall and therefore
is much simpler using those planes as basis of the reference system rather inserting the objects
and afterwards having to translate and rotate them.
A Grid is an object of the Helper type, whereby to insert one in the scene we just have to open the Helper tab,
select Grid and insert it inside the 3D scene, as if we were inserting any other object.
The Grid’s dimensions refer only at its representation in the 3D view,
since a grid per se has infinite dimensions.
The grid just created is however inactive; in this moment, we can translate and rotate it as we like
to position what will be the new reference system in respect with the one of the original scene,
still visible as the new grid is not active yet.
After we have prepared the grid as we need, we open the Tools menu and we select
Grids - Activate Grid Object, that is activate the selected grid object.
Now we can even change the grid’s spacing by changing the value currently in Spacing, inside the object’s tab;
on the contrary that operation has no consequences for not active grids.
We insert an object in the scene: as you can see, it will be resting on the new grid,
considering it as the XY reference plane.
The viewed plane is indeed the new XY plane, but we can choose to visualize YZ or XZ changing
the selection of the Grid object, in the Display section of the Modify panel.
By changing the viewing plane we will also change the “pavement” on which the objects will be inserted
from time to time, as visible inserting several basic meshes into scene with various items selected.
Obviously, after we have made our operations – included animations - we can return at standard viewing mode
and reference system; to do it we click on Views menu and choose Grids à Activate Home Grid.
At this point we will be back to modify the objects (translate, rotate and scale them) using as axes
for the transformations those of the “original” reference system of the 3D Studio MAX universe.
Ok, everything might seem a little confusing, but the possibility to change the reference system
to operate transformations in reference to other objects may be very useful in rich elements scenes.
Well, regarding this very short tutorial that is all... I hope you liked it! Bye bye!