hi guys


i've landed myself an internship with an animation company,

the only thing is they use 3DS MAX,

what i wanted to know if you guys know the the max equivalent for some of my favorite tools in maya, like:

create poly tool

apend poly tool

backface culling

Autodesk used to have a guide, not too sure where or if it exists now.

I thin think that you wont really have a problem, just ask those questions when you start and you'll be away, verts a vert at the end of the day!

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"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

i couldn't find any equivalent to create polygon tool and append to polygon tool but for fill hole option, cap is the equivalent option. This option will be activated after u convert the geometry into editable poly and after u r in border mode.

The easiest way I've found to do the create poly in max is to use the line tool to draw the shape of poly you are after, then convert to editable poly/mesh (whichever you use)

With the append to polygon tool the closest thing I have been able to find is to select an edge then hold down shift and drag the edge (which will extrude it.) then use the target weld to weld the edge to the place you wanted it.

These are obviously work around, but they do work pretty well. I too was trained on Maya, then got a job at a studio that used max so I've gone through the learning process as well.

I found Max very difficult to use as I am so used to the Maya Interface and the way it works. Max works in a different way to Maya. Maya users nodes, build up on one another and Max does not.

Max is a great app, but I think your biggest struggle will be with the UI and certain things not being available in either Maya or Max.

Good Luck. I am sure you'll get the hang of it. I have looked for the guides, but am having no luck...

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Chris (formerly R@nSiD)
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best tip I'd give you (started cross training in Max in case I needed it at Uni last year) is to get yourself a space navigator for around £35 (guessing $70ish) for the PE (personal edition) and a little more for the commercial one.
It takes away all the ballache of having to mess with relearning holding certain keys for moving around in the viewports in Max when you're used to using different ones in Maya.
I'm guessing they may have key mapping so you can imitate the other's keys by now but the last thing I saw that could do that was DRaster's switcher which at $50 looks good but I remember seeing that you need a separate licence for each machine installation. So unless everyone else has it then hotswapping machines can be a pain.

All you really have to get to understand quick is the modifier stack which seems a bit alien at first but in no time you'll find adding things to it can sometimes work better than Maya.

Si

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i'm starting to get better at max slowly, however i still think maya is the better app, IMO:p


that being said max does have some cool things