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Animation

Modeling with matchmover

Workflow

 Shoot footage

 Convert to bmp, runs faster in Matchmover

 Load into matchmover

Camera becomes camera in max

Create model from 3d points

Project footage on model

Bake to object and texture

Shoot footage

Try to get good coverage, move around

Do not pan and tilt, do not use tripod

Need to see all angles for modeling and texturing

Avoid blur and artifacts, don't move too fast

Convert to image sequence, pick best frames, too many frames take a long time and many have duplicate data

3rd max-rendering-ram player- to convert to bmp image sequence

Automatic tracking

Good tracking to make camera but points are useless

Manual tracking, use auto camera but set points to make model from

Create axis and scale, etc, then export to a 3rd max script

Run matchmover tracker

In preferences make sure you have z axis set to up

CPU is very important to make this run fast

Hide tracking points

In point tracks add new group

Add new track

Place point, scroll to another frame and select same point, when it turns green it means it was able to track it

Create more track points

Yellow means not perfect, move it around or go to another frame and try

Pick which one will be origin

Pick at least 3 points on different axis so it can model it as 3d

Make as many points as you want, more is better model

Make points where architecture changes, different direction, different texture,etc because these will be used to make your model later

Pick 2 points that you know distance and set that, use u it of measure matching system prefs

Select all modeling points, except auto, and export

Open model script in max, sometimes causes error due to groups

Tip - always Delete groups and groups name sections before opening

Select all points

Maxscript editor and script change size to scale up to a realistic size

Grab a few points on a side-alt q to isolate

Start drawing planes and shapes, faces to make the object

Choose snap to pivot to snap to selected points instead of grid

Trick add your tools to a pane/ custom ribbon, then set a hotkey to make it appear

After model made for texture use a camera map

Find a good view of specific texture in camera view

Render to texture, auto unwrap

After texturing

Select all and then link to make 1 model

Then render to texture on a new channel, unwrapped and baked to move all textures to 1 map

Move channel 2 to channel 1 and then remove channel 2

Now it's ready to export to a game engine

Best to use for cubic, planar shapes

For cylindrical shapes, place points at top and bottom, then create a cylinder since it would be impossible to create enough tracking points to make a good circle

Can use multiple cameras and point of views for camera, but for modeling can only use 1 and is easiest with static object, eg a building

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Substances = new several new types of texture assets in 2012

Contains diffuse, normal, texture, shader, ... Maps in 1 file

Easier to use in slate manager rather than classic

Can use animated texture, ex sliding door opening, instead of moving model

Can use to easily change color, ex leaves on a tree as season changes

--Tom Ogburn