[This is post is part of a series of tutorials.]
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Topic 4: Posing - Multiple Characters
We know how to work with one character, and that's super awesome. However, the fun comes in having lots of characters, right? Right.
So, I wanted to go over how to do that. It's not difficult at all, but there's a certain way to do it so that you don't end up going insane.
So, for my example, I've just got my female Shepard open. Let's say I want to do a cool picture with my female Shepard and Jack, since those are the two models I've used in these tutorials so far.
How do I get two models into one file? Easy, just use the Merge functionality in 3ds Max.
Real quick, I just want to point out that Merge is for merging in the contents of one .max file with another. I have all of my characters saved off into their own .max files by themselves, already textured and good to go. If you don't already have that, you may want to do that now.
Before we even do a Merge though, we want to sort of get ready for the file first.
The first thing you want to do is to make sure you have a way to select the whole model that's already there. Ctrl-A won't do the trick anymore since we'll have two people. The way to do that is to create a Selection Set. These are very handy. It's basicallly like it sounds. It's a preset selection group that you can custom make so you can easily select items that normally would be quite tedious or difficult to do by hand each time you needed the group.
To make a selection set:
- Ctrl-A to select the entirety of the model and its bones.
- Up in the tool bar, find the text type-in box that says "Create Selection Set" (it has a curly bracket ABC icon next to it).
- Type in whatever you want to name your selection set. I'll be naming mine FShep.
That's how you make a selection set. If you click on that ABC icon next to the box you just typed in, you can see all of your named selection sets. You should see the one you just made. If you click on the plus next to it, it'll expand so you can see exactly what's included in the selection set.To use a selection set...
- Click on the drop down arrow next to the selection set type-in box.
- Click on the name of your selection set.
So, now we have a way to select just the first model, which is great. The next thing we should do is move the model off to the side a bit, since our next model will be merged in at exactly the origin, which is (0,0,0).
To move it, just use the selection set to select the whole model. Then use the translate tool by pushing W.
Just move the model off to the side a bit so the other model has some room. It'll still work just fine if you don't move the model, but it just looks visually confusing, and the model needs to be moved anyway since I want to be able to see both models for the render.
Okay, so now that there's a space for the second model, we're ready to Merge. To do this...
- Click on the Max icon in the top left corner.
- Click the arrow by Import.
- Click on Merge.
- Navigate to the .max file that you want to merge in. In my case, it's just Jack.max.
- Click Open.
- You'll see a new dialog pop up. It's asking what contents of this Max file you'd like to merge in. You'll want to say All (assuming it's just the character by him or herself). If you have lights in the scene or cameras that you don't want merged in, you can uncheck those boxes on the side, and they won't be included when you hit all. Don't forget to click the All button before saying OK. If you don't, nothing will get merged in.
- Another new dialog box should pop up asking about duplicate names. This is because the rigging's pretty much the same. What you want to do here is check Apply to All Duplicates, then hit Auto-Rename. Max will auto-append numbers to the bones so that all of the second model's duplicately named objects will be like jawBone01, and your main model will have jawBone. This helps decrease the insanity when you use your object lister to find specific things. You'll know by the numbers whose objects are whose.
- You may get another dialog box asking about duplicate names for materials. (That's if you neglected to name your materials, which I occasionally do from time to time.) Just say auto-rename here too.
Before you click off of your model, be sure to make a selection set while you still have it selected.
Just type in the name up at the top, like we did for the first one. I'm calling mine Jack, since that's who I Merged in.
From there, it's all the same process as before with regards to posing and whatnot. There's just two copies of everything now. Twice the work but twice the fun!
If you want more models in, just use the same process and be sure to use Auto-Rename to keep the headaches away from everything being named exactly the same.
Okay, that's all I can think of for Merging and using multiple models! Now we'll move onto lighting!
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