As weird as this is, this is my first broadcast project. I basically need to make a book open. Here is basically what I’m trying to achieve.

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/tutorials/animating/266.html

The difference is, because I’m using max, and I’m ahceiving it not by using a “skeleton joint”, but rather attaching the plane to a dummy object, and animating the object rotating at 180 degrees. Then to get that bend effect I’m keyframe a bend modifier. I would rather use a method like the Maya tutorial as it get’s it done using just the skeleton joint.

My problem is that (like in the tutorial link above) my points move from the X-axis. How could I lock it down?

Any and all help would be super appreciated.

Thank you,

Michael.

Max 8 through 2011, Windows 7 x64.
Vray/Mental Ray
NVidia Quadro FX3800.
Core i7 970 3.20GHz, 24Gb Ram

I’ve not tried animating pages from a book yet, but you can try this script. I briefly looked at it, but it looks like a better solution (unless you want to animate everything by hand).
Link

3ds Max 2009 SP1, 2010 SP1
Maya 2012
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Dual Intel Xeon E5520, 6 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 OC

Wow thank you for that. That really does help me out a lot. The good news is that, this is a very short time lined project. The bad news is that, next time I will have to learn how to do this on my own....which I will probably do right after. Really though, thank you.

Best,

Michael.

Max 8 through 2011, Windows 7 x64.
Vray/Mental Ray
NVidia Quadro FX3800.
Core i7 970 3.20GHz, 24Gb Ram

So basically I’m convinced that max is not the best tool for animating. Still can’t figure this out. :(

Max 8 through 2011, Windows 7 x64.
Vray/Mental Ray
NVidia Quadro FX3800.
Core i7 970 3.20GHz, 24Gb Ram

Where are you getting stuck?

3ds Max 2009 SP1, 2010 SP1
Maya 2012
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Dual Intel Xeon E5520, 6 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 OC

Well, I tried using that maxscript you provided me with, which it works excellent, but, it’s not producing the results I need for this project. My problem is that, I made a hard cover book, And I used a bend modifier to get it to open - I hate the bend modifier unless it’s to do simple bends. I’m trying to find results like this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZDa1psa970

Notice how the hard part of the book doesn’t bend, but it kind of like flexes open. Also, when I use the bend modifier, the geometry moves, and then the pages inside the book become off center. If I attach the pages to the book, the bend affects them. Basically, I’m literally trying to achieve what is happening in the video i provided.

Max 8 through 2011, Windows 7 x64.
Vray/Mental Ray
NVidia Quadro FX3800.
Core i7 970 3.20GHz, 24Gb Ram

I’d say it’d be easier to just rig a couple of bones and animate them since it’s a hard cover. If you have Max 2009, you can take a look at the attached scene, but I’ll describe how I went about it.

I created a spline in the shape of the book, used the extrude and shell modifiers, converted to an editable poly.
Made some bones to follow each piece of the book.
Assigned the skin modifier and the bones to the book cover.
Adjusted the weights for the vertices to each bone to overlap in the corner areas.
Added an edit poly modifier to add more segments then added a turbosmooth.
Then animated the bones opening and closing.

3ds Max 2009 SP1, 2010 SP1
Maya 2012
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Dual Intel Xeon E5520, 6 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 OC

	Attachment
16985_oNpc0RoepJep6przQ6e8.zip

Nice MK, I wondered how a good binder could be done.

Max 2012
Windows 7 64 SP1

I’m sure other people could tackle this quite easily, but I can tell you how I might approach it.
What kind of binder where you thinking (soft, hard, etc.)?

3ds Max 2009 SP1, 2010 SP1
Maya 2012
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Dual Intel Xeon E5520, 6 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 OC

Hi MK,
I was referring to the example you already posted (Book Open-Max file), it looked good.
But, here is a file I worked on the other day after looking at this thread,
I was using the FinalRender renderer and just transferred all the materials to MentalRay
for the benefit of those downloading the file, and not really set them correctly.

Max 2012
Windows 7 64 SP1

	Attachment
17174_M5SmaY5jpD0LetYss0oX.zip

I gotcha. Thanks for the compliment. I read it a little too quick and thought you were asking how to make a binder, like a thin one that bends when you open it ...

3ds Max 2009 SP1, 2010 SP1
Maya 2012
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Dual Intel Xeon E5520, 6 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 OC