I have used 3dsMax since 1990 (okay, at that time it was R3 of 3dStudio DOS, but still), and have started working with my daughter using Softimage.

We built a cube of Lagoa “Jello”, and bounced it off an uneven surface - it looks great, but I want to render it with one of my nice Max renderers (FinalRender).  I Polygonized the cloud of points, and it looks fine...I have attempted to both export and use the crosstalk, and it seems to work except no matter what I do with the various checkboxes I only get a static object in Max - no animation.

Is there a guide or tutorial out there on moving these fluids into Max, or can it not be done?

Jim Todd
Coloma, MI
(home of Deer Forest!!!)

Okay...so far I’ve tried Crosstalk - - it tells me that I must initiate things from Max, but in Max all the options look like they are setup to send TO Softimage, not receive from it.

Trying some options gets me a cube in Max...nothing else...just a cube.

Other options get me the jello shape, but with zero animation.

What am I not understanding about this?  Am I trying to do something that should never really be done (having multiple tools in the suite speak to each other)??

Does animation never come over?  If not, why is there an animation check box in the dialogs?

Frankly, this is starting to put me back where I was years ago, where I am tired of software that doesn’t ship with paper manuals.  Nice, HUGE paper manuals that explained things, and had indices and such.

Oddly, I’ve had FAR better luck getting ZBrush and Daz Studio to talk to Max, and they aren’t Autodesk products.  It seems like with what looks like about 20 ways to get information from SI to MAx, ONE of them should work.

Jim Todd
Coloma, MI
(home of Deer Forest!!!)

You have to create all objects in 3ds Max, send them to Softimage, and then in Softimage add the particle effect, and then send back to 3ds Max.

The documentation may not be printed on paper, but it is available online.

http://download.autodesk.com/glo.../files/interop_3dsmax.htm

Thanks- - - I still keep getting a failure to bring the ‘skin’ (Polyonizer) along - - -either I get the point cloud and animation, or I get the skinned surface at a static point.

I’ll continue fiddling.

Jim Todd
Coloma, MI
(home of Deer Forest!!!)

Is there a way to get the surface (not the cloud) into Max?  I’m now worried that there isn’t, because all the Youtube and other videos with Lagoa seem to have the particles not a surface.

Bummer....can I just Blobmesh the point cloud input?

Jim Todd
Coloma, MI
(home of Deer Forest!!!)