[Tutorial] Paths to 3ds max

[DEElekgolo]

1: Open photoshop and draw some damn shapes.

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot1.Png

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2: Make things a little interesting...

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot2.Png

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3: Copy and paste everything and paste it into a new alpha layer.

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot3.Png

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4: Press and hold ctrl and click on the alpha layer so it is selected like so.

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot4.Png

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5: Click the paths tab and click "Make work path" from the drop list.

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot5.Png

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6: Go to file>export>paths to illustrator and save the .ai file anywhere you can remember.

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot6.Png

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7: Open 3ds max and go to file>import. And select the .ai file we recently selected

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot8.Png

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8: The import options are pretty strait forward here.

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot9.Png

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9: And now we have the paths in 3ds max as splines that can be extruded, and used when modeling.

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot10.Png

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10: Be creative!

http://deelekgolo.wmclan.net/pathsto3d/screenshot11.Png

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[jocose]

Cool I hadn't thought of doing this way before. Thanks for the tut.

[NAIMA]

Would it be possible or usefull to make some sticky for tutorials? like a subforum per 3d tool with all tutorials ? like all tuts for 3dsmax , alltuts for photoshop etc?

great tut anyway :)

[Yozora]

Would it be possible or usefull to make some sticky for tutorials? like a subforum per 3d tool with all tutorials ? like all tuts for 3dsmax , alltuts for photoshop etc?

great tut anyway :)

http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=36177

You can rearrange that thread if you like to consolidate it all into 1 post, I'm sure a mod will edit the main post for you if you did :)

[itsover3]

Good stuff! never knew this thnx for sharing

[throttlekitty]

Oh cool, I never really thought of that, thanks!
Works just as well in Maya, although the default option sets the scale to zero.

[Shogun3d]

Nice! Thanks for the Tut

[Minos]

Cool tip DEElekgolo, thanks!

[perna]

Good tip. I never knew photoshop can get such clean vector results from 2d, I always use a dedicated vector app. Can you show the control points in the final result? Are there parameters to tweak the processing? Did you make all those designs for halo? ;)

[ArtsyFartsy]

Was going great until the end when you used just plain 'extrude' instead of 'Bevel Profile'.

[onionhead_o]

does it work for other version of max like 2009

[BradMyers82]

Onionhead_o: Yes, I'm not sure how far back max support has had for ai file types, but this technique has been around for a long time.

Nice tutorial DEElekgolo!

[Nysuatro]

Thats sweet. Will use it for sure.

[Jaco]

Awesome, thanks, just what I was looking for.

Perna, here's a pic (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v332/Jacoh/controlpnts.jpg) of the control points.

[perna]

That's very clean. I suppose it's based on the code in Illustrator, which makes sense. Nice! Vector editing's always been one of my beloved secret weapons, it's good to know I can do quick stuff in photoshop now and not have to fire up a whole other app