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Bigley Bake Tools

polycounter lvl 12
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jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
Website Download: Link
Dropbox Download: Link


[vv]59786305[/vv]

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Vimeo said it would get the HD working "later," so I posted the youtube as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cDk8oAPPnY&feature=youtu.be

BigleyBakeTools_Documentation.jpg

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  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    Big shout out to:
    Juan Martinez (Monster)
    Laurens Corjin (Xoliul)
    Anubis
    barigazy

    These guys were super helpful and were nice enough to take time out of their day to break things down for me and help me with my problems throughout this script.

    Thank you so much!
  • demilich
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    demilich polycounter lvl 8
    hell yea, im excited to use this man.
    thanks for sharing and for your hard work!
  • boyluya
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    boyluya polycounter lvl 10
    Cool, thanks! Definitely will try this out!
  • Computron
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    Computron polycounter lvl 7
    I will have to try this out soon.

    BTW, I like your quad menus. How did you get them to be colorful?
  • spetch
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    spetch polycounter lvl 11
    Looking forward to testing this,thanks alot
  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    Thanks guys! I hope everyone likes it!

    Computron - it is in the customize user interface > color tab somewhere... I honestly couldn't tell you which one to change because when you do change it, it doesn't actually update until you restart max. Kinda frustrating but you have to go through and really just look for anything and everything and change the color, restart, and try again. lol
  • TrampledUnderFoot
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    TrampledUnderFoot polycounter lvl 7
    Can't drag it onto a toolbar for some reason. I put it in the scripts folder since I don't have a macroscripts folder. Is that ok? Or should I just make one and put it in there?

    Looks like a really great tool. Thanks!
  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    C: \Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2012\UI\MacroScripts

    or

    C: \Users\jeremiahb\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\2012 - 64bit\enu\UI\usermacros
    (this one is you YOUR user folder and the AppData Folder is hidden by default. You can unhide it in your folder options.)

    However... if you drag it into the viewport from anywhere on your system it will actually create a copy and put it in the AppData folder and run it from there.

    As for why it is not dragging onto a toolbar I am not sure because I don't have enough info. Did it give you an error? It there no "Bigley" Catagory? Or you can see it but it won't let you drag it onto the bar?
    If you can see it in the list... make sure you are in the Toolbar Tab when you try and drag it into a toolbar and not in the keyboard tab.

    Hope that helps
  • TrampledUnderFoot
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    TrampledUnderFoot polycounter lvl 7
    I knew it had to be something on my end. :P

    Got it figured out, thanks!

    One question, any plans to add a OBJ normal map preset? Mainly for handplane and dDo use.
  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    Haven't used either so I guess I don't know what you are talking about :/
  • TrampledUnderFoot
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    TrampledUnderFoot polycounter lvl 7
    Sorry,

    Handplane is a tangent space calculator/converter. Basically, feed it your low poly and an object space map and you can convert it into the correct tangent space map for your project/engine.

    dDo is a sort of texture base generator that plugs into photoshop. Object space maps help with applying direction based details and such.
  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    Oh! you meant an Object Space Normal Map Preset...
    for some reason I thought you meant load in a lowpoly kinda like xnormal does. I read the OBJ as an OBJ file. *shrug*

    Is it really standard? I mean yeah these 2 new programs use it, but I would be curious as to how many are actually doing this on a good number of assets in a production pipeline.

    If I do it is probably not going to be anytime soon :/ I need to get on some art.
  • Quack!
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    Quack! polycounter lvl 17
    Second the object space checkbox, I use it on the majority of assets I create now that handplane is out.

    Great stuff, I am going to have to give this Mat ID workflow a go.
  • tsabszy
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    tsabszy greentooth
    Big shout out to:
    Juan Martinez (Monster)
    Laurens Corjin (Xoliul)
    Anubis
    barigazy

    These guys were super helpful and were nice enough to take time out of their day to break things down for me and help me with my problems throughout this script.

    Thank you so much!

    great job on this one Bigley! will try it out and try spread it :)
    btw, about the quad color changing, hitting "apply colors" doesn't work for changing your quad's colors? i couldn't find the place to change the colors of your quads in the colors tab, but for everything else, apply colors works for me just fine
  • sebyyc
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    sebyyc polycounter lvl 10
    tsabszy wrote: »
    great job on this one Bigley! will try it out and try spread it :)
    btw, about the quad color changing, hitting "apply colors" doesn't work for changing your quad's colors? i couldn't find the place to change the colors of your quads in the colors tab, but for everything else, apply colors works for me just fine


    Hey, about the colors...
    .in Customize User Interface
    ...Colors tab
    .....Elements: Roll-outs
    .....Scheme: Custom Colors (make sure this is selected, or the changes you make in the elements will not take place)

    Hope this helps :)
  • Inhert
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    Inhert polycounter lvl 9
    Is this only for Max 2012?
  • A-Train
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    A-Train polycounter lvl 15
    Bigley! Perfect timing :D Can't wait to try this out for my bake. Thanks!
  • J0NNYquid
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    J0NNYquid polycounter lvl 5
    Just finished up the videos, this looks fantastic, I can't wait to try it out.
  • monster
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    monster polycounter
    Cool man! Makes me want to model something, so I can normal map something. Alas, I'm just a lazy animator.
  • rocneasta
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    rocneasta polycounter lvl 9
    Cheers Jeremiah, seems like a lot of sleepless nights went into creating this
  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    Quack! - hmm. Yeah I just might have to at some point in the future. There are still a couple more presets that I wanted to add so I will try and include it in that list. But right now I really want to start a model >.< been scripting for almost 3 months straight.

    Inhert - I have tested it on max versions down to 2010 because that is what I had on my system. So officially I support 2010, 2011, 2012. I don't see any reason it wouldn't run on newer versions unless they removed any of the code I used. I don't know if it works on 2009 or lower. Just have to give it a try. Would be awesome if everyone could let me know though. :D

    tsabszy - OH! I must have been tired when I read computron's question. I was thinking rollouts... not quads. :poly136: There is an Advanced Options button under Customize User Interface > Quads Tab. I am an idiot. Sorry guys.
    And yeah there is a button are a couple of color options that don't change whenever you change the color unless you restart max. I know for sure the color of buttons that are activated or "pushed in" is one. Took me forever to find it. Got to a point where I just made everything orange that sounded right and restarted. *shrug*

    monster - ha ha! You don't have to be so nice I know my code is pretty terrible! I have a long way to go to be able to script like you do man.

    rocneasta - lol you have no idea.


    And I am glad all you guys are excited! I really didn't know if anyone else would care to use this... because it is a bit of a strange workflow when you think about it.
  • TrampledUnderFoot
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    TrampledUnderFoot polycounter lvl 7
    I'm at work so I can't test it out right now, but do we have to name the highpoly parts the same way you do in the video? Or is there a way to change that in the script to pick up something like "piece_high," and pick the all of the objects with that suffix?
  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    yeah I think I should be able to spend one more week or so to do an update on the highpoly naming system. I would like it to hold the original name of the highpolys... and not rename them to "Highpoly_*" I will see if I can't get to it after my current project which will be wrapped up in a week.
  • demilich
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    demilich polycounter lvl 8
    Hey Bigley,

    I tried your script but I get this messages on the images.
    I run the script, then when I select my lowpoly. I get the first message. Then when I deselect I get the second one.

    Any ideas on what the problem is?

    Thanks.
  • monster
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    monster polycounter
    demilich,

    If you could post your output from the 3ds Max Listener that would help him debug the error. It's in the menu MaxScript > Listener.
  • mbullister
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    mbullister polycounter lvl 18
    I'm getting the same error. The listener doesn't look helpful, it's just

    "
    >> MAXScript Rollout Handler Exception:
    -- Unable to convert: undefined to type: Integer <<
    "

    Max 2012 64bit, Windows 7.

    What's odd is that only some objects trigger the error.

    I haven't been able to get a teapot to error out, and it only happens with about half of the crafted models I've tried. Creating a primitive, attaching the error-giving object, and deleting the original primitive's elements prevents the error from happening, but resetting the object's xform doesn't. Clearing an object's channels has no effect; neither does converting it from a poly to a mesh.

    The workaround isn't ideal, because it only works for one session. If you save and reload, the problem comes right back and material ID matching will no longer work. Since you have to go through the explosion and material assignment process every time you return (or every time max crashes), it's pretty easy to imagine a scenario where this becomes slower than an exploded bake.

    I can send an offending mesh to anyone who wants to try and help identify the issue.


    Other than those hiccups, baking worked great and having clean results with one click is awesome. It's a real bummer that MR AO doesn't work with material ID matching, but Maybe Autodesk will fix the problem on their end.



    Nope, couldn't keep a straight face.
  • J0NNYquid
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    J0NNYquid polycounter lvl 5
    Just wanted to stop back here and say, after a few weeks of working with it......I love it. It speeds up my workflow considerably, and I'm consistently getting damn near flawless bakes. You're my hero.
  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    So sorry everyone. I have been extremely busy with crunch and planning a wedding and other things that life is throwing at me so I have been away from personal work. Things are broken in the script and I am aware of that error... I have an idea of what is causing it.

    I see some free time on the horizon and I will try to devote some attention to this script and release an updated version.

    For those of you muscling through it, I am glad you are liking it. I hope to make it more user friendly soon.
  • dang87
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    dang87 polycounter lvl 12
    demilich wrote: »
    Hey Bigley,

    I tried your script but I get this messages on the images.
    I run the script, then when I select my lowpoly. I get the first message. Then when I deselect I get the second one.

    Any ideas on what the problem is?

    Thanks.



    I got this problem too when I loaded the Bigley Bake Tools. Well, I went ahead and started selecting low poly and high poly pieces to assign them their Mat IDs for baking. The NOTHING ARRAY error kept popping up, kept clicking OK which right after clicking kept cause the marquee tool to activate. Right clicked to disable it and went about my merry way of selecting the groups to ID. Ran some test renders and seemed to do okay, I had no issues with the material IDs not catching their areas or anything to do with the errors boxes at all. So this may be a way to get around for the time being, it's just a nuisance to always click OK to shut the boxes and continue on. Don't know if that would work for everyone, it's working for me for the moment. I'm running Max 2013, hope that was able to help anyone. :)
  • wobyen
    About to give this a spin, it looks great in the video! I'm just figuring out all the specifics of baking, and an alternative to the explosion method sounds wonderful in my book. :-D

    Thanks so much, I'll be sure to leave some feedback.
  • J0NNYquid
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    J0NNYquid polycounter lvl 5
    I too am having the local thunk array error pop up. Forgot to grab the Listener screen/text. I'll try and remember to tomorrow, as it works fine at home, but today was the first time I've needed it at work, and it gave me that error.
  • Psyk0
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    Psyk0 polycounter lvl 18
    Links are dead :( any one could re-up? thanks.
  • tach
    Thank you for sharing! I will give it a try.
  • jeremiah_bigley
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    jeremiah_bigley polycounter lvl 12
    Hey guys sorry I have been pretty busy to fix this script. Links are dead because it is too buggy for serious use. This was my first really complex script and it definitely needs to be optimized and bug cleaned.

    There is a revamp coming in the future after I wrap up some work work.

    To settle any curiosity it is garbage currently. :P
  • Psyk0
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    Psyk0 polycounter lvl 18
    Ahh thanks for the update, i'll keep an eye out.
  • LaurentiuN
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    LaurentiuN interpolator
    yeah man super script, please make it perfect :D:D:D, thanks for sharing!!
  • J0NNYquid
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    J0NNYquid polycounter lvl 5
    Thanks for the update, it's become something I really don't care to live without :)

    Looking forward to the new version, keep up the good work!
  • kurt_hectic
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    kurt_hectic polycounter lvl 10
    Hey jeremiah,

    Could you tell me why you made this script and why it's better than standard max render to texture window ?

    I've seen your walk through and I still dunno why I should switch to this tool.

    Thanks
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