Cell Shading in Max / Exporting to Vectors

[Anonymous]

I would like to experiment with exporting some complex animations and scenes to vector (swf), and / or cell shading my output.

I’m currently fooling around with the trial version of the Illustrate plugin for MAX.

Has anyone used the Swift 3d plugin? Is it any good?

Are there any other options for cell shaded 3d in Max, aside from the somewhat limited native Ink and Paint material.

Thanks,

Lewis

[Anonymous]

There are a couple of free Render effect/VideoPost effects that will go some way towards a cel shaded look, employing simple edge detection routines for the ink and postprocessing your render for the paint, last place I saw them was over on http://www.3dcafe.com I believe

Splutterfish Brazil offers a very fast and versatile toon material
http://www.splutterfish.com/sf/gallery_view.php?photo_id=357&screen=0&cat_id=2&action=images

but is perhaps beaten by the Finalrender suite “FinalToon”

http://www.finalrender.com/products/products.php?UD=10-7888-35-788&PID=37

There is also a great plugin called Pencil+ (See also Liquid+), does some amazing NPR effects including cel shading
http://www.psoft.co.jp/

David Gould’s Illustrate is the fastest I’ve come across and is very easy to use, I’ve only glanced at Swift3D.

The Falloff map in max is a very easy way of getting good cel shaded results and a pseudo ink effect too. Mail me if you want more info.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Pete, I’ll look into it and get back to you if I need some guidance.

Thankyou for your expertise!

L.

[Anonymous]

Hiya Lewis,
I used the Swift 3d plug-in a while back and found it was only useful to a point – try and do anything advanced and it sort of craps itself!

Ian

[Anonymous]

What version of max are you using, I thought cell shading materials come with Max 5 up…..

[Anonymous]

If you’re referring to the Ink’n’Paint material, it is absolutely appallingly slow in comparison to some of the alternatives posted above

[Anonymous]

Yeah that’s the one, I haven’t used it though only ever saw a friend using it for some stills

[Anonymous]

Ink and Paint is the spawn of Satan!!

I’ve played around with an eval of Final Toon and it’s awesome. LOADS of options with regards to sketching, shading etc etc. The possibilities are pretty much endless with it. Great for doing concepts and blueprints for products.

Although only worth it if you do a lot of toon stuff, or blueprints etc….

[Author]

Posts