Sky Background - CADTutor Tutorial 3DS Max

[MillerMG]

Hello Everyone,

 

I cannot get the sky background to come out right. The image used has a ground level with the sky. I can't get the horizon to line up with the uhhh...ground? haha. It comes up all being blue with no ground...Any ideas?

[MillerMG]

I figured out how to place the image. When I change my view from say a left view to a orthographic view of the top, left, and front it rotates the objects but the background view stays in the same place. Nothing about this looks real at all.

[MillerMG]

Here is one image I took of the work I am messing up on.

[MillerMG]

This is the ortho view after rotating the viewport

[Cad64]

When you're setting up a project for rendering, you don't want to be in an orthographic view. You need to be in Perspective view. This will make everything look more realistic.

 

As for background images, I always add them in Photoshop after rendering. This gives me the freedom to try out different images in case I decide that I don't like the image I used in the render, which happens all the time. I can also easily apply effects to the background and add more elements like trees, buildings, etc. without having to do a lot of image editing or re-rendering.

 

By the way, what version of Studio Max are you using? 2016?

[MillerMG]

Thanks CAD64. I am using 2016. Is it not possible for the background to move with the viewport? Is it locked in that one location? Thank you very much for the ortho vs. perspective views!

[Cad64]

If you followed that tutorial then yes, it's locked to the background. You don't want it to move when you orbit around the model though. The background image needs to be facing the camera for rendering. The idea is for the background image to be fixed in place any then you pan/zoom/orbit your model around until it fits the background image.

 

But, if you want the background to move with the model when you orbit around you will need to create a flat plane behind your model, with the same aspect ratio as your image, and then apply the image to the plane. Here's a little tutorial. It shows you how to set up a planes for reference images, but it's the same idea for setting up a background image on a plane: http://blog.digitaltutors.com/setup-reference-images-easily-3ds-max/

[Cad64]

I just checked out some of the Studio Max tutorials here and they really are quite old. Some of them reference using version 5 and others talk about VIZ which has been dead and gone for nearly 10 years. For the most part, the techniques discussed in the tutorials are still relevant, just a little dated, but in some cases there are better/faster/easier ways of doing things now in the newer versions.

[MillerMG]

Thats exactly what I thought about the tutorials. They are somewhat dated but still really helped me out. I messed up and started on the newer version ones because I thought they would pertain to me more, but ended up confusing the heck out of me. haha. As for the background and the tutorial you attached, I cannot wait to check that out! Thank you so much for your advice as well as guidance.

[Cad64]

No problem. Happy to help.