swf renderer for 3D Studio MAX?

[Xystes]

Does anyone know where I can find a (free?) swf renderer for 3d studio MAX?

[GMF ™]

Moving this to the 3D section since you dont got any help in the Lounge

[theMatrix]

Thanks, GMF.

No, there is nothing for free. Your choices are

1) Illustrate! - http://www.davidgould.com . Plug-in. An excellent toon renderer with some ability to render MAX scenes to .SWF.

2) Vecta3D-MAX - http://www.vecta3d.com . Plug-in renderer. Renders flat fills and outlines.

3) Swift3D - http://www.swift3d.com . Imports .3DS files. You can export your MAX scene (within limitations imposed by the .3DS file format) and import them into Swift to be rendered to .SWF.

Prices for these solutions range from about $150 to about $300.

good luck!

[Lost SanitY]

Vecta3D is only $60 US, so it is definetly the cheaper alternative (and the one im prob going to have to take)

[gerbick]

The $60 is for the standalone, not the Vecta-MAX plug-in...

Originally posted by Lost SanitY
Vecta3D is only $60 US, so it is definetly the cheaper alternative (and the one im prob going to have to take)

[St= Z]

If your looking to output animations to flash then reconsider buying a vectorizer.

I cant speak for the others (although I suspect they operate the same) but vecta 3d simply outputs a series (frame by frame) of vector images creating a vector animation based on frames, and the file size is astronomical.

That is, the program doesnt send instructions to move the vectors around to create the animation, it just makes a series of pictures(so why make it vector? got me). Furthermore these untextured unshaded vector images are larger than a bmp or jpg, this is true even when you only render empty outlines without intersections!. The only use for this program is to vectorize an image, not to create managble flash animations, you are much better off just outputing your animation as a series of jpg's or bmp's, importing them and then tracing the bitmaps in Flash, it will look better and the file size smaller.

I know someone who found this out the hard way and was infuriated, I cant blame him. The program is useless for animations.

anyone find the same?

[theMatrix]

In order to get reasonable file sizes out of Vecta3D-MAX, you generally have to break each frame apart and apply 'optimize curves'. Then, let the flash geometry optimizer take over. For outlines, this works all right. It could mean having to re-fill by hand if you used flat fills for the original render.

In addition to more robust shading, Swift 3D produces far more compact files. I use it regularly with great success for both stills and animations - as do at least a dozen other people in the forum.

Bitmap tracing - if you want really high quality - is well known to exceed a highly compressed .jpg in size in numerous cases. This is generally the method of last resort.

[St= Z]

Swift 3d ehh,
gotta try that one. Not big on the jpgs myself, dont like that graininess.
I still cont comprehend the lunacy of sequenced vectors.
But if the file size is really better it seems worthwile.
I've just been jaded by vecta i guess. lol