Some questions about bringing 3dsmax into Second Life answered

Some good questions from Glen;

Is it possible to model meshes in max, and export them to second life?

And if this IS a possiblity, can you export animation keyframes with them? Meaning, can we export our own models from max, into 2nd life, and have them animated?

If so, this will really help open up the potential of action that occurs in our machinima stories.

The answer to this (yes) is quite complex, posted below is some information from http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Sculpted_Prims:_3d_Software_Guide

If you wish to make what are known as 'sculpted' prims I suggest reading that whole wiki.

In terms of animation, there is a massive range of animations to choose from for Second Life avatars in world, or you can import .bvh files(avimator or poser export these, I am not 100% sure about 3ds).

The best help of all will be jumping in (you can sign up at secondlife.com, search for Victoria University once in if you need space to build) and having a look around. Like any OOP (object oriented programming, think flash) - it has quite a steep learning curve, but after those initial few hours you will realise just how much is possible and how easily it can be achieved.

Thanks for the questions, and keep them coming. I look forward to catching up with those of you I haven't met yet.

3d Studio Max (Autodesk)

• Website: Autodesk 3ds Max
• Cost: US$3495. Educational License: ~US$200. Subscription: ~US$500/year.
• Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP, Windows Vista (with version 9.1)
• Trial version available?: Yes, 30-day demo, full features
• User Scripting? Yes, MAX Script/plugins
• Modeling Methods: Polygons, NURBS, Subdivsion, Basic Brush Sculpting
• Built-in Texture Baking? Yes (some functions only in version 8 and higher)
• Current Sculpt Map Support?: Yes
  • Prim Composer for 3ds Max Prim Composer is a complete offline builder for Second Life and OpenSim. Create regular prims and sculpts within 3ds Max and import them into either Second Life or OpenSim as linked sets. Hierarchical grouping and gizmo scaling are supported within 3ds Max. (from the maker of SculptGenMax) Open Source.
  • Method 1 by Gearsawe Stonecutter, uses a premade template file.
  • Method 2 by Abu Nasu, uses a shader. Download the Materials file here, or the updated Materials file here. Read the tutorial here.
    • A varient of Abu's methood by Chip Midnight uses a projection modifier and can handle arbitrary shapes but requires Max version 8 or higher. The tutorial is here.

Formerly Maya's main competitor, especially in the game industry. Then Autodesk (the makers of Max) bought out Alias (the makers of Maya) a couple years ago. So far the company is developing both products separately, marketing Maya at the movie industry and Max at the game developers, but they have long had comparable feature sets, and in the future it's likely that there will be tighter integration between the two. A choice between Maya and Max generally comes down to user preference and (particularly in our case) plugin support. Some users have said that Max is easier for a newbie to learn than Maya and certain basic controls share similarities with SL's build tools (such as shift-drag to copy).

Resources

SL Prims to 3ds Max - A prim building plugin and export system for Max. Open source.

Prim Composer for 3ds Max - Prim Composer is based on SL Prims and SculptGenMax. 3ds Max offline building plugin for both prims and sculpties. Open Source.