I’ve used 3DS Max for years to develop some of the images on fpnotebook.com, such as this image.
The 3D packages tend to be expensive, have a steep learning curve, and I’ve invested in an expensive 3d Human Model for 3DS Max; I have therefore resisted updating my 2010 version of 3DS Max. However, I was blown away by Emily Holden’s Lynda.com course Medical Animations in Maya. I’ve also found her website photoshop and illustrator pearls for medical illustration very helpful. I had been considering moving to Maya for several years, since it seems to be the direction that Autodesk has been moving, and this seemed like a good time to learn Maya.
One of the problems in moving to Maya is in moving the expensive 3D Human Model from 3DS max. These do move over to Maya fairly well for rendering via FBX files, but I had loads of trouble on working with their geometry, since they are 3DS Max triangle Meshes and not Maya quad Meshes.
After having completed several online Maya courses, my first independent goal was to draw arteries on the surface of a pre-existing heart model. After several fruitless attempts, here is the successful recipe I used:
- Export FBX from 3DS Max with quad geometry (based on this forum response):
- Select the geometry in 3dS Max and Convert to Editable Poly
- Export to FBX and uncheck “preserve edge orientation” in the dialog box
- Create a curve on surface in Maya
- Duplicate the target surface and make the surface live
- This may not be necessary
- Choose one of the curve drawing tools
- Draw the course of the coronary artery on the surface
- Turn off live surface when done
- Duplicate the target surface and make the surface live
- Extrude a circle along the surface curve
- Create a NURBS circle with the diameter of the artery
- Rotate the circle to be perpendicular to the start of the curve
- This is important – the artery will be irregular if the angle is not 90
- Alternatively could draw the curve first in 2D and then drop onto surface
- Align the circle center vertex with the curve end control vertex
- Select both the circle and curve
- Right click on the curve and select “control vertex”
- Select the control vertex that is at the start of the extrude
- Should be at the end of the curve that was drawn first
- If starting at the opposite end (and result black), reverse normals
- Choose the move tool
- Hold down the “V” Key to snap to points
- Move the circle and it will align with the start point
- Open the Surfaces > Extrude dialog
- Style: Tube
- Result position: At Path
- Orientation: Profile Normal
- Output Geometry: Polygons
- Type: Quads
- Tessellation: Standard Fit
- Modify the extruded curve
- Rename as coronary artery
- Can modify the extrude in the channel box editor
- Set “Use Component Pivot” to Component Pivot
- Right click and Assign New Material
Addendum. I had a few complex 3ds max meshes that needed conversion to poly quads and the simple approach above did not work. Here is a max-script I created that automates this process based on this knowledge base page:
--script for 3dsMax to convert mesh to polys, and polys to quads --export this to fbx select objects turnToPoly = Turn_to_Poly () turnToPoly.limitPolySize = on turnToPoly.maxPolySize = 4 modPanel.addModToSelection (turnToPoly) modPanel.addModToSelection (Edit_Poly ()) maxFileName --copy this and paste in export dialog -- OpenFbxSetting()