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MAX to XSI Jumpstart I wrote this in the tradition of Rick Walia’s Maya 2 XSI and Will Mendez’s Lightwave 2 XSI quickstart guides. I will cover some of the basic areas that will help the MAX users who are starting out with XSI. I find that most MAX users get tripped up on some of the workflow and basic concepts within XSI, this guide is meant to help clear up a few things and help provide a quick start. I will also add a FAQ section as needed. One of the things I recommend is looking at the User Preferences. I do this for any new application. There are lots of useful settings in XSI so get familiar with what is there. Sometimes you can even find the answer to your questions there. Contents
Sticky keys take a little getting use to, but once you do it is a very easy concept to understand and take advantage. A sticky key is a key board hot key that can toggled. If you tap the "v" key, you will turn on the Move tool. If you press and hold the "v" key, you will turn on the Move tool, but when you let up on the "v" key, you will turn off the move tool. By tapping on the "v" you are toggling on the tool and tapping it again will turn it off. That is a sticky key. So an example of a work flow would be to tap the "v" key to turn on the Move tool, then hold down the "t" key to select some vertices, let up on the "t" key and XSI will return you back to the Move Tool and now move the vertices. Sticky key timings can be adjusted under the User Preferences.
Transform
Tools Move/Translate = v The transform Panel also provides tools for Reference Planes, Proportional Modeling (MAX's Soft Selection), and Symmetry planes Unlike MAX, you can not constrain your movement by clicking on the transform gizmo. XSI uses a 3 button mouse approach to constraining axis movement. Once you get use to the workflow of a 3 button mouse, you will find that it is just as easy as using the transform gizmos from MAX. LMB = X MMB = Y RMB = Z These will work for any transform tool. But will change depending on what transform mode you are in (View is different from Local or Global orientation) XSI will always tell you what your mouse button will do. Just check the status line at the bottom of the XSI interface. This status line will work for ANY tool in XSI, not just the transform tools.
Viewport and Scene Navigation Any viewport can be changed into any of the optional views that XSI provides, including views like the Explorer, Animation Mixer, Browser, NetView, and the RenderTree as well as Front/Top/Right. Simply click on any of the viewport titles to access this list. Many of the Views can be opened into floating windows and do not have to be locked into a viewport. There are also menus for what is visible and what display mode you wish to work. These can be accessed from the "eye icon" and the WireFrame menus at each viewport.
Scene Navigation is
done by using the Explorer or XSI Explorer views. These views can show your
entire scene which contains all the available information relating to your
scene. Everything from Objects to hair simulations are found right from the
Explorer views. The Explorer views can provide quick access to any property
of any element in your scene. Clicking on the name in the Explorer will select the object. Double clicking on the name or single clicking on the icon next to the name will open the property page for that node. Property pages are the dialog boxes that you can input changes to your objects, like render visability or access to materials and clusters.
The Operator Stack vs. The Modifier Stack.
Separate Operator stacks are kept for each object. It can be found under the type Node. The type node tells you what kind of object you have selected. In the figure to the left, the operator stack is found under the Polygon Mesh node. This allows for unlimited number of undos at a per object basis. You can model one object, switch to another, then go back to the first object and have a complete construction history right down to individually moved vertices.
Think of Clusters as selection sets at the sub-object level. However a Cluster in XSI goes further then the MAX Selection set. A cluster is a group of vertices, edges, or polygons. Select a polygon or multiple polygons and press CTRL - L or under Edit>Create Cluster. This creates the Cluster. Clusters are located in the Cluster folder under the type node in the Explorer view. You can also have quick access to a selected object's cluster by clicking on the Clusters button under the Selection Panel on the right Master Control Panel (MCP). Each type of cluster can contain specific data to each cluster. For example, you can create an object that has 10 polygon clusters. You can then select one of those clusters and apply a material or you can select the polygons first and apply a material. XSI will automatically create the cluster and assign the material. This function is very similar to using MAX's Material IDs. Except that the material resides on that cluster where MAX would reference an ID that would reference a material. Clusters can be used for local deformations. You can select a group of vertices and apply a QuickStretch deformation. XSI will automatically create a cluster and apply the deformation to that newly created cluster. The deformation will only affect those vertices in that cluster. You can also create the cluster first then apply the deformation. Clusters are also used for vertex weighting to Skeletons as well as useful for shape animation.
End These are a few of the key concepts and workflows. Of course there are many areas that can be covered. But I just wanted to touch on a few areas that MAX users should know when first getting started in XSI. I will add to this quick start when I have time.
FAQ (work in progress) Q: Why is the bottom of
XSI Being Cut Off Q: Why won't XSI resize
when I resize the XSI application Q: Can I customize the
Right Click Context Sensitive menu like I can in MAX. Q: After modeling for 2
hours, XSI really slows down. What gives? Q: Is there a Material
Editor in XSI?
If you wish to have other concepts and workflows added to this list, or have some additional FAQ questions added please contact me via private message at XSIBASE.com Vmpre - XSIBase User |
