Fall Harvest: Custom Meshes for RPC Creation

Begin in 3ds Max by drawing the outline of your mesh. Users typically load an image that that they used for creating an RPC into the background and trace it using splines. Don’t worry about the size. This is determined at the time the RPC is created. Be sure and close the spline.

I have created an outline of the pumpkin from October’s blog and create a shape to represent the base of the RPC. The tip of the triangle depicts the front of the RPC. Right click on these and select Convert to editable mesh.

Once I have created the shapes for my RPC’s mesh I arrange them the way the final mesh will look.

To export the mesh, select the geometry to be exported and then click on the 3ds Max icon (File button), Export then Export Selected. Choose AutoCAD *.DXF as the file type when naming the file. Choose the option for Selected Objects and click on OK.

At this point a .DXF file should be successfully created, however we will need to convert this into a .msh file to use it with RPC Creator. This can be performed by using the Convert to RPC Icon Tool. This file can be downloaded here:

ConvertToRPCIconInstall.exe

Once installed open the Convert to RPC Icon Tool and select the .DXF file just generated and then select a name and creation path for the RPC Icon Mesh file that will be created. Click on Convert and the .msh file will be created.

This is the file that will be used during the RPC Creation process. Select the custom mesh option and then browse for this file.

When the RPC is added to a scene it will now have a mesh representation prior to rendering so that a better example is given of what the actual rendered object will look like. Custom meshes save RPC users the time necessary to have to reposition objects that could have been placed more accurately using this technique.