RIP Soulburnscripts for 3dsmax: The Time Has Come

The day has finally come, and here is the final version of the SoulburnScripts, compatible with Max 2022. Get them here:

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/scripts/soulburnscripts_for_3dsmax.htm

With this version of 3dsmax, maintenance is now gone, and the only way to get 3dsmax is rental only, a software scheme that I disagree with, see this article for a deeper explanation why:

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/rental_only_software/rental_only_software.htm

Therefor, Max 2022 will be my last copy of max. I'll be using it for the foreseeable future, and may move to something else such as blender one day if my computer breaks down and I can no longer authorize this last copy of max on a new one. The Soulburnscripts will likely continue to be usable in future copies of max, at least until Autodesk changes something in the software that breaks compatibility. I'll be keeping them on my website frozen in time, but they will receive no more updates from myself.

This new reality has given me a chance to reflect on the scripts, and the max community in general. I first joined the 3dsdos community on Compuserve back in the mid 90s, the forum was filled with so many helpful people that gave me advice, critiques, and support as I learned the software. I remember fondly the day that there was mention of some custom plugins written by Blur Studios that would be given away for free, and Tim Miller, the head of Blur, offering me a sneak peak, as he was interested in potentially hiring me once I finished my schooling. Those plugins were written by Steve Blackmon and Scott Kirvan, makers of the Brazil Rendering System, and life long friends to this day.

I graduated and moved to California to work at Blur summer of 1999, and along with the plugins developed by Steve and Scott, I started writing maxscripts to help automate my process (and a bit later Brandon Davis joined in the fun). Following in the footsteps of blurbeta, we released these scripts for free on the net to help out other members of the community, and the BlurScripts were born!

3 years later, when I left Blur and moved to San Francisco to work at Pixar, I couldn't continue to work on the blurscripts, so I took the opportunity to take the scripts I used the most and rewrite them from scratch, adding features and producing much cleaner code, and the SoulburnScripts were first released May 8th 2005, once again free to the public. The first pack contained 11 scripts, and eventually grew to a total of 86. I was never a particularly good coder, but I prided myself on writing scripts that would save people valuable time, time best spent on the more artistic aspect of cg, instead of doing the same boring tasks over and over again. Along the way, I've received so many emails from people who've used the scripts to speed up their workflow, people asking for new features, even the odd donation for the time I spent writing and maintaining the scripts, and to each and every one of you who interacted with me in any way over the years I give you my eternal thanks.

Change is inevitable. I know it's standard for old people to say "Things used to be better in the old days", but the truth is more nuanced. The max community has had many ups and downs, times when I felt the software was moving forward, and times when the software was going backwards. There were probably more good times towards the beginning, but at that time the computer graphics industry was new and anything was possible, so that excitement of course would lead to more good days. Just 5 years ago I feel max had another resurgence with the developers being given a chance to push forward, and really getting us some awesome tools. But the rental only thing that has been mandated from corporate has really put a dark cloud over the project, at least in my opinion. I know many of the current developers, and they are good people, talented people, creative people, and people who want to do what's right for the community. Creatives are supposed to be kept in check by the business side of things, but sometimes the business side gets too strong and instead of being a force of balance, they become an impediment. Wish it wasn't the case, but I've seen it time and again.

Being a part of the 3dsmax community has been one of my greatest joys, I've made so many amazing friends and had fantastic times at Siggraph and Autodesk University. It's all about the people. And it has been my privilege to offer all of you, the users of my scripts, what help I could to make your workflow a little cleaner and faster for the last 20 years.

I'll still be around of course, I'll be posting new artwork on artstation: https://www.artstation.com/ArtOfSoulburn I'll be posting new art lessons on composition theory and other art topics on my youtube: https://www.youtube.com/artofsoulburn, and I have a book I hope to release later this year of scifi megastructures: http://www.neilblevins.com/megastructures/megastructures.htm So hopefully you'll still follow along. But it's finally time to say goodbye to my old friend. 

Rest In Peace Soulburnscripts!

This is Neil Blevins (Soulburn), signing off.

New Photobash Pack from Utah

Added a photobash picture pack from Arches National Park in Utah to Artstation and Gumroad. Great for concept art, matte paintings and general reference. 

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/photobash/Soulburn_PhotobashAssetPack_UtahArchesNationalPark_1.htm

Used these photos extensively for many of my "The Story of Inc" artwork.

 

 

New Photoshop Brush Pack

Added a Photoshop Brush pack of Tree Silhouettes to artstation and Gumroad, great for far away trees and super closeup trees that don't need any interior details.

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/brushes/Soulburn_BrushAssetPack_TreeSilhouettes_1.htm

And here's a painting I did many years ago with these brushes, along with a tutorial discussing how to make your own tree brushes

http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/tree_brush/tree_brush.htm

 

 

Revised and New Assets Available On Gumroad and Artstation Marketplace

Began the process of moving over my art assets to their new home on Gumroad / ArtStation marketplace. https://gumroad.com/artofsoulburn or https://www.artstation.com/artofsoulburn/store

Each pack contains a mix of previously available assets, updated assets and brand new assets. Hopefully you'll find the new stuff worth the $1-2 I'm asking for each pack.

First up is my texture pack, now with 15 brand new high res textures. Metal, Concrete, Paint, Rust, Cloth, Leather, Marble, Weathering. Check them out here http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/textures/Soulburn_TextureAssetPack_Variety_1.htm

Next is my robot material pack. If you use 3dsmax and vray, everything you need to make a good rusty and worn industrial robot. http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/materials/Soulburn_MaterialAssetPack_Robots_1.htm

Used the robot materials to do all the texturing on my "Inc The Robot"

And here's a video tutorial showing you the best way to use these materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogqAWmFTYck

Third pack is my material variety pack, 32 materials including Concrete, Pottery, Plastic, Marble, Clay, Fabric, Leather, Glass, Metals, and Test / Utility materials.  http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/materials/Soulburn_MaterialAssetPack_Variety_1.htm

And finally, once you've applied the materials to your models, you'll want some neutral lighting rigs to test out your materials for consistency. http://www.neilblevins.com/art_assets/env/Soulburn_EnvAssetPack_NeutralLightRig_1.htm 

And here's a tutorial discussing the value of a good neutral lighting rig, and how to make your own: http://www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/neutral_lighting_rig/neutral_lighting_rig.htm

That's it for now. And I have 4 more packs of all new assets in progress of reference pictures, brushes, previs models and spaceship textures that I hope to have ready in the coming weeks.

SoulburnScripts Updated April 9th 2020

Welcome to the 2nd to last edition of the Soulburnscripts update. As I posted last month, since Autodesk has gone rental only, I will no longer be updating these scripts come May 2021. So here's the latest pack that works with 2021, and I'll speak to you next year at this time for the final script pack compatible with max 2022.

The scripts have been now fully tested in Max 2021!

Updated 2 older Maxscripts:

vrayMatteManager: Added ability to make objects a matte object with no shadow catching ability.
modelPreparer: Newer versions of vray no longer compatible with Standard Materials, so now it uses vray materials if vray is selected as your renderer.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

Thanks to everyone for your support.

RIP Soulburnscripts for 3dsmax

The Soulburnscripts is a suite of tools for 3dsmax that I initially wrote back in 2002. A little background, I worked from 1999 - 2002 at Blur Studio in Venice California, where I helped write the Blurscripts. Once I left for Pixar in 2002, I could no longer maintain the Blurscripts for obvious legal reasons, so I wrote a whole new set of tools from scratch, and released them publicly that year, dubbed the "Soulburnscripts". I have supported and added to these free tools over the last 18 years, and I am honored that they have been used at a bunch of vfx houses, videogame companies, and by dozens of freelancers on projects too numerous to name.

Well, all good things sadly must come to an end. As many of you have read, Autodesk is going 100% rental only in May 2021, and this means that the Soulburnscripts will be discontinued at that time.

https://cgpress.org/archives/autodesk-to-end-maintenance-plans.html

I am 100% against Rental Only software, if you want to read about my reasons, I've made a separate post here: http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/rental_only_software/rental_only_software.htm that explains in detail all the reasons rental Only software is bad, and why I will not purchase such software.

So since max 2022, which will likely be released Apr 2021, will be the last version of the software I can buy with my maintenance plan, I can no longer continue to develop or maintain the scripts after that time.

So what does that mean for you, the user of the scripts? In April 2021, I will release one last update to the scripts, compatible with 3dsmax 2022. No further update will be released. I will keep the scripts in that form on my website in perpetuity, frozen in time. The good news, scripts don't need to be recompiled, so they should work in future versions of 3dsmax. At least for awhile. It is likely that 3dsmax will eventually change the location of where the scripts need to go. Or change some maxscript calls that will cause the scripts to no longer function. If that's the case, then they are truly dead. If someone who has bought the rental only version of 3dsmax wants to modify the script pack to be compatible with later versions, and wants to distribute it for FREE on their website, be my guest. But my involvement will end April 2021.

Some people have asked why I don't just get myself on the 3dsmax beta so I can continue to get the software for free without having to get the rental only copy. That to me is not what this is about. I am taking a moral stance here. I do not want to participate in a rental only system. Just because I might be able to avoid it doesn't make it ok that other people cannot, I do not want special treatment, I want all customers to be treated fairly.

A number of people have also asked would I consider moving to new software like Blender. If I was still a kid in college, the answer would be yes. But I have a family and full time job, and as such, do not have the spare time to both learn a brand new 3d package to the same level I know 3dsmax, and no time to port over all of that code. This is a fact Autodesk is actually counting on. They know it's tough to relearn everything, and so they use that to persuade you to take the easy route and just buy in to their rental only scheme.

My plan is to use 3dsmax 2022 until I retire 20 years from now. :) Yes, it's possible that 10 years in the future my computer will give out and I will no longer be able to use my copy of max. If that's the case, then yes, I may move over to new software, since I will have no other choice. But that's a big if, and its very far away. I will say that my last copy of Photoshop was CS6, since they also moved over to rental only, and here I am 8 years later still using CS6, the latest version of the software has almost no features I would need to do my artwork. So I am hoping to have a similar experience with 3dsmax.

In closing, I would like to thank each and every one of you who has used this software, sent me bug reports, asked for new features, given me a donation, or just been a part of the 3dsmax community. I started with 3dstudio DOS and joined the community on Compuserve back in 1994-95, and have been a proud member of the 3dstudio community ever since. I have had a chance to work with or meet so many amazing people thanks to this community, from the original people who made the software, to the super users, to the next generation of 3dsmax developers and designers who picked up the mantle. A huge part of who I am today is because of our strong community, and I have been very sad these past few years watching it slowly die off. But change is inevitable, and not all change is good.

I will continue to post artwork and cg educational material (mostly 2d stuff now) for the rest of my days, so I hope you continue to follow along. Below are my various social media contacts. Let's raise a glass to the 3dsmax that we all knew and love! It's been quite a run.

http://twitter.com/ArtOfSoulburn
http://www.facebook.com/ArtOfSoulburn
http://www.instagram.com/artofsoulburn/
http://www.artstation.com/artist/ArtOfSoulburn

- Neil

20th Anniversary

20 years ago today (June 24th 1999), I started working at Blur Studio in Venice California, so today marks my 20th Anniversary of being a professional artist in the entertainment industry. I have been so lucky to work with so many amazing people, 3 years at Blur, almost 16 at Pixar, a year of freelance, and now I continue my journey at Monolith Productions. I look forward to another 20 years of collaborating on amazing projects with fantastic people, and then a busy retirement of making scifi art books. Thanks to everyone who helped me along the way, I so appreciate you all!

SoulburnScripts Updated April 25th 2019

The scripts have been now fully tested in Max 2020!

New Maxscripts:

vrayMatteManager: Allows you to turn on or turn off the shadow catching Matte properites of selected objects for vray.

Updated 7 older Maxscripts:

groupWithPoint: Added ability to place the point at the origin.
iDSetter: Fixed a crash bug when using SaveDef
materialInfoDisplayer: Added "Top Level Materials On Selected Objects" function. So if you choose "Materials On Selected Objects" and you have a multi Subobject material you will get that material and all submaterials. If you use "Top Level Materials On Selected Objects", you will only get the material assigned to the object itself, no submaterials.
modelPreparer: Updated GroupWithPoint function to fix crash bug.
objectDropper: Added a pick button. So now you can select the object to drop to, hit add, and thens elect the objects you want to drop. Or you can do it backwards, select the objects you want to drop, then use Pick to choose the object you want to drop to.
objectPainter: Defaults now to no Prefix on newly created objects. Now you can have the new objects created on the active layer, or have them keep their original layer. If you choose Actve layer, the script now gives you an error if you try and create objects on a hidden layer. If you REALLY want to paint objects on a hidden layer, unhide the layer, hit the "Paint" button in the UI, then rehide the layer to circumvent the system.
vertPlacer: Added ability to place verts at Min or Max, not just Average.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

Thanks to everyone for your support.

SoulburnScripts Updated Sept 26th 2018

Updated 10 older Maxscripts:

cameraFromPerspView: Added ability to place the newly created camera on a new layer.
cameraLensPackager: Fixed an issue where button tooltips wouldn't update properly.
groupWithPoint: Added ability to place the point at the lowest point instead of centered. This can be helpful when the object is sitting on the floor and you want to have the pivot point on the floor as well.
imagePlaneMaker: Layer is places the templates is now called "_imagePlaneMaker" so it appears at the top of the layer stack.
objectReplacer: Now you can keep your user properties as well when copying.
snapShoter: Newly create objects remain on the layer their original started on.
soulburnAssetLoader: Changed the name of the Environment layer to "_EnvSAL" so it always shows up at the top of the Alphabetical Layer list.
splinePainter: Fixed a bug that would crash the script if you tried loading some presets.
texmapPreview: Fixed some code so the script now works with vray next.
twoDPlanView: Cameras are now placed in a "_Cams" layer.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

Thanks to everyone for your support.

SoulburnScripts Updated Apr 7th 2018

The scripts have been now fully tested in Max 2019!

Updated 2 older Maxscripts:

twoDPlanView: Added 3 modes, "Scene", "Scene Visible" and "Selection", which should allow you to more carefully choose what objects the script should work on.  
instanceFinder: Modified the code and interface a bit, no new functionality.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

SoulburnScripts Updated Oct 16th 2017

Updated 7 older Maxscripts:

bitmapCollector: Added vray bitmap support.
curvatureMaker: All of the maxscript names have been changed for the Data Modifier in max 2018, so added some code to make the script compatible.
curvatureManager: All of the maxscript names have been changed for the Data Modifier in max 2018, so added some code to make the script compatible.
blendedBoxMapMaker: Fixed some UI that wasn't disabling properly.
blendedCubeProjectionMaker: Fixed some UI that wasn't disabling properly.
cameraMapTemplateRenderer: Added better error handling.
sLib: Added sLibGetMultitilesFromMaps.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

Thanks to everyone for your support.

SoulburnScripts Updated May 14th 2017

The scripts have been now fully tested in Max 2018!

Updated 2 older Maxscripts:

circleArrayMaker: Fixed a bug where a rounding error would cause the copies to be rotated an incorrect amount.
pipeMaker: Added ability to fill a box with the pipes. Added ability to collapse the joints into your original pipe, so that moving the pipe will also move the joint.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

Art Education and CG Tools Email Lists Moving

So after a successful move last week of my Art email mailing list, its now time to do the same to my Education list and my Soulburn Scripts list.

For anyone who doesn't know about the lists every month or so I send out an email letting people know when I've added new material to my website. I have 3 lists, one for Art, one for Education, and one for Tools. Some people sign up for all 3, some just for 1 or 2.

While social media is great, a lot of social media sites don't show you all of the posts from the people you follow. So the only way to be sure to see ALL of my updates is my mailing lists delivered directly to your email address.

Just visit these pages and put in your email to subscribe. It'll send you a confirmation email to make sure you're not a robot, and you should be all set.

For my Educational Material:
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/cg_education.htm

For my Tools (3d assets, materials, Soulburn Scripts):
http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/cg_tools.htm

So sign up today, it just takes a minute of your time.

Check Out Affinity Photo

So ever since Adobe went rental only, I've been hoping to find an eventual replacement for Photoshop in my workflow (I'm still using my trusty CS6). After seeing Affinity Photo in action earlier this year, I hoped I might finally have my answer.

The open windows beta started about a month ago, and I'm happy to report we may in fact have a winner. I made a detailed list of all the features I use in photoshop, and ended up with a list of 111 features. Affinity covers 101 of those features. Plus, it has a bunch of new features I've wanted for a long time, like an improved Liquify, more no destructive procedural filters, brush categories, multiple layer masks. In fact, the only must have feature it lacks for my workflow is the ability to clip layers to groups.

The future in painting/photomanip apps finally looks bright again, and it looks like we will indeed have a viable alternative in the near future. Check out the open beta and support this software!

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/

CGTools Updated Nov 29th 2016

I've received many requests over the years for my 3dsmax UI, so I've just uploaded my 2017 UI files. I'd recommend taking what you want from these and customizing them, no two people work alike and I don't expect anyone is going to use my exact UI. But it is interesting seeing how other people choose to organize their tools, and so maybe this can help inspire a UI for you that's better for your own workflow. Enjoy!

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/ui/ui_3dsmax.htm

CGTools Updated Nov 17th 2016

Updated 1 older Asset Packs:

Soulburn_MaterialAssetPack_Free_v002: Updated the asset pack to use the BlendedBoxMap and Data Channel Curvature available in max 2017.1

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/assets/assets_3dsmax.htm

You can still download the older v001 of the asset pack if you're using max 2012-2016, but the max 2017 material asset pack will be the only one to get updates from now on.

SoulburnScripts Updated Nov 16th 2016

For years I have wanted a Blended Box Map and a Curvature Map in max. I wrote my own scripts to hack something together, but really they were just good enough to work, they lacked the polish that only actual max plugins could bring.

Well, 3dsmax 2017.1 adds a BBM and Curvature to the max base package, and I couldn't be happier! You can expect new scripts, new assets, and new tutorial videos from me in the coming days to show off the new workflows.

Lets start with a brand new script pack that use the new tools, with the option to always go back to the old soulburn methods for people who want to use older copies of max. First, download 3dsmax 2017.1 from your autodesk account. Then install the latest script pack...

Added 2 new scripts:

blendedCubeProjectionManager: Lets you change parameters to any Blended Cube Projection inside the material you currently have active or the objects you have selected.

curvatureManager: Lets you change parameters of any Curvature Data Channel on your selected objects. Also lets you propagate an existing curvature modifier to all selected objects. So say you have 3 objects that have a curvature Data Channel modifier and you add 2 objects to your model, propagating will copy and paste that modifier to all 5 objects. 

Updated a bunch of older Maxscripts:

blendedBoxMapMaker: You can now create a BlendedBoxMap using max's BlendedBoxMap map. Also added compatibility with vray's Triplanartex map.

blendedBoxMapManager: You can now update the parameters of a Max BlendedBoxMap map.

blendedCubeProjectionMaker: You can now create a BlendedCubeProjection using max's BlendedBoxMap map.

cameraMapTemplateRenderer: You can now render max's BlendedBoxMap map projections.

curvatureMaker: Renamed script from cornerEdgeToVertexMap to curvatureMaker. Added ability to create new max 2017 Data Channel Curvature.

modelPreparer: You can now render your projections with max's BlendedBoxMap map.

groupWithPoint: Added option to have it not size the point based on bounding box size. The point will be of whatever default size you last chose. Added option to use a dummy instead of a point, which helps when exporting the scene as fbx to maya. Point is still default.

wireMaker: Fixed an issue where not having SplineMesher installed causes tons of error dialogs.

subdivisionAutomator: Added UV boundry controls for Opensubdiv. Now will always place the subdiv modifier under the data modifier in the stack.

modifierUtilities: Adjusted preset modifiers a bit. Added "Collapse To Modifier By Type" and "Collapse To Modifier By Name"

layerCleaner: Fixed a bug where it would not work in max2017 or higher.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm

CGTools Updated Oct 12th 2016

Updated 1 older Asset Packs:

Soulburn_ModelAssetPack_Free_v004: Added 3 new commonly requested primitive models, a Subd Pole, a Subd Slab and a Subd Pipe Elbow.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/assets/assets_3dsmax.htm

Soulburn Assets Updated June 10th 2016

A number of changes to the asset files:

1) The materials are now 1 single download, instead of 4 separate packs. This just makes them easier to update, from a user perspective, nothing has changed with installation except you now only need to download a single zip file instead of 4.

2) Added one new Test Material called Test_ToonPaint, which is a simple material that allows you to give 2-3 different levels of solid color paint based on lighting direction. While the vray toon shader will do outlines, this is perfect for the paint inside those outlines.

3) I've removed the need for the ColorCorrect plugin from the materials and environments. Cuneyt's ColorCorrect is a great plugin, and far superior to the Color Correction map that's built into max, but a lot of people don't like being dependent on plugins, even free ones, so I've converted all the color corrections in the materials to using Output maps or the max default ColorCorrection map. At some future point, I hope to persuade autodesk to write a better Color Correction map, and when they do, I will swap all of these materials over to using the new map. But until then, you can use the materials without the ColorCorrect 3rd party plugin.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/assets/assets_3dsmax.htm

SoulburnScripts Updated Apr 23rd 2016

The scripts have been now fully tested in Max 2017!

Updated 1 older Maxscripts:

alignViewportToFace: Onur Kardelen added some code to allow you to align the camera to multple faces, by taking the average. Thanks Onur!

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_tools/scripts/3dsmax/soulburnscripts.htm