combustion Map Parameters

The combustion Parameters rollout appears when you assign a combustion map to a material.

The combustion Parameters rollout controls are described as follows.

Project

Loads the file to use in combustion. You can load only file types supported by combustion, such as combustion workspace files (.cws), and image file formats such as TARGA and PNG. See Supported Footage Formats.

Edit

Launches combustion from the 3ds max Material Editor. If a project is loaded, it is opened in combustion. If no project is loaded, combustion displays the New dialog. Use this dialog to specify a project type, name, video format, duration, and background color. For more information, see Displaying an Unwrapped Mesh of the 3D Object.

Live Edit Group

These controls affect how you use combustion with 3ds max.

Operator

Controls which operator in the combustion workspace is used for the map.

Unwrap

Takes the current UVW mapping coordinates of the currently selected 3D object (or the current Face sub-object selection), and displays them in combustion. This can help you coordinate the map and the mesh as you paint. The Unwrap display is only an overlay. It is displayed in combustion but is not a part of the composite or the map.

UV List

Changes the mapping coordinate system (the direction in which the map is projected) from UV to VW or UW. UV projects onto the surface of geometry like a slide projector. VW and WU project the map at right angles to the geometry. With a combustion map, UV is almost always the most useful choice.

UV

Specifies which mapping channel to unwrap and paint. The range is from 1 to 99.

Track Time

Links the Timeline in combustion to the time slider in 3ds max. When Track Time is enabled, you can use the time slider in 3ds max to navigate between frames in combustion.

Note: This control is not bidirectional; changing the frame in combustion does not change the frame in 3ds max.

Paint

When enabled, displays a paint cursor in 3ds max viewports. You can then paint directly on the 3D geometry. Dragging the cursor in the viewport over the geometry in 3ds max creates paint strokes inside combustion.

Constrain to UV

When enabled, constrains paint strokes to remain within the edges of the UV mapping coordinates. When paint strokes are unconstrained on an object such as a box, they can jump to the other side of the map when you cross a map's edge. This can give erratic results. To prevent this, enable Constrain to UV.

In general, use the Constrain to UV option when you paint on boxes and other objects with planar maps. Disable this option when you want to paint on spherical maps or anywhere else the mapping has a singularity (where the edges of the map converge to a single point).

Selected Faces

Constrains the combustion image to only the faces selected. This gives additional control or masking based on faces rather than UV mapping.

Project Info Group

These readouts display the format of the Paint or Composite operator. They are active when a combustion workspace is loaded or Edit mode is active.

Width

Sets horizontal resolution of the frame in pixels.

Height

Sets vertical resolution of the frame in pixels.

Frames

Sets number of frames in the combustion workspace.

Rate

Sets playback speed in frames per second.

Custom Resolution Group

With these controls, you can customize the resolution of the combustion map.

Enable

Enables the Width and Height controls. Width changes the horizontal resolution of the map. Height changes the vertical resolution of the map.

Time Group

These controls relate frames in the combustion workspace to frames in the combustion map. The controls in the End Condition group set how to handle the map when it contains fewer frames than the 3ds max scene.

Start Frame

Determines which frame of the combustion sequence is used as the first frame of the combustion map in 3ds max.

Duration

Sets how many frames of the combustion file sequence are used by the combustion map in 3ds max.

Filtering Group

These controls determine the method for calculating anti-aliasing.

Pyramidal

Sets the default anti-aliasing method. This method is faster than Summed Area filtering.

Summed Area

Implements a better method of anti-aliasing than Pyramidal, but uses more memory. If it has to use virtual memory, it can dramatically increase rendering time.

None

Performs no anti-aliasing. This option takes the least time to render, but yields the lowest quality results.

End Condition Group

These controls define what the 3ds max renderer should do when the duration of the combustion project (or the range of frames used in the combustion map) is shorter than the rendering sequence in 3ds max.

Loop

Plays the combustion project animation repeatedly until the rendering sequence ends.

Ping Pong

Plays the animation forward, then backward, and repeatedly plays forward and backward until the rendering sequence is completed.

Hold

Plays the animation once, then repeatedly displays the last frame of the project until the rendering sequence is completed.