Background Image Orientation

[kyle.sutherland]

Hey all:

I've imported my revit model into 3ds and I would like to orient it to a background image. I have the image on a plane in 3ds but don't know where to go from there. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[loydg]

Actually, you may want to try to set the image as your environment backgroundin Max instead of on a plane. It will not pick up any of the scene's lighting and such, but there is some more setup involved:

1) Open your environment panel (Rednering>Environment, or "8") and click on the empty slot under Environment Map
2) navigate to the bitmap location.
3) set your render output to be the same pixel dimension or aspect ratio
4) set up a camera in the scene
5) display your background image using using the "show background" or "Alt+B" and be sure that "Use Environment Background" and Display Background" are checked
6) orient your camera to the desired position with the background on and be sure the horizon is roughly the same in both the model and the photo (in the camera settings there should be a checkbox to display the horizon) and that the perspective is close as well.
6) set up you lighting to match the photograph's
7 render!

That's the quick version. I have a detailed "tutorial" at our little civil visualization forum here.

Hope that helps. No doubt others will chime in...