synching background movement, or something

When i make 3d movies in 3ds max, i often have something like a star background set in VIEW -> VIEWPORT BACKGROUND and in RENDERING -> ENVIRONMENT. sometimes i use camera movements, wich go fine but the background doesn't move with the camera, I also tried to make an object with the star bmp as texture, but then it gets stretched out en there is almost nothing to see. any tricks to make it work?

p.s. i am quite a newbie at 3ds max

 

best thing to do in max is use the video post starfield event... granted it's not the best starfield generator, but it's free and works well enough for most...

you can use backgrounds and environments, but unless you're using a high rez starfield map, you're not gonna get very good results...

Darksteps...

 

To make any backround be able to move with the camera, just keep the backround in the enviroment and where it shows the map name that you are using in the environment panel, drag it from there to an open material in the material editor, then press OK, then there is one of the parts of the material that says "Screen" in a drop-down menu, click the little arrow beside it and select "Spherical Environment" then the environment map will be set up like a sphere around the camera.

 

Or you could get the STARBLUR plugin and use that (be aware, it takes some getting used to).

You can find it here: Plugin site

 

when i use the video post event, somehow the camera (camera 1) doesnt show the stars while rendering, i use the method in the reference. ny tutorials on this?

 

I've also wondered how to get VP effects to work as well. Anyway, create a large sphere and have your starfield map set to a spherical environ. Then tile the image so that it is repeated over and over again. Then, make sure that the sphere is set to "2-sided" and create your scene inside the sphere.

 

then you have problems with lightning

 

instead of using a 2sided map, flip the normals of the spere. it might help avoid lighting problems.

 

also INSIDE the sphere?

 

dont know, try it.

 

select the lights one by one, and specify that they ignore the sphere. I can't remember the technical term, and I'm not on the computer with MAX, but you can prevent the lights from interacting with the sphere.

 

Yeah, but the texture will get weird around the top, but the lighting exclude/include thing is in the modify tab for the light, there is a button that says Exclude, and then you can choose what you want it to affect.

 

True, but you can add a UVW modifier to the sphere and help minimize the pinched effect at the top and bottom.

 

i dont know what you guys are talking about :-S

 

Well see, if you texture a sphere regularly the map will be really squooshed together at the top and bottam and then be stretched in the middle, so you have to apply the UVW modifier to the model for it not to do that.

 

you could always use a spherical map for the sides and then select the polygons on the top and bottom (or wherever its pinching) and do another uvw map modifier for that, and use spherical again but rotate it so the pinching areas are hidden.