3ds Max and Videos as a background

Hi,

Working with 3dsmax 5. I'm trying to import a video into the background. I've gone to view and done the background thing. And my video comes up. But when I go to render it, the video isnt there. Am I supposed to just use the video as a reference? Then layer it on top of a video in, say, Premiere?

Thanks for any help,
Bohh

 

What you've done now is just put the video as a background in the viewport (hence the "Viewport background" text in max). This does not affect the rendered images (as you figured out). To get the video to appear in renderings you must also put the video in the Render -> Environment... -> Background. Then you can just select the "Use environment background" in the "Viewport background" dialog to ensure the viewport background is correct even if you change it in the Environment dialog.
And all this should of course be in the manual.

 

Thank you, that helps a lot. Another question popped into my head. Is this method of rendering good to use? Or would I get better results making the background black and keying that over top of my video in premier?

Or is there no noticable difference?

 

It's an option that works, but leaves you with little control over the rendered material. And a rendering with black background keyed over your video will not look any good.
What I suggest is rendering on top of your video background, but in addition render an alpha channel. This way, when you take your rendering into i.e. Premiere would enable you to isolate your rendering without getting a black border around your rendered objects.
If you only rendered on top of a black background the anti-aliasing would make your objects have a slight black border around them even with an alpha channel used for transparency. If you render on top of your video, the slight border will still be there when you use an alpha channel, but since the border is the same color as your video it's unnoticable.
So I would render with the video background in max, but also render an alpha channel. Then I would bring this into Premiere, isolate the rendering (with the use of the alpha channel) and composit it over the original video. I could then make color-adjustments to either the video or the rendering without the adjustments interfering with the other layers.

Am I making myself clear here? I've got a cold and my head is filled with mucus so I'm not thinking clearly today