Pinscreen user manual

Pinscreen user manual.

Pinscreen doesn't have much settings, but with this manual everything should be clear. I hope You will enjoy using it as much as I did writing. I must say I'm really proud of this one, mainly because it uses bilinear interpolation (with some MAX Script limits it wasn't easy).
If You create some nice work with help of this script, send it to me and I will place it here as an example. Also, if You have any questions or suggestions feel free to mail .

Object used to get Z Depth data.

On the left You can see object which I used to get Z Depth data. In this case it is scan of a face (thanks go to Robert Sitnik for this one), but it can be anything that comes to Your mind: head, hand, whole body...

On the right there's renderd Z Depth image(perheaps You are more familiar with name Z-Buffer, it's basically the same). This image can be used directly in script. There's no need to change resolution, brightness, contrast or levels to achieve desired reults. All these things can be done with controls of script.

Source image
(original resolution 362x480)

Pushing this button will open Image Input selection browser. Script works with any image type supported by 3ds max.

Resolution of selected image.

Here You can select which channel will be used to create height map. In most cases Value works best.

Enables animation

Number of frames in loaded animation or sequence
Only frames beetween these two settings will be used to create pinscreen animation

Number of frames that will be processed to create pinscreen animation

Here You can set number of elements along each axis. Don't go wild on these two settings, because it may result in very heavy geometry. One very important thing which I'm relly proud of: these settings are completly independant from resolution of selected image. It will be interpolated to proper resolution (this script uses bilinear interpolation).

These spinners will set distance beetween single elements.

Elements counter. (what a suprise!!!)

These spinners will set maximum brightness (High limit) and minimum (Low limit) to desired level.

Offset multiplier sets how strong brightness of a pixel will affect single element displacement.

Here You can select type of elements of pinscreen.

Pickbutton for custom object.

Radius of each element. If element is a box then its length and width equals 2*radius.

Height of each element.

Number of sides for capsule and cylinder.

That's where script will comunicate with You. It will display current tasks and percentage progress.

Progress in animation. Format: current frame beeing processed/total frames to process (number of frame)

If You are ready to go, just hit this button. Remember to select image first, otherwise this button will remain disabled.

Info on this script...

What if You have already created pinscreen object and want to modify elements without running script again? There's no problem with that. All You have to do is to find first element (Fig.1). Usually it's Box01 or Capsule01 or Cylinder 01. All other elements are reference copies of this first one. If You change its parameters all other elements will be changed as well. In this case (Fig.2) I've changed number of segments. This works also with modifiers. On Fig.3 You can see Taper modifier applied to first element (and to the others as well, thanks to the reference).