Is there a better perspective match tool for 3Ds Max?

[ThomasMiller]

This is kind of an open-ended question and a bit of a hail mary, but is there a better tool for perspective matching for 3Ds Max other than the built-in one?

I find that Max's perspective solution is terribly finicky and does not work at all when matching to photos that use tilt-shift lenses, which is very common in architectural photography. 3Ds Max's perspective matching tool cannot handle extreme angles at all.

This is something that I use on every other project and I feel should be a lot easier get done. Most of the time I have to ditch the PM tool and just place a camera and try to eye-ball it.

I've tried the Camera Match Utility before (the one where you have to line up the tools), but that one too proved to be useless when it comes to photos with that use tilt-shift lenses.

Any help or pointers to the right direction is appreciated.

[joconnell]

I've found syntheyes to be great for this, you could also try fspy which you'd have to save out and then convert the camera to an fbx via blender - a bit of nonsense but it's free - https://fspy.io/

[piotrus3333]

or just extend the canvas of shifted photograph (get horizon back in the center height wise) and you no longer have shifted photograph. after match adjust the shift back to what it should be.

[ThomasMiller]

I've found syntheyes to be great for this, you could also try fspy which you'd have to save out and then convert the camera to an fbx via blender - a bit of nonsense but it's free - https://fspy.io/

Thank you! This is the sort of direction I was looking for. I don't mind the workaround if it works. I'll report back once I mess around with fspy and syntheyes.

or just extend the canvas of shifted photograph (get horizon back in the center height wise) and you no longer have shifted photograph. after match adjust the shift back to what it should be.

Thanks. This sounds promising. Now that you mentioned it I remember having done this for a project a long time back, after much hair pulling. My only worry is that one of the problems seems to be that the Perspective Match tool goes haywire when the vanishing point is within the canvas, regardless of the location of the horizon line. I could be wrong though. I'll report back once I give it a go.

[ThomasMiller]

Oh hey joconnell , I found a familiar face (or should I say, chair) while looking for instructions on how to use syntheyes. https://vimeo.com/126516983

[roysgi]

I think the best tool is builin 3d max camera match https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCMCBgnZzaU

[Pixelcon]

The inbuilt one has not produced a usable result for me in years. I think something has happened. It used to work well for me but not it produces really really incorrect results. Like not even looking remotely in the right direction...

[kosso_olli]

The inbuilt one has not produced a usable result for me in years.

The inbuilt one has produced a usable result every single day for the last 10 years or so on my end. It is one of the tools that keep me from switching to any other 3D software. It works flawlessly and is insanely quick. I need a minute to match a given photograph.

[Pixelcon]

The one where you use the cam-match points? Or the newer one with the perspective lines that you drag to match the photo?

[joconnell]

The inbuilt one has produced a usable result every single day for the last 10 years or so on my end. It is one of the tools that keep me from switching to any other 3D software. It works flawlessly and is insanely quick. I need a minute to match a given photograph.

I've had mainly good results from this one recently but it'll do the odd thing with a scale on the camera (not sure why it's allowed to) - do you find the anchor feature useful? I find it was jumping in front and behind the object I was matching too pretty wildly!

Thanks for the link roysgi - haven't used that one in years!

ThomasMiller I had a look at the output from fspy too and I reckon it should be simple enough to write a little import script for max, if you find that it's friendly enough and accurate in it's blender export I can take a look into it.

[JezUK]

The inbuilt one has produced a usable result every single day for the last 10 years or so on my end. It is one of the tools that keep me from switching to any other 3D software. It works flawlessly and is insanely quick. I need a minute to match a given photograph.

Maybe that's the secret, you need to use it every day for 10 years to master it

(each time I've tried to use it, it's been a pain)

[Pixelcon]

Maybe that's the secret, you need to use it every day for 10 years to master it

(each time I've tried to use it, it's been a pain)

Mmmm I'm talking about the camera match tool, and they're talking about the perspective match tool. My bad!

[JezUK]

they're talking about the perspective match tool. My bad!

I am too. Your double bad!

[roysgi]

I justify what kosso_olli wrote
Uses it a lot. Hundreds of pictures I have already done with it. Can't think what I would have done if it didn't exist.
Attaches an example

[kosso_olli]

Just to avoid the confusion: I am talking about the classic camera match with the camera points that need to be placed in the scene and then assigned to the position within the image. On 100 attempts there are 5 that fail.
The perspective match tool with the vanishing lines does work pretty well, too. Although you need the unaltered image without any perspective correction, otherwise it will not work.

Edit: We of course streamlined the process a bit. Here you can see our setup. Matching that shot took 30 seconds.