The product is supplied on 6 CDs in the case of the Reyes Pack and in a zip file in all other download versions. To install the software, please follow these steps:

1. Be sure that your Windows 2000/98 is set to allow additions to the directory containing 3ds max 4. If this is not the case, open the File manager window and change the directory attributes (or tell the system manager to do it).

2. Insert the CD in your CD-ROM drive if you have a hard copy of the product or unzip the file if you have downloaded your software, and then complete the following steps in both cases:

3. Ensure that the 3ds max 4 program is NOT running.

4. Insert the CD (in the case of Reyes Pack) and execute the "setup.exe". You will be asked to type in some information such as user name, etc.

5. The sofware will be installed automatically in your 3ds max 4 directory.

Verify that the plug-in has been installed correctly by launching 3ds max 4 and checking the Current Renderers section of the Rendering/Render menu. Click the button labeled Assign, and there should now be a new renderer called CartoonRenderer. If this is not the case repeat the installation procedure and check for any error that may occur. If error persists, e-mail us at support@reyes-infografica.com.

Once the installation process has been completed, the first time you open the Cartoon Renderer, you will be prompted with the license registration request. A dialog will appear showing your 3dsmax Hardlock-ID number, and prompting you to enter your full name (valid names should have more than six characters and are case-sensitive) and the authorization code. To get the authorization code follow these instructions:

SEND THE HARDLOCK-ID AND PLUG-IN SERIAL NUMBER WITH YOUR FULL NAME TO REYES INFOGRÁFICA S.L. BY E-MAIL (auth@reyes-infografica.com), OR FAX (+34 915 400 718). WE WILL SUPPLY YOU WITH THE AUTHORIZATION CODE THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO ENTER IN THE LICENSE REGISTRATION REQUEST.

Once you have created an ordinary 3DSMAX scene, you can add cartoon lines to it by using the CartoonReyes renderer. To turn it on, go to the Rendering/Render menu and click the Current Renderers tab at the bottom of the dialog.

Click on the Assign… button in the Production Renderer, you can now see the renderers accessible to your system. Among them you will find the CartoonReyes Renderer.

Click on it to highlight it and press enter . Now you can render your image exactly as you would with the default 3ds max 4 renderer. If you scroll up the dialog, you will find a whole set of new options that are specific to CartoonReyes.

There are various parameters which give us greater power and flexibility when deciding where the cartoon line will appear in the render. These parameters need to be checked if we want to enable them, regardless of whether they are used in a global or material context.

Render Preview: If you check Preview, the rendered image will have a lower quality, but will take less time to render than a finished image. This option is generally used to generate previews of animations, and its characteristics are that it does not calculate antialiasing and that the line parameters are calculated in an approximate manner.

Use Edge Line: When this option is used it allows the edges which have been selected in the objects to appear marked in the render.

Use Smoothing Group Line: Smoothing groups define whether a surface is rendered with sharp edges or smooth surfaces. If this parameter is activated, the line will appear between faces that do not share any smoothing groups.

Use Material Line: Allows edges that separate different submaterials to appear in the render.

Use Silhouette Strength: On certain occasions the lines that form the silhouette of an object are more intensely drawn than the interior lines. This parameter allows the user to adjust this difference in intensity in order to balance them out. In any case a very low value will mean that the marked lines dissappear altogether so great precision is required when using it depending on the scene.

It is important to highlight that in cases where global parameters are not used, the color of the line will be determined by the submaterial whose Material priority is higher.

Use Global Line Parameters: This parameter specifies whether global line parameters will be used for the whole scene. If this option is checked all the material and submaterial line parameters will be ignored.

Use Global Brush Parameters: Specifies whether the global brush parameters will be used for the whole scene. If this option is checked the material and submaterial brush parameters will be ignored.

All the parameters referred to in this section affect the scene globally, overriding the line parameters which could have different materials and objects. (Obviously, this will occur only when the Use Global Line Parameters box is checked)

Concave vs. Convex Lines

When drawing a picture, a cartoonist first sketches the lines that make up the objects and characters and then colors the picture. CartoonReyes allows you to add these lines to your 3ds max 4 models, thus making their appearance more cartoon-like. Of course, you will have control over several parameters which will give you a variety of possibilities to get the effects you want.

CartoonReyes differentiates between two kinds of main lines: Concave and convex lines. The basic difference between them is related to the way concave and convex areas are treated. It is better to see what these lines are like by working your way through some examples. Basically the Concave parameter refers to the exterior lines (borders) of the model and the convex parameter refers to the interior lines.

We advise you to experiment with a variety of models by giving different values to the concave and convex line intensities. In this way, you will become familiar with the way these two kinds of line work.

Concave Line: Sets the intensity of concave lines, which help define the external contour of the model.

Convex Line: Sets the intensity of convex lines. This is frequently used to highlight the interior details of the model (such as the eyes, nose, lips, etc… in a frontal view of a face model)

Adjust thickness to Resolution: When you select this option the thickness of the line will depend on the final render resolution, that is to say , the higher the render resolution the thicker the line, and viceversa.

Silhouette Strength: This value represents the intensity factor with which we can control the differences in intensity that may arise between the silhouette lines and the interior lines. The default value is 1000 and this indicates that the intensity is not regulated. In order to achieve the desired effect the user should start with a value of 500 and then adjust it to the appropriate value, as this depends on each scene and the line parameters that have been used.

Edge Line: This value allows us to specify the intensity of the selected edge lines that appear in the render.

Material Line: Allows the cartoon line that divides the object submaterials to appear.

Smoothing Group Line: This value varies the intensity that regulates the appearance of the lines that separate the different smoothing groups.

In the same way as the Global Line Parameters, all the brush parameters mentioned here affect the whole scene when the Global Brush Parameters box is checked.

Line Color : With this option the user can modify the final color of the line in the render.

Brush Size: Indicates the thickness of the lines measured in pixels.

Intensity: The greater this setting, the darker and thicker lines will be. Values can range from 0 to 100.

Opacity: Refers to the opacity of the brush applied. A value of zero indicates a transparent brush and therefore no lines will be visible, but a value of 100 will generate a pure line of the color selected in the “color” parameter.

Sharpness: for any given Brush Size value, can be used to adjust the exact thickness of the lines. So, for a value of 0, lines will have approximately the size indicated by the Brush Size value. Greater values (up to a maximum of 100) will make the strokes thinner.

The Aspect Ratio and Angle spinners enable you to reproduce a typical brush effect which consists in strokes at right angles having a different thickness. You can adjust a measure of the ratio between the two thickness values with Aspect Ratio and indicate the direction along which the strokes will be thickest by entering the appropriate angle value in the Angle number field. When Aspect Ratio is set to 0, strokes will have the same thickness along any direction. If you set it to a value other than 0, strokes will be thicker along the direction indicated by the Angle setting. Accepted values range from 0 to 100. Angles are measured from the horizontal direction. So, a 0° value will make horizontal lines thickest and a 90° value will give vertical lines the maximum thickness when Aspect Ratio is different from 0. You can choose any preferred direction by entering any angle you want in the 0° - 180°range.

One characteristic of the CartoonReyes renderer as introduced in the previous section is that it affects all the objects in a scene in exactly the same way. Although you can adjust the options and parameters governing the general appearance of the lines, the intensity of the concave ,convex, edge and smoothing groups lines, will be the same for every object in the scene. Now, as we said before, different objects might need different intensity values for either kind of line. So, you might want to use different concave and convex line values for some or all of the different objects in your scene, for example.

CartoonReyes supplies you with a new material which you can find in the 3D Studio MAX Material Editor. This material incorporates the calculation of the convex and concave lines of the model or models it is assigned to. It enables you to apply CartoonReyes to the objects in different ways by assigning them CartoonReyes materials with different parameter entries. In addition to this, the CartoonReyes material enables you to adjust the transition between the illuminated and the shaded areas of a model. By adjusting this transition you can get an even better cartoon-like appearance for your models. You can even make this transition sharp, thus getting an effect similar to that of Japanese Manga comics.

To assign a CartoonReyes material to an object, click on the Material Editor button on the toolbar. The Material Editor dialog will appear. If you now click on the Type button, a list of available materials will appear. Among these you will find two materials provided by CartoonReyes: CartoonReyes and Cartoon Fix (we will talk about Cartoon Fix later). By clicking on CartoonReyes twice, you will have selected this material. Now you can see the features associated with this material as they appear in the dialog.

First of all, you will find the Convex line , Concave Line, Edge line , Smoothing Group line, and Silhouette Strength parameters. These are associated with the material and will, therefore, affect only those objects that you assign this material to. In the previous section we found these spinners in an area called Global Parameters in the Render Scene dialog. When checked, these global parameters will take precedence over the values entered in the CartoonReyes material dialog.
For example, for objects endowed with a CartoonReyes (or Cartoon Fix) material, the Concave Line and Convex Line values of the material will prevail, only if the Global Line Parameters box are unchecked. Of course, by leaving the Global Line Parameters box unchecked, CartoonReyes will ignore all the objects in the scene that haven’t had a CartoonReyes (or Cartoon Fix) material assigned to them.

Both the line and brush parameters act in a similar manner to those explained previously in the Cartoon Renderer section. Lets outline the meaning of these again briefly:

Material Priority: Defines the priority value which governs the current submaterial with relation to the other submaterials. The line characteristics will be determined by the submaterial with the greatest material priority in the material line parameters. Keep in mind that If two submaterials have the same material priority value the line will not appear.

Concave Line: Sets the intensity of concave lines, which help define the external contour of the model.

Convex Line: Sets the intensity of convex lines. This is frequently used to highlight the interior details of the model (such as the eyes, nose, lips, etc… in a frontal view of a face model)

Silhouette Strength : This value represents the intensity factor used to control the differences in intensity that may arise between the silhouette lines and the interior lines.

Edge Line: This parameters specifies the intensity of the lines of the selected edges that appear in the render.

Smoothing Group Line: Changes the intensity that determines how the lines that divide the different smoothing groups will appear.

The other important feature of the CartoonReyes material lies in its treatment of shade. Let us now see the various parameters that enable you to control shade effects.

Line Color. This parameter allows you to select the color of the line that will affect the material in the render.

The Force 2 - Sided option works in the same way as for a standard 3D Studio MAX material. It is unchecked by default.

Diffuse: By clicking the color swatch to the right of Diffuse you can choose the color you want for the illuminated areas of the object.

Shadow: By clicking this color swatch you can choose the color you want for the shaded areas of the object. Shaded areas will only appear if the Shadow selector is checked.

Specular: By clicking this color swatch you can choose the color of the highlights on the object. This will only appear if the selector is checked.

To the right of both the Shadow and Specular color swatches you will see two spinners:

Amount: Allows you to adjust the size of the shaded (or specular) area. Acceptable values range from 0 to 100.

Percent: If you check this selector the shadow or specular color will no longer be the one indicated by the color swatch, but a tone of the diffuse color. Exactly what tone depends on the value entered in the number field. In the case of Shadow colors the maximum value of 100 will give you exactly the same color as the Diffuse one, the results being the same as if you had checked the selector. Values lower than 100 give darker tones up to a minimum of 0 (black). As for Specular  colors, a value of 100 again gives the same color as the Diffuse one. In this case, however, values higher than 100 (up to a maximum of 200) are allowed and give lighter tones. Acceptable values range from 100 to 200, 100 giving difusse color and 200 giving white. Given the function of the Specular color, you are more likely to use values in the range 101-200.

Now let us turn our attention to the next four parameters which appear in the dialog:

Shadsoft: This parameter lets you adjust the abruptness of the transition between the illuminated and shaded areas. A value of 0 makes the transition a sharp one, whereas a value of 100 gives a very smooth transition.

Specsoft: This parameter behaves in exactly the same way as Shadsoft but for the specular area.

Shine Strength and Shininess: These parameters affect only the specular area. The Shininess spinner allows you to adjust the size of the specular area, and the Shine Strength spinner affects the intensity of the shininess.

Brush Size: Indicates the thickness of the line measured in pixels.

Intensity: The greater this setting, the darker and thicker lines will be. Values can range from 0 to 100.

Opacity: Refers to the opacity of the brush applied. A value of zero indicates a transparent brush and therefore no lines will be visible, but a value of 100 will generate a pure line of the color selected in the “color” panel.

Sharpness: for any given Bruah Size value, can be used to adjust the exact thickness of the lines. So, for a value of 0, lines will have approximately the size indicated by the Brush Size value. Greater values (up to a maximum of 100) will make the strokes thinner.

The Aspect Ratio and Angle spinners enable you to reproduce a typical brush effect which consists in strokes at right angles having a different thickness.

CartoonReyes also makes it possible for you to select mapped materials as diffuse, shadow , specular and opacity colors. This is done in the same way as for a standard material in 3D Studio MAX.

We must also point out that colored lights do not affect the appearance of CartoonReyes materials. So, if you use for example a red light, the result will be the same as if you had used a white light.

Sometimes you might want to use 3D Studio MAX materials together with the lines that CartoonReyes generates for your models. In order to achieve this, we have included as a plug-in material something which allows you to do exactly this. What we have called Cartoon Fix Material is just a device to add concave, convex, edge, material, Smoothing Group lines, Line Color, brush options, etc... to any other material. So, in spite of the fact that we have called it a material, its characteristics will be those of the submaterial with which it is associated.

 If you want CartoonReyes to add these types of lines for a material other than the standard CartoonReyes material provided, go to the material editor , click on the Type button and choose Cartoon Fix from the list. A dialog on the screen will ask you if you want to keep the current material as a submaterial. The answer to this will depend on whether you have selected the material you want before selecting Cartoon Fix. If you have not done so, check Discard Old Material and click OK. A dialog will then appear which allows you to choose the cartoon Line values you want as well as the material you are interested in. The material is selected by clicking on the Submaterial button and choosing it from the Material Browser. You will then have access to the parameters of the selected material. Thus, CartoonReyes allows you to use any material available in the Material Browser. You can now assign this material to any object you have in your scene.

Remember that the Global Line Parameters and Global Brush Parameters must be unchecked if you want CartoonReyes to use the values entered for each CartoonReyes and Cartoon Fix material. Otherwise, CartoonReyes will generate cartoon lines for all the objects in the scene, regardless of whether any CartoonReyes or Cartoon Fix material has been assigned to any model in the scene.

In the same way as explained in the "The Cartoon Material" section , we can define a submaterial priority value, edge line, material line or smoothing group line intensity for this type of material. For further information please refer to previous section.

To teach you the basics of Cartoon we have prepared a scene for you to work with.

1.- In 3DSMax open Scene named "CartoonTutorial01.max"
2.- Now you will be able to see a fruit bowl.
3.- Click Rendering/Render. Go to Current Renderers and click the Assign tab in Production. Choose CartoonReyes from the list that appears and click OK
4.- It´s a good idea to choose a light line so that the rendered line is clearly visible. In order to do this go to Global Brush Parameters, and choose a white color for Color Line parameter.
5.- Click Render Scene.
6.- Scroll down to see the Cartoon Renderer rollout . Now check the Render Line Only box.
7.- Click Render Scene, now you should be able to see a sketch of the bowl
8.- As you might appreciate some lines that shouldn´t be visible.
9.- To change this, set a value of 25 in the convex line spinner, located in the global line parameters box.
10.- Click Render…
11.- No you will be able to see that some lines have been removed. This parameter corresponds to the convex regions of the model.
12.- Now set the concave line spinner to a low value, say 25.
13.- Click Render…
14.- Now most of the concave lines have been removed. The concave lines are created in the concave regions of the model.
16.- We'll play a bit with the global brush parameters. Set intensity to 50 and sharpness to 10, in the global brush parameters box. This will enhance the lines.
17.- Click render.
18.- As you can see the lines are more clear. Now set the brush size to a slightly higher value, let's say 15.
19.- Click render. Now the sketch has bigger lines as we have used a bigger brush. Playing with these values we can achieve various effects to simulate different types of pencils. In the real world the positioning of the pecil tip over the paper makes the line thicker or thinner as we draw horizontal or vertical lines. Playing with these parameters we can achieve these effects.
20.- Now set the angle to 90 and aspect ratio to 100.
21.- Click render.
22.- Note how the line gets thinner in the corners and when it gets horizontal it gets thicker. Just like drawing with a felt-tip pen!.
23.- Playing with these values you'll be able to achieve many different effects, allowing you to simulate different drawing styles.
24.- As we noted in the first exercises of this tutorial the convex and concave line spinners controlled different aspects of the objects. As you might wish to have different lines in different models of the same scene we have created the cartoon material.
25.- Select the bowl.
26.- Open the Material Editor, click on the Get Material button and select Cartoon Material
27.- Set Concave Line to 25 and Convex Line to 25. Since we are now using the Line Only option to render a black and white drawing you don't have to worry about colors.
28.- Click Assign Material to selection.
29.- Now select the pear. (the following steps can also be applied both to the mandarin and the cherries, with slight color changes)
30.- In the Material Editor click the second sample slot.
31.- Click on the Get Material button and select Cartoon Material.
32.- Set Concave Line to 75 and Convex Line to 75.
33.- Click Assign Material to selection.
34.- Click Render Scene and uncheck the Use Global Line Parameters box. This is very important otherwise the values entered in the Global Line Parameters box will prevail.
35.- As you can see now the bowl and the pear have different lines.
36.- Open the Material Editor and click the first sample slot to make it active. Click on the diffuse color swatch and choose a color, light blue for example (R:80 G:175 B:225)
37.- Now click the second sample slot where you should have the material that has been assigned to the pear. Again click the Diffuse color swatch and choose a green color for the pear. (R:65 G:130 B:25)
38.- Click Render Scene and Uncheck the Line Only selector. Click Render
39.- In the Material Editor click the first sample slot. The material of the bowl is now active. Check the Shadow selector. Click the Color swatch beside it. Look at the sample sphere and see how it has changed.
40.- Click Render.
41.- Also you can adjust the color line parameters to improve the result. You can assign a dark blue line to the bowl, and a dark green line to the pear.
41.- In the Material Editor, set Shadsoft to its maximum value of 100 and Click Render.
42.- Now set Shadsoft to its minimum value and Click Render.
43.- Now check the Percent selector. The shadow will no longer be the one shown in the shadow color swatch but a tone of the diffuse color. Try different values for this spinner and see how the sample sphere changes. Now enter a value of, say, 50 and Click Render.
44.- Check the Specular selector and see the appearance of the sample sphere. Click Render.

You can now go on with this exercise trying different values and selections. In this way, you will quickly become acquainted with the astonishing and ever increasing possibilities of CartoonReyes.
As you might have noticed for the cartoon material there is a brush parameter as well . As with the line each material has it's own brush. To see the effects of the material brush you must unselect the Use global brush parameters check box in the render panel.

You can view our final results for this scene by loading "CartoonTutorial01_finished.max"

In this exercise we will show you a couple of interesting features in CartoonReyes, Material Line and Line Color.

1.- Open the example file named "CartoonTutorial02.max" and Click Render.
2.- As you will notice the scene is a rubick cube, but the transition lines and colors look rough and unfinished, not clearly defined. In other words the stickers in the small cubes don't look right, perhaps we could enhance the borders…
3.- Click render, and in the cartoon renderer panel check the Use Material Line box.
4.- Click render
5.- Now you'll see some lines drawn around the stickers that were not present before. This is the material line. To achieve this effect we have created a multimaterial for the rubick cube. When Cartoon Reyes detects a change in material it draws a line between them.
6.- To see how it works, select the cube and open the Materials option dialog.
7.- We have created a material with 8 sub materials in it.
8.- If you examine them individually you'll see that all are Cartoon materials. But the Material Priority value is different in some of them, this is the trick.
9.- Select material with ID 1, notice it has a Material Priority value of 0.
10.- Now inspect material ID 2, it has a Material Priority value of 2. This means that submaterial 2 will prevail over submaterial 1 in the final render. As we have checked the Use Material Line box when we render the scene the dividing line between two submaterials will be marked. The prevailing color of this Material Line will be that of the submaterial with the highest Material Priority value (in this case submaterial 2).
11.- Now you can have a look at the other submaterials and see the different values used in the material line spinner. Note as well the Line Color we're using for each submaterial.
12.- Go to submaterial 1 again and change the Material Priority value to 4.
13.- Click Render.
14.- See how the resulting Material Line has changed to take on the color of this submaterial 1 as it now has the highest value.
15.- Now change the Material Priority value for submaterial 1 to 2. Click Render.
16.- This time there is no Material Line between 1 and 2. This is because all the Material Priority values are the same (2) which cancels them out entirely.
17.- Revert the Material Priority value for submaterial 1 to the previous value, 0.
18.- Now change the Material Line value for submaterial 2 to it's highest possible value (1000.0).
19.- Click Render.
20.- Notice how the line is sharper. The Material Priority value states which color is to be used, and the Material Line parameter will determine the intensity of the line drawn (to separate two submaterials).

You can view our final results for this scene by loading "CartoonTutorial02_finished.max".