Rendering wireframes in 3dMax is something you'll want to accomplish at some point, such as to demonstrate decomposition steps, or just to create the unique effect of a wireframe overlay on a model. The most common reason for rendering wireframes for 3D models is to be able to display clean topology on the model. This article will take you through the two most common and simplest methods of rendering 3D model wireframes in 3dMax. The advantage of both methods is that they are both easy to implement, and once you determine what effect you want to achieve, it is up to you to decide which method is most suitable and effective.
First method: Render wireframe using standard materials
The first method is the faster of the two, but requires some compositing in an external application like Photoshop to put together the final render. The first thing you have to do is open the Material Editor by pressing "M" on your keyboard or clicking the icon in the upper right corner of 3dMax.
If you want to make things easier, make sure you're using the Compact Material Editor.
Now, select a default material in the materials window.
Under Shader Basic Parameters, check the Line box. If you look at the material, you'll see that it's now a wireframe.
Select the 3D mesh and the newly created wire material, then select the Assign Material Selection icon, or you can drag the material directly onto the model.
You should now see a similar result in the viewport as shown in the image below.
Next select the "Render Frame Window" button in the upper right corner of 3ds Max. This will open the rendering dialog box.
Now press the render button. You should see results similar to the image below. Once a wireframe material is applied to a model, it will only render the wireframe.
The best approach is to display only the alpha channel. Therefore, only turn on the Alpha channel in the render settings. You should now see the wireframe turn completely white.
If you want more control over the appearance of your wires, you can go back to the Material Editor and under Extended Parameters you can reduce or increase the thickness of the wireframe.
Once your wireframe looks how you want it, you can save the image and take it into a program like Photoshop and complete the composition there.
The benefit of this approach is that you have complete control over the wireframe once you import it into Photoshop. There you can change the colors and use any blending modes you like to achieve the look you want.
Second method: Use renderer parameters to set the rendering wireframe
The next method is very similar, but allows you to do it all within 3dMax. This is useful if you want to use wireframe overlays for things like ambient occlusion rendering. The first thing you have to remember when using this method is that you need to use a specific renderer (eg: MentalRay) to display the wireframe correctly. So open your render settings.
Make sure you are under the "General" tab and scroll all the way down until you find "Assign Renderer" and open the drop-down list.
Press the icon on the far right of Production Settings.
Now select the NVIDIA MentalRay renderer.
Now that you have established your render settings, open the material editor by pressing the "M" key on your keyboard or clicking on the icon in the upper right corner.
Just like you did with the previous method, you want to select a default material. But instead of checking the "Line" box, you press the "Standard" button.
This will open the material/map browser. Scroll up until you find "Composites" and select it, then press "OK." Composites allow you to combine multiple materials together.
When you press OK, you should see a dialog box that says "Discard the old material?" Or keep the old material as a submaterial? Both are fine; in this case we just throw away the old material.
In the Material Editor, under the "Composite Basic Parameters" drop-down list, you should now see that there are multiple materials that can be inserted into this single composite material. Under the mat. 1: Select None. This will open the material/map browser again. This time you want to scroll down until you find the standard material.
This will create a standard material in the composite. In the Standard Material options, open the Blinn Basic Parameters drop-down list and select the Diffuse color. You can change the color to whatever you like as it has been changed to a very dark gray.
Now select Go to parent. This will take you back to the composite options.
Under "Composite Basic Parameters" insert another standard material into "Mat". 2.
In this new standard material you can inspect wireframes. If you notice the dark gray material set for the first standard material is still visible and the wireframe is now applied as an overlay.
Apply this new material to your 3D model and you should see results similar to the image below. It may look like the gray material isn't being displayed, but don't panic, it just appears that way in the viewport.
Once rendered, you should see something similar to the image below, with the gray material being used as the base color of the axe. You can create any lighting you want for your scene. You can also try different colors for your wireframes.
While this method doesn't offer the flexibility of the first method, it's a great way to quickly create beautiful wireframe renderings without having to bring them into a compositing application. Both methods should provide exactly what is needed to create a beautiful wireframe rendering. It really depends on which method you think is best for your particular project.