I’m trying to get a silhouette view in the viewport in 3ds max 2011 and lower using only objects and lights (not a fan of 2012 not having quadro drivers). The goal to to set a check button to turn the silhouette feature on and off within one of my plugins. I’m trying to set it up so that some objects are black while all other objects(usually background and props) appear a light gray and the background space will be white. I know setting the multiplier to a negative number and having it set to ambient only on and omni light will give the desired result for a simple black silhouette on the character but I’m looking for something more. Take note I am also trying to leave the objects materials untouched. Anyone got any resources or tutorials they can point me to on this subject?
Vertex colours maybe with an unlit viewport (flat, consistent, whatever they call it in these versions)? Turn object colour mode on, vertex colours on and assign black to your objects and white or grey to your background. You could probably script it to apply vertex paint modifiers as required, maybe with layers to define which is which and delete them after if you need to preserve them for something.
black standard material with self illuminated 100%?