9

1450 Chapter 16: Material Editor, Materials, and Maps
automated bitmap can be an AVI (page 3–609) or
MOV (page 3–621) file, or an image sequence in
the form of an IFL (page 3–616) file.
Changing One M a ter ia l into Anot her
Probably the easiest way to animate the change
of one material in to another is to create a Blend
material (page 2–1588), make the two other
materials its sub-materials, and then animate its
Mix Amount parameter.
Preview and Pl ayback
When you animate a material, or use an animated
bitmap in a material, you can create and view a
preview of this m aterial before you decide to use
it in a fully rendered animation.
See also
Creating and Playing Animated Material Previews
(page 2–1450)
Synchronizing an Animated Bitmap with the Scene
(page 2–1450)
Creati ng a nd Play ing Ani mated
Material Previews
You can create a preview movie of an animated
material. Use Make Prev iew (page 2–1434) in the
Material Editor. Clicking this button displays the
Create Material Preview dialog (page 2–1452),
which like the Renderer has controls for which
frames to render, playback speed, and output size.
The preview movie is saved in the \previews
subdirectory in a file called _medit.avi.Eachtime
you create a new preview, the Material Editor
overwrites this file. To keep a preview movie on
hand, save it under a different name by using the
Save Preview button on the same flyout as Mak e
Preview.
Procedures
To create a pr evi ew of a n an imated ma teri al :
1.
Choose Make Preview from the flyout.
2. IntheCreateMaterialPreviewdialog,setthe
preview conditions you want, and then click
OK.
The Material Editor creates the preview.
To play back a preview of an animated material:
1.
Choose Play Preview from the flyout.
TheMaterialEditorstartstheWindowsMedia
Player with the active preview movie loaded.
2. Click Play to view the preview movie.
Tosaveapreviewmovieunderadifferentname:
1.
Choose Save Preview from the flyout.
The Material Editor displays a file save dialog.
2. Enteranewnameforthepreview,andthen
click OK.
Sy nchr oniz ing a n Ani mated
B itmap with the Scene
Material editor > Bitmap map > Time rollout
Bitmaps (page 2–1631) have a Time rollout with
controls that let y ou synchronize an animated
bitmap w ith scene animation.
Interfa ce