9

298 Chapter 12: Animation
Waveform was originally created to control
blinking lights. Use it for any value that you want
to vary in a regular, oscillating pattern.
Controlling Tra nsforms
Transform con trollers are compound controllers.
They set the type and behavior of the controllers
used for Position, Rotation, and Scale.
You assign Transform controllers using either
Track Vie w — Cu r ve E ditor or the Motion pan el.
Compound Transform controllers do not display
properties in Track View. You can access the
parameters of Transform controllers only in the
Motion panel.
Positi on/R ota tion/S cale Controll er
The Position/Rotation/Scale (PRS) controller (page
2–357) is a simple Transform controller applicable
for most objects. When applied the PRS Transform
controller sets up default Bezier Position, TCB
Rota tion, and Bezier Scale controllers.
UseaPRScontrollerwheneveryouwanta
standard transform set up or w hen you want single
function curve control over the Position, Rotation,
and Scale controllers.
Note: PRS controller is no longer the default
controller applied to all objects. The latest version
of the software uses Position XYZ and Euler XYZ
as the new default controllers for position and
rotation transforms.
Tra nsf or m S cript Cont rol ler
The Transform Script controller (page 2–379)
contains all of the information contained in a PRS
Controller in one scripted matrix value. Instead of
having three separate tracks for position, rotation,
and scale, al l three values can be simultaneously
accessed from one script controller dialog.
Because the transform values are defined by a
script, they are easier to animate.
The value of the con troller script must be a matrix3
value. A matrix3 value is a 4x3 3D transformation
matrix. For more information, see the Matrix3
Values topic in the MAXScript Reference.
XRef Controller
The XRef controller (page 2–383) lets you externally
reference any type of Transform controller from
another scene file. When you assig n this controller
to your object, it nests the source controller ,
making it only accessible for playback. You can use
theXRefcontrollereitheronitsown,orcombine
it with an XRef Ob ject (page 3–394).
Controlling Position
Below the Tran sform controller (page 3–909) is the
Position controller. Position is a data type that
can use most of the standard controllers such as
Bezier,TCB,andNoise.
The cont rollers described in this topic can be used
only as position controllers.
XY Z Control ler
The XYZ controller breaks a Position controller
into three separate Bezier Float controllers. Each
oftheX,Y,andZcomponentsofpositionreceives
its own track.
Use the XYZ controller when you wa nt to have
separatekeypatternsorcontrollertypesforeach
position component.
See Euler XYZ Rotation Controller (page 2–318),
Position XYZ Controller (page 2–356),andScale
XYZ Controller (page 2–371).