9

320 Chapter 12: Animation
8.
In the Rotation List rollout, highlight Euler XYZ
in the Layers window, then click Set Active.
9. In the Euler Parameters rollout, change the Axis
Order to ZYX.
Now you can animat e the rotation independent
of the LookAt rotation control. It should now
behavethesameastheLocalEulercontroller
that was available in versions 4 and earlier.
Inter face
Euler parameters are displayed in the Motion
panel.
The Euler par ameters rollout is displayed w hen
Rotation is selected in the PRS Par ameters rollout
(page 2–357).
Axis Order—Selects the order that rotations are
calculated. The default is X,Y,Z order, where the X
axis is rotated first.
X—Displa ys controller properties for X axis
rotation angle.
Y—Displays controller properties for Y axis
rotation angle.
Z—Displays controller properties for Z axis
rotation angle.
Each axis uses its own independent controller
using the flo at data type. For example, the X and
Y Rotation axes could use Bezier Float controllers,
while the Z rotation axis uses a Noise Float
controller.
Expression Controller
Main toolbar > Curve Editor (Open) > S e lect a track in the
Track View hierarchy. > Track View menu bar > Controller
menu>Assign>Expression
Graph Editors > Track View – Curve Editor > Select a track
in the Track View hierarchy. > Track View menu bar >
Controller menu > Assign > Expression
Animation menu > Position or Scale controller >
Expression
Interface (page 2–322) Procedures (page 2–321)
The Expression controller lets you use
mathematical expressions to control the following
animation aspects:
• Object parameters such as length, width, and
height
• Transform and modifier values such as an
object’s position coordinates
You can constrain val ues by basing them on the
controller values of other objects in the scene.
An expression is a mathematical function that
returns a va lue. 3ds Max evaluates the expression
once for each frame of an animation, generating
values that can change from frame to frame.
You can create and manage E xpression controllers
in Track View (page 2–501) and on the Motion
panel (page 3–774). You can assign expressions to
the following kinds of scene elements: