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Pivot Point 1089
including a biped (page 2–701) ,bones,splines,or
any hierarchy.
Note: For NURBS and FFDs, physique deforms the
control points (control vertices), which, in turn
deform the model.
Pivot Point
Pivot point sets hand to the center o f the clock face.
The transform center, or pivot point, is the spot
about w hich a rotation takes place, or to and from
which a scale occurs.
All objects have a pivot point. You can think of the
pivot point as representing an object’s local center
and local coordinate system.
Thepivotpointofanobjectisusedforanumber
of purposes:
• As the center for rotation and scaling w hen the
Pivot Point tr ansform center is selected.
• As the default loc ation of a modifier center.
• As the transform origin for linked children.
•AsthejointlocationforIK.
You can display and adjust the position and
orientation of an object’s pivot point at any
time using the Pivot functions in the Hierarchy
commandpanel.Adjustinganobject’spivothas
no effect on any children linked to that object.
Pixel
Apixel(shortfor Picture El ement) is a single point
in a graphic im age. Graphics monitors display
pictures by dividing the screen into thousands (or
millions) of pixels, arranged in rows and columns.
Plant
In footstep animation (page 3–1037) ,thestateof
the biped foot when it is flat on a footstep.
Plug-Ins
A plug-in is a feature or functionality supplied
by an independent program or component.
Plug-ins can be supplied by third-party vendors or
independent sof tware develop ers.
For example, several Video Post filter and layering
plug-ins ship with 3ds Max.
The open architecture provides an API
(application programming interface) designed to
make it easy for other comp anies to write plug-ins
that extend the core functionality of 3ds Max.
PMAP File
APMAP(. pmap) file is a mental ray photon-map
(page 3–1088)
file. This is a binary file that the
mental r ay renderer (page 3–77) uses to generate
the effects of
caustics (page 3–91) and global
illuminat ion (page 3–92)
.Youspecifyanameand
location for the PMAP file on the Render Scene
dialog > Indirect Illumination panel >
Caustics
And Global Illuminat ion rollout (page 3–104)
.
Poi nt
A point in three-space, created when you use
NURBS modeling to create a Point Curve or Point