8
Trajectory 1119
• Animation tracks contain the actual animated
values for an item. Only controller items have
an animation track.
Thevaluesinananimationtrackareusually
displayed as keys. Some controllers don’t use
keys and instead display their values as a range
barorsomeothergraphicsymbol.Forexample,
theWaveFormitemdisplaysasoundfileasa
two-channel sound wave.
Animat ion tracks are also the only track ty pe that
canbedisplayedasafunctioncurve.
Trajectory
Scooter following a trajectory
Whenever an object moves through world space,
you can view its trajectory. A trajector y is the
visible path the object makes because of its
movement. You can think of a trajec tory as a
three-dimensional func tion curve for the Position
track of an object.
Object trajectories appear w ith the follow ing
properties:
• T he t rajector y curve is drawn in blue.
• Frame increments are displayed as yellow dots
on the curve.
• Positionkeysaredisplayedaswhiteboxes
surrounding the appropriate frame dot on the
curve.
• S elected keys are displayed in gray.
In 3ds Max trajectories are created f rom animated
objects.Youmustanimatetheobjectfirstinorder
to create the trajectory.
The
Path constraint (page 2–380)
lets you picks a
spline in the s cene to use as a motion path for an
object. The spline becomes the object’s explicit
trajectory.
Trajectory ( Biped)
The path an object follows as it moves through
space. In 3ds Max, you can think of a trajectory
as a three-dimensional function curve for the
Position track of an object.
When you animate a
biped (page 2–701)
,youcan
turn on the display of its trajectory. See
Trajector y
Display (page 2–786)
.
Transform Gizmo
A
gizmo (page 3–1043)
that is displayed in
viewports and provides a visual aid when you
transform objects.