2009

Animation
3ds Max gives you a variety of different ways to create animation, and a wealth of tools for
managing and editing animation. See the following links for documentation of some of the
animation methods in 3ds Max:
■
Animation Concepts and Methods on page 3078 provides information about basic animation
with 3ds Max.
■ Animation in 3ds Max is accomplished by means of controllers; Working with Controllers
on page 3101 gives you an overview of how they work. For specifics about controllers, see
Animation Controllers on page 3133.
■ A special type of animation controller is the constraint; for details, see
Animation
Constraints
on page 3287.
■ A powerful method for creating sophisticated, procedural animation is covered in
Wire
Parameters
on page 3322.
■ For animating characters both humanoid and other, as well as complex mechanical
assemblies, it's important to know about Hierarchies and Kinematics on page 3330.
■
Track View on page 3503 gives you access to powerful tools for analyzing and editing
animation.
■ Animation Utilities on page 3795 can help ease tedious animation tasks.
■ When animating a number of different objects the same way, or transferring animation
from one object to another, it's useful to know the information covered in Saving and
Loading Animation
on page 7074.
■ The
Motion Mixer on page 3698 is a powerful tool for combining individual movements
into complex animations.
■ Another way of combining animation segments is the Animation Layers on page 3164 system.
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