2009

Animation Concepts and Methods
With 3ds Max, you can create 3D computer animation for a variety of
applications. You can animate characters or vehicles for computer games, or
you can animate special effects for film or broadcast . You can create animation
for serious purposes such as medical illustration or forensic presentation in
the courtroom. Whatever reason you have to animate, you'll find 3ds Max a
capable environment for achieving your goals.
The basic way to animate is quite simple. You animate the transform
parameters of any object to change its position, rotation, and scale over time.
Turning on the
Auto Key on page 7549 button, then moving the time slider
places you in a state in which any changes you make will create animation
for the selected objects in the viewport.
Animation is used throughout 3ds Max. You can animate the position, rotation,
and scale of an object, and almost any parameter setting that affects an object's
shape and surface. You can link objects for hierarchical animation, using both
forward and inverse kinematics, and you can edit your animation in
Track
View
on page 3503.
This section discusses the basics of creating animation. It looks briefly at a
comparison between computer animation and classic hand-drawn animation,
and then describes the creation of keyframed animation. The following topics
are covered here:
Animation Concepts on page 3079
Using Auto Key Mode on page 3083
Using Set Key Mode on page 3086
Viewing and Copying Transform Keys on page 3092
Controlling Time on page 3095
Setting Time Segments on page 3097
Moving Through Time on page 3098
Choosing a Frame Rate and Playback Speed on page 3100
3078 | Chapter 15 Animation