2009

The results of changing an object or any other parameters with Auto Key off
varies according to whether or not the object or parameters have been
animated yet.
■ If you create a new object, or change an object parameter that has not
been animated yet, you can work at any time with Auto Key off. The
changes you make are constant through the entire animation.
For example, you might animate an object bouncing around your scene
and then decide to create pads for the object to land on. To do that, you
drag the time slider to a time when the bouncing object hits the ground,
and make sure Auto Key is off before you proceed. You can then create a
pad under the bouncing object and repeat the process at the next time
where it hits the ground. Because Auto Key is off, the frame at which you
create the pad objects does not matter. They remain present and inanimate
through the entire animation.
■ If you change an object or parameter that is already animated, while Auto
Key is off, the amount of change is applied equally across all the animation
keys.
For example, you might animate a sphere’s radius to be 15 at frame 0, 30
at frame 10, and 50 at frame 20. If you drag the time slider to frame 10,
turn Auto Key off, and increase the sphere’s radius from 30 to 40, the
change in the radius is applied to the other two keys as well. Because you
increased the radius by 10 units with Auto Key off, all radius keys are
increased by 10 units. The sphere’s radius is now 25 at frame 0, 40 at frame
10, and 60 at frame 20.
If Auto Key had been on when you changed the radius, it would have been
an animated change applied only to the key at frame 10.
Identifying What Can Be Animated
Because most parameters in 3ds Max can be animated, the easiest way to find
out if something can be animated is just to try it. Usually, if you want to
animate a parameter, it can be animated.
Sometimes you need to know in advance if you can animate a parameter. If
so, you can use
Track View on page 3503. The Track View Hierarchy list displays
every parameter that can be animated. You might also need to add a
controller
on page 3133 to a track before it can be animated.
Using Auto Key Mode | 3085