8

Project Workflow 3
Material Design
You design materials using the Material Editor,
which appears in its own window. You use the
Material Editor to create realistic materials by
defining hierarchies of surface characteristics.
The surface characteristics can represent static
materials, or be animated. See
Material Editor
(page 2–1253)
. Tutorials especially helpful for
learning about materials include "Overview of
Creating a Scene: Still Life" and "Using Materials."
Lights and Cameras
Yo u c r e a t e l i g h t s w i t h v a r i o u s p r o p e r t i e s t o
illuminate your scene. The lights can cast shadows,
project images, and create volumetric effects for
atmospheric lighting. Physically-based lights let
you use real-world lighting data in your scenes
and
Radiosity (page 3–50) provides incredibly
accurate light simulation i n renderings. See
Lights
(page 2–1126)
. You can learn more about lighting
by following the Introduction to Lighting tutorial.
The cameras you create have real-world controls
for lens length, field of view, and motion control
such as truck, dolly, and pan. See
Cameras (page
2–1210)
.
Animation
You can begin animating your scene at any time
by turning on the Auto K ey button. Turn the
button off to return to modeling. You can also
perform animated modeling effects by animating
the parameters of objects in your scene. You can
learn more about animating in the
Animating
YourScenetopic(page1–8)
and from most of the
tutorials.
When the Auto Key button is on, 3ds Max
automatically records the movement, rotation, and
scale changes you make, not as changes to a static
scene, but as
keys on certain frames that represent
time. You can also animate many parameters to
make li g hts and cameras change over time, and
preview your animation directly in the 3ds Max
view por ts.
Yo u u s e
Track View (page 2–483) to control
animation. Track View is a floating window
where you edit animation keys, set up animation