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414 Chapter 6: Transforms: Moving, Rotating, and Scaling Objects
the software rotates the object 45 degrees from
itspreviousposition,increasestheAbsolutefield
value by 45 degrees, and resets the Offset field to
0.0.
Offset labels reflect the active reference coordinate
system. The Offset can be Offset: Local, Offset:
Parent, and so on. If you use Pick to select the
reference coordinate system of a particular object,
the Offset will be named with that object.
Animating Transforms
You can animate changes in position, rotation, and
scale (transforms) by turning on the Auto Key
button and then performing the transform at any
frame other than frame 0. This creates a key for
that transform at the current frame.
Example: To animate an object mov ing among three
points:
1.
Turn on the Auto Key button (page
2–274)
.
The Auto Key button and the highlight border
around the active viewport both turn red.
2. Dragthetimeslidertoframe25.
3. Move the object from its current position (point
A) to another lo cation (point B).
ThesoftwarecreatesMovekeysatframes0and
25. These appear on the
track bar (page 3–750) .
The est ablishing key at frame 0 describes t he
object’s original position, at point A. The key
atframe25describestheobject’spositionat
point B.
4. Dragthetimeslidertoframe50.
5. Move the object from point B to a third location
(point C).
ThesoftwarecreatesaMovekeyatframe50
that describes the object’s position at point C.
6. Click the Auto Key button to stop recording.
7. Click the Play button (page 3–766) .
The object moves f rom point A to point B over
frames 0 to 25, and then proceeds to point C
over frames 26 to 50.
8. The Play button has turned into a Stop
button; click Stop to stop playback.
You can combine different transforms in a single
animation sequence, so that an object appears to
move as it rotates and changes in size.
See
Animation Concepts and Methods (page
2–271)
for more information on animation
techniques.
An objec t animated among three points
Transform Managers
3ds Max provides three controls, collectively
referred to as the transform managers. These
controls modify the action of the transform tools.
The transform manager controls are as follows:
•The
Reference Coordinate System drop-down
list (page 1–416)
, which controls the orientation
of the transform axes, is found to the right of
theMove,Rotate,andScaletransformbuttons
on the main toolbar.