8

Understanding Views 25
to create the scene, then use a perspec tive view to
render the final output.
Ax onometr ic Views
There are two types of axonometric views you can
use in viewp orts: or thographic and rotated.
An
orthog r aphic view (page 3–1080) is a
straight-on view of the scene, such as the v iew
shownintheTop,Front,andLeftviewports.You
can set a viewport to a specific orthographic view
using the
viewport r i ght-click menu (page 3–774)
or keyboard shortcuts (page 3–911) .Forexample,
tosetanactiveviewporttoLeftview,presstheL
key.
You can a lso rotate an orthogr aphic view to see
the scene from an angle whi le retaining parallel
projection. This type of view is represented by a
User viewport.
Per specti ve Vi ews
A perspective v iewport, labeled Perspective, is
one of the startup viewports in 3ds Max. You can
change any act ive view p ort to this "eye-like" p oint
of view by pressing the keyboard shortcut P.
Camera Vie w
Once you create a camera object in your scene,
you can change the active viewp ort to a camera
view by pressing the keybo ard shortcut C and
then select ing f rom a list of cameras in your scene.
You c an also create a camera view directly from
a perspective viewpor t, using the
Create Camera
from View (page 1–48)
command.
A c amer a viewpor t tracks the view through the
lens of the selected camera. As you move the
camera (or target) in another viewport, you see the
scenemoveaccordingly.Thisistheadvantageof
the Camera view over the Perspective view, which
can’t b e animated over t ime.
IfyouturnonOrthographicProjectionona
camera’s Parameters rollout, that camera produces
an axonometric view like a User view. See
Cameras
(page 2–1210)
.
The viewport on the right is seen through a camera in the
scene.
Two and Three-Point Perspective and the
Camera Correction Modifier
By default, camera views use three-point
perspective, in which vertical lines appear to
converge with height (in t raditional photography
this is known as
keystoning ). The Camera
Correction modifier (page 2–1237)
applies
two-point perspective to a camera view. In
two-point perspective, vertical lines remain
vertical. A similar effect can be attained by putting
a Skew modifier on a camera.
Light View
Light view works much like a targeted camera
view.Youfirstcreateaspotlightordirectionallight
andthensettheactiveviewporttothatspotlight.
The easiest way is to press the keyboard shor tcut $.
See
Lights (page 2–1126) .