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should be a slight resting follow-through to her action. For example, she may bend slightly
at the waist to center herself once she lands.
You can also create a small amount of movement before your action is in full swing.
Before committing to an action, a character may “wind up” to a greater or lesser extent.
Doing so will create a slight anticipation in the movement (for example, a hammer cock-
ing back slightly before it strikes or a cartoon superhero that bends down before he jumps
up to fly away). These concepts are covered in Chapter 8.
Basic 3ds Max Terms and Concepts
Any 3D program has terms and concepts you need to learn to become a good artist in that
tool. Most of these concepts are fairly transferable, meaning they apply to more than one
CG package, although their names may vary depending on which package you are using.
Here are several terms and concepts you will encounter in the world of CG as they relate
to 3ds Max. If you are not already familiar with 3ds Max’s interface, running through this
list before diving into the next chapter might be a good idea.
Objects An element in your 3ds Max scene is called an object. An object may be converted
to a more easily editable mesh at any time. You will learn about this concept in Chapter 4,
“Modeling in 3ds Max: Part I.”
Primitives Primitives are basic Max objects such as spheres or boxes. Primitives can be
shaped and altered to suit the needs of the model.
Sub-objects Many (though not all) objects are made up of components called sub-objects.
You can select and manipulate sub-objects in 3ds Max to alter the look or function of an
object. Kinds of sub-objects include vertices, faces, polygons, edges, gizmos, and centers.
The types of sub-object you are able to manipulate depend on the type of object you are
manipulating. See Chapter 4 for more on sub-objects.
Normals Each face of a polygon has a direction in which it points. A normal is a vector
that defines which way a face points.
Spinners Spinners are a function of the user interface (UI) in Max. Spinners are the little
arrows to the right of value readouts; they allow you to adjust the
values by clicking up or down on them. A spinner for a sphere’s
radius value is shown here.
Flyouts Another UI term, a flyout is an icon in 3ds Max that is actually several icons in
one. If you press and hold a flyout icon, the other icons “fly out” and display themselves.
Scroll to the icon you need and click to activate its flyout properties. A flyout icon has a
black triangle in its lower-right corner (as here: ). Flyouts are further covered in
Chapter 3, “The 3ds Max Interface.”
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