Datasheet

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Several tools found within 3ds Max utilize a paint brush analogy in their implementation.
The location and intensity of the effects are determined by how the brush cursor is dragged over
an object’s surface. The Brush Presets toolbar gives you access to the standard brushes and the
Brush Preset Manager so you can modify and save a brush’s parameters. This toolbar is grayed
out unless a tool that utilizes it is active.
The Animation Layers toolbar lets you access tools that control the layering of objects’ ani-
mated parameters. Layering allows you to designate which animated features are enabled and
which are not, allowing for many possible combinations.
Large scenes and projects can become very complicated quickly. Containers help you orga-
nize assets by combining them into groups. They can be loaded and unloaded at will to reduce
the size of files and how much information is active at one time. By refreshing the link to a con-
tainer, you can help coordinate data and project changes among project teams. By limiting write
access to data files, you can protect project scene files.
Interactions between objects (for example, collisions, fluid surfaces, and jointed constraints)
can be difficult to animate manually. Using reactor, a physics simulation toolset, you can quickly
and accurately create simulations that account for properties such as gravity, friction, and wind.
You can dock the floating toolbars or float the docked toolbars. Try the following exercise to
see how to change the location of toolbars:
1. Click and drag the title bar of the Layers toolbar so that the toolbar is below the main
toolbar (see Figure 1.7). The Layers toolbar appears ghosted as a horizontal outline just
before you release the mouse button.
2. When the outline is in the position shown in Figure 1.7, release the mouse button. The
Layers toolbar is now in a docked position.
Figure 1.7
Docking the Layers
toolbar under the
main toolbar
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