3 - 3dsmax animation

Tutorials

AUTODESK ®

39

DS MAX®

Animation

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Here you can learn the fundamentals of creatinganimation with 3ds Max. Follow these tutorialsand you will gain expertise and understanding inhow to animate using the program.

Features Covered in This Section

• Auto Key animation

• Ghosting

• Dummy objects and animation

• Track View – Dope Sheet

• Looping animation

• Weighted list controllers

• Creating squash and stretch using Flexmodifiers

• Set Key Animation

• Morphing animation

• Path constraint and Path deform animationmethods

• Schematic View Improvements

Files for This Section

All the files necessary for this tutorial are providedon the program disc in the \tutorials directory.Before starting the tutorials, copy the \tutorialsfolder from the disc to your local programinstallation.

Bouncing a BallA bouncing ball is a common first project for newanimators. This classic example is an excellenttool for explaining basic animation processes in3ds Max.

Skill Level: Beginner

Time to complete: 1 hour 45 minutes

Features Covered in This Tutorial

In these lessons you will learn:

• Creating animation using transforms.

• Copying keys in the track bar.

• Using ghosting to visualize in-betweens.

Animation

252 Chapter 3: Animation

• Using tangent handles in the Function CurveEditor to control in-betweens.

• Creating looping animation using ParameterOut-of-Range Types.

• Animating using dummy objects.

• Using Layout mode.

• Applying Multiplier curves.

• Working with the Dope Sheet Editor to speedup animation and reverse time.

• Using Weighted List controllers.

• Creating squash and stretch effects with theFlex modifier.

• Animating using Set Key mode.

Tutorial Files

All the files necessary for this tutorialare provided on the program disc in the\tutorials\intro_to_animation directory. Beforestarting the tutorials, copy the \tutorials folderfrom the disc to your local program installation.

Creating Animation Using AutoKey

In this lesson you’ll start learning how to animatein 3ds Max.

Animate the ball using the Move transform:

1. Choose File > Open to open bounce_start.max.

The file can be found in the\tutorials\intro_to_animation directory.

Note: The following illustrations display the griddifferently than you will see in your viewports.For ease of use, press G on the keyboard tohide the display of your grid.

Perspective viewport: bounce_start.max

This file has the Perspective viewport on theleft. This is not the standard viewport layout;the layout has been customized for this lesson.

2. Click Auto Key to turn on this feature.

The Auto Key button and the timeslider background turn red to indicate thatyou are in animation mode. The viewport isoutlined in red, as well. Now, when you move,rotate, or scale an object, you create keyframesautomatically.

Time Slider background turns red

Creating Animation Using Auto Key 253

3. Click to select the ball in the Perspectiveviewport.

It is displayed within white selection brackets,indicating that it’s selected.

4. Right-click the sphere and choose Move fromthe Transform quadrant of the quad menu.

The Transform gizmo appears in the viewport.The Transform gizmo lets you easily performconstrained movements. As you move yourcursor over the Transform gizmo, the differentaxes and their labels turn yellow.

5. Position the mouse cursor over the Z axis, andwhen it turns yellow, click and drag upward toraise the ball up in the air.

As you move the ball up in the air, notice theZ value changing in the Coordinate Displaybelow the track bar.

The ball’s position at frame 0 is now fixed abovethe box.

A Position key is created when you do this. Thekey is displayed on the track bar.

The track bar displays the keys for whatever isselected in the viewport. The track bar is found

directly beneath the time slider and above theprompt area.

Keyframe created in Auto Key Mode

6. Move the time slider to frame 15.

To move the ball precisely down to the tablesurface, put your cursor in the Coordinatedisplay Z field, and change the value to 0.

Coordinate Display type-in for precision animation.

The box is built off the world origin, so a Zposition value of 0 will set the ball directly incontact with the box.

Note: The World Origin, (0,0,0) in XYZcoordinates, is shown by the intersection of thedark lines on the Home grid.


Frame 15: Ball is in contact with the box

You need to make the ball rise up to its originalposition at frame 30. Instead of moving toframe 30 and moving the ball back up in the air,you’ll use an alternate method.

Tip: You can zero the Z coordinate (or any otherspinner) by right-clicking the spinner arrows.

7. Put your mouse over the time slider’s frameindicator (the grey box that currently reads15/100 and right-click.

The Create Key dialog appears.

8. In the Create Key dialog, change the Source to 0and the Destination to 30, then click OK.

This copies the key from frame 0 to frame 30.

9. Click Play Animation to play theanimation, or drag the time slider back andforth between frames 0 and 30.

The ball moves down and up between frames 0and 30, and stays up in the air between frames30 and 100.

10. If you clicked Play Animation, click Stop(the same button) to end the playback.

Next, you’ll set the length of the active timesegment to 30 frames.

11. In the time controls, click TimeConfiguration.

12.In the Time Configuration dialog > Animationgroup, set End Time to 30. Don’t click theRe-Scale Time button. Click OK.

3ds Max lets you work in an active time segmentthat’s a part of a larger animation. Here you aremaking frames 0 through 30 the active timesegment. Notice that the time slider now showsonly these frames. The other frames still exist,they just aren’t part of the active segment at themoment.

13.Play the animation.

The ball goes up and down. Since the first andlast frames are the same, the animation appearsto cycle as it plays.

The ball moves, but it doesn’t have “bounce”yet.

14.Stop the animation playback.

3ds Max made decisions on how thein-betweens are being distributed. Right nowthey are evenly distributed so the ball has noacceleration. It doesn’t speed up or slow down;it just floats along with no sense of weight.

You need to simulate the effect of gravity so thatthe ball slows to a stop at the top of its bounce,speeds up as it approaches the table, and thenbounces up again. To accomplish this, you’lluse the key interpolation curves available onthe Curve Editor. You’ll also use the Ghostingfeature to help visualize what the interpolationcurves are doing.

Controlling In-Betweens

To make the ball bounce more convincingly, you’llchange the interpolation on the key at frame 15.

You’ll use the tangency handles available in theCurve Editor. The tangency of the curve will

Controlling In-Betweens 255

determine the position in space of the in-betweenframes. Ghosting will let you see where thein-betweens are being positioned.

Using ghosting to visualize in-betweens:


2. From the Views menu, click Show Ghosting toturn on this feature.

The ghosting feature shows object positionsbefore the current keyframe in an aqua color.

3. Go to Customize menu > Preferences >Viewports tab, and set Ghosting Frames to 4and set Display Nth frame to 3. Click OK toexit the dialog.

The viewport displays the ghosting.

Ghosting shows the object positions on previouskeyframes.

4. Play the animation, and then stop.

5. Now, to control the in-betweens, right-click theball in the viewport and choose Curve Editor.

The Function Curve Editor is displayed acrossthe top two viewports.

The Curve Editor is composed of two windows,a Controller window on the left that shows thenames of tracks, and a Keys window on theright that shows keys and curves.

6. In the Controller window on the left, click toselect only the Z position track.

Note: If you don’t see the Z Position track, clickthe plus icon to the left of the Sphere to expandthe Sphere’s tracks. If you don’t see a plus icon,right-click and choose Manual Navigation, thenhold down ALT and right-click, then chooseExpand from the quad menu.

There are a lot of possible configurations in theCurve Editor, so you may encounter variationsfrom the standard.

Now the only curve displayed in the Keyswindow is the one you want to work on.

Function curve for bouncing ball Z position

7. Move the Track View time slider (the doubleaqua line in the Key window).

As you move back and forth the animationplays in the viewport.

If you look carefully you’ll see a dark dot on thecurve at frame 15.

8. Drag around the dark dot (the position key)to select it.

The selected key turns white on the curve.

To manipulate the curve you need to change thetangency type so you have access to tangencyhandles.

9. On the Track View toolbar, click SetTangents To Custom.

If you look carefully you’ll see a pair of blacktangency handles have appeared on the curve.

10.Hold down the SHIFT key and drag the lefthandle on the left upwards in the Key window.The SHIFT key allows you to manipulate theleft handle independently from the right.

The curve now looks like this:


SHIFT key allows for manipulation of individual handles.

You’ll change one more setting to make this toolmore useful.

Using Interactive Update:

1. On the Track View Settings menu turn onInteractive Update. Now move the time slider toframe 15, then manipulate the tangency handlewhile observing the effect in the ghosting. Youcan clearly see the changes as you work.

2. Set the tangency handle so the in-betweens aremostly drawn toward the raised position (seethe illustration that follows). With interactiveupdate on you can do this with very finecontrol.

Interactive update and ghosting

3. Move the time slider to frame 30, then adjustthe right tangency handle so it approximatelymatches the left one.

By manipulating this handle you can getdifferent effects. The upward movement of theball as it bounces off the table will determinethe perception of the weight of the ball. The ballwill appear to be bouncy, like a tennis ball, if

the two handles are similar. The ball will appearto hang in space if enough of the in-betweensare drawn close to the topmost position.

4. Turn off Views > Show Ghosting andthen play the animation. Concentrate on themovement of the ball. Adjust the curve handlessome more while the animation plays. Observethe effect.

The ball leaves the table as quickly as it hit it,then begins to slow down as it rises.

5. Play the animation, and then stop.

The ball has bounce now. It looks like there isgravity at work here.

When you see something you like in theviewport, it’s a reminder that you should saveyour work. It’s easy to forget while you’re beingcreative.

6. Save your work as mybounce.max.

You’ve made the ball bounce once. In the nextsection you’ll learn to repeat the bouncing of theball using Out-of-Range types in Track View.

Adding Parameter CurveOut-of-Range Types

You can repeat a series of keys over and over in avariety of ways, without having to make copies ofthem and position them along the time line. In thislesson, you’ll add Parameter Curve Out-Of-RangeTypes to the ball’s position keys. Out-Of-RangeTypes let you choose how you want the animationto repeat beyond the range of the current keys.They have the advantage that when you makechanges to the one set of keys, the changes arereflected throughout the animation

Most of the tools in Track View are available bothfrom menu choices and from toolbars. This featureis also on the Controllers menu.

Animating with Dummy Objects 257

Repeat keyframed motion:

1. Continue from the previous lesson, or openbounce_repeat.max. This is a 3ds Max scenewith the ball bouncing once.

2. If the Curve Editor isn’t displayed already, selectthe ball in the viewport, right-click, and chooseCurve Editor from the quad menu.

3. In the Controller window, make sure that onlythe Z Position track is selected.

Before you repeat the keyframes, you’ll extendthe length of the animation.

4. Click Time Configuration. This button isbeneath the Go To End button in the animationplayback controls at the bottom-right corner ofthe interface (not Track View).

5. Change the Animation End Time to 120.

This adds 90 blank frames onto the existing30 frames. It doesn’t stretch the 30 framesover 120. The ball will still be bouncing oncebetween frames 0 and 30.

6. Now, back in Track View, click theParameter Curve Out-Of-Range Types buttonon the toolbar.

Parameter curve out-of-range type choices

7. Click both boxes under the Cycle graph tochoose Cycle for In and Out. Click OK.

8. Click Zoom Horizontal Extents on theNavigation: Track View toolbar at the lowerright corner of the Track View window.

The Keys window zooms back so the entiretime segment is visible. The ParameterOut-of-Range curves are displayed as dottedlines.

Parameter Out-of-Range curve

There are no keys beyond frame 30. Any changemade to the original keys will be reflected inthe looping.

Tip: You can create keys for the out-of-rangecurves by choosing Utilities > Track ViewUtilities > Create Out of Range Keys.

9. Play the animation.

The ball bounces over and over.

10.Save your work as mybounce_repeat.max

Next, you will learn to link the ball to a dummyobject and then use the dummy to animate theposition of the ball. This allows you to keep thebouncing independent from the position, andmakes it easier to control the animation.

Animating with Dummy Objects

In this lesson, you will link the bouncing ball to ahelper object. Then you can animate the helper sothat the ball bounces across the top of some text.This animation technique is useful because youcan control the ball’s bouncing and its travelingmotion independently.


Set up the lesson:

1. On the File menu choose Open.

2. Navigate to the \tutorials\intro_to_animationdirectory on your hard disk and openbounce_dummy.max.

This file is similar to the bouncing ball createdin the last lesson. The only difference is that ithas a text object prepared for you in the sceneand it has a longer active time segment.

Tip: If you want to keep using your ownbouncing ball, you can merge the text object infrom the bounce_dummy.max file using File >Merge. Or create your own.

3. If you didn’t open bounce_dummy.max.,you’ll need to extend the active time segmentto 240 frames. Click the Time Configurationbutton and then in the Animation group changeEnd Time to 240.

Create a dummy object:

1. Go to frame 0, if you’re not there already.

2. Right-click the Top viewport to activate it, thenzoom in on the ball and the box.

3. On the Create panel, click thehelpers button, then on the Object Type rolloutclick Dummy.

4. In the Top viewport, move the cursor over theball.

Tip: Move the Layers and Extras toolbars awayfrom the Top viewport

5. Press the mouse button and drag outwards tocreate a dummy object.

Make the dummy in the Top viewport.

If you look in the Front viewport, you’ll see thatwhile the ball is up in the air, the dummy ispositioned at the same level as the box.

Dummy created below the ball

Next you will align the dummy so that it iscentered over the sphere when viewed fromthe top.

6. On the toolbar, click Align. Then in theTop viewport, click the Sphere.

The Align Selection dialog is displayed.

7. On the Align Selection dialog, turn on XPosition and Y Position, but leave Z turned off.Click OK.


You’ll see the dummy shift position so it isaligned to the sphere.

Next, you’ll align the dummy’s pivot point withits base, and you will position the dummy sothat it sits on top of the box. The idea is toset up the dummy so that its pivot point willmatch where the ball bounces. Then placingthe dummy on any frame in time will ensurethe correct alignment.

8. Select the dummy object, and go to theHierarchy panel.

Instead of moving the pivot, you will move theobject using Affect Object Only. This moves theobject but leaves the pivot unmoved.

9. On the Adjust Pivot rollout, click Affect ObjectOnly to turn it on.

The pivot icon is displayed in the viewport.

Pivot point tripod display

Now you can move the object to change itsrelationship with the pivot point.

10. Turn on Select And Move, and raisethe dummy cube so its base is level with thepivot tripod. Use the Transform gizmo so thedummy only moves up.

You don’t want to move in any other axis, sincethe dummy is already centered properly in theother axes.

Tip: You can increase the size of the transformgizmo by pressing the = key repeatedly untilthe gizmo is the size you want.

Equals key used to grow the transform gizmo

11.Turn off Affect Object Only.

Now you will link the ball to the dummy. Thedummy will become the parent to the bouncingball.

Link the ball to the dummy:

1. In the Front viewport, zoom in so you can seethe dummy and the ball.

2. On the main toolbar, turn on Select AndLink.

3. Move the cursor over the ball, then press andhold the mouse button.

The cursor changes to two interlinked boxes.

4. Move the mouse to the dummy. A rubber-bandline follows the cursor. When the cursor passesover the dummy, it changes again. One box iswhite, showing you this object (the dummy)will be the parent of the first object (the ball).When the cursor has changed, release themouse button.


Link the ball to the dummy

You just linked the ball to the dummy.

You can also create linkages in Schematic View.For something this simple, it’s easier to linkdirectly in the viewport.

When you’ve created a linkage, it’s a good ideato test it out to make sure you did what youthink you did.

Verify that you’ve created the hierarchy:

1. On the toolbar, turn on Select Object.

2. Press H to select by object name.

3. On the Select Objects dialog, turn on DisplaySubtree, it is isn’t already on.

The Sphere01 object should appear indentedbelow Dummy01 in the list.

4. Click Cancel to exit the Select Objects dialog.

5. You can also test a linkage by transformingthe parent object. Rotating the dummy in theviewport will affect he ball as well. If you dothis, then undo the transform once you’vetested your linkage.

Testing the linkage

Now you’re ready to animate the dummy. You’lluse simple Auto Key animation first, just so youcan understand the process.

Animate the dummy:

1. Grab the divider lines between the viewportsand drag them so the perspective viewport iswide screen.

2. Turn on Auto Key

3. On the main toolbar, turn onSelect And Move.

4. At frame 0, move the dummy so it is to the leftof the box in the Perspective viewport.

Dummy at frame 0


5. Use the time sliderto move to frame 15, or type 15 in the Go ToFrame field.

6. Move the dummy using the Transform gizmoso the ball is touching the box.

Dummy at frame 15

You just set two keys for the dummy, one at thestart location at frame 0 and a second at frame15.

7. Go to frame 30 and move the dummy again tothe right of the box, so the ball continues tobounce away, rather than straight up in the air.

Dummy at frame 30

You’ve now set a third key at frame 30. If youplay the animation, you’ll see the ball bounceoff the box as if it had been tossed.

You can display the trajectory of the ball to helpvisualize the animation. Here’s how.

8. On the main toolbar, turn on SelectObject.

You can use any transform tool for this,but using Select Object ensures you don’taccidentally transform the object.

9. Select the ball, and then right-click it.

10.Choose Properties from the quad menu.

11.In the Object Properties dialog, in the DisplayProperties group, turn on Trajectory.

Trajectory display for the ball


You see the ball bouncing onto the box and off,following the trajectory.

Try Layout mode:

If you turn off Auto Key and move the dummy,you will be moving the entire animation in space.When both Auto Key and Set Key are off, you areworking in what is known as Layout mode. Hereyou will use Layout mode, so that instead of theball bouncing on the block, the ball bounces offthe letter F.

1. Turn off Auto Key Mode.

The red disappears in the time sliderbackground and viewport outline.

2. Move the dummy object back toward the text.


3. Watch the position of the trajectory and movethe dummy until the bounce point of thetrajectory intersects the top of the letter F.

Layout Mode lets you move the animation in space.

Bounce the ball on the letters:

Now you’ll repeat what you’ve learned to create theball bouncing on the letters.

The ball bounces 8 times, making contact withthe letters at frames 15, 45, 75, 105, 135, 165, 195,and 220.

1. Turn on Auto Key.

2. In the track bar, select the key at frame 30 anddelete it.

3. Move the time slider to frame 45 (or enter 45 inthe Current Frame field).

4. Position the dummy so the ball bounces on thedouble L’s in the word “Follow”.

5. Move the time slider, then the dummy so theball bounces on the following letters at theseframes.

• F at frame 15

• ll at frame 45

• w at frame 75

• th at frame 105

• b at frame 135

• u at frame 165

• c at frame 195

• ba at frame 225

6. At frame 240, move the dummy so the ballmove away from the letters.

7. Play the animation and observe the results.

8. Save your work as mybounce_text.max. Ifyou had any trouble, you can open the filebounce_text.max to see the correct animationso far.

Next you will learn to use a multiplier curve toaffect the height of the bouncing ball.

Add a multiplier curve:

1. Select the ball in the viewport, right-click andchoose Curve Editor.

The Curve Editor window is displayed, if itwasn’t already visible.

2. In the Controller window, click the Z Positiontrack.

3. On the Curves menu, choose Apply MultiplierCurve. In the Controller window, click the plusicon. Click the Multiplier Curve to highlightit, then hold down the CTRL and click the ZPosition track. This way you have only thesetwo curves displayed.

In the Controller window, the Multiplier curveis added beneath the Z position track. It’s notvery noticeable in the Keys window on the right.

The scaling of the multiplier track is quite small,so the slightest change to a key could result

Using the Dope Sheet Editor 263

in a large change in the animation. You cancounteract this by zooming in on the multipliertrack.

4. On the Navigation: Track View toolbar(at the lower right of the Keys window), clickthe Zoom Region button. Drag a zoom regionwindow around the key at frame 240 on themultiplier track.

5. On the Settings menu, turn on InteractiveUpdate.

6. On the Track View toolbar click MoveKeys to turn it on, then move the multiplier keydownward, while observing the effect on thetrajectory in the Perspective viewport.

Lowering the multiplier curve shows effect on Z positioncurve in Keys window

Don’t move it below the horizontal zero value,or you will get some strange effects.

Multiplier curve shown on trajectory

Tip: You can type in precision values on the KeyStats: Track View toolbar.

While working with Multiplier curves, if you’renot sure you like the results, you can just turnthem off. Select the Multiplier curve in theController window, then on the Curves menuchoose On/Off.

7. Click Zoom Horizontal Extents on in theNavigation toolbar to see the entire curve again.

Using the Dope Sheet Editor

Track View also has a mode called Dope Sheet,which lets you work with keys and ranges. In thislesson, you’ll use the range function to make youranimation go faster. You’ll also use the Time toolsto reverse your animation.

Speed up the animation:

The bouncing ball doesn’t have enough pep. Tospeed up the animation, you’ll use Edit Ranges inDope Sheet mode.

1. Continue from before or open bounce_multiplied.max.

2. Select the dummy object in the viewport. Then,on the Graph Editors menu, choose Track View— Dope Sheet.

3. On the Keys: Dope Sheet toolbar, clickEdit Ranges. By default, the Keys: Dope Sheettoolbar is on the top left.

The Keys window now displays the ranges forthe animation.

4. In the Controller window, highlight the itemlabel Dummy01. This way you will adjust theranges of all the dummy’s tracks at the sametime.

Before making changes to the dummy, youwant to make sure you also are making changesto the bouncing ball as well. Since the bouncingball is the child of the dummy, you’ll use theModify Child Keys button.


5. On the Display: Dope Sheet toolbar,click Modify Child Keys to turn it on.

Now the changes you make to the dummy rangewill also be applied to the bouncing ball.

6. Click the end of the Dummy range and drag itto the left to around frame 100.

Range bars used to speed up the animation

This compresses the animation for the dummyand the bouncing ball so it happens within 100frames.

Tip: You can raise the time ruler up fromthe bottom of the Keys window for greaterprecision.


The animation plays faster. The ball continuesbouncing at the end of the animation. Thereare several different ways you could correct this.You could try to use an ease curve to stop theanimation, or create keys from the out-of-rangecurve, and then delete the keys. Or you can setthe active time segment to 100 frames.

8. Click the Time Configuration buttonbeneath the animation playback controls.

9. Change the Animation End time to 100.

Reverse time:

You can reverse the animation by using the Timetools available in Dope Sheet mode. It’s easy to do.

1. On the Keys Dope Sheet toolbar, clickEdit Keys.

The range bars are replaced with keys.

2. On the Time menu, choose Select.

When working with Time commands, you firstselect the time, then make changes to it.

3. In the Keys window, on the Dummy track, dragfrom frame 0 to frame 100 to select the time.

The time is displayed as a light yellow band inthe Dummy track.

Time displayed as light yellow band

4. On the Time menu, choose Reverse

The animation plays backwards. The ballbounces from right to left instead of left toright, and the last bounce now happens on theletter F instead of the double L in ball.

Tip: You can easily reverse the playback of ananimation using controls found in the TimeConfiguration menu. But if you need to actuallyreverse the keys, this is the technique to use.

Using Weighted List Controllers

There are many different animation controllersin 3ds Max. Each one has its own attributes,strengths, and uses. Each one has techniquesassociated with it. Controllers can be combinedusing weighted list controllers. By changing oranimating the weights of controllers in a list, youcan adjust each controller’s effect, and animate ina nonlinear way. Here, you’ll learn to animate theweights and to see what they can do.

Use the Weighted List controller:

With the Position List controller, you can addother controllers on top of the Bezier Position

Using Weighted List Controllers 265

controller you already have. Here you will adda Noise controller to layer the animation of aPing-Pong ball.

1. Choose File > Open to load pingpong_volley.max.

A Ping-Pong ball and table are visible.

Tip: If the texture on the table looks wrong,right-click the Perspective viewport label andchoose Texture Correction.

Ping-Pong volley


The Ping-Pong ball bounces over the net in asimulated volley. The last four bounces happenin place. You can use weighted list controllersto remove those last four bounces, and replacethem with a rolling motion. A Noise controllercan be added to get rid of the bouncing, andinstead you will have the ball wobble aroundon the table, then stop.

3. Select the Ping-Pong ball.

4. Open the Motion panel and expand the AssignController rollout.

Notice that the Assign Controller rolloutdisplays the Position controller as a BezierPosition for the Ping-Pong ball. Use the panhand in the window to read the label.

There are at least three different places whereyou can assign a controller to an object: inTrack View windows, on the Motion panel,

or from the Animation menu. You’ll use theAnimation menu to assign the controller, andthe Motion panel to edit the weights.

5. On the Animation menu (not on the Motionpanel), choose Position Controllers > Noise.

The viewport trajectory changes into a frenziedred spline. Don’t worry, this is correct.

Noise controller: A frantic trajectory

Note: When you assign a controller from theAnimation menu, a weighted list controller isautomatically added to your object.

6. On the Motion panel, in the Assign Controllersrollout, expand the position list, and then theNoise Controller.

You can see that Noise Strength is indentedbeneath the Noise Position. If you scroll downa little, you can see that the Weight is listed aswell.


The new Noise Position track appears belowthe Bezier Position track. The old animationhas not been replaced; instead, the new Noisecontroller has been added to it.

If you play the animation, the ball flies all overthe place. It is following the position controllertracks and the noise controller tracks. Thisprobably isn’t what you want here. You willneed to adjust the noise parameters and theweighting of the controllers.

Adjust the Noise Frequency and Strength:

1. In the Assign Controllers window, highlightand then right-click the Noise Position entryand choose Properties.

The Noise Controller properties dialog isdisplayed

2. Change the Frequency to something very small,like 0.009.

3. Change the Z Strength to 0.0.

Important: If you miss this step, the tutorial won’t

work. The Z strength counteracts the up-and-down

bouncing movement.

4. Change the X Strength and Y Strength to 1.0.

This creates the motion of the ball wobblingaround on the table surface.

Noise Controller Properties dialog

5. Play the animation

The Noise is now less jittery, in fact barelyvisible. You need to weight the controllers so thenoise doesn’t affect the bouncing until frame201, and to turn off the position controller afterframe 200.

Animate the weights:


The Auto Key button turns red.

2. Move to frame 200.

You’ll set keys at frames 200 and 201 for theBezier Position. You’ll also set keys at frames200, 201 and 0 for the Noise.

3. Open the Position List rollout, then in thewindow select the Bezier Position layer.

4. Locate the Weight field, then SHIFT+right-clickthe spinner arrows.

The spinner is outlined in red, showing akeyframe has been placed there.

Tip: You can set keys this way in both Set Keyand Auto Key modes.

5. Select the Noise Position layer in the PositionList rollout.

6. Right-click the spinner.

The Weight value is reset to 0, and a key is set.

Tip: Right-click any spinner to reset the value to0 and set a key. SHIFT+right-click any spinnerto add a key without changing the value.

7. Move to frame 201.

Tip: You can use the . key on the keyboard tomove ahead one frame at a time. You can alsoclick the arrows on either side of the frameindicator on the time slider.

8. With Noise still selected, enter 100 in theWeight field,

Using Weighted List Controllers 267

9. In the Position List, select the Bezier Positionlayer, then right-click the Weight spinner to setthe value to 0 and set a key.

This removes the bouncing from this point on.

10. In the animation playback controls, clickGo To Start .

11.Select the Noise Position in the Position list,then set the Weight value to 0.


Ball stops bouncing after frame 200, rolls around table

The Ping-Pong ball bounces across the table,then stops bouncing, but still rolls around a bit.

13.If for some reason the ball is rolling aroundin the air, instead of on the table, go to frame201 and move the dummy object down untilthe ball comes into contact with the table.Use this technique to correct any other errantmovement.

14.To stop the ball’s movement altogether, go toframe 250 and keyframe the Noise weight to0. Play the animation. The ball stops movingcompletely at frame 250.

15. Turn off Auto Key.

16.Save your work as mypingpong_layered_animation.max.

You can open pingpong_layered_animation.max to compare your workwith a completed tutorial file.


Adding Squash and Stretch withModifiers

To create the illusion of cartoon movement,traditional animators rely on a technique calledsquash and stretch. For example, if a cartoonvillain runs off a cliff, he will not descend to earthuntil he notices that he is suspended in the air.When he does descend, he will stretch on the waydown, and then squash when he hits the desertfloor.

In this topic, you’ll add a little squash and stretchautomatically to a Ping-Pong ball using the Flexmodifier.

Note: You could also use XForm modifiers tomanually achieve the same squash and stretchcreated in this lesson. You would use non-uniformscale transforms on the modifier gizmo to do this,rather than directly scaling the object, which canlead to unexpected results.

Flex modifier creating squash and stretch

Use the Flex modifier to generate squash and stretch:

1. Open pingpong_layered_animation.max andselect the Ping-Pong ball.


2. On the Modify panel, open the Modifier List,and then locate and click the Flex modifier.

3. Play the animation in the viewport.

There’s a little too much squash and stretch.

4. Reduce the Flex parameter to about 0.3 andplay the animation again.

The ball is automatically stretched by themovement along the path. You can adjust apath value to improve this.

5. While the animation is playing, try enteringdifferent values in the Flex field. Alsoexperiment with the Strength and Sway values.A good combination is a high strength (say 11)and a low sway (around 1). You can animatethe Flex parameters to vary the effect.

Still another approach is to set all the keysyourself using a Stretch modifier to distort theball. As mentioned earlier, you could squashthe ball by putting an XForm modifier on itand then using Non-uniform Scale to reshapethe gizmo. You could also squash the ball usingfree-form deformation (FFD) modifiers. Oryou could use a Path Deform modifier. Thereare many possibilities.

Summary

In these Animation tutorials you have beenintroduced to the techniques of creatinganimation. You have learned to animate abouncing ball using the Auto Key buttonand transforms. You have learned to controlin-betweens using key interpolation and ghosting,and how to loop animation using Track Viewcontrols. You’ve learned about animating withdummy objects, using the Dope Sheet editor and

Flying a Spacefighter 269

weighted list controllers. Finally you’ve createdsquash and stretch effects using the flex modifier.

Flying a Spacefighter

In this tutorial, you’ll animate a spacefighter tomake it fly along a simple path by using the pathconstraint. You’ll also learn how to blend paths.

Skill Level: Beginner to Intermediate

Time to complete: 1 hour


In this tutorial you will learn:

• Animating with Path constraints.

• Using dummy objects for animation.

• Using weighted list controllers to addturbulence.

• Setting keys using the Set Keys button.

• Controlling Euler controller rotations.

• Substituting high resolution objects for lowresolution objects by using XRefs.

Tutorial Files


Adding and Adjusting Flight Paths

In this first exercise, you’ll assign a path constraintto the spacefighter and have it fly along a path.You’ll also set a few path parameters to improve theflight dynamics of the spacefighter.

Set up the lesson:

• Load the flyingspacefighter.max file.

Files for this lesson are in thetutorials\intro_to_animation folder.

This scene includes the following:

• A spaceship named SpaceFighter.

• A path, Path01.

• A (hidden) camera named SpaceCam.

Assign a path constraint:

1. In the Top viewport, select SpaceFighter.


2. From the Animation menu, choose Constraints> Path Constraint.

You’ll see a dotted line linking the spacefighterand your cursor.

3. Click the green line, Path01.

Once you pick the path, the spacefighter jumpsto the start point of the path.

Note: The Motion panel is automatically openedon the command panel.

4. From the Motion panel, slide the rolloutsup until you can see all of the Path Parametersrollout, if necessary.

You’ll see that Path01 has been added to thepath list.

5. Activate the SpaceCam viewport and play theanimation.

The spacefighter moves along the path, but it’snot facing the right direction and it slows downwhen it gets to the curves.

6. In the Path Options group of the PathParameters rollout, set the following:

• Turn on Follow: the spacefighter follows thepath and turns as the path curves, but it’sperpendicular to the motion path.

• In the Axis group, change the axis to Y: thespacefighter is reoriented and faces alongthe path, but it’s flying backwards.

Adding and Adjusting Flight Paths 271

• Turn on Flip: the spacefighter now faces thedirection it will move on the path.

7. Play the animation again.

Now the spacefighter is moving along the pathproperly, but its flight dynamics don’t look veryrealistic.

Improving the Flight Characteristics

In this section, you’ll improve the flightcharacteristics of the spacefighter. You’ll make itlook more realistic when it enters and exits turns.

Make the flight more realistic:

1. Leave the SpaceCam viewport active andconfirm that Constant Velocity is turned on inthe Path Options group.


Now the spacefighter doesn’t slow down as itenters the curves. It has a fluid, continuousmotion now, but still doesn’t look very realistic.

3. Now turn on Bank and play the animationagain, if it isn’t still playing.

Now the spacefighter banks as it goes throughthe turns. It’s subtle and needs to be made morepronounced.

4. Use the Bank Amount and Smoothness settingsto make the spacefighter look like it’s reallybanking into the curves of the path. Make thefollowing settings:

• Set Bank Amount to 7.0.

Bank Amount controls how far an objectrolls to either side of the path it travels along.

If you were sitting in the cockpit, positivevalues roll the starfighter to the left andnegative values roll to the right. Be carefulhow high you set Bank Amount. If too high,the spacefighter will roll all the way over.Experiment with different settings and put itback to 7.0 before continuing.

• Set Smoothness to 1.0.

Smoothness controls how rapidly the rollchanges as the starfighter moves throughbends in the path. Smaller values makethe object more responsive to changes inthe curve while larger values smooth outjerkiness.


The spacefighter has a smoother look as itrights itself when coming out of the turns.Try increasing the Smoothness and see whathappens.

Note: You can change settings while theanimation is playing.

5. Save your scene as MySpaceFighter01.max.

Animating the Path of the Spacefighter

The parameters in the Path Parameters rollout canbe animated. In this section, you’ll make a fewanimated setting changes and see what happensto the spacefighter.

Animate path parameters:


2. Turn on Auto Key and set BankAmount to 6.0.

You’ll see a new key added to the timeline atframe 60.

3. Slide the time slider to 75 and set Bank Amountto 12.0.

4. Turn off Auto Key and play the animation.

As the spacefighter enters the second curve,it makes a drastic rolling turn, as if evading amissile or dodging a laser.


Blending Paths

So far, you’ve worked with a single path. 3ds Maxallows you to blend multiple paths, which canresult in some interesting motion effects.

Set up the lesson:

• Open the file flyingspacefighter02.max.

Files for this lesson are in the\tutorials\intro_to_animation folder.


• A spaceship named SpaceFighter.

• Two paths, Path01 (green) and Path02 (red).

• A camera (hidden) named SpaceCam.

Fly the spacefighter along blended paths:

1. Select SpaceFighter and open the Motionpanel.

Spacefighter is already constrained to Path01.

2. In the Path Parameters rollout, click the AddPath button.

3. Select Path02, the red path.

Animating the Spacefighter with Constraints and Controllers 273

Notice how the spacefighter is positionedhalfway between the two paths. This is becauseeach path is influencing the spacefighter equally.

4. Click the Add Path button to turn it off.

5. Activate the SpaceCam viewport, if it’s notalready active, and play the animation.

The Weight setting controls how much thespacefighter is affected by each path.

6. Select Path01 and set Weight to 25.

7. Play the animation again.

The spacefighter follows Path02 more closelybecause it has a greater weight then Path01.Experiment with different Weight settings foreach path and see what happens.


Animating the Spacefighter withConstraints and Controllers

In this lesson, you’ll use an assortment ofconstraints and controllers with a flight ofspacefighter on a mission.

Set up the lesson:

• Open flyingspacefighter03.max.


The scene already contains the following:

• A flight of three spacefighters, FlightLeader,Wingman01 and Wingman02.

• A dummy object, SpaceshipControl.

• Two motion paths, flightpath (visible) &wingmanpath (hidden).

• A camera (hidden), SpaceCam.

Using a Dummy Object to Control theFlight

Dummy objects are very useful when setting up ananimation. By animating a dummy, you can focuson getting your motion set up using a very simpleobject that doesn’t slow down your system. Oncethe dummy animation is complete you link objectsto the dummy. Now wherever the dummy moves,the object goes with it.


Link the spacefighters to the dummy:

1. Activate the Top viewport, if it’s notalready active, and click the Select And Linkbutton from the Main toolbar.

2. Select FlightLeader and drag the cursor over thedummy, SpaceshipControl. Release the mousebutton.

FlightLeader is now linked to theSpaceshipControl. Wherever you moveSpaceshipControl, FlightLeader will follow.

3. Link both Wingman01 and Wingman02 toSpaceshipControl.

Add a path constraint to the dummy:

1. In the Top viewport, use Zoom Extentsto view the scene.

2. Select SpaceshipControl.

3. From the Animation menu, choose Constraints> Path Constraint. Drag the cursor and clickthe flightpath.

SpaceshipControl jumps to the beginning ofthe path. The spacefighters follow along sincethey’re linked to the dummy.

4. In the Path Parameters rollout, make thefollowing settings.

• Turn on Follow, Bank, and ConstantVelocity.

• In the Axis group, turn on Y and Flip.

• Set the Bank Amount to 7.0 and theSmoothness to 1.0.


All three spacefighters move along theflightpath.

6. Save the scene as MyFlight01.max.

Making the Camera Follow the Action

In this exercise, you’ll use the Link Constraintto make the camera follow the flight as it passesby. Continue from the last lesson or loadflyingspacefighter04.max


Add link constraint to the camera:

1. Open the Display panel and turn offCameras in the Hide By Category rollout.

The camera, SpaceCam, will appear.

2. In the Top viewport, use Zoom Extents toview the scene. Select the camera target.

Also make sure the time slider is set to frame 0(zero).

3. From the Main menu, choose Animation >Constraints > Link Constraint. Click theflightpath to set the first Link Parameter atframe 0 (zero).

4. Move the time slider to frame 80 and click theAdd Link button in the Link Params rollout.Click SpaceshipControl.

5. Click Add Link to turn it off.


The camera target is linked to the flightpathfrom frames 0 to 79. At frame 80, thecamera target begins to specifically track theSpaceshipControl object.


Your Flight Leader Gets Cocky

Your flight leader has a pretty bold character. Heor she feels a victory roll is in order as the flightpasses by your vantage point from SpaceCam.In this exercise, you’ll use the OrientationConstraint to control the rotation of the flightleader’s spacefighter as it performs a barrelroll. Continue from the last lesson or loadflyingspacefighter05.max.


1. In the Top viewport, use Region Zoom toview the three spacefighters.

2. On the Create panel, click Helpers, thenDummy. Create a new dummy object near theFlightLeader and name it barrelroll.

3. Click Select And Link and link barrelrollto SpaceshipControl.

4. From the Tools menu, choose Align, and clickSpaceshipControl.

The Align Selection (SpaceshipControl) dialogappears.


5. In the Align Orientation (Local) group, turn onthe X, Y, and Z axis controls and click OK.

The barrelroll dummy aligns to theSpaceshipControl.

6. On the Motion panel, open the AssignController rollout, if it’s not open, and selectthe Rotation: Euler XYZ controller.

7. Click the Assign Controller button andchoose TCB Rotation from the Assign RotationController dialog.

Note: This will be very important later on, sodon’t miss this step.

Animate the victory roll:

1. Select the FlightLeader in the Top viewport.

2. Open the Animation menu and chooseConstraints > Orientation Constraint. Movethe cursor over the barrelroll dummy and selectit.

You’ll see barrelroll added to the OrientationConstraint Target list on the Motion panel.

3. Select barrelroll and make sure the time slideris at frame 0 (zero).

4. Turn on the Set Key toggleand click the Set Key button.

5. Move the time slider to frame 110 andclick Set Key again.

You’ve added two keys that will keep theFlightLeader flying normally from frames 0 to110.

6. Activate the SpaceCam viewport and move thetime slider to frame 130.

7. Click Select And Rotate and change theReference Coordinate System to Local.


8. Click the barrelroll dummy and rotate it aroundthe Y-axis to about 180 degrees and click theSet Key button.

Note: If you’d like to be precise, you can enterthe rotation in the Y-axis type-in field on thestatus bar.

9. Move the time slider to frame 150 and rotate thebarrelroll dummy around the Y-axis another180 degrees and click the Set Key button. Turnoff the Set Key Toggle when you’ve finished.

10.Save the scene as MyFlight03.max and play theanimation.

A Wingman in Trouble

While the FlightLeader is performing stunts,Wingman01 seems to be having some trouble. Hedoesn’t seem to be flying as smoothly as the others.In this exercise, you’ll use the Noise Controllerto add some turbulence to Wingman01 flightdynamics. Continue from the last lesson or loadflyingspacefighter06.max.

Note: If you continue from the last lesson, makesure the time slider is back on frame 0 (zero).

Add turbulence:

1. In the Top viewport, use Region Zoom toview the three spacefighters, if you haven’t doneso already.

You might have to do a Zoom Extents first, thena Region Zoom to see the three fighters.

2. Select Wingman01.

3. On the Animation menu, choose PositionControllers > Noise.

Doing this automatically adds a List Controllerto the Wingman01. The Position List containsthe original Linear Position and the new Noise

Position controller with default Weight settingsof 1.0.

4. Play the animation and note the erratic flyingof Wingman01.

5. Stop the playback and change the Weight of theNoise Position controller to 25.

Now the flight path of the Wingman01spacefighter is affected by slight battle damage.


A Wingman is Called Away

Now it looks like Wingman02 has received atransmission and is being ordered to peel offand fly somewhere else. You’ll revisit the LinkConstraint to make Wingman02 follow theFlightLeader for a little while then take off onanother path. Continue from the last lesson, orload flyingspacefighter07.max.

Alter course for Wingman02:

1. Reset your time slider to frame 0 (zero) andzoom to the trio of spacefighters in the Topviewport.


2. Create a new dummy near Wingman02 and callit WingmanControl.

3. Right-click any viewport and choose UnhideBy Name from the quad menu. Selectwingmanpath and click Unhide.

A yellow path appears in front of Wingman02.

4. Make sure the new dummy, WingmanControl,is still selected and choose Constraints > PathConstraint from the Animation menu. Dragthe cursor over and pick wingmanpath.

The WingmanControl jumps to the beginningof wingmanpath.

5. In the Path Parameters rollout duplicate theprevious settings.

• Turn on Follow, Bank, and ConstantVelocity.

• In the Axis group, turn on Y and Flip.

• Set the Bank Amount to 7.0 and theSmoothness to 1.0.

If you play the animation, you’ll seeWingmanControl on its own path.

Make Wingman02 change paths:

1. In the Top viewport, select Wingman02and click the Select And Unlink button.

Wingman02 is no longer linked to theSpaceshipControl dummy object.

2. From the Animation menu, choose Constraint> Link Constraint and select SpaceshipControl.


Wingman02 will work as it did before, but thelink constraint will give you the flexibility tohave it follow a different path.

3. Move the time slider to frame 45 and click theAdd Link button in the Link Params rollout onthe Motion panel.

4. Click the WingmanControl dummy.

You will see WingmanControl is added tothe Target list, and when Wingman02 gets toframe 45, the spacefighter begins to follow theWingmanControl dummy on the other path.

5. Save the scene as MyFlight05.max and play theanimation.

Make Wingman02 roll out of formation:

To make Wingman02 roll out of formation, you’lluse the Orientation Constraint again.

1. Move the time slider back to frame 0 (zero), ifit’s not there already.

2. Create another dummy object in the Topviewport near Wingman02 and name itwingmanroll.

3. Use Select And Move to position wingmanrollnext to Wingman02.

Watch the Front and Right viewports to helpyou position it. This will help you keep theobjects in your scene organized.

4. Click Select And Link and linkwingmanroll to WingmanControl.

5. From the Tools menu, choose Align, and clickWingmanControl.

The Align Selection (WingmanControl) dialogappears.

6. In the Align Orientation (Local) group, turn onthe X, Y, and Z axis controls and click OK.

The wingmanroll dummy aligns toWingmanControl.

Note: This is important because you wantto make sure that rotation values you givewingmanroll, later on, will be based onthe initial orientation of WingmanControl.Otherwise, any rotation you give wingmanrollwill result in the spaceship tumbling out ofcontrol.


7. On the Motion panel, open the AssignController rollout, if it’s not open, and selectthe Rotation: Euler XYZ controller.

8. Click the Assign Controller button and chooseTCB Rotation from the Assign RotationController dialog.

Note: If you don’t assign the TCB Rotationcontroller, you will not be able to rotatewingmanroll about a local axis.

9. Select Wingman02 in the Top viewport.

10.Open the Animation menu and chooseConstraints > Orientation Constraint. Movethe cursor over wingmanroll and select it.

You’ll see wingmanroll added to the OrientationConstraint target list in the OrientationConstraint rollout on the Motion panel.

11.Select wingmanroll in the Top viewport.

12. Turn on the Set Key toggleand click the Set Key button.

13. Move the time slider to frame 60 andclick Set Key again.

You’ve added two keys that will keepWingman02 flying normally from frames 0 to60.

14.Activate the SpaceCam viewport and move thetime slider to frame 85.

15. Click Select And Rotate and change theReference Coordinate System to Local.

16.You’ll make two rotations during this step:

• Enter –15 in the X-axis Coordinate DisplayType-in field and click the Set Key button.

• Enter 90 in the Y-axis Coordinate DisplayType-in field and click the Set Key button.


17.Move the time slider to frame 100 to make thenext two rotations:

• Rotate 5 degrees around the Z-axis and clickthe Set Key button.

• Rotate 90 degrees around the Y-axis andclick the Set Key button again.

18.Move the time slider to frame 115 to make thenext two rotations:

• Rotate 10 degrees around the Z-axis andclick the Set Key button.

• Rotate 90 degrees around the Y-axis andclick the Set Key button again.

19.Turn off the Set Key toggle when you’vefinished. Save the scene as MyFlight06.maxand play the animation.

Taking Control of Mars, Its Moons,and the Space Station

So far, you’ve used dummy objects to help animatethe spacefighters. Another handy use of dummyobjects is as an alternate pivot point. Any objectcould be used, but dummies are great because theydon’t render.

Set up the lesson:

• Load the spacestation.max file.



• Three heavenly bodies, Mars and its twomoons, Deimos and Phobos

• A space station named SpaceStation

• A camera (hidden) named SpaceCam

Take a few moments to familiarize yourself withthe names of the objects in the scene. This willmake it easier for you to select objects during thislesson.

Rotate Mars and its moons:

The first part of this lesson focuses on the threeheavenly bodies you see in the scene. You will setup a dummy object to control the rotation of Marsand its moons, Deimos and Phobos.

1. In the Left viewport, create a Dummy objectaround Mars. Name the dummy objectMarsControl.

Make the dummy a little larger than the planetso it’s easier to pick.

2. With the dummy object still selected, chooseTools menu > Align, and click Mars.

3. In the Align Selection (Mars) dialog, do thefollowing:

• Turn on X, Y and Z Position in the AlignPosition (Screen) group.

Taking Control of Mars, Its Moons, and the Space Station 283

• Turn on X, Y and Z Axis in the AlignOrientation (Local) group.

• Click OK to accept the settings.

MarsControl is now aligned and oriented with the centerof Mars.

4. Select MarsControl.

5. Go to the Motion panel, and expand the AssignController rollout. Select Rotation: Euler XYZ.

6. Click the Assign Controller button andchoose TCB Rotation then click OK.

TCB Rotation will allow you to rotate objectson their Local axes as opposed to the Worldaxes. This is beneficial when you have an objectthat is rotating on an axis that is tilted, such asthe rotational axis of a planet.

7. Select Mars, then click Select and Link.Drag the rubber band to MarsControl. Releasethe mouse button when the cursor changes.

8. Link each of the moons, Deimos andPhobos, to MarsControl.

Mars and its two moons are now linked toMarsControl. Any movement or rotationyou make to MarsControl will affect all theplanetary bodies.

9. Click Select And Rotate, and selectMarsControl.

10. Change theReference Coordinate System from View toLocal.

11. Turn on the Auto Key button andmove the time slider to frame 100.

12.In the Z axis field, below the time slider, enter60.

This rotates MarsControl by 60 degrees aroundits local Z axis. Because the planet and moonsare linked to MarsControl, they also rotate.

13.Turn off the Auto Key and save your work asMySpaceStation.

14.Activate the SpaceCam viewport and play theanimation.

You will see Mars rotating on its axis, then atframe 60, Deimos swings into view and passesby and Phobos remains off-camera. If you like,


you can zoom out to see both moons duringplayback.

15.Return the time slider to frame 0 beforecontinuing.

Set the space station into orbit:

Now that Mars is spinning on its own axis andDeimos and Phobos are orbiting Mars, you canset the space station into a geosynchronous orbitaround Mars (an orbit that matches the planet’srotation). You’ll use the same technique forcontrolling the space station.

1. Add a new dummy object to the Top viewport,and name it StationControl.

It doesn’t matter where you place the dummyobject, because you’ll align it to Mars in a fewsteps.

2. Open the Assign Controller rollout on theMotion panel, and select Rotation : Euler XYZ.

3. Click the Assign Controller button, andchoose TCB Rotation. Click OK.

4. While StationControl is still selected, chooseTools menu > Align, and click Mars.

5. In the Align Selection (Mars) dialog, do thefollowing:

• Turn on X, Y and Z Position in the AlignPosition (Screen) group.

• Turn on X, Y and Z Axis in the AlignOrientation (Local) group.

• Click OK to accept the settings.

These are the same settings you made whenaligning MarsControl to Mars in the previoussection.

6. In the Left viewport, link SpaceStationto StationControl.

7. Turn on Select And Rotate and selectStationControl. Change the ReferenceCoordinate System from View to Local, if it’snot already changed.

Tip: You must always choose the transform (inthis case, Select and Rotate) before choosingthe Reference Coordinate System. Differenttransforms can have different ReferenceCoordinate Systems. If you choose thecoordinate system first, it might change whenyou choose a different transform.


9. In the Z axis field, below the time slider, enter40.

Taking Control of Mars, Its Moons, and the Space Station 285

10.Turn off the Auto Key and save your work asMySpaceStation01.

To create an incrementally saved file, use the

Save As command click the button.


Now the Space Station is orbiting around Marsbut it’s orbiting at a slower rate.

Add artificial gravity to the space station:

The space station need to rotate around its ownaxis in order to generate some level of artificialgravity for its personnel. This last section willsolve that problem.

1. In the SpaceCam viewport, select SpaceStationand open the Motion panel.

2. Open the Assign Controller rollout and selectRotation : Euler XYZ.

3. Click the Assign Controller button andchoose TCB Rotation then click OK.

4. Turn on Select And Rotate if it’s notalready active. Set the Reference CoordinateSystem from View to Local.


6. In the Z axis field, below the time slider, enter90.

7. Turn off the Auto Key.


Now the Space Station rotates about its ownaxis while it’s in geosynchronous orbit aroundMars. Maximize the SpaceCam viewport fora better view.

9. Save your work as MySpaceStation02.


Animating a PenA client asks for an animation of a pen writing theword “yes” onto a page. You already know how tomodel the pen, but how do you animate it so that itfollows a path? And how do you make the writingappear synchronized with the movement of thepen? These questions and others will be answeredin this tutorial for a write-on animation.


Time to Complete: 15 minutes


In this tutorial you will learn:

• Drawing splines on objects using snaps

• Using path constraints

• Using path deform modifiers

Tutorial Files


Drawing the Path on the Paper

We won’t take you through the entire process ofmodeling a scene. Instead, you’ll open a file that isalready developed. The pieces are all ready, so youcan focus on animation.

Setup:

• On the menu bar, choose File > Open andnavigate to \tutorials\intro_to_animation\write_on_start.max. Highlight the file name,then click Open.


The sample file, write_on_start.max.

You see a piece of paper on a drawing board,and a pen and a bottle of ink on either side.The camera zooms back to frame a better viewof the paper.

Before you draw the path, you’ll change thecolor of the paper to black. This will make itmuch easier to see the line as you draw.

Drawing the Path on the Paper 287

Change the paper color:

1. On the toolbar, choose Select By Name.

2. In the Select Objects dialog, highlight paper inthe list on the left, then click Select.

The paper object is selected in the viewport,and its parameters are visible in the Modifypanel on the right.

3. On the toolbar click the Material Editorbutton to open the Material Editor.

The Material Editor displays the materials usedin the scene. The paper material sample sphereis highlighted and should be visible.

4. Click the Black material on the second row. Thematerial name Black Paper appears next to theeyedropper.

5. On the Material Editor toolbar, clickAssign Material To Selection. The paper is nowblack.

Black paper makes it easier to see the lines you draw.

While you still have the paper selected, you’llmake one more change.

Add segments to the paper:

1. Close the Material Editor, then right-click theviewport label, and choose Edged Faces.

This shading mode displays shaded faces andedges.

2. On the Modify panel, in the Parameters rollout,increase the Length Segments and WidthSegments of the paper object to 8.

The black paper segments are now visible inthe viewport.

Increased box segments

You will snap to the faces on the black paperwhen you draw the line.

Use snaps with lines:

1. On the Customize menu, choose Grid and SnapSettings. On the Snaps panel, click Clear Alland turn on Face, then close the dialog usingthe X at the upper right.

All the setting up is done; now it’s time to drawthe word yes.

2. On the toolbar, turn on 3D Snap.

Tip: You can also press S to turn snap on andoff during creation operations.


3. On the Create panel click the Shapesbutton, then in the Object Type rollout, clickLine.

4. Move your cursor over the black paper. As youmove, you’ll see the snap-face cursor showingyou which face you are snapping to. Click toset the first point, then move your cursor to theright and up. You’ll see the snap cursor again.

Snap To Face cursor

5. Click and drag to create a rounded spline. Movethe cursor, and click and drag again to createanother rounded spline. Place points to createthe letter Y. (In the Illustrations that follow,we’ve turned off the snap cursor so you can seethe point placement better.)

Tip: Pressing the Backspace key while drawingwill delete the last-placed vertex in the line. Youcan also adjust the vertices later.

Animating the Pen on the Path 289

Click and drag to create rounded splines.

You can see the flat line segments that are usedto create the splines, particularly obvious inthe tail of the Y. Don’t worry about these, youcan increase the segmentation later to createa smoother line.

Create sharp corners:

1. When you want to create a sharp corner, justclick, rather than clicking and dragging. Forexample, when you come to the letter e, you’llneed a sharp corner, as well as in the letter s. Tostop creating line segments, right-click.

For the corner of the letter e, make a sharp corner byjust clicking.

Right-click to finish.

2. Right-click the viewport to turn off the LineShape tool.

3. Save your work. On the menu bar, choose File> Save. Name your file my_write_on.max.

Animating the Pen on the Path

Now that you’ve drawn the path on the paper, youcan animate the pen using a path constraint.


Setup:

1. Continue from before or open write_on_yes.max.

2. Move the time slider to Frame 0, if it isn’t therealready.

Change material and color:

1. Press M on the keyboard to open the MaterialEditor, if it isn’t open already. Locate thematerial named paper, and drag it onto thepaper object in the viewport.

2. Press the H key or click Select By Nameon the toolbar.

3. On the Select Objects dialog, select the objectnamed Line01, then click Select.

4. On the Modify panel, in the Name And Colorfield, click the color swatch, and then changethe color of the line from white to black.

5. Click in open space in the viewport to deselectthe Line01 object.

The line is visible in the viewport now.

Animate the pen with path constraints:

1. Press the H key again. In the Select Objectdialog, choose the object named nib from thelist. At the bottom of this dialog, click DisplaySubtree. Click Select.

The components of the pen (the wood, thecork, and the nib) are already linked into ahierarchy for animation. This is indicated bythe indented list. The nib is the parent of thehierarchy. When you animate the nib parentobject, the cork and the wood child objects willfollow.

The pen nib is now selected in the viewport.

2. On the menu bar, choose Animation >Constraints > Path Constraint.

As you move your mouse over the viewport,you’ll see a dotted line connecting your cursorto the nib.

3. Move your cursor to the Line01 object, thenclick to select that as the path.

The pen jumps to the start of the path. It is alsoburied in the paper.

Pen jumps to the start of the path.

4. On the toolbar, turn on Rotate Mode.Rotate the pen in the viewport, approximately–30 degrees about X, and 17 degrees about Z,so the pen is not buried in the paper.

Creating the Line Using PathDeform 291

Rotate the pen so that it’s above the paper.

5. Play the animation. The pen follows the path.

Pen moves along the path.

The next order of business is to create a growingline to follow the end of the pen. To do this, youwill use a PathDeform modifier.

Creating the Line UsingPathDeform

The PathDeform modifier takes an object andstretches it along a path. By animating the amountof stretch, you can use it to create the effect of aline growing over time.

1. Continue from before, or choose File > Open,then open tutorials\intro_to_animation\write_on_growline.max.

2. Use Arc-rotate to navigate the perspectiveviewport to give you a more frontal view of theobjects in the scene.

3. On the Create menu, choose StandardPrimitives > Cylinder.

4. On the Object Type rollout, turn on Auto Grid.

5. Drag out a cylinder over the start of Line01. Itdoesn’t have to be very wide.

Create a cylinder over the start of the line.

6. In the Parameters rollout, set the followingvalues:

• Radius=0.03

• Height=2.5

• Height Segments=133

• Sides=4

These values will give the cylinder enoughsegmentation to stretch over the path. Beforeyou create the path deform, you’ll hide thepaper, so it’ll be easier to see the new object.

7. Select the paper in the viewport, thenright-click and choose Hide Selection from thequad menu.


The paper disappears from view.

8. Select the Cylinder, and then on the menu barchoose Modifiers > Animation Modifiers >PathDeform.

The Path Deform rollout parameters appear inthe Modify panel.

9. On the Parameters rollout, click Pick Path, thenclick the line in the viewport.

The cylinder deforms in the viewport into thefirst few bends of the letter Y. However, it isrotated along its Z axis. Later, you’ll rotate thecylinder so that it lies on top of the line.

10.On the Modify panel, in the Parameters rollout,increase the Stretch value to 3.62, or until thedeformed cylinder extends just to the end of theline. Move the time slider to frame 0, right-clickand choose Move from the quad menu. Usingthe Transform gizmo, raise the deformedcylinder up in Z until you can see it clearly.

11.Navigate the Perspective viewport to see howthe path deform is positioned. Press Shift+Zto undo the viewport changes.

Tip: Use Arc Rotate to rotate the view.

Arc-rotate the Perspective viewport to see the cylinder’sorientation.

12.Right-click and choose Rotate from the quadmenu, then rotate the deformed Cylinder aboutthe X axis –90 degrees.

13.In the Front viewport, check that the logoappears parallel to the paper. If not rotate it asnecessary until it is.

14.Move the cylinder down in the Front viewportso it’s visually aligned with the pen.

Use the Front viewport to adjust the cylinder’s position.

15.In the Top viewport, right-click and chooseRotate from the quad menu. Then rotate again

Creating the Line Using PathDeform 293

until the corners of the letters “e” and “s” lineup with Line01.

16.Activate the Perspective viewport, then movethe Cylinder down slightly to finish aligning theobject with the path.

Note: Depending on how you drew your line,you may have to make adjustments to get theobject to line up with the path. You can makeadjustments visually until it is correct.

Aligned path-deformed cylinder

Next, you’ll keyframe the stretch so the linegrows.

Keyframe the stretch:

1. Turn on the Auto Keybutton. Set the Stretchto 0.1.

2. Move to frame 100, then adjust the stretch so itcoincides with the end of the pen. Try a Stretchvalue of about 4.4.

3. Move the time slider to frame 0, and play theanimation.

You’ll notice the line and the pen are not inperfect synchronization.

4. Move to frame 10 and adjust the Stretch valueof the path so the line meets the end of the pen.

Tip: Use the spinner to adjust the Stretch value.

5. Repeat at 10 frame intervals until you get toframe 100. Play the animation again.

6. To get it just perfect, go back to frame 0 andthen move forward in time using the > key.Whenever you see the path out of sync, adjustthe Stretch value and set a key. The keys will bevisible on the track bar. You’ll probably need toset keys every 5 or 10 frames.

Tip: There are more mathematical ways toapproach this process, such as applying aNormalize Spline modifier to the line, but foran artist this method gets the job done usingvisual means.

7. Unhide the paper, and hide Line01, then playthe animation.


Pen writes onto the paper.

8. Save your work as mywrite_on_yes_anim_complete.max.

You can open write_on_yes_anim_complete.max for comparison.

Summary

In this tutorial, you have learned to createanimation using path deform. You have learned todraw a line on an object by snapping to faces, thenuse that line as a path for the animation of the pen.The same line was used as the path deform pathto create the illusion of the line being drawn onthe page. By animating the stretch parameter andsynchronizing it with the animation of the pen,the illusion is complete.

Creating ExplosionsIn this tutorial, you’ll hit an asteroid with a glowinglaser blast, blowing the asteroid to bits and creatinga fiery explosion.

Skill Level: Intermediate

Time to complete: 2+ hours

Animating the Laser Blast 295

Features covered in this tutorial

Doing this tutorial you will learn to:

• Use material effects channel ID’s.

• Use animated opacity mapped plane objects tosimulate an explosion.

• Use particle array fragmentation.

• Set visibility keys.

• Add motion blur.

• Use render effects glows and blurs.

Tutorial Files

All the files necessary for this tutorial are providedon the program disc in the \tutorials\spacedirectory. Before starting the tutorials, copythe \tutorials folder from the disc to your localprogram installation.

Animating the Laser Blast

You’ll find the files for this tutorial in the\tutorials\space directory.

Animate the laser blast:

1. Open exploding_asteroid1.max.

This scene already has an asteroid as well as athin box object named laserblast.

2. Press H on the keyboard to Select By Name.Highlight laserblast in the list and click Select.

Now the laserblast object is selected. It’s notvery easy to see it in the viewport.

3. Turn on Auto Key and move the timeslider to frame 10.

4. In the Top viewport, move the laserblastalong the Y axis until it comes in contact withthe asteroid.


A dotted line in the viewport shows the laserblast’s trajectory.

Move the time slider to frame 0, then play theanimation in the camera viewport.

The laserblast moves to the asteroid and stops.

Creating a Material for the LaserBlast

Now you’ll create a glowing material for your laserblast.

Create a material for the blast:

1. Open the Material Editor and move it soyou can see the camera viewport.

2. Move to frame 8 so you can see the laserblastclearly in the camera viewport.

3. In the Material Editor, select an unused samplesphere and name its material laserblastmaterial.

4. Click Assign Material To Selection.


Tip: If the laserblast object is no longer selected,you can drag the material from the sample slotinto the viewport and onto laserblast.

5. In the Blinn Basic Parameters rollout >Self-Illumination group, turn off the Colorcheck box. Set Self-Illumination to 100.

Self-illumination makes a material appear toglow. Self-illuminated materials have a flat,unshaded look.

6. Click the Diffuse color swatch.

The Color Selector dialog is displayed.

Adjust the color to R:255, G:114, B:0, and clickClose.

The color of the material is a pumpkin orange.

Set up an effects channel:

1. On the Material Editor toolbar, click theMaterial Effects Channel flyout, and choosechannel 1.

Later in this tutorial, you’ll use the channelnumber to create a glow.

2. Close the Material Editor.

Animating the Asteroid

Now you’ll animate the asteroid so it tumblesbefore it’s hit by the laserblast.

Animate the asteroid:


2. Activate the Camera viewport and move thetime slider to frame 0.

3. Select And Move the asteroid down inthe Z axis approximately 135 units, or until itis positioned just inside the camera’s view.

Frame 0

4. Right-click and choose Rotate from the quadmenu. Rotate the asteroid at frame 0 on boththe Y and Z axes approximately 30 degrees.

5. Go to frame 10. Reposition the asteroid soit is in contact with the laserblast. Rotate theasteroid on both the Y and Z axes approximately–30 degrees.



The asteroid now tumbles until it’s hit by thelaser blast.

Creating a Plane for the Explosion 297

Frame 10

8. Save your work as myrotating_asteriod1.max.

Creating a Plane for the Explosion

Now that the asteroid and laserblast are animated,it’s time to create the explosion that will blow it up.

There are several different ways you can create anexplosion in 3ds Max. One technique is to use ananimated map. This allows you to apply a movie ofa real explosion to a simple planar object.

Setup:

• Continue working with the previous file oropen rotating_asteroid.max.

Create a plane:

1. Move the time slider to frame 10 if it’s notalready there.

2. Right-click to activate the Front viewport,and then press Alt+W on the keyboard tomaximize the viewport.

3. Use Zoom and Pan to navigate theviewport so the asteroid is in or near the centerof the view.

4. Go to the Create panel > Geometry> Standard Primitives category. On the ObjectType rollout, click Plane.

5. In the Front viewport, drag a plane over theasteroid.

6. In the Name And Color rollout, change thename to Explosion Plane01.

7. In the Parameters rollout, set the Length andWidth of the plane to 300.0. Set the Length andWidth Segs (segments) to 1.

The size and complexity of the Plane updatein the viewport.

8. Right-click in the viewport, and press Alt+Wto return to four viewports.


9. Right-click the Top viewport to activateit, and move the plane along its Y axis so it’sbehind the asteroid.

Moving the plane in the top viewport

Tip: You can turn off snaps by pressing theS key. This is handy for toggling the snaps

settings when you are in the process of movingan object.

10.Right-click the Camera viewport to activate itwithout losing the selection of the plane.

Plane in camera viewport

11.In the Tools menu, choose Align To View.

12.In the Align To View dialog, make sure Align Zis chosen, and click OK.

The plane is now aligned to the Camera view.

Plane aligned to view

Creating a Material for theExplosion

Next, you’ll create a material for the explosion.

Create a material for the explosion:

1. Open the Material Editor.

2. Select an unused sample sphere and name thematerial Explosion.

Adding an Opacity Map 299

3. Click Assign Material To Selection.

Tip: If the plane is no longer selected, youcan drag the material from the sample slot toExplosion Plane01.

4. In the Blinn Basic Parameters rollout, click theblank button to the right of the Diffuse colorswatch.

The Material/Map Browser dialog is displayed.

5. Click Bitmap in the dialog, and then click OK.

The Select Bitmap Image File dialog isdisplayed.

6. Use the Select Bitmap Image File dialog to findand choose hercules.avi.

The Preview window displays the first frame ofthe animation, which is solid black.

7. Click Open.

The animation is incorporated in the materialas a Diffuse map.

8. On the Material Editor toolbar, click toturn on Show Map In Viewport.

You can now see the frames of the animation onthe plane object in the viewport.

Tip: To see the animation in the viewport, dragthe time slider forward. (The first frame of theanimation, which displays at frame 0, is black.)

The material sample is currently a sphere.You can change that to a box to give you anundistorted view of the animated map.

9. On the Material Editor vertical toolbar (tothe right of the sample slots), choose the Boxfrom the Sample Type flyout.

The Material sample is now a box, not a sphere.

10.Move the time slider and watch the explosionplay on the plane in the viewport.

Adding an Opacity Map

Now the explosion appears on the plane. The nextstep is to make the plane invisible so all you see inthe scene is the explosion.

Add an opacity map:

1. In the Material Editor toolbar, click Go ToParent.


2. In the Material Editor, open the Maps rollout.

3. Click the Opacity map button (it is initiallylabeled “None”), and in the Material/MapBrowser, choose Bitmap.

4. Use the Select Bitmap Image File dialog tochoose herculesm.avi. Click Open.

The file herculesm.avi is a black-and-whitemask of the animated explosion. Using themap’s alpha channel, the Opacity map makesthe plane invisible and allows only the explosionto appear in the scene.

View the opacity map’s effect:

1. On the Material Editor toolbar, click GoTo Parent. Close the Maps rollout.

2. On the Material Editor toolbar, click toturn on Show Map In Viewport.

The plane is now invisible in the viewport.

Tip: If the transparency is not apparent in theviewport, right-click the viewport’s label,choose Configure, and then in the ViewportConfiguration dialog > Rendering Methodpanel, change Transparency to Best.

3. On the Material Editor vertical toolbar,click to turn on Background.

This turns on a checkered background thathelps you visualize the opacity mapping.

Adjust the material settings:

• In the Blinn Basic Parameters rollout > SpecularHighlights group, set both Specular Level andGlossiness to 0.

This removes any shininess from the plane.

Tip: To set a numeric field to 0, right-click thespinner next to the field.

Adjust the plane properties:

When using this mapping technique, you don’twant the invisible plane to cast or receive shadows,so you’ll turn those attributes off.

1. Select the plane in a viewport, then right-clickand choose Properties from the quad menu.

2. In the Properties dialog that is displayed, inthe Rendering Control group, turn off ReceiveShadows and Cast Shadows. Click OK.

View the results:

• Play your animation.

Synchronizing the Animated Maps 301

The plane doesn’t move with the asteroid.That’s okay, because you need the plane only atthe point where the explosion occurs.

Synchronizing the Animated Maps

Here you’ll set the timing so the animatedexplosion doesn’t start until impact at frame 10.

Set the timing:

1. Go to Material Editor > Maps rollout, andselect the Diffuse map button, which is nowidentified as hercules.avi.

2. Scroll down and open the Time rollout.

3. Change the Start Frame setting to 10.

4. In the End Condition group, choose Hold.

5. In the Material Editor toolbar, click GoForward To Sibling to navigate to the next mapin the material. In this case, it’s the Opacitymap.

6. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for the herculesm.aviopacity map.

7. Close the Material Editor.

8. Save your scene as myexplosion1.max.

Cloning the Explosion Plane

In this topic, you’ll make a copy of the explosionplane, and set the copy in front of the asteroid.With two planes, the asteroid appears to be in themiddle of the explosion, rather than in front of it.

Clone the explosion plane:

1. If it’s not already selected, select ExplosionPlane01. Press the Spacebar to lock yourselection.

2. On the toolbar, open the Reference CoordinatesSystem list, and choose Local.

This will let you move the plane parallel to itself.

3. In the Top viewport, right-click the plane andchoose Move from the quad menu.

4. Hold down SHIFT and drag a copy of ExplosionPlane01 in the Z axis. Position the plane so it isin front of the asteroid.

Planes as seen in Top Viewport


5. A Clone options dialog is displayed. Theprogram has automatically named the newplane Explosion Plane02. Leave the settings attheir default, and click OK.

Note: The copy of the plane is now selected, andthe Selection Lock Toggle automatically turnsoff.

Set the new plane’s properties, and make a namedselection set:

1. Right-click the new plane and chooseProperties. In the Display Properties groupturn on See-Through. Click OK.

The cloned explosion plane now lets you seethrough it in the viewport. This doesn’t affectthe rendering.

See-through plane in camera viewport

2. Select the two plane objects. In the NamedSelection Sets window on the toolbar, type thename Explosions and press Enter .

You can now reselect the two planes at anytime by choosing this name from the NamedSelection Sets drop-down list.

3. Right-click the selected planes and choose HideSelection from the quad menu.

The two planes are hidden from view.


Breaking the Asteroid into FlyingPieces with Particle Array

At this point, the asteroid, laserblast, and explosionare all animated. Next, you’ll add particles tosimulate the asteroid breaking up as it explodes.

Setup:

• Continue working with the previous file oropen exploding_asteroid_with_2planes.max.

Create a particle system in the scene:

1. Go to Create panel > Geometryand choose Particle Systems from thedrop-down list.

2. In the Object Type rollout, click PArray.

3. Click and drag to create a PArray particle gizmoin the Top viewport.

Perspective viewport view of the PArray gizmo

4. In the Basic Parameters rollout, click PickObject, and then click the asteroid in aviewport.

The name of the asteroid, in this case Sphere01,is displayed below the Pick Object button to

Breaking the Asteroid into Flying Pieces with Particle Array 303

show that the particle system has been linked tothe asteroid.

Expand the command panel and adjust the PArraysettings:

Next, you’ll expand the command panel so youcan see more of the particle system rollouts.

1. Move the cursor to the left edge of thecommand panel.

The cursor changes to a double arrow.

2. Click and drag the edge of the panel to the left.

A second column of the command panelappears.

3. Click the Particle Type rollout to open it.

The Particle Type rollout is now displayed inthe second column.

4. In the Particle Type rollout > Particle Typesgroup, choose Object Fragments.

5. Scroll down to the Object Fragment Controlsgroup.

6. Set Thickness to 11.0.

7. Choose Number Of Chunks and set Minimumto 75.

8. In the Basic Parameters rollout > ViewportDisplay group, choose Mesh.

Move the time slider to see asteroid chunksappear in the viewport.


Adding Materials to the ParticlesAdd materials:

1. In the Particle Type rollout > Material MappingAnd Source group, choose Picked Emitter.

2. Click the Get Material From button.

The asteroid’s materials appear on the particlesin the viewport.

Expand the control panel again:

1. Move the cursor over the far-left edge of thecommand panel.

The cursor once again changes to a doublearrow.

2. Click and drag the cursor to the left to open athird column.

Now the Basic Parameters rollout appears inthe first column, the Particles Type rollout inthe second, and most additional rollouts in thenew third column.

Controlling Particle Animation 305

Tip: To close the additional columns, drag theleft edge of the command panel to the right.

Controlling Particle Animation

Next, you’ll add some control to the animatedparticles.

Control the animated particles:

1. Open the Rotation And Collision rollout. In theSpin Speed Controls group, set Spin Time to 50.

This will give some rotation to the chunks.

2. Open the Object Motion Inheritance rolloutand set Influence to 0.0.

This will keep the asteroid’s movement androtation from influencing the movement of theparticles.

By default, the particle animation will begin onframe 0. Because the asteroid doesn’t blow up

until frame 10, you’ll have to adjust the timingof the particle animation.

3. Right-click an open rollout in the first column.Choose Particle Generation from the list.

The Particle Generation rollout is nowdisplayed.

Tip: This right-click menu lets you navigate to aparticular rollout quickly.

4. In the Particle Timing group, set Emit Start to11 and Life to 90.

The particles don’t appear until frame 11,and they persist until the last frame of theanimation.

5. Move the time slider or play the animation inthe viewport to see the effect.

Now the asteroid starts to break into piecesafter reaching the center of the viewport.

6. Drag the left edge of the command panel to theright to restore it to a single column.

7. Save your work as myexplosion_w_particles.max.

Setting Visibility Keys to Make theAsteroid Disappear

The asteroid particle system explodes into pieces;however, the original asteroid object is still visible


in the scene. To make the explosion seem morerealistic, the original object needs to disappear asit explodes.

Setup:

• Continue working with the previous file, oropen exploding_asteroid_with_particles.max.

Create a visibility key:

1. Go to frame 11 and turn on Auto Key.

2. To select the asteroid, press H to open theSelect Objects dialog, and select Sphere01.Click Select. Then right-click and chooseProperties from the quad menu.

3. In the Object Properties dialog > RenderingControl group, right-click the Visibility spinnerarrows to set this value to 0.0.

A red outline appears around the spinnerarrows to indicate an animation key has beenset.

4. Click OK to close the Object Properties dialog.


Adjust the new visibility keys:

1. In the track bar, under the time slider,right-click the key at frame 0. Choose Sphere01:Visibility.

2. If necessary, set the Value to 1.0.

3. Change the Out interpolation to Stairstep.

This will make the object visible until the nextkey.

4. Drag the time slider and observe the animationin the viewport.

The asteroid disappears and the fragments flyoutward.

5. Close the key dialog by clicking the X buttonin its title bar.

Render a frame to preview the explosion effect:

1. Right-click a viewport and choose Unhide All.

The planes are now visible again.

2. Go to frame 21.

3. On the toolbar, click Quick Render.

Adding Motion Blur 307

The single image shows you what the effectwill look like so far. Verify that the asteroid isinvisible, and that only the particle fragmentsand the explosion planes are rendering.

Adding Motion Blur

To help create the illusion of fast movement inyour explosion, you’ll add motion blur to youranimation.

Setup:

• Close the virtual frame buffer, if it is still open.

Add motion blur:

1. At frame 0 select the asteroid, then right-click itand choose Properties on the quad menu.

2. In the Motion Blur group, make sure thatEnabled is on, and choose Object. Click OK.

Object motion blur will blur the asteroid, butnot the entire scene.


4. Activate the Camera viewport and clickRender Scene on the main toolbar.

The Render Scene dialog is displayed.

5. Click the Renderer tab. On the Default ScanlineRenderer rollout, In the Object Motion Blur

group, make sure that Apply is on, and thatDuration (Frames) is set to 0.5.

This will create a motion blur that is not tooblurry.

6. At the bottom of the dialog, click Render to testthe result.

Motion blur on asteroid


Putting a Light Inside the Asteroid

Creating fiery explosions with mapping techniquesis effective, but it doesn’t actually illuminate yourscene. Adding a light inside the exploding asteroidilluminates its fragments and creates a moredramatic effect.

Setup:

• Continue working with the previous file or openexploding_asteroid_with_motionblur.max.

Put a light inside the asteroid:


This puts the asteroid in the center of the frame.

2. Go to Create panel > Lights >Object Type rollout, and click Omni.


3. Activate the Top viewport, then click the centerof the asteroid to create an Omni light.

Because the asteroid is positioned at thecenter of the scene, the light appears inside theasteroid.

4. Change the name of the light you just created toinside asteroid light.

5. Go to the Modify panel and click the whitecolor swatch in the Intensity/Color/Attenuationrollout.

The Color Selector is displayed.

6. Change the color to orange (R: 255, G: 111,B:56). Then close the Color Selector.

7. Set the Multiplier to 4.0.

Note: You don’t need to animate the light. It willilluminate only the particles, and they appearwhen the explosion begins.

8. On the toolbar, turn on Select And Link.Then press the H key to select the parentobject. Choose Sphere01 from the list, and thenclick Link.

Now the light will move along with theanimated asteroid.

9. On the toolbar, click the Select button toturn off Select And Link.

10.Save your work as myexplosion_w_light.max.

Adding Render Effects to the LaserBlast

To give your scene some finishing touches, you’lladd render effects to make the laser blast and theexplosion glow.

Setup:

• Continue working with the previous file oropen exploding_asteroid_with_lights.max.

Add a render effect:

1. Choose Rendering menu > Effects.

The Environment and Effects dialog isdisplayed, with the Effects tab active.

Adding a Second Glow to the Explosion 309

2. Click Add. In the Add Effect dialog, chooseLens Effects from the list, and click OK.

3. In the Lens Effects Parameters rollout, highlightGlow and then click the right-pointing arrow tomove it into the list on the right.

Adjust the glow settings:

1. Scroll down to the Glow Element rollout, andin the Name window, rename the glow effectlaser glow.

2. Change Size to 0.1 and Intensity to 250.

3. In the Radial Color group, click the white colorswatch and change the color to orange (R: 235,G: 120, B: 60).

4. Click the Options tab.

5. In the Apply Element To group, make sureLights and Image Centers is off.

6. In the Image Sources group, turn on Effects ID.It should be set to 1 by default.

7. Scroll up to the Effects rollout > Preview group.Make sure the Camera01 viewport is active,then click the Update Scene button.

The frame renders, and then the glow is appliedto the laser blast.


Adding a Second Glow to theExplosion

Next, you’ll add a glowing effect to the light insidethe asteroid to give the blast added realism.

Setup:

• Continue working from the previous lesson, oropen exploding_asteroid_with_laserglow.max.

Add a glow effect:

1. Choose Rendering > Effects, and highlightLens Effects in the Effects list.

2. On the Lens Effects Parameters rollout, chooseGlow once again in the list window on the leftand click the right-pointing arrow.


3. Highlight the second Glow in the right-handwindow and scroll down to the Glow Elementrollout.

4. Name this glow effect blast.

Adjust the glow settings:

1. In the Lens Effects Globals rollout, turn on PickLight.

2. Press H , and use the dialog to select insideasteroid light.

The light’s name is now displayed in the textfield.

3. On the Glow Element rollout, open the Optionspanel.

4. In the Apply Element To group, turn on Lights.Turn off Image and Image Centers, if activated.

5. Go to the Parameters panel, and set Occlusionto 0.0.

This allows you to see the glow through theexplosion planes in the scene.

6. Turn off Glow Behind.

7. In the Radial Color group, change the swatch onthe right to an orange color (R:242, G:150, B:0).

8. In the Glow Elements Parameters panel, set theSize to 30.0.

9. Set the Intensity to 50.

Preview the effect:

1. Go to frame 25 and activate the Camera01viewport.

2. Scroll up to the Effects rollout. Click UpdateScene to see the results.

3. Close the virtual frame buffer and theRendering Effects dialog.

Animating the Explosion’s Glow

The glow will be more realistic if it changes overtime.

Animate the explosion’s glow:

1. On the toolbar, click Curve Editor(Open).

The Track View - Curve Editor is displayed.

2. Go to the Modes menu and choose Dope Sheet.

Animating the Explosion’s Glow 311

3. In the Controller window on the left, pan downuntil you can see the label Render Effects. Thisis near the top of the scene hierarchy.

4. Click the plus icon to the left of Render Effectsto expand the render effects tracks.

Tip: Clicking a plus icon in this window expandstracks. When the tracks have been expanded,the icon changes to a minus icon. If you wantthe tracks collapsed, click the minus icon. Thetracks will no longer be visible.

5. Click to expand the Lens Effects tracks.

With the Lens Effects tracks open, you can seeboth glow effect tracks.

6. Scroll down and click to open the blast tracks.

All the glow attributes in the Rendering Effectsdialog are listed here. You can set keys for anyattribute to animate its effect.


7. Click the Intensity track to select it, thenright-click and select Assign Controller. SelectBezier Float, and then click OK.

8. With the Intensity track selected, turn onAdd Keys on the Track View toolbar.

9. In the Key window on the right, click theIntensity track to add a key at frame 0 andanother key at frame 9.

10.Right-click the first key and set its value to 0.Move to the second key and set it to 0 as well.

11.Set the Out interpolation value of the first keyto Stairstep. This will lock the glow betweenthe first two keys.

12.Add another key at frame 12. Right-click thekey and set its value to 75.0.

13.Add another key at frame 30. Right-click thekey and set its value to 0.

14.Set the interpolation to Linear for the Out valuekeys at frame 9, the In and Out values for frame12, and the In value for frame 30.

Adding Streaks with Radial Blur

You can get a nice streaking effect using the Blurrender effect. Adding a blur is just like adding alens effect.

Add a blur effect:

1. In the Camera01 viewport, select the PArraygizmo, right-click it, and choose Propertiesfrom the quad menu.

2. In the G-Buffer group, use the spinner to set theObject Channel to 2. Click OK.

3. Choose Rendering menu > Effects.

4. Click the Add button, choose Blur, and clickOK.

Set up the blur effect:

1. In the Blur Type panel, choose Radial.

2. On the Pixel Selections panel, turn off WholeImage, and turn on Object ID.

3. In the Object ID controls, use the spinner tochange the ID to 2, then click the Add button.

The number 2 appears in the Object ID list.

4. Activate the Camera01 viewport and drag thetime slider to frame 33.

5. In the Effects rollout, click Update Scene topreview the result.

The radial blur is added to the image.

Adding Streaks with Radial Blur 313

Animate the blur effect:

Finally, you will keyframe the values andinterpolation of the Blur Radial Pixel radius, so theparticles fade out as they slow down toward theend of the animation.

1. Open the Dope Sheet Editor again and in theController window, navigate to the Blur entry.Expand its tracks, and click to highlight BlurRadial Pixel Radius.

2. Turn on Add Keys on the Track Viewtoolbar. In the Key window, click to add keys atframes 0 and 11.

3. Right-click a Blur Radial Pixel Radius key. Giveboth these keys a value of 0.0, and use stairstepinterpolation between them.

4. Click to create a key at frame 18. Give it a valueof 7.0,. Leave the interpolation set to the defaultof Bezier.

5. Set another key at frame 100 with a value of 1.0.

6. Save your scene as myexplosion5.max. Youcan open exploding_asteroid_final.max forcomparison

Render the animation:

1. On the Rendering menu, choose Render. Makesure the Common tab is displayed, click it if itisn’t.

2. On the Common Parameters rollout, in theTime Output group, turn on Active TimeSegment: 0 to 100.

3. In the Render Output group, click the Filesbutton. Name the output file of the finishedexplosion myexplosion2.avi, and pressEnter .

4. In the Video Compression dialog, click OK.

5. Then click Render at the bottom of the RenderScene dialog.

Or you can just play the provided movieexploding_asteroid_final.avi.

Tip: When doing high-quality work, render toa still image sequence of TGA files. Then youcan use the Ram Player or other methods toturn these files into a movie sequence such asAVI or MOV.

Summary

In this tutorial, you have created an explodingasteroid. You have learned to combine the use ofmany tools to create this effect. You have learnedto use material effects ids with glows, and have


created explosion planes with animated opacitymapping. You’ve created exploding fragmentsusing PArray objects, and learned to set visibilitykeys. Finally you’ve used Render effects andmotion blur to complete the shot.

Animating a Walkthrough

Animating a Walkthrough

When you create a camera in 3ds Max, you can“fly” that camera through your scene, whether thatscene is an interior or an exterior design. You canuse the camera to explore your virtual conception,and see if you actually end up with what youthought you designed. You can also present yourwalkthroughs to your clients and colleagues.

3ds Max provides you with a variety of methods tocreate a walkthrough animation. In this tutorialyou’ll learn a simple method of placing a cameraon a path.

Skill level: Beginner

Time to complete: 1+ hours (includes renderingtime to create an animation)


In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

• Create Free and Target cameras.

• Adjust the animation length for a suitablecamera motion.

• Apply a path constraint to a camera.

• Use Set Key to animate the camera target.

Tutorial Files

All the necessary files for this tutorial are providedon the program disc in the \tutorials\walkthroughdirectory. Before starting the tutorials, copythe \tutorials folder from the disc to your localprogram installation.

Creating a WalkthroughSet up the lesson:

• Open the great_wall_start.max file from the\tutorials\walkthrough folder.

Tip: If the Units Mismatch dialog displays,choose Adopt The File’s Unit Scale and thenclick OK.

Calculate the required number of frames:

1. Press H to open the Select Objects dialog, andthen double-click Camera Path.

2. On the Utilitypanel, click the Measure button.

This tool reports the length of the camera path,which is about 900 feet.

Creating a Walkthrough 315

Note: For a comfortable walking pace inarchitectural walkthroughs you’ll need about asecond to travel every three feet of distance. Fora jog or a fast run, you can go as fast as nine feetper second. In NTSC format, that translatesinto 30 frames for every nine feet of distancetraveled, or 3,000 frames for 900 feet.

3. Click the Time configuration button nextto the Current Frame Field.

4. In the Animation group on the TimeConfiguration dialog, change End Time to3000 to increase the number of frames in theanimation, and then click OK.

This provides sufficient frames for thewalkthrough animation.

The time slider frame indicator now shows3000 frames.

Create a Free camera:

1. Go to the Create panel, click the Camerasbutton, and then click the Free button.

2. Click anywhere in the Front viewport to createthe camera.

3. On the Name and Color rollout, rename thecamera FreeCam.

Assign a Path constraint to the camera:

1. Make sure the camera is selected, and then,from the Animation menu at the top of thescreen, choose Constraints > Path Constraint.

A rubber-band appears between the cameraand the mouse cursor.

2. Press H to open the Pick Object dialog, andthen double-click Camera Path to select it.

This places the camera on the path and gives theMotion panel focus. The selected path appearsin the Target list of the Path Parameters rollout.

3. In the Path Parameters rollout > Path Optionsgroup, turn on the Follow option.


4. Set the Follow Axis to Y.

5. Right-click the Perspective viewport to activateit, and then press C to view what the camerais looking at.

6. Click Play Animation to view theanimation.

The camera travels along the path but themotion seems unnatural. At times it aims toohigh and at other times too low. The softwaremaintains the camera aim tangential to thepath. A Free Camera might be suitable for apath constrained to a horizontal plane, but itisn’t ideal for the undulating path in this scene.In the next section you’ll try a Target Camera.

Create a Target camera:

A Target camera follows a path in the same fashionas a free camera. Instead of aiming tangential tothe path it remains directed towards its target,which can be animated independently.

1. Stop the animation if it is still playing and goto Frame 0.

2. If necessary, Select the FreeCam object youcreated in the previous section.

3. Right-click in the active viewport, and then,from the quad menu, choose Hide Selection.

4. From the Cameras category of the Create panel,click the Target button.

5. In the Top viewport, click and drag to createthe camera.

6. On the Name And Color rollout, rename thecamera TargetCam.

Creating a Walkthrough 317

7. Assign a Path constraint, as before, to cause thenew camera to move along the existing path.

8. Activate the FreeCam viewport.

9. Press C to switch the display to the selectedcamera’s point of view.

10. Click Play to view the animation. Thetarget remains stationary while the cameramoves along the path.

Animate the camera target:

To create a walkthrough with a target camera, youhave to animate the target moving ahead of thecamera and stop occasionally on points of interest.

1. Stop the animation if it is still playing and goto frame 0.

2. Press H to open the Select By Name dialog.

3. Double-click TargetCam.Target.

4. Click and then right-click the Move tool.

5. At frame 0, position the target at –22, -200,147.

This gives an appropriate starting direction forthe camera.

6. Click Auto Key.


8. Position the target at 80,-69,26.

This position corresponds to the first toweralong the wall, which is a suitable point ofinterest.

9. Press Shift and drag the key you just createdto approximately frame 815. This duplicates thekey, holding the tower as the target while thecamera approaches it.

10.Move the time slider to frame 1050.

11.Position the target at 44,11,42.


13.Position the Target at -141,112,92.


This positions the target near the second tower.

14.Press Shift and drag the key you just createdto frame 1820.

This holds the target at the second tower whilethe camera approaches it.


16.Position the target at –235,250,82.


18.Position the target at –235,250, 29.

This lowers the target’s position along the Zaxis to accommodate the drop in the path justafter the second tower.


20.Position the target at –273,520,197.

21.Press Shift and drag the key you just createdto frame 2963.

22. Click Play to view the result in theTargetCam viewport.

The target moves ahead of the camera to thepoints of interest along the way.

23.Turn off Auto Key.

24.Right-click in the Top viewport to make itactive.

25. Click Play.

Viewing the animation in the top viewportemphasizes how the target moves to the pointsof interest ahead of the camera.

Summary

In this lesson, you created a camera walkthroughanimation by calculating the number of framesneeded for the animation, and you learned toautomate the creation of the camera and how toconstrain it to a path. Finally, you learned howto simulate natural motion of the head viewingpoints of interest by animating the camera target.

Working with Animation Tracks

In this tutorial, you will animate the second,minute and hour hands of a clock. You will learnhow to create keyframes in a variety of ways andprepare a set of animation tracks for later recall.

Working with Animation Tracks 319

Features Covered in this Tutorial

• Creating a Track Set

• Using Auto Expand

• Trackview Quad Menu

• Hierarchy Right-Click Menu

• Default In/Out Tangents for new keys

• Zoom Key Extends

• Setting Parameter Curve Out of Range Type

• Copying Controllers

Skill Level: Intermediate

Time to Complete: 30 minutes

Form a Track Set

1. Open Watch1.max from the \tutorials\curve_editor folder. If you get a Units Mismatchwarning, choose the option “Adopt the File’sUnit Scale”.

2. Right-click in the viewport and from the Quadmenu, choose Curve Editor.

3. Open the hierarchy so that the rotation Z-axistracks for each of the hands can be seen.

4. Press Ctrl and select each of the three ZRotation tracks.

5. Create a Track Set by entering Hands in theTrack Sets field.


This Track Set can be recalled to convenientlydisplay the included tracks within the CurveEditor.

6. Close Curve Editor

Animate the Second Hand

The second hand will be animated so that it rotatesone second per frame.

1. Press H to open the Select by Name dialog.

2. Highlight the Second Hand in the list and clickSelect to select it.

3. Right-click and choose Curve Editor from theQuad menu.

4. Right-click in the pane displayed on the left toopen the Quad menu.

5. Within the Auto Expand sub menu, make surethe following options are active.

These options display the X, Y, and Zcomponents of the transform tracks.

6. Highlight the Second Hand’s the Z Rotationtrack.

7. Click Add Keys.

8. Click near frame 0 and again near frame 1 toadd some keys. Don’t worry about setting thevalues exactly at this point. You’ll adjust themin a moment.

9. Right-click and choose Move Keys from theQuad menu. This cancels Add Keys mode.

10.Click the first key and set its time and value tozero.

11.Click the second key and set its time to 1 andvalue to –6.


12.Close the Curve Editor.

Setting Key Tangent Type

1. Open Watch2.max or continue with yourcurrent file.

2. Select the Second Hand and open Curve Editor.

3. Highlight the Z Rotation track.

4. Click Zoom Horizontal Extents Keys.

Note: It is contained within the ZoomHorizontal Extents flyout.

5. Repeat the Procedure with the ZoomValue Extents Range (vertical zoom).

The Curve editor zooms in to show only therange with keys, which in this case is frame 0and 1.

The curve uses the default Auto tangent type.The tangent type should be set to Step.

6. Select both keys using a window selection.

7. Click Set Tangents to Step on the CurveEditor’s toolbar. This retains a key’s value untilthe next key frame.

Setting Parameter Curve Out-of-Range Type

To make the second hand repeat its motion theOut-of-Range type should be set to RelativeRepeat.

1. Click Parameter Curve Out-of-RangeType.

2. Click the Relative Repeat option.

3. Click OK to close the dialog.

4. Close the Curve Editor.


The second hand repeats its motion throughoutthe animation range.


Animate the Minute Hand

The second hand moves in steps, jumping aheadeach second. The minute hand however shouldmove continuously. This can be accomplishedwith the linear key tangents.

1. Set the default tangent type to linear.


3. Open the Select by Name dialog and select theminute hand.

4. Click Auto Key.

5. Click the Rotation tool.

6. Enter –6 in the Z transform field and pressEnter .


8. Open the Curve Editor

9. Select the Z Rotation track of the Minute Hand.

10. Click Parameter Curve Out-of-RangeType.

11.Set the Parameter Curve out of Range type toRelative Repeat.


Play the animation.

The second and minute hands move correctly.Next you’ll animate the hour hand.

Copying Controllers

In this sequence you’ll animate the hour hand bycopying and adjusting the controller from theminute hand.

1. Open Watch3.max or continue with yourcurrent file.

2. Right-click in the viewport and select CurveEditor.

3. Choose Hands from the Track Set list.

4. Highlight the Z-Rotation track of the MinuteHand.

5. Right-click and choose Copy from the QuadMenu.


6. Highlight the Z Rotation track of the HourHand.

7. Right-click and choose Paste from the menu.

8. Choose Copy from the dialog.

9. Make sure the Z Rotation track of the HourHand is the only highlighted track.

10.Select the second key of the Hour Hands ZRotation track.

11.Adjust the value at frame 60 from –6 to –0.5.


Play the animation.

Although the hour hand is animated youcan’t see it move until the animation time isextended.

Extending the Animation Time

1. Open the time configuration dialog.

2. Set the end time to 3600.


3. Click OK to close the time configuration dialog.

4. Drag the time slider to view the animation. Onehour elapses over the course of the animation.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned how to animate thesecond, minute and hour hands of a clock. Youalso learned how to create keyframes in a varietyof ways and prepare a set of animation tracks forlater recall.

Using the Limit Controller

In this tutorial, you will learn to limit the range ofa rotation by using the Limit controller.

Features covered in this tutorial

• Assigning a controller to an animation track

• Setting minimum and maximum limits to acontroller range


Time to complete: 15 min.

Tutorial Files

All the files necessary for this tutorial can be foundon the program disc in the \tutorials\controllersdirectory. Before starting the tutorials, copy the\tutorials folder to your local program installation.

Using the Limit controller:

1. Open TreasureChest.max from the\tutorials\controllers directory.

2. Select the Top object.

3. Rotate the object about its X axis and note thatthere’s no limit to its rotation range. It canrotate any extent in either direction.

4. Click Undo to restore the top to itsoriginal orientation.

In the following steps you will apply the Limitcontroller to restrict the Top’s range of motionfrom 0 to –110 degrees.

5. Verify the top is still selected.

6. From the right-click quad menu, choose CurveEditor.

Using the Limit Controller 325

7. Expand the hierarchy and highlight the XRotation track.

8. From the right-click quad menu, choose AssignController.

9. From the Assign Float Controller dialog,choose Float Limit and click OK.

This opens the Float Limit Controller dialog.

10.Set the Upper Limit value to 0.0 and LowerLimit to –110.0.


11.Close the dialog.

12.Close Curve Editor.

13.Again rotate the Top about its X axis.

It cannot rotate beyond the specified limits.

Summary

In this tutorial, you learned to use the LimitController to limit the range of another controller.In this case, you limited the rotation controllerassigned to the lid of the treasure chest.

3 - 3dsmax animation

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