Autodesk ®

3ds Max ®

2008

Tutorials: Introduction

Part No.: Colors: 4c process Dimensions/specs:

N/A 177.8 mm x 228.6 mm
C M Y K

Date: Filename/description:
7.5.07 3dsMax08_Man_Help_fron.ai
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Introduction
1
Welcome to the World of 3ds Max
Welcome, and congratulations! You’ve just bought a ticket to the world of
Autodesk® 3ds Max® . Hang on and get ready for the ride of a lifetime! With
3ds Max, you can create 3D places and characters, objects and subjects of any
type. You can arrange them in settings and environments to build the scenes
for your movie or game or visualization. You can animate the characters, set
them in motion, make them speak, sing and dance, or kick and fight. And then
you can shoot movies of the whole virtual thing.

The Ancient Indian Crown

Kameswaran Ramachandran Iyer,
India
www.kameswaran.com

You can use 3ds Max to visualize designs of real things that will actually be
built, such as buildings and machines. The File Link feature of 3ds Max lets you
base visualizations on designs created in AutoCAD or Autodesk Architectural
Desktop: when the design changes in these other applications, the revisions

1
 can be automatically updated in your 3ds Max scene. Add lighting and
materials, then render to still image or movie formats.
These tutorials teach 3ds Max through a series of hands-on exercises. Prepare
to be entertained and fascinated by the awesome power at your fingertips.

Printed and Online Tutorials

The tutorials are provided in two forms, as an online help file, and as a printed
manual. Due to space limitations, not all of the tutorials are printed in the
book.
Links between the online tutorials and the User Reference appear in the printed
manual as underlined text. Illustrations are printed in black and white in the
manual, and are full color in the online system.
To do the online tutorials, from the 3ds Max Help menu, choose Tutorials to
display the online collection.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks are due to a number of hardworking and talented individuals

who helped create this volume of tutorials. A tip of the virtual hat to:

■ Jean-Yves Arboit, Jaykar Arudra, Alessandro Baldasseroni, Beans Magic Co.

Ltd, Martin Coven, Frances Gainer Davey, Joana Garrido, Tommy
Hjalmarsson, Kameswaran R. Iyer, Michael Koch, James Ku, Sören Larsson,
Daniel Martínez Lara, Casey McGovern, Eni Oken, Ponsonnet Olivier, Ben
Paine, Herman Saksono, Johannes Schlörb, Pradipta Seth, Metin Seven,
and Marc Tan, for creating beautiful images using 3ds Max and allowing
their reproduction in the online tutorial collection.

■ Michael B. Comet, for creating the character bones and rigging tutorials
and the low-poly character-modeling tutorial.

■ Brandon Davis and Grant Adam, for the Particle Flow and particle effects
tutorials.

■ Alberto Flores, for design of the mental ray water material.

■ Swami Lama, for providing the tutorials on scripting.

■ Peter Carisi de Lappe, of the Autodesk Media & Entertainment Quality

Engineering group, for his help creating the lesson on using IK and FK
together.

2 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 ■ Pia Maffei, of Applied IDEAS, for providing the head model used in the
Creating the Skin Material tutorial. The model was created with Applied
IDEAS's Head Designer plug-in.

■ Jon McFarland, for providing the tutorials on working with CAD files, and
fixing problems in imported files.

■ Paul Neale, for additional tutorials on character rigging.

■ Jeff Patton, along with other users on the Web, for good tips on how to
use the mental ray (lume) Ocean shader.

■ Miroslaw Piekutowski, for the model demonstrating the mental ray

Dielectric Material shader.

■ Retired Captain Irv Styer, fighter pilot, for expertise and assistance in
modeling for the P-38 tutorial.

■ Fred Ruff and Mike O'Rourke for the games and skin-deformers tutorials.

Where to Find Tutorial Files

Most of the tutorials in this volume require you to load sample files to start
and complete the lessons. These files do not install automatically on your local
drive when you install 3ds Max. All the files for these exercises can be found
on the product disc. In order to do the tutorials, you must manually copy the
sample files from that disk to your local hard drive using My Computer or
Windows Explorer.

To install the tutorial files:

1 Locate your product disc: the disc from which you installed 3ds Max.
Place in your computer's drive.

2 Open My Computer or Windows Explorer, and navigate to the disc.

3 Right-click the \tutorials folder and then choose Copy from the context
menu.

4 Navigate to your installation of 3ds Max and paste the folder.

Now you have a tutorials folder inside the program install directory on
your local drive.

TIP If you have limited hard drive space, you can copy individual directories
from the disk.

Where to Find Tutorial Files | 3

How to Learn 3ds Max
Besides the tutorials found in this collection, a number of other resources are
available to help you learn 3ds Max. In particular, consider the online Help
file an important adjunct to the tutorials; if you encounter a feature you'd like
to learn more about, look it up in the 3ds Max Help. There you'll find general
descriptions, detailed descriptions of all the controls, usage notes and tips,
and procedures for accomplishing various tasks.

Autodesk Learning Resources

■ Autodesk Authorized Training Centers for Media and Entertainment:

Autodesk has authorized more than 100 training centers in over 30
countries worldwide. You can take intensive courses with flexible schedules
to meet your needs. To find a center near you, visit:
http://www.autodesk.com/me_training.

■ Autodesk Learning and Training Materials: Check out Autodesk's latest

learning and training materials: go to http://www.autodesk.com, click Store,
click your region, and then click the Media & Entertainment link under
Learning & Training. Here you can get training manuals designed for the
instructor-led training environment, purchase books, and download
individual e-courses to view offline. Training DVDs are also available for
our most popular products.

■ Autodesk Online Support World-Wide: The Autodesk Support web site

http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-support provides access to a wide range of
product information and support resources: searchable Knowledgebase,
FAQs, technical bulletins, tested hardware information, and product
downloads.

■ Discussion Forums: Information and assistance are also available on the

peer-to-peer online discussion forum. To visit the discussion forums, go
to http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-discussion , or from the 3ds Max Help
menu, choose 3ds Max on the Web > Online Support.

■ 3ds Max 2008 Help: The online help reference covers fundamental concepts
and strategies for using the product, as well as details about the features
of 3ds Max. Access the 3ds Max Help online by choosing Help > 3ds Max
Help.

■ Additional Resources: A number of additional Help files are installed with

the software. For details, see the topic ”3ds Max Documentation Set” in
the 3ds Max Help.

4 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 ■ Other Resources: There is a wealth of information written about using 3ds
Max. There are third-party books that specialize in teaching the software
for various industries. There are magazines devoted to 3D design and
animation, as well as user groups and mail lists. Communities of users
trade secrets daily, and if you ask a question, you're likely to get answers
from experts all around the world.

User Showcase
In the 3ds Max tutorials we teach you the tools to use the software. Put those
tools in the hands of talented artists and magic happens.
Here is a gallery of images by creative individuals from around the world using
this software. We hope you find these images inspiring before you set out on
your journey of learning 3ds Max.

User Showcase | 5
 Chinese Opera
James Ku
www.3dartisan.net/~kuman/

6 | Chapter 1 Introduction
The Ancient Indian Crown
Kameswaran Ramachandran Iyer,
India
www.kameswaran.com

Unpleasant Company

User Showcase | 7
 Metin Seven

A Living Room
Frances Gainer Davey

Guardian of the Enchanted Forest

8 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Marc Tan, Insane Polygons

Old Courtyard
Pradipta Seth

User Showcase | 9
 by Tommy Hjalmarsson
http://hem.bredband.net/tomhja

10 | Chapter 1 Introduction
by Tommy Hjalmarsson
http://hem.bredband.net/tomhja

User Showcase | 11
 Student Breakfast
Jean-Yves Arboit, Belgium
www.discreetcenter.com

12 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Electric Water
Johannes Schlörb

by reiv: Ponsonnet Olivier

http://reiv.fr.st/

User Showcase | 13
 Ripples of Spring
Casey McGovern
molerocket@hotmail.com

14 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Indian Beauty
Jaykar Arudra, AMM Studio, India

User Showcase | 15
 by Ben Paine

Old Sunflowers
Joana Garrido (Caixa D'Imagens), Portugal

16 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Pistol Pete
Martin Coven

User Showcase | 17
 Sommar Torp: "Summer House"
Sören Larrson, Sweden
www.3dbetong.se

18 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 Anibal
Daniel Martínez Lara (Pepeland)

All images are copyright. Reproduction and distribution is not permitted

without the owner's permission.

Animated Still Life

This tutorial, intended for those new to 3ds Max, offers a quick introduction
to the world of 3D while you play with some traditional elements of art. Using
basic features of the program, you’ll create a composition of an orange and
an apple, a windowsill and wall, a bottle and a knife. You’ll also add lights
and a camera, and view the scene from different angles. The final steps
introduce you to some basic animation.

Animated Still Life | 19

 Animated still life

When you learn to paint, you start with a still life, perhaps a bottle and some
fruit arranged on a table. In this tutorial, you’ll make a “not-so-still life” that
is animated.
The idea for this tutorial was taken from the Salvador Dali painting “Nature
Morte Vivante,” in which the traditional elements of a still life are painted
flying through the air. You’ll use the same idea for your first animation project
in 3ds Max.
Skill Level: Beginner
Time to complete: 20 minutes

Features Covered in This Tutorial

As you do this tutorial, you’ll be learning a number of things at once:

■ How to open a scene

■ How to model objects and apply realistic materials

■ How to navigate the viewports and interface of 3ds Max

20 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 ■ How to move and animate objects

■ How to render

Tutorial Files

All the files necessary for this tutorial are provided on the program disc in the
\tutorials\still_life directory. Before starting the tutorials, copy the \tutorials
folder from the disc to your local program installation.

Navigating a Scene
In this lesson, you'll open an existing scene of a still life and learn to adjust
the view and navigate the viewports.

Navigating the scene

1 Choose File menu > Open.

All the files necessary for this tutorial are provided on the program disc
in the \tutorials\still_life directory. Before starting the tutorials, copy the
\tutorials folder from the disc to your local program installation.
Find the \tutorials\still_life directory on your hard drive and highlight
still_life_start.max, then click Open.

Navigating a Scene | 21
 Perspective viewport

The Perspective viewport should be active, indicated by a yellow border.

If it's not, right-click to activate this viewport.

2 Click the Zoom button in the viewport navigation controls at the

lower-right corner of the screen.
To show that this control is now active, the button appears pressed in,
with a yellow background.

3 With the mouse, drag downward in the viewport.

Your view zooms out so you can see the corner in the scene.

22 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 Zooming out reveals the corner.

4 Click Arc Rotate in the viewport navigation controls at the

lower-right corner of the screen. The button highlights when active.
A yellow navigation circle appears in the viewport.

5 Position the cursor inside the yellow circle. Press and hold the left mouse
button and move the mouse.
The point of view orbits around the scene.

Navigating a Scene | 23
 Orbiting the scene

TIP Avoid dragging outside the yellow navigation circle, unless you want to
roll the entire viewport.

6 Spin your view so you can see the scene from every angle.
You'll notice that the back side of the corner is dark. This is because there
are already hidden lights in this scene prepared to cast shadows in your
rendering.

7 Right-click in the viewport to dismiss the yellow circle.

8 Click Pan in the viewport navigation controls and move the mouse
in the viewport.
The viewport pans with your movement.

NOTE You can also start a pan operation by holding down the middle mouse
button or wheel as you pan. If the middle mouse button doesn't pan the
viewport, check your mouse driver settings.

24 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 9 To return the viewport to its original orientation, press Shift+Z repeatedly
to undo the viewport changes all the way back to the beginning.

NOTE In this instruction, “ Shift+Z ” is outlined with a rectangle to indicate

that you're to press this key combination on the computer keyboard. We use
this style consistently in the help and tutorials for both single keypresses and
key combinations, so that it's always clear when an instruction involves using
the physical keyboard as opposed to the mouse with the software interface
on the screen.

TIP You can undo other types of changes with Ctrl+Z.

Next you'll create a camera and a Camera viewport. The Camera viewport is
similar to the Perspective viewport, but with different functionality. It can be
animated, and effects can be added to it.

Creating a camera

1 Right-click the Top viewport to activate it.

The Top viewport is outlined in yellow.

2 Right-click the Top viewport label (the word Top at the upper left corner
of the viewport). On the menu that appears, choose Smooth + Highlights.
The viewport display changes from wireframe to shaded.

TIP You can also press F3 to switch a wireframe viewport to a shaded display.

3 On the Create panel, click the Cameras tab, and then click Target.

4 In the Top Viewport, starting at the lower left-hand corner of the wooden
shelf, drag out a camera pointing toward the knife (see the following
illustration).

Navigating a Scene | 25
 Camera created in Top viewport

Press Ctrl+D to make sure the new camera is not selected.

To see what the camera sees, you need to change one of the viewports
into a Camera viewport. You'll replace the Front viewport with a Camera
viewport.

5 Right-click the Front viewport to activate it, and then press C.

The Select Camera dialog opens.
Click Camera02, then OK.
The camera you created is Camera02. There was already a Camera01
hidden in this file.

TIP When a scene contains more than one camera and none of the cameras
is selected, or more than one are selected, pressing C causes the Select Camera
dialog to open. If there is just one camera in the scene, or if a single camera
is selected, pressing C automatically sets the active viewport to the camera
view.

6 Press F3 to switch the wireframe display to Smooth + Highlights shading.

26 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 The view from Camera02 (yours might differ)

The navigation controls have changed. Because tools and controls are
context-sensitive, activating a Camera viewport switches to camera-specific
navigation controls.

7 Experiment with the various camera navigation controls, to zoom, pan,

arc-rotate, and so on in the Camera viewport.

TIP To undo Camera viewport changes, press Ctrl+Z, or click the Undo
button at the left end of the main toolbar. Unlike the Perspective viewport,
Camera viewport changes are based on the movement of the camera.

Next you'll render the scene.

Rendering the scene

You've looked at the scene from many different angles, but the viewport tells
only part of the story. To see the full effect of the scene settings, such as
reflections and shadows, you need to render the viewport to an image.

1 On the toolbar, click the Render Scene button.

The Render dialog appears.

Navigating a Scene | 27
 2 Look at the very bottom of the dialog. Make sure the Viewport field says
Camera02, and then click Render.
The rendered frame window appears, and the rendering takes place
line-by-line from the top to the bottom of the image.

Rendering from Camera02 zoomed in

3 Change the Camera viewport to Camera01. Make sure the Camera

viewport is active and no cameras are selected, then press C and
chooseCamera01 from the list.

4 Render again.
Observe the rendering. You'll see shadows on the wall, reflections in the
knife blade and bottle, and transparency on the leaf objects. None of
these were visible in the viewport display.

28 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 Rendering from Camera01

5 Right-click the Camera viewport label, and choose Views > Front to change
the Camera viewport back to a Front viewport.

Next, you'll create an orange to add to the scene. Then you'll animate the
objects so they fly into place.

Creating an Orange
Here you'll create a sphere primitive, color it orange, and name it. Then you’ll
add a realistic orange peel material to it, so the rendering will have the speckled
appearance of fruit skin.

Create a sphere:

1 On the Create panel, click the Geometry tab, then in the

Object Type rollout, click Sphere.

Creating an Orange | 29
 The button highlights to show that it is active and ready to use. Before
you make the sphere, you'll make two changes in the Create panel.

2 At the bottom of the Parameters rollout, turn on Base To Pivot.

Base To Pivot lets you create a sphere with its pivot point at its bottom.
To create the sphere so the orange is resting on the wooden slab, like the
rest of the objects in the scene, you'll use the AutoGrid function.

3 On the Create panel, directly below Object Type and above the primitive
object names, turn on AutoGrid.
AutoGrid creates a grid on the surface of any object, so you can create
another object directly in contact with the surface.

4 In the Perspective viewport, position your cursor between the apple, the
bottle, and the knife blade.
After a moment, a tooltip appears showing you which object the cursor
over. The tooltip should read wooden board.

5 Create a sphere by pressing down on the left mouse button and dragging
away from where you started. As long as you hold the mouse button
down, you can adjust the size of the sphere. When you release the mouse
button, the sphere is complete.

TIP Your sphere might be a different color from the one in the illustration.

30 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 Create a sphere using AutoGrid.

6 On the Create panel > Parameters rollout, change the Radius setting to
20 and press Enter.
The sphere changes size in the viewport. In 3ds Max, it’s typical practice
to rough out an object with the mouse, then reset its parameters to your
specific requirements.

Change the color and name of the sphere:

By default, 3ds Max chooses colors at random for new objects, so the sphere
is probably not orange. You can change the color of the sphere in the viewport
to simulate an orange.

1 In the Create panel > Name And Color rollout, click the small, colored
square next to the default name, Sphere01.

Creating an Orange | 31
 The Object Color dialog is displayed.

2 Click an orange color and click OK.

The sphere in the viewport turns orange.

3 Double-click the name Sphere01 to highlight it.

4 Type in orange to change the name of the sphere. Press Enter to set the
new name.

NOTE Pressing Enter is an explicit way to make a change to a parameter.

3ds Max also accepts the change as soon as you click anywhere on the screen.

Move the orange:

You might want to move the orange so it is slightly in front of the apple. To
do that, you'll use the Transform gizmo.

1 On the main toolbar, click the Select And Move button.

A tripod of red, blue, and green arrows appears. This is the transform
gizmo. As you move your cursor over the arrows, each axis label and
arrow stem turn yellow. When one is yellow, you can press and drag to
move the object in a single direction. If you move your cursor over the
inner corners of the transform gizmo, the plane turns yellow. This lets
you move in a single plane.

2 Using the transform gizmo, move the orange so it is in front of the apple.

32 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 Transform gizmo used to move the orange

The rendering looked interesting because of the materials that were already
applied to the geometry. Next you'll apply a material to your orange using
the Material Editor.

Adding a Material to the Orange

Materials use bitmap images to texture objects in your scene. The bottle label,
the leaves, and apple all get their appearance from bitmap texture mapping
on the objects in the still life scene. Bitmaps can also be used as other kinds
of maps, such as opacity maps (on the leaves, for example).

Adding a Material to the Orange | 33

 Bottle-label texture

34 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Apple texture

Add an orange material:

1 On the toolbar, click the Material Editor button.

TIP You can also press M to launch the Material Editor.

The Material Editor opens as a floating window.

Adding a Material to the Orange | 35

 Material Editor displays materials.

2 Locate the orange material in the Material Editor.

It should already be selected, surrounded by a white outline to show it
is active. If it isn't active, click it to select it.
Notice that the name of the material orange appears in the Material Name
field.
This orange material has already been constructed for you. It uses a bitmap
as a texture and as a bump map.

36 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 Orange texture map

3 Drag the orange material from the Material Editor sample onto the orange
in the viewport.
The orange in the viewport now displays with a speckled fruit skin.

4 Press F9 on the keyboard to render again. If you like, you can zoom in
on the orange, render, then undo the viewport change by pressing Shift+Z.

Adding a Material to the Orange | 37

 Rendered close-up of orange

You can find more information on Modeling and Materials in the

Modeling and Materials chapters of the online tutorials.
Next you'll see how easy it is to create animation in 3ds Max.

Animating the Still Life Objects

In this lesson you'll animate the objects in this scene. You'll learn how to
make objects fly off screen, much like the network logos you see on television.
You'll do this with keyframe animation. The Auto Key tool in 3ds Max lets
you set the important or key positions for the objects in the scene at different
points in time. Then the software figures out all the in-between positions.

38 | Chapter 1 Introduction
The procedure consists of three steps. At frame 50, you will rotate the bottle
and the knife to create rotation keys for them. You will then position the
apple and the orange so they are floating in the air. Then you'll shift the keys
around to reverse the animation.
3ds Max gives you three different ways to create keyframes. One is to turn on
the Auto Key button, move to any point in time, and transform (move, rotate,
or scale) the object. A second method is to right-click the time slider and then
set keys using the Create Key dialog. There is also a Set Key animation mode,
designed for professional character animators.
You’ll use the Auto Key button in this exercise.

Animate the position of the orange:

1 Continue with your own scene, or open still_life_with_orange.max.

2 Click the Auto Key button.

The button turns red. You are now in automatic animation

mode.

TIP The time slider bar also turns red, and the active viewport is outlined in
red to remind you that you are in Auto Key mode.

3 In the Perspective viewport, move your mouse over the orange.

After a moment a tooltip appears that says Orange.

4 On the toolbar, click the Select Object button, if it isn't already

active, then click to select the orange.

5 The time slider is the wide button located directly above the time scale
display below the viewports. Move the time slider to frame 50.

6 Right-click the orange and choose Move from the transform quadrant of
the quad menu.
In all viewports, you see the transform gizmo.

7 As you move your mouse over the Transform gizmo, the different axes
highlight one at a time. When the Z axis (blue) highlights, click and hold
the left mouse button, and drag the orange straight up in the Perspective
viewport until it is almost out of view. Release the mouse button.

Animating the Still Life Objects | 39

 Because you’re working in Auto Key animation mode, you've just set a
key for the orange. The key appears as a red rectangle in the time scale,
below the time slider.

8 Move the time slider back and forth from frame 0 to frame 50, and watch
the orange rise up from the wooden counter.

NOTE If you still have one of the viewports set to Camera01, you will see
the animated view of Camera01.

Animate the rotation of the bottle:

1 Return to frame 50.

2 In the Perspective viewport, click the bottle to select it, or press H and
select the bottle by name.

3 Right-click the bottle in the viewport and choose Rotate from the
transform quad.
The transform gizmo appears over the bottle.

40 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 As you move your cursor over the transform gizmo, different axes display
as yellow. The axes are color-coordinated (red, green, and blue equals X,
Y, and Z, respectively).

4 Rotate about the Y axis approximately 127 degrees so the bottle is upside
down, with the bottle bottom up in the left-hand corner of the viewport.
(See illustration).
You can see the X,Y,Z values displayed in yellow above the transform
gizmo as you rotate the bottle. These values also appear in the Coordinate
Display below the viewport.

TIP You can enter values directly in the coordinate fields for precision in your
work.

Animating the Still Life Objects | 41

 Bottle rotated 127 degrees about Y axis

5 Again move the time slider back and forth from frame 0 to frame 50 to
observe the animated effect.
You'll repeat this for the knife and the apple.

6 Return the time slider to frame 50. Then select the handle of the knife
in the viewport, or press H and select the object namehandle from the
list.
The knife blade is linked to the handle, so when you animate the handle,
you'll be animating the knife blade as well.

7 The Rotate tool should still be active; if not, click Select And Rotate on
the toolbar. Use the transform gizmo to rotate the knife handle around
in the viewport. Then right-click and choose Move from the quad menu.
Move the handle in Z, then in X, and then in Y so the knife is closer and
larger than before in the viewport.

8 Repeat for the apple.

42 | Chapter 1 Introduction
 Rotated still life objects

9 In the animation playback controls, click the Go To Start

button, and then click the Play Animation button.
Watch the animated objects fly up in the air.

10 Turn off Auto Key.

To avoid accidentally creating unwanted animation, develop the habit
of turning Auto Key off after animating.

Reverse the animation:

It's a simple procedure to reverse this animation. You'll move keys in the track
bar to accomplish this.

1 Press H on the keyboard.

The Select Objects dialog appears.

2 Hold down the Ctrl key and click the bottle, apple, orange, and handle
in the list. Then click Select.

Animating the Still Life Objects | 43

 The objects are displayed with selection brackets in the viewport. The
keys for all the animated objects are displayed on the track bar.

3 In Ohe track bar, drag a selection rectangle around the keys at frame 0.
The keys turn white on the track bar to show they are selected.

4 Hold down the Shift key and drag the keys from their position at frame
0 to frame 100
This creates a copy of the keys from frame 0 to frame 100.

5 Press the Play Animation button in the VCR controls to see the
animation you've created
The still life objects fly up and around at frame 50 and then return to
their positions at frame 100. The animation loops because the position
and rotations at frame 0 and 100 are the same.

6 Save your scene as my_still_life_animated_loop.max to your folder on

your local drive.

Experiment with changing the animation:

You can change the animation so the objects fly in from off screen.

1 With all four objects still selected, select the keys at frame 0 as before.
Delete them with the Delete key.

2 Drag a selection rectangle around the remaining keys, at frames 50 and

100. Next, drag the keys to the left, so the animation starts at frame 0
and ends at frame 50.
Again play the animation.

TIP Depending on how you rotated your objects, you might need to re-create
the rotation keys if the objects no longer spin the way you want them to. To
do this, go to frame 0 and, with Auto Key on, rotate the objects again.

3 Again save your scene to your local folder, this time as

my_still_life_animated_flyin.max.

44 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Rendering the Animation
Rendering multiple frames for a complete animation can be time consuming,
even on a fast machine. Each frame is individually processed. Realistic
materials, shadow casting, and other factors can slow the process as well.
When you're ready to take a break, you can render this animation and then
come back after a short time to see the results.

Render your animation:

To complete this tutorial, render the animation you made earlier. The rendering
time is probably under 15 minutes, depending on the speed of your machine.

1 From the File menu, use the Open command to load one of your saved
animations, either my_still_life_animated_loop.max or
my_still_life_animated_flyin.max. Or you can open still_life_animated.max,
provided in the \tutorials\still_life folder.

NOTE If you saved your completed files to a directory other than

\tutorials\still_life , when you open one of your files you might encounter
messages about missing files. If you do run into this problem, click the Browse
button on the Missing External Files dialog. This opens the Configure External
File Paths dialog. Click the Add button. Use the Choose New External Files
Path dialog to navigate to the directory where you loaded the original file,
and then click the Use Path button. Click OK, and then click Continue.

2 Choose Rendering menu > Render to open the Render Scene dialog.

TIP If your computer is fast, feel free to skip the next step.

3 In the Render Scene dialog > Output Size group, change the default (640
x 480) to 320 x 240.
This smaller size has only one-quarter the area of the default, making it
much faster to render.

4 In the Time Output group, choose Active Time Segment.

5 In the Render Output group, click the Files button. In the Render Output
File dialog, name your animation mystill_life_animated.avi. Click Save
to save the animation to the default directory (usually \renderoutput).

Rendering the Animation | 45

 WARNING You must either add the extension .avi in the file name, or else
select AVI as the file type. If you don't tell the program what type of animation
format to save in, the rendering won't work.

6 On the AVI File Compression dialog, do the following:

■ If necessary, change the compressor to Cinepak Codec. There are lots
of different codecs to choose from. Cinepak generally gives satisfactory
results.

■ Set the Quality high, between 90 and 100.

■ When you’re done, click OK.

On the Render Scene dialog, Save File is now on and the output field
shows the location of mystill_life_animated.avi.

7 At the bottom of the Render Scene dialog, from the list labeled Viewport,
choose Perspective.
You always want to be sure you’re rendering the right viewport.

TIP Usually you will use a camera viewport, rather than rendering the
Perspective viewport. In this case, since the animation was created in the
Perspective viewport, you'll use that.

8 Click Render to begin the rendering process.

Watch a few frames to make sure nothing is terribly wrong. The Time
Remaining estimate will give you an idea of how long the rendering will
take.

Play the rendered animation:

1 When your animation is finished rendering, chose File menu > View
Image File.
By default, the View File dialog opens in the \renderoutput subdirectory.

2 Highlight mystill_life_animated.avi and click Open to display the Media

Player.

3 Play your animation from the Media Player.

You'll find finished AVI files of both animations (the fly-in and the loop)
in the \tutorials\still_life folders if you want to skip the rendering entirely.

46 | Chapter 1 Introduction
Summary

You have created an animated still life and learned to find your way around
the 3ds Max user interface. You've learned viewport navigation, created an
orange using primitives, and assigned materials. You've also learned to move
objects, animate and render your animation.

Rendering the Animation | 47

48