Autodesk

VIZ 2008
Tutorial 1: Introducing the Autodesk VIZ User Interface
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Getting to Know the Autodesk VIZ
Interface
This tutorial introduces the Autodesk VIZ
interface and provides an overview of the things
you can do with the software. If youd like to follow
along and practice using the interface elements
described below, open a sample Autodesk VIZ file
and experiment with the controls; however, its not
necessary to do so.
To open the sample Autodesk VIZ file:
1. Start or reset Autodesk VIZ.
2. From the File menu, choose the Open
command, and then locate and open the
file \tutorials\getting_started\small_office_
intro.max.
The programloads a 3D model of a small office.
Use this file to follow along with the following
introduction to the Autodesk VIZ interface.
How It All Works: What You Can
Do in Autodesk VIZ
Create and Assemble Objects: You can create
new geometrical objects in Autodesk VIZ, as
well as link objects from other programs such as
AutoCAD Architecture, and you can augment
that geometry with other objects created in 3ds
Max. You view objects, change their materials, edit
them and animate them in viewports. The objects
can be 2D and 3D geometry, all positioned in 3D
space. You can display the objects in the viewport
as wireframe, shaded, or other options.
Lights and Cameras: You can add light objects
to create shadows and illumination. And you can
create cameras to shoot movies of your scene.
Introducing the Autodesk VIZ Interface
For this web tutorial please find the Scene Files in \VIZ2008_User_Interface
instead of \tutorials. Download this folder using the following procedure:
1. At www.autodesk.com/viz-tutorials click Scene Files under Introducing the
Autodesk VIZ Interface.
2. Unzip the EXE file to your computer.
By default the \VIZ2008_User_Interface folder is unzipped into
C:\VIZ2008_Scene_Files.
2 Tutorial 1: Introducing the Autodesk VIZ Interface
Materials: You can further enhance geometry
surfaces with materials, which you create and edit
in the Material Editor.
You toggle the Material Editor by clicking its
button on the main toolbar or by pressing the M
key on the keyboard.
You can access commonly used materials from the
material palettes set in the Tool Palettes window
and then apply them to objects in the scene. You
can drag entire palettes or individual materials to
catalogs in the Content Browser.
Keyframe Animation: Once the objects
are assembled in the scene, you create animated
versions of the design with keyframe animation.
This form of animation, incidentally, takes its
name from traditional, hand-drawn animation in
which lead artists draw the major, key frames,
and then assistant artists draw all in-between
The Viewports 3
frames to complete the action. Click the Auto Key
button, and then select objects in the scene. Move,
rotate, and scale the objects at different times to
create the animation. Or change the position
of a camera over time to create an architectural
walkthrough.
The time slider lets you time travel to any frame,
and you can use the VCR controls to play the
animation, jump between keyframes, and go
instantly to the start or end.
Rendering: Once the animation is complete,
you use rendering to create still images, movie
sequences or interactive panoramic views. The
output of the animation can be a movie file format
or a sequence of still images. Autodesk VIZ can
render to most industry-standard file formats. You
can set image resolution to whatever you want.
You can use bitmap images as the background
to your renderings in order to create stunning
photosimulations.
The Viewports
When you start Autodesk VIZ, you see a default
user interface, whose settings are stored in the file
vizstart.cui. When you start Autodesk VIZ for the
first time, this user interface consists of a single
viewport showing a perspective view, surrounded
by tools and controls. The viewports, which can
number up to four, are your windows onto the
world of 3D graphics.
You can easily configure the layout of these
viewports, tools, and controls by loading other
user-interface layouts or by creating your own.
You can change the color and appearance of the
user interface yourself, or load in other custom UI
files. Heres an example of a customized interface:
Viewports can display geometry in wireframe
mode or several different shaded modes. Edged-face
mode lets you see the wireframe structure and
shading at the same time.
A viewport can display the scene from the front or
back, left or right, top or bottom views. It can also
display different angled views such as perspective,
user, light source, or camera. You can change the
viewport by right-clicking the viewport label in the
4 Tutorial 1: Introducing the Autodesk VIZ Interface
top-left corner of the viewport, or with keyboard
shortcuts. For instance, P sets the active viewport
to Perspective view, and F sets it to Front view.
You can resize viewports by moving the splitter
bars that separate them.
Resizing the viewports
Right-clicking the viewport label brings up other
options as well. Here, you will find the Configure
command, which leads you to dozens of options
for viewport configuration. On the Layout panel,
youll find choices for different layouts for the
viewports.
Alternate viewport layout
Viewport clipping lets you display only a slice of
your scene in the viewport. When you have a
complex scene, viewport clipping lets you isolate a
section for closer scrutiny.
The Viewports 5
Viewport clipping, with the viewport background darkened
Safe frames show you the proportions of your
output file in the viewport to help you compose
your shot. This is handy if your output uses a
different proportion than your viewport.
Safe frame shows in the viewport where the image will be
cropped on the sides when rendered.
You can set up viewport backgrounds using bitmap
images. The viewport background image is
the environment map that you set up using the
Rendering menu > Environment command, and
which will render behind the geometry in your
scene.
Tip: You can quickly create a viewport background
by simply dragging an image file from Windows
Explorer or your Web browser over an empty
section of the viewport.
Viewport background in a Perspective view, with the resulting
rendered image in foreground
Viewport Navigation Controls
The Viewport Navigation controls are found in the
lower-right corner of the Autodesk VIZ window.
The particular tools available to you change
depending on which type of viewport is active.
For example, a Camera viewport displays different
navigation buttons than a Perspective viewport.
Navigation tools for a Camera view
Navigation tools for a Perspective view
These are the controls to pan and zoom or orbit
the viewport. Note that some of the tools have
flyout options that allow you to customize the tool
for specific viewport navigation tasks. You change
the button in a flyout by holding the left mouse key
down on it until the options appear, then drag to
the option you want to set, and release the mouse.
6 Tutorial 1: Introducing the Autodesk VIZ Interface
Extra options are available from flyouts.
Toolbars, Title Bar, and Menu Bar
Toolbars provide one-click access to the most
common functions in Autodesk VIZ; it will
speed your work to be familiar with them. You
can create your own toolbars or edit the default
toolbars provided in order to streamline your
work. Toolbars will be found either docked to the
top, bottom, or sides of the viewports, or they
might be floating over the interface.
Some of the default toolbars you will probably use
frequently:
Main toolbar: tools for transforming, linking,
rendering, toggling snaps, and more.
Extras toolbar: tools for keyboard shortcut
override toggle, AutoGrid, and arrays.
Axis Constraints toolbar: tools for restricting
the axes used for different transforms.
Snaps toolbar: tools for commonly used snap
settings. Use snapping for greater precision
when creating and transforming objects.
Layers toolbar: controls the display and
selection of layers in Autodesk VIZ.
Render Shortcuts toolbar: tools for creating
custom rendering presets and choosing among
a set of preset rendering parameters.
Title Bar
At the top of the Autodesk VIZ window is the title
bar. Like any standard Windows program, it shows
you the name of the file you are working on.
Menu Bar
Directly beneath the title bar is the menu bar. The
menu bar has a number of different menus, each
offering a selection of related tools and controls.
You can also access many menu commands with
the keyboard shortcuts displayed to the right of the
menu item.
If a menu itemhas an ellipsis (three dots) following
it, that means there are more choices on a dialog.
If the menu item has a right-pointing arrow, there
are more choices found in an expanding submenu.
Animation Controls 7
The menu bar options are context-sensitive.
Availability of certain menu commands changes
depending on what object is selected. For example,
the Views menu command Create Camera From
View is available only when a perspective viewport
is active.
Animation Controls
The Animation controls are located below the
viewports and in the extreme lower right of the
Autodesk VIZ window. These controls add a time
dimension to your design. You use animation
controls for moving to different points in time,
called frames, and to specify transforms and other
settings that should apply at a particular frame,
called keys.
The Auto Key Button
This button toggles between
two states: when it is gray, transformations
(movement, rotation, or scaling) and some
parameter changes you make will apply to all
frames in your animation. When it is red, you are
in animation mode, which means that the changes
you make are keys that apply only to the current
frame. By setting different keys at different frames,
you create animation.
Time Slider
The time slider allows you to move through time.
Click anywhere on the time slider background line
and the time slider jumps to your cursor, or drag
the time slider to the frame you want. The slider
shows the current frame and the total number of
frames.
The time slider background turns red when you
are in animation mode.
Track Bar
The track bar displays the keys for selected objects.
You can slide the key markers along the track bar
to adjust when they occur, and clone them by
holding down the shift key as you drag the keys.
You can also get more information instantly on
any key shown on the track bar by right-clicking a
key, as shown.
Animation Playback Controls
Found in the lower right of the user interface, the
animation playback controls are used to play the
animation in the viewport.
You can quickly go to the beginning or end of your
animation by using the Go To Start and Go To
End buttons. You can also advance backward or
forward a single frame using the Next Frame and
Previous Frame buttons.
Clicking the Play Animation button plays
the animation in the viewport. It has a flyout that
includes a Play Selected option.
The Time Configuration button opens a dialog
that gives you controls over time and playback.
Here you can change the length of your animation,
or define the active time segment. You can also
rescale time segments to speed up or slow down a
motion.
The current frame indicator shows the number of
the current frame. You can jump quickly to any
specific frame by entering the frame number in
this field.
8 Tutorial 1: Introducing the Autodesk VIZ Interface
Additional Interface Elements
Right-Click Quad Menus
Right-click in a viewport to open a quad menu
directly under your cursor for quick command
navigation. The available quad menu commands
are context-sensitive: they change based on the
current selection.
Tip: To view more choices, hold down the Alt ,
Ctrl , or Shift key while right-clicking.
You can use quad menus to get to most commands
in the command panels, and you can customize
the menus with the Customize User Interface
command.
Status and Prompt Area
The status and prompt areas provide valuable cues
about whats happening below the surface. This is
where Autodesk VIZ talks to you. The status bar
gives you pertinent information regarding your
selection, and the prompt line tells you what the
active command expects you to do next.
Lock Selection Set
You quickly get used to clicking objects to select
them. If you have a multiple-object selection and
then you click a single member of the selection,
you get the unexpected result of creating a new
selection that has only a single member.
When you have a selection you want to keep,
lock the selection set with this button, or press the
spacebar to toggle the lock selection. You can then
drag anywhere in the viewport to transform the
objects in the selection.
Coordinate Display Fields
The coordinate display fields to the right of the
status bar show you X, Y, and Z coordinates for
the position, rotation, and scale of your object.
When a transform tool is active, you can enter
values in these fields to transform objects from the
keyboard, or use the spinners with the mouse.
Choose between Absolute and Offset
modes respectively to transform objects in space
precisely, or increment/decrement the transform
values.
The Command Panel
To the right of the viewports is the command panel
with separate tabs for Create, Modify, Hierarchy,
Motion, Display, and Utilities. The panel content
varies, based on the current selection. Tools and
parameters are located on rollouts that you can
expand and rearrange.
The command panel is quite malleable. You can
scroll it to reach more tools below the interface
extents, and expand it to two or more columns
wide. You can also drag and drop rollouts to
reorder their sequence within the command panel.
Customizing the User Interface 9
Customizing the User Interface
Most of the layout of the Autodesk VIZ user
interface is customizable, so that after you are
familiar with the product, you can move tools as
you see fit. The toolbars and command panel can
float, dock, or be hidden. You can save and load
your customized user interface to a CUI file, so
you can take it with you from machine to machine.
The Customize User Interface command on the
Customize menu is where youll find the tools to
create your own toolbars. Here, you can also take
scripts and commands and set them as toolbar
buttons, menu items, and keyboard shortcuts.
Expert Mode
Once you become familiar with Autodesk VIZ,
you can take advantage of Expert mode, which
lets you hide pieces of the interface, so more of
your screen is devoted to the viewports. You can
remove the visual presence of the tools to focus on
the composition of your scene.
From the Views menu, choose Expert Mode.
You can use keyboard shortcuts to display the
command panel, or toolbars and tab panel. For
the most part, youll find the tools you need on
the quad menu, which is always accessible with a
right-click.
Keyboard Shortcuts
As you develop your own techniques and practices,
you may want to customize your keyboard
shortcuts. There are lots of things in Autodesk VIZ
you are going to do over and over again, and
its nice to be able to just press a key and have
it happen. Youll find that, instead of clicking
with a mouse, using the keyboard shortcuts will
increase your productivity and make you a happier
Autodesk VIZ user.
10 Tutorial 1: Introducing the Autodesk VIZ Interface
Youll find keyboard shortcuts on the Customize
menu > Customize User Interface > Keyboard
panel. Atable of actions is available for assignment.
Some actions are already defined, others are not.
Create your own and save them here.
Summary
To sum up what this tutorial has covered:
You can create new geometry in Autodesk VIZ,
as well as link geometry and materials from
other programs and use objects that were
created previously in 3ds max.
You can enhance your scene with cameras,
materials, lighting, and animation effects.
You were introduced to the names and
functions of the interface elements you will use
most frequently.