Autodesk 3ds Max 3ds Max - 2011 User Manual

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Autodesk 3ds Max® 2011

Help

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reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose. Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder. The following are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and other countries: 3DEC (design/logo), 3December, 3December.com, 3ds Max, Algor, Alias, Alias (swirl design/logo), AliasStudio, Alias|Wavefront (design/logo), ATC, AUGI, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Learning Assistance, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Simulator, AutoCAD SQL Extension, AutoCAD SQL Interface, Autodesk, Autodesk Envision, Autodesk Intent, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Map, Autodesk MapGuide, Autodesk Streamline, AutoLISP, AutoSnap, AutoSketch, AutoTrack, Backburner, Backdraft, Built with ObjectARX (logo), Burn, Buzzsaw, CAiCE, Civil 3D, Cleaner, Cleaner Central, ClearScale, Colour Warper, Combustion, Communication Specification, Constructware, Content Explorer, Dancing Baby (image), DesignCenter, Design Doctor, Designer's Toolkit, DesignKids, DesignProf, DesignServer, DesignStudio, Design Web Format, Discreet, DWF, DWG, DWG (logo), DWG Extreme, DWG TrueConvert, DWG TrueView, DXF, Ecotect, Exposure, Extending the Design Team, Face Robot, FBX, Fempro, Fire, Flame, Flare, Flint, FMDesktop, Freewheel, GDX Driver, Green Building Studio, Heads-up Design, Heidi, HumanIK, IDEA Server, i-drop, ImageModeler, iMOUT, Incinerator, Inferno, Inventor, Inventor LT, Kaydara, Kaydara (design/logo), Kynapse, Kynogon, LandXplorer, Lustre, MatchMover, Maya, Mechanical Desktop, Moldflow, Moonbox, MotionBuilder, Movimento, MPA, MPA (design/logo), Moldflow Plastics Advisers, MPI, Moldflow Plastics Insight, MPX, MPX (design/logo), Moldflow Plastics Xpert, Mudbox, Multi-Master Editing, Navisworks, ObjectARX, ObjectDBX, Open Reality, Opticore, Opticore Opus, Pipeplus, PolarSnap, PortfolioWall, Powered with Autodesk Technology, Productstream, ProjectPoint, ProMaterials, RasterDWG, RealDWG, Real-time Roto, Recognize, Render Queue, Retimer, Reveal, Revit, Showcase, ShowMotion, SketchBook, Smoke, Softimage, Softimage|XSI (design/logo), Sparks, SteeringWheels, Stitcher, Stone, StudioTools, ToolClip, Topobase, Toxik, TrustedDWG, ViewCube, Visual, Visual LISP, Volo, Vtour, Wire, Wiretap, WiretapCentral, XSI, and XSI (design/logo). ArchVision, realpeople, and RPC are either registered trademarks or trademarks of ArchVision, Inc. clothfx™ is a trademark of Size8 Software, Inc. Havok.com™ is a trademark or registered trademark of Havok.com Inc. or its licensors. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. ISYS and the ISYS logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of ISYS® Search Software Inc. mental ray is a registered trademark of mental images GmbH licensed for use by Autodesk, Inc. Jeep is a registered trademark of Chrysler Group LLC. NVIDIA® and PhysX® are trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation and are used under license. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Autodesk® 3ds® Max 2011

Disclaimer

THIS PUBLICATION AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS MADE AVAILABLE BY AUTODESK, INC. "AS IS." AUTODESK, INC. DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE REGARDING THESE MATERIALS.

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Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

What's New in Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3ds Max Documentation Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

About MAXScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 2 Getting Started with 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Project Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Setting Up Your Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Modeling Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Using Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Placing Lights and Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Animating Your Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Rendering Your Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

The 3ds Max Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Managing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Importing, Merging, Replacing, and Externally Referencing

Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Using the Asset Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Startup Files and Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The Initialization File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Backing Up and Archiving Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Crash Recovery System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

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Chapter 3 Viewing and Navigating 3D Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

General Viewport Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Home Grid: Views Based on the World Coordinate Axes . . . . . . . . . 50

Understanding Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Setting Viewport Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Controlling Viewport Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Controlling Display Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Using Standard View Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Zooming, Panning, and Rotating Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

ViewCube Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Change the View of the Scene with the ViewCube . . . . . . . . . 70

Change the Current View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Set the View Projection Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Define the Home View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Wheel Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Navigation Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

View Object Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Tour Building Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Full Navigation Wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Navigation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Center Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Forward Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Look Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Orbit Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Pan Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Rewind Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Up/Down Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Walk Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Zoom Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Using Walkthrough Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Navigating Camera and Light Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Adaptive Degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

View-Handling Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Undo View Change / Redo View Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Save Active View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Restore Active View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Viewport Background Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Select Background Image Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Update Background Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Reset Background Transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Show Transform Gizmo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Show Ghosting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Show Key Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Shade Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

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Show Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Create Camera From View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Add Default Lights to Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Redraw All Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Show Materials in Viewport As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Update During Spinner Drag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Diagnose Video Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Expert Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Controlling Object Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Display Color Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Hide By Category Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Hide Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Freeze Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Display Properties Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Link Display Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Chapter 4 Selecting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Introducing Object Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Basics of Selecting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Selecting by Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Using Select By Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Using Named Selection Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Using Selection Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Selecting with Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Selecting with Schematic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Freezing and Unfreezing Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Hiding and Unhiding Objects by Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Hiding and Unhiding Objects by Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Isolate Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Introduction to Sub-Object Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Selection Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Select Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Select From Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Selection Floater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Selection Region Flyout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Rectangular Selection Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Circular Selection Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Fence Selection Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Lasso Selection Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Paint Selection Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Window/Crossing Selection Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Selection Filter List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Filter Combinations Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Named Selection Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Named Selection Sets Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Edit Named Selections Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

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Select All . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Select None . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Select Invert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Select Similar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Select By . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Select By Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Select By Name (Edit Menu) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Select By Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Edit Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Undo/Redo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Hold/Fetch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Delete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Chapter 5 Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Object Properties Dialog Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

General Panel (Object Properties Dialog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Advanced Lighting Panel (Object Properties Dialog) . . . . . . . 232

mental ray Panel (Object Properties Dialog) . . . . . . . . . . . 236

User Defined Panel (Object Properties Dialog) . . . . . . . . . . 240

Rename Objects Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Custom Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Parameter Collector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Parameter Collector Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Notes Dialog (Parameter Collector) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Expression Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Trigonometric Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Chapter 6 Creating Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Basics of Creating and Modifying Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Using the Create Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Identifying the Basic Building Blocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Creating an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Assigning Colors to Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Object Color Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Color Selector Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Color Clipboard Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Adjusting Normals and Smoothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Viewing and Changing Normals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Viewing and Changing Smoothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Geometric Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Creating Primitives from the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Standard Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Box Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Cone Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

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Sphere Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

GeoSphere Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Cylinder Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Tube Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Torus Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Pyramid Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Teapot Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Plane Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Extended Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Hedra Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Torus Knot Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

ChamferBox Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

ChamferCyl Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

OilTank Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Capsule Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Spindle Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

L-Ext Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Gengon Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

C-Ext Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

RingWave Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Prism Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Hose Extended Primitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Architectural Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

AEC Extended Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Working with AEC Design Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Foliage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

L-Type Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Spiral Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Straight Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

U-Type Stair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

Doors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Pivot Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Sliding Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

BiFold Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Awning Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

Casement Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

Fixed Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Pivoted Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Projected Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Sliding Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

mental ray Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

mr Proxy Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

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Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Splines and Extended Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Line Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Rectangle Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522

Circle Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Ellipse Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Arc Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

Donut Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

NGon Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

Star Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

Text Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

Helix Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Section Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Extended Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

WRectangle Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Channel Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Angle Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Tee Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

Wide Flange Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Editable Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Editable Spline (Object) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565

Editable Spline (Vertex) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

Editable Spline (Segment) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Editable Spline (Spline) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589

Shape Check Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598

Compound Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Morph Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600

Scatter Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608

Conform Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

Connect Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628

BlobMesh Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 634

ShapeMerge Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642

Boolean Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 646

Material Attach Options Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 661

Terrain Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663

Loft Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674

Creation Method Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677

Surface Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678

Path Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 683

Skin Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 686

Deformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703

Path Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Shape Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

Mesher Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

ProBoolean/ProCutter Compound Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

ProBoolean Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

viii | Contents

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ProCutter Compound Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758

Quad Meshing and Smoothing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

Dynamics Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

Damper Dynamics Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

Spring Dynamics Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 784

Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 792

Bones System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793

Using Objects as Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805

Bone Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806

Ring Array System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 815

Chapter 7 Moving, Rotating, and Scaling Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 821

Using Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 822

Using Transform Gizmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825

Transform Type-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 835

Animating Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 838

Transform Managers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840

Specifying a Reference Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . 842

Choosing a Transform Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843

Using the Axis Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847

Reset XForm Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849

Transform Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 850

Select and Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851

Select and Rotate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 852

Select and Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854

Select and Uniform Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855

Select and Non-Uniform Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 856

Select and Squash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858

Transform Coordinates and Coordinate Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859

Reference Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 860

Use Center Flyout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867

Use Pivot Point Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868

Use Selection Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870

Use Transform Coordinate Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 871

Transform Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872

Transform Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873

Mirror Selected Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877

Array Flyout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 881

Array . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 882

Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888

Spacing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 892

Clone and Align Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900

Align Flyout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 905

Align . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 906

Quick Align . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 911

Normal Align . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 912

Contents | ix

Page 10

Place Highlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915

Align Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 917

Align to View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 918

Chapter 8 Creating Copies and Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 921

Overview of Copies, Instances, and References . . . . . . . . . . . . . 922

Techniques for Cloning Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925

Clone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932

Clone Options Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 932

Using Shift+Clone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 936

Cloning with Shift+Move . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 937

Cloning with Shift+Rotate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 939

Cloning with Shift+Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 942

Animating Shift+Rotate and Shift+Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 944

Cloning Objects Over Time with Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . 946

Arraying Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 948

Using the Array Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951

Creating Linear Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 955

Creating Circular and Spiral Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 960

Mirroring Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 963

Using the Spacing Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 965

Chapter 9 Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 969

Transforms, Modifiers, and Object Data Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971

Using Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 978

Using the Modify Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 979

Using the Modifier Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 983

Editing the Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 987

Edit Modifiers and Editable Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 990

Modifying at the Sub-Object Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 991

Using the Stack at the Sub-Object Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 994

Modifying Multiple Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 996

How Instanced Modifiers Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1000

World-Space Modifiers (WSMs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1004

Camera Map Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1004

Displace Mesh Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1005

Displace NURBS Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1008

Hair And Fur Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1010

Selection Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1019

Tools Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1021

Styling Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1033

Quad Menu for Hair Styling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1047

General Parameters Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . 1049

Material Parameters Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . 1056

mr Parameters Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . . . . 1063

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Frizz Parameters Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . . . 1064

Kink Parameters Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . . . 1069

Multi Strand Parameters Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . 1072

Dynamics Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1074

Display Rollout (Hair And Fur) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1082

LS Colors Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1084

MapScaler Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1086

PatchDeform Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089

PathDeform Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1089

Point Cache Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095

Subdivide Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095

Surface Mapper Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1095

SurfDeform Modifier (World Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1098

Object-Space Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1098

Affect Region Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1098

Attribute Holder Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102

Bend Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104

Bevel Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1108

Bevel Profile Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115

Camera Map Modifier (Object Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1119

Cap Holes Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1124

Cloth and Garment Maker Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1126

Cloth and Garment Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1128

Cloth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1142

Garment Maker Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1206

CrossSection Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1240

Delete Mesh Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246

Delete Patch Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1248

Delete Spline Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1249

Disp Approx Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1251

Displace Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1255

Edit Mesh Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1263

Edit Normals Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1264

Edit Patch Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271

Edit Poly Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1274

Selection Rollout (Edit Poly Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . . 1287

Edit Poly (Object) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1299

Edit Poly (Vertex) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1301

Edit Poly (Edge) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1310

Edit Poly (Border) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1331

Edit Poly (Polygon/Element) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1338

Edit Geometry Rollout (Polymesh and Edit Poly) . . . . . 1352

Align Geometry Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1366

Detach Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1367

Edit Spline Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1368

Extrude Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1369

Contents | xi

Page 12

Face Extrude Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1372

FFD (Free-Form Deformation) Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1375

FFD (Box/Cylinder) Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1380

FFD (Free-Form Deformation) Select Modifier . . . . . . . . . . 1385

Fillet/Chamfer Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1386

Flex Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1389

Spring Option Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1406

HSDS Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1408

Adaptive Subdivision Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1416

Lathe Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1418

Lattice Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1423

Linked XForm Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1428

LS Mesh Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1431

MapScaler Modifier (Object Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1432

Material Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1435

MaterialByElement Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1437

Melt Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1441

Mesh Select Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1445

MeshSmooth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1450

Mirror Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1462

Morpher Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1464

MultiRes Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1482

Noise Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1490

Normal Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1497

Normalize Spline Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1500

NSurf Sel Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1502

Optimize Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1504

Patch Select Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1509

PatchDeform Modifier (Object Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1514

PathDeform Modifier (Object Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1516

Point Cache Modifier (Object Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1521

Poly Select Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1529

Preserve Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1537

Projection Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1543

Selection Rollout (Projection Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . 1545

Reference Geometry Rollout (Projection Modifier) . . . . 1548

Cage Rollout (Projection Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1550

Selection Check Rollout (Projection Modifier) . . . . . . . 1554

Projection Rollout (Projection Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . 1555

Project Mapping Rollout (Projection Modifier) . . . . . . 1557

Projection Holder Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1561

ProOptimizer Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1561

Optimization Level Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1564

Optimization Options Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1567

Symmetry Options Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1586

Advanced Options Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1587

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Push Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1588

Quadify Mesh Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1589

Relax Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1591

Renderable Spline Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1595

Ripple Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1598

Select By Channel Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1601

Shell Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1603

Skew Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1610

Skin Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1614

Load Envelopes Dialog (Skin Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . 1641

Weight Tool Dialog (Skin Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . . . 1645

Weight Table (Skin Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1652

Skin Morph Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1654

Skin Wrap Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1665

Skin Wrap Patch Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1675

Slice Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1676

Smooth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1682

Spherify Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1685

Spline IK Control Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1687

Spline Select Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1690

Squeeze Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1693

STL Check Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1695

Stretch Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1699

Subdivide Modifier (Object Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1705

Substitute Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1707

Surface Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1711

SurfDeform Modifier (Object Space) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1723

Sweep Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725

Pick Shape Dialog (Sweep Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . . . 1745

Extract Shape Dialog (Sweep Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . 1747

Merge File (Sweep Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1749

Symmetry Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1752

Taper Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1757

Tessellate Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1761

Trim/Extend Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1764

TurboSmooth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1767

Turn To Mesh Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1774

Turn To Patch Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1776

Turn To Poly Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1779

Twist Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1783

UVW Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1787

Unwrap UVW Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1787

UVW Map Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1883

UVW Mapping Add Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1905

UVW Mapping Clear Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1905

UVW Mapping Paste Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1906

Contents | xiii

Page 14

UVW XForm Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1906

Vertex Weld Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1908

VertexPaint Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1910

VertexPaint Paintbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1920

Adjust Color Dialog (VertexPaint Modifier) . . . . . . . . 1933

Color Palette (VertexPaint Modifier) . . . . . . . . . . . 1935

Painter Options Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1940

Volume Select Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1944

Wave Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1951

Welder Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1955

XForm Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1961

Chapter 10 Surface Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1965

Subdivision Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1965

Soft Selection Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1966

Collapse Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1974

Graphite Modeling Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1978

The Ribbon Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1979

Using the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1980

Modeling Ribbon Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1985

Graphite Modeling Tools Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1995

Polygon Modeling Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1995

Modify Selection Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2013

Edit Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2025

Geometry (All) Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2039

[Sub-object] Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2050

Loops Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2082

Additional Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2099

Freeform Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2107

PolyDraw Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2108

Paint Deform Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2117

Selection Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2132

General Selection Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2132

Select By Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2137

Object Paint Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2144

Paint Objects Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2145

Brush Settings Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2159

Customizing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163

Advanced Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2184

Conditions Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2185

Editable Mesh Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2190

Working with Mesh Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2194

Selection Rollout (Editable Mesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2195

Editable Mesh (Object) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2198

Editable Mesh (Vertex) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2201

Editable Mesh (Edge) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2207

xiv | Contents

Page 15

Editable Mesh (Face/Polygon/Element) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2214

Edit Geometry Rollout (Mesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2218

Attach Options Dialog (Editable Mesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2232

Cut and Slice (Editable Mesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2234

Editable Poly Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2240

Selection Rollout (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2245

Editable Poly (Object) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2256

Editable Poly (Vertex) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2258

Editable Poly (Edge) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2269

Editable Poly (Border) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2290

Editable Poly (Polygon/Element) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2297

Edit Geometry Rollout (Polymesh and Edit Poly) . . . . . . . . 2312

Subdivision Surface Rollout (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2327

Subdivision Displacement Rollout (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . 2332

Paint Deformation Rollout (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2334

Editable Poly Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2338

Bevel Polygons (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2342

Bridge Borders/Polygons (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2344

Bridge Edges (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2348

Chamfer Vertices/Edges/Borders (Polymesh) . . . . . . . 2351

Connect Edges (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2353

Extrude Polygons Along Spline (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . 2356

Extrude Polygons (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2358

Extrude Vertices/Edges (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2360

Hinge From Edge (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2362

Inset Polygons (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2363

MeshSmooth Selection (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2365

Preserve Map Channels Dialog (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . 2367

Relax (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2369

Tessellate (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2371

Weld Vertices/Edges (Polymesh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2372

Patch Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2374

Editable Patch Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2374

Selection Rollout (Editable Patch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2380

Editable Patch (Object) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2384

Editable Patch (Vertex) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2387

Editable Patch (Handle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2396

Editable Patch (Edge) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2398

Editable Patch (Patch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2401

Editable Patch (Element) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2407

Geometry Rollout (Patch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2410

Patch Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2424

Quad Patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2426

Tri Patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2430

NURBS Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2433

NURBS Models: Objects and Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 2434

Contents | xv

Page 16

Creating NURBS Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2435

Working with NURBS Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2436

NURBS Surface Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2437

Modifying NURBS Models and Creating Sub-Objects . . . 2439

Quad Menu for NURBS Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2441

Using the NURBS Toolbox to Create Sub-Objects . . . . . 2443

NURBS Sub-Object Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2445

CV Sub-Objects and Point Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . 2446

Dependent Sub-Objects (NURBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2450

Rigid NURBS Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2453

NURBS and Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2453

NURBS and Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2456

NURBS Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2457

NURBS Tips and Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2461

NURBS Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2471

Point Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2473

CV Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2477

NURBS Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2481

Point Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2483

CV Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2490

Creating NURBS Curve and Surface Objects . . . . . . . . . . . 2498

Creating Independent Surfaces from NURBS Curve

Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2498

Creating NURBS Curves from Splines . . . . . . . . . . . 2499

Creating NURBS Surfaces from Geometric Primitives . . . 2500

Nonrelational NURBS Surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2502

Display Controls for NURBS Models . . . . . . . . . . . . 2504

Display Line Parameters for NURBS Surfaces . . . . . . . 2507

Creating and Editing NURBS Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . 2508

Attaching and Importing 3ds Max Objects . . . . . . . . 2509

Common Sub-Object Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2512

Editing Point Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2514

Editing Curve CV Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2522

Editing Surface CV Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2528

Editing Curve Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2538

Editing Surface Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2550

Soft Selection Rollout (NURBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2561

Material Properties Rollout (NURBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2564

Creating Curve Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2569

Creating Surface Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2625

Creating and Editing Point Sub-Objects . . . . . . . . . . 2717

NURBS Editing Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2732

NURBS Curve and Surface Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . 2760

NURBS Curve Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2761

NURBS Surface Approximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2762

Advanced Surface Approximation Dialog (NURBS) . . . . 2771

xvi | Contents

Page 17

Surface Approximation Utility (NURBS) . . . . . . . . . . 2773

Tools for Low-Polygon Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2785

Show Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2785

Level of Detail Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2787

Optimization Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2792

Batch ProOptimizer Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2793

Batch ProOptimizer Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2795

Batch Optimization Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2797

Chapter 11 Precision and Drawing Aids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2807

Tools for Precision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2808

Using Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2810

Using Grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2811

Using the Home Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2813

Using Grid Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2815

Viewing Grid Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2817

AutoGrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2819

Grid Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2822

Show Home Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2822

Activate Home Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2823

Activate Grid Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2823

Align Grid to View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2824

Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2825

Aligning Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2825

Aligning Normals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2829

Using Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2830

Snap Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2833

2D Snap, 2.5D Snap, 3D Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2833

Angle Snap Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2840

Percent Snap Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2842

Spinner Snap Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2842

Ortho Snapping Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2843

Polar Snapping Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2845

Setting Snap Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2847

Grid and Snap Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2850

Snap Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2850

Snap Override . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2856

Snap Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2859

Home Grid Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2863

User Grid Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2867

Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2868

Select And Manipulate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2868

Standard Helper Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2870

Dummy Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2871

Expose Transform Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2872

Grid Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2878

Contents | xvii

Page 18

Point Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2884

Tape Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2886

Protractor Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2889

Compass Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2891

Manipulator Helper Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2892

Cone Angle Manipulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2893

Plane Angle Manipulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2896

Slider Manipulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2900

Drawing Assistants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2905

xView . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2905

Measuring Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2910

Measure Distance Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2913

Measure Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2914

Rescale World Units Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2916

Chapter 12 Space Warps and Particle Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2919

Space Warp Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2920

Bind to Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2925

Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2926

Push Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2926

Motor Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2931

Vortex Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2936

Drag Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2941

PBomb Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2947

Path Follow Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2953

Gravity Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2958

Wind Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2960

Displace Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2964

Deflectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2969

POmniFlect Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2969

PDynaFlect Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2975

SOmniFlect Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2980

SDynaFlect Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2982

UOmniFlect Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2983

UDynaFlect Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2985

SDeflector Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2988

UDeflector Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2991

Deflector Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2994

Geometric/Deformable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2997

FFD(Box) Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2997

FFD(Cyl) Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3004

Wave Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3013

Ripple Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3018

Conform Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3022

Bomb Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3027

Modifier-Based Space Warps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3030

xviii | Contents

Page 19

Particle Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3032

Particle Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3033

How Particle Flow Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3034

Particle Flow User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3048

Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3081

Non-Event-Driven Particle Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3323

Particle System Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3326

Spray Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3337

Snow Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3341

Super Spray Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3346

Blizzard Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3350

PCloud Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3355

PArray Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3362

Chapter 13 Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3397

Animation Concepts and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3398

Animation Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3398

Using Auto Key Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3403

Using Set Key Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3406

Spinner Right-Click Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3411

Viewing and Copying Transform Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3412

Controlling Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3415

Setting Time Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3417

Moving Through Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3418

Choosing a Frame Rate and Playback Speed . . . . . . . . . . . 3420

Working with Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3421

Understanding Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3422

Changing Controller Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3425

Assigning Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3427

Specifying Default Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3429

General-Purpose Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3431

Special-Purpose Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3433

Explicit Axis Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3434

Float Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3435

Controlling Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3436

Controlling Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3437

Controlling Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3437

Controlling Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3438

Morph Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3440

Motion Panel Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3440

Trajectories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3440

PRS Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3446

Key Info (Basic) Rollout/Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3447

Tangent Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3449

Key Info (Advanced) Rollout/Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . 3451

Animation Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3454

Contents | xix

Page 20

Audio Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3455

Audio Controller Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3456

Barycentric Morph Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3459

Barycentric Morph Controller Key Info Dialog . . . . . . 3461

Bezier Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3462

Block Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3466

Attach Controls Dialog (Block Controller) . . . . . . . . . 3471

Block Parameters Dialog (Block Controller) . . . . . . . . 3473

Master Block Parameters Dialog (Block Controller) . . . . 3474

Slave Parameters Dialog (Block Controller) . . . . . . . . 3475

Track View Pick Dialog (Block Controller) . . . . . . . . . 3477

Boolean Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3478

Color RGB Controller (Point3 XYZ Controller) . . . . . . . . . 3480

Euler XYZ Rotation Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3482

Expression Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3486

Expression Controller Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3492

Layer Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3494

Animation Layers (Layer Controller) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3496

Layer Properties Dialog (Layer Controller) . . . . . . . . 3512

Create New Animation Layer Dialog (Layer Controller)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3513

Limit Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3514

Linear Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3526

List Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3528

Local Euler XYZ Rotation Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3532

Look At Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3533

Master Point Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3535

Master Track Key Info Dialog (Master Point

Controller) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3537

Motion Capture Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3539

Noise Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3550

On/Off Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3553

Position XYZ Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3555

PRS Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3557

Reaction Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3559

Reaction Manager Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3565

Using Manipulators with Reaction Controllers . . . . . . 3580

Scale XYZ Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3582

Script Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3584

Smooth Rotation Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3590

Spring Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3591

TCB Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3595

Waveform Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3598

XRef Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3602

Animation Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3607

Attachment Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3608

xx | Contents

Page 21

Link Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3614

LookAt Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3619

Orientation Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3625

Path Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3629

Position Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3636

Surface Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3642

Wire Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3645

Parameter Wiring Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3647

Hierarchies and Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3653

Hierarchies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3653

Linking Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3658

Linking and Unlinking Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3665

Adjusting Pivots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3668

Viewing and Selecting Hierarchies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3673

Animating with Forward Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3677

Using Dummy Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3686

Animating Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3688

Adjusting Object Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3691

Locking Object Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3693

Animating Attachment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3693

Changing Link Inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3694

Link Inheritance (Selected) Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3695

Inverse Kinematics (IK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3696

IK Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3700

Inverse Kinematics Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3702

Joint Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3787

Hierarchy Panel Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3795

Pivot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3796

IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3807

Link Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3824

Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3827

Working with Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3831

Track View Workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3832

Curve Editor Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3841

Dope Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3842

Time Ruler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3846

Track View Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3847

Track View Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3853

Track View Hierarchy Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3859

Hierarchy Right-Click Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3861

Properties (Track View Hierarchy) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3866

Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3868

Track View Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3882

Modes Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3883

Controller Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3883

Tracks Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3887

Contents | xxi

Page 22

Keys Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3887

Curves Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3889

Time Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3889

Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3890

Display Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3896

View Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3900

Utilities Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3901

Track View Quad Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3904

Track View Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3907

Curve Editor Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3907

Dope Sheet Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3913

Name Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3917

Controllers Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3917

Tools Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3918

Ranges Toolbar (Dope Sheet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3920

Extras Toolbar (Dope Sheet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3920

Filtering Track View Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3921

Filters Dialog (Track View) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3922

Managing Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3927

Copy Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3927

Paste Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3928

Assign Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3930

Delete Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3932

Ignore Animation Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3933

Respect Animation Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3934

Make Controller Unique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3935

Note Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3936

Add Note Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3936

Remove Note Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3939

Editing Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3940

Edit Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3940

Snap Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3941

Lock Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3942

Align to Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3943

Add Visibility Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3944

Move Keys (Dope Sheet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3947

Slide Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3948

Scale Keys - Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3949

Add Keys (Dope Sheet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3951

Properties (Track View Key Window) . . . . . . . . . . . 3952

Track View Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3953

Randomize Keys Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3955

Create Out of Range Keys Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3957

Select Keys By Time Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3959

Euler Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3960

Soft Selection Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3961

xxii | Contents

Page 23

Current Value Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3962

Edit Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3963

Select Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3965

Delete Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3966

Cut Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3967

Copy Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3967

Paste Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3968

Reverse Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3970

Insert Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3971

Scale Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3972

Exclude Left End Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3973

Exclude Right End Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3974

Reduce Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3976

Edit Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3978

Position Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3979

Recouple Ranges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3980

Editing Tracks: Copying, Pasting, and Handling Instances and

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3981

Copying and Pasting Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3981

Copying and Pasting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3983

Making Instance and Reference Controllers and Objects

Unique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3985

Curve Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3986

Move Keys (Curve Edit r) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3988

Scale Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3989

Scale Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3990

Add Keys (Curve Editor) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3991

Draw Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3993

Show Tangents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3994

Lock Tangents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3996

Parameter Curve Out-of-Range Types . . . . . . . . . . . 3996

Apply Ease Curve / Apply Multiplier Curve . . . . . . . . 3999

Remove Ease/Multiplier Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4001

On/Off (Curves) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4001

Ease Curve Out-of-Range Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4002

Multiplier Curve Out-of-Range Types . . . . . . . . . . . 4004

Freeze Non-Selected Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4006

Status Bar and View Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4007

Track Selection Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4007

Key Stats Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4017

Navigation Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4020

Managing Track View Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4025

New Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4025

Delete Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4026

Saved Track Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4027

Customizing the Track View Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4028

Contents | xxiii

Page 24

Track View Toolbar Right-Click Menu . . . . . . . . . . . 4035

Motion Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4036

Using the Motion Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4038

Adding Tracks to the Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4043

Importing Clips to the Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4048

Working with Clips in the Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4052

Filtering Mixer Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4054

Adjusting Clip Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4060

Working with Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4063

Adjusting Track Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4069

Adding Time Warps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4071

Adjusting Biped Balance in the Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . 4075

Exporting Animation to the Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4080

Using the Reservoir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4084

Motion Mixer Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4088

Motion Mixer Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4089

Motion Mixer Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4098

Motion Mixer Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4119

Trackgroup Filter Dialog (Biped Object) . . . . . . . . . . 4124

Trackgroup Filter Dialog (Non-Biped Object) . . . . . . . 4126

Motion Mixer Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4128

Reservoir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4132

Mixer Preferences Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4137

Mixer Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4140

Saving and Loading Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4141

Load Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4144

Map Animation Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4147

Motion Mapping Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . 4149

Map Track to Track Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4152

Retargeting Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4154

Save Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4159

Merge Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4163

Animation Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4171

Follow/Bank Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4171

Motion Capture Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4174

MACUtilities Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4193

Camera Tracker Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4195

Requirements for Camera Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . 4200

Camera Tracker: Movie Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4200

Camera Tracker: Movie Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4202

Camera Tracker: Motion Trackers Rollout . . . . . . . . . 4205

Camera Tracker: Movie Stepper Rollout . . . . . . . . . . 4210

Camera Tracker: Error Thresholds Rollout . . . . . . . . . 4212

Camera Tracker: Batch Track Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . 4213

Camera Tracker: Position Data Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . 4215

Camera Tracker: Match Move Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . 4216

xxiv | Contents

Page 25

Camera Tracker: Move Smoothing Rollout . . . . . . . . 4219

Camera Tracker: Object Pinning Rollout . . . . . . . . . . 4221

Camera Tracker: Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4224

Dynamics Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4226

Edit Object Dialog (Dynamics Utility) . . . . . . . . . . . 4241

Edit Object List Dialog (Dynamics Utility) . . . . . . . . . 4247

Skin Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4249

Chapter 14 reactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4255

Introducing Dynamics Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4263

Special Features in reactor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4270

reactor Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4281

Rigid Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4282

Rigid Body Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4283

Rigid Body Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4284

Compound Rigid Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4294

Rigid Body Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4296

Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4299

Constraint Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4300

Simple Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4303

Cooperative Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4317

reactor Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4375

Plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4375

Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4377

Toy Car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4380

Fracture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4387

Fracture Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4394

Storing and Accessing Collisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4396

Deformable Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4401

Cloth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4402

Cloth Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4403

Cloth Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4411

Soft Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4413

Soft Body Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4415

FFD Soft Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4419

Soft Body Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4423

Rope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4425

Rope Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4426

Rope Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4431

Deforming Meshes (Skin) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4433

Deforming Mesh Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4435

Constraining Deformable Bodies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4437

Fixing Vertices in World Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4440

Keyframing Vertices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4441

Attaching Vertices to a Rigid Body . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4443

Attaching Vertices to Deforming Meshes (Skin) . . . . . . 4445

Contents | xxv

Page 26

Soft Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4447

Water Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4450

Water Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4451

Rendering Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4454

Wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4456

The reactor Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4460

Preview & Animation Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4462

Havok 1 World / Havok 3 World Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . 4464

Collisions Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4468

Display Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4470

reactor Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4472

Properties Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4475

The Real-Time Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4476

Scripts and Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4481

Frequently Asked Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4487

Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4492

Chapter 15 Character Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4503

CAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4504

Getting Started: Rigging with CATRigs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4505

Creating a CATRig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4505

Customizing the Geometry on CATBones . . . . . . . . . 4515

Removing Parts of the CATRig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4517

Using CAT's Naming System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4518

Copying and Pasting Rig Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4520

Applying Manipulation Gizmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4521

Hierarchy Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4527

Editing a Rig Interactively in the Viewport . . . . . . . . 4541

Editing Bone Pivot Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4543

CATParent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4543

Hubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4558

Spines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4565

Limbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4576

Limb IK Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4583

Collarbones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4584

Palms, Ankles, and Digits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4585

Tails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4590

Extra Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4593

Animating with CAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4597

Introduction to Keyframe Animation . . . . . . . . . . . 4598

Starting a New Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4599

Editing Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4602

CAT's IK System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4606

Animating with Stretchy Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4618

Animation Layering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4622

Manipulating the Rig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4652

xxvi | Contents

Page 27

Animation Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4669

Retargeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4690

Editing Keyframes in Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4693

Working with Poses and Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4694

Saving and loading Poses and Animation using Right-Click

Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4696

Clip/Pose Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4703

Pose Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4711

CATMotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4715

CATMotion Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4716

CATMotion Presets/Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4719

Globals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4723

LimbPhases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4727

CATMotion Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4729

Understanding CATUnits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4755

Working With Motion-Capture Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4756

Importing HTR/BVH Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4757

Importing BIP Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4759

Capture Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4760

Retargeting Motion-Capture Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4768

Working With Muscles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4769

CATMuscle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4772

Muscle Strand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4780

Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4788

Rig Resizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4788

Apply Max IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4790

Tips and Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4793

Customizing IK Using Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4793

Mapping Motion from Motion-Capture Point

Clouds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4797

character studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4801

What Is character studio? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4803

What You Should Know to Use character studio . . . . . . . . 4804

Understanding Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4805

Understanding Physique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4807

Understanding Track Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4810

Understanding the Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4811

Understanding Motion Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4812

Understanding Crowds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4814

Understanding character studio Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . 4816

Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4822

Creating a Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4825

Understanding Biped Anatomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4826

Changing Initial Biped Anatomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4828

Naming the Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4828

Posing the Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4830

Contents | xxvii

Page 28

Scaling Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4841

Rubber-Banding Arms and Legs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4843

Biped Display Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4846

Deleting a Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4847

Linking Character Body Parts to the Biped . . . . . . . . 4847

Saving and Loading FIG Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4851

Footstep Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4853

Freeform Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4910

Working with Biped Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4971

Loading, Saving, and Displaying Biped Motion . . . . . . 4976

Biped User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5002

Working with the Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5162

Working with Motion Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5194

Working with Motion-Capture Data . . . . . . . . . . . . 5264

Physique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5294

Using Physique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5296

Physique User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5363

Crowd Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5456

Creating a Crowd System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5457

Creating Crowd Helpers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5462

Adjusting Delegate Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5467

Assigning Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5467

Directing Delegates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5472

Obstacle Avoidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5475

Changing Delegate Orientation and Speed . . . . . . . . 5481

Solving the Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5481

Linking Objects to Delegates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5483

Cognitive Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5486

Using Motion Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5489

Crowd Animation User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5505

character studio File Formats and Index of character studio

Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5658

character studio File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5658

Index of character studio Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . 5659

Chapter 16 Lights and Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5671

Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5672

Name and Color Rollout (Lights) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5675

Using Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5676

Working with Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5677

Properties of Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5680

Lighting in 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5686

Guidelines for Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5688

Positioning Light Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5691

Previewing Shadows and Other Lighting in

Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5692

xxviii | Contents

Page 29

Animating Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5697

Light Include/Exclude Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5699

Light Lister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5701

Photometric Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5707

Target Light (Photometric) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5709

Free Light (Photometric) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5712

Rollouts for Photometric Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5714

Standard Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5757

Target Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5758

Free Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5761

Target Directional Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5764

Free Directional Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5767

Omni Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5769

Skylight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5771

mr Area Omni Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5777

mr Area Spotlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5780

Rollouts for Standard Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5783

Common Lighting Rollouts and Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5805

Exclude/Include Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5805

Shadow Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5808

Atmospheres and Effects for Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . 5813

Add Atmosphere or Effect Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5815

Advanced Effects Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5817

mental ray Indirect Illumination Rollout (for Lights) . . . 5821

mental ray Light Shader Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5824

Shadow Types and Shadow Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5825

Advanced Ray-Traced Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . 5828

Area Shadows Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5832

Optimizations Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5839

mental ray Shadow Map Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5842

Ray-Traced Shadow Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . 5844

Shadow Map Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5846

Sunlight and Daylight Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5852

Daylight System Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5860

IES Sun and Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5865

mental ray Sun & Sky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5874

Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5905

Free Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5915

Target Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5917

Using Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5919

Characteristics of Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5919

Exposure Control in Real-World Cameras . . . . . . . . . 5922

Common Camera Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5931

Using Transforms to Aim a Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . 5942

Using Clipping Planes to Exclude Geometry . . . . . . . 5943

Using the Horizon to Match Perspective . . . . . . . . . . 5944

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Page 30

Animating Cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5946

Multi-Pass Rendering Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5948

Depth of Field Parameter (mental ray Renderer) . . . . . . 5950

Multi-Pass Depth of Field Parameters for Cameras . . . . 5951

Multi-Pass Motion Blur Parameters for Cameras . . . . . . 5955

Walkthrough Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5960

Camera Correction Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5968

Camera Match Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5970

CamPoint Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5976

Chapter 17 Material Editor, Materials, and Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5981

Designing Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5982

Choosing a Material Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5987

Lights and Shading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5988

Applying a Material to an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5989

Using Maps to Enhance a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5990

Mapping Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6005

Showing Maps in Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6006

Animating Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6012

Creating and Playing Animated Material Previews . . . . 6013

Synchronizing an Animated Bitmap with the Scene . . . 6014

Saving a Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6015

Material XML Exporter Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6016

Material Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6019

Compact Material Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6020

Sample Slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6025

Compact Material Editor Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6034

Slate Material Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6083

Material and Map Nodes in the Active View . . . . . . . . 6086

Controller Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6128

The Parameter Editor: Changing Material and Map

Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6135

Navigating the Active View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6137

Searching the Active View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6141

Creating and Managing Named Views . . . . . . . . . . . 6142

Slate Material Editor Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6144

Slate Material Editor Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6154

Moving Materials, Maps, and Colors About the Scene . . . . . 6158

Copying and Pasting Materials, Maps, Bitmaps, and

Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6158

Dragging and Dropping Maps and Materials . . . . . . . 6161

Drag and Drop Sub-Object Material Assignment . . . . . 6165

Material/Map Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6167

Material/Map Browser Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6175

Material/Map Browser Options Menu . . . . . . . . . . . 6176

Materials, Maps, Controllers Group Options . . . . . . . 6179

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Scene Materials Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6180

Custom Library Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6181

Custom Group Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6183

Autodesk Material Library Options . . . . . . . . . . . . 6184

Sample Slots Group Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6185

Options for Individual Materials, Maps, and

Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6185

Material Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6186

Scene (Upper) Panel (Material Explorer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6189

Menu Bar (Material Explorer Scene Panel) . . . . . . . . . 6193

Toolbar (Material Explorer Scene Panel) . . . . . . . . . . 6196

Display Buttons (Material Explorer Scene Panel) . . . . . 6198

Columns (Material Explorer Scene Panel) . . . . . . . . . 6199

Material (Lower) Panel (Material Explorer) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6204

Menu Bar (Material Explorer Material Panel) . . . . . . . 6206

Columns (Material Explorer Material Panel) . . . . . . . . 6207

Types of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6210

SuperSampling Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6211

mental ray Connection Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6215

DirectX Manager Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6222

mental ray Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6224

Autodesk Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6224

Arch & Design Material (mental ray) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6269

Special-Purpose mental ray Materials . . . . . . . . . . . 6342

MetaSL Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6378

Map to Material Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6378

Standard Material and Related Materials (Not

Photometric) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6380

Shading Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6380

Standard Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6382

Raytrace Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6486

Matte/Shadow Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6522

Compound Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6529

Ink 'n Paint Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6554

Photometric Materials (Non-mental ray) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6570

Architectural Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6570

Advanced Lighting Override Material . . . . . . . . . . . 6588

Materials to Support Hardware Shading and Rendering to

Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6596

Shell Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6596

DirectX Shader Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6597

XRef Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6605

Maps and Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6607

Real-World Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6610

Output Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6613

Missing Map Coordinates Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6618

Contents | xxxi

Page 32

UVW Remove Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6621

2D Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6621

Coordinates Rollout (2D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6622

Noise Rollout (2D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6632

Autodesk Bitmap for Autodesk Materials . . . . . . . . . 6635

Bitmap 2D Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6636

Checker Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6650

Combustion Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6652

Gradient Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6673

Gradient Ramp Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6678

Swirl Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6686

Tiles Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6689

3D Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6698

Coordinates Rollout (3D) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6698

Cellular Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6699

Dent Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6706

Falloff Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6714

Marble Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6720

Noise Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6723

Particle Age Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6726

Particle MBlur Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6728

Perlin Marble Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6730

Smoke Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6733

Speckle Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6735

Splat Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6736

Stucco Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6738

Waves Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6740

Wood Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6742

Compositor Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6751

Composite Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6751

Mask Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6758

Mix Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6759

RGB Multiply Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6763

Color Modifier Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6765

Color Correction Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6766

Output Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6771

RGB Tint Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6774

Vertex Color Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6775

Reflection and Refraction Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6778

Flat Mirror Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6778

Raytrace Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6784

Reflect/Refract Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6796

Thin Wall Refraction Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6803

mental ray Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6806

mental images Shader Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6809

Shaders in the LumeTools Collection . . . . . . . . . . . 6811

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Page 33

3ds Max Custom Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6813

Production Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6842

MetaSL Shaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6858

Component Falloff Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6859

Component Reflection Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6860

Conversion Color to Float Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6860

Conversion Float to Color Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6861

Illumination Phong Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6862

Math Color Add Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6864

Math Color Mix Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6866

Math Color Multiply Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6867

Normals Bumpmap Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6868

Normals Make Normal Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6870

Texture Lookup 2d Shader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6871

Normal Bump Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6872

Camera Map Per Pixel Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6874

Material, Mapping, and Vertex Color Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6877

Viewport Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6877

Additional Viewport Canvas Rollouts . . . . . . . . . . . 6893

Assign Material Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6900

Create Texture Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6901

Viewport Canvas Brush Images Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . 6903

2D View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6904

Viewport Canvas Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6907

Render Surface Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6916

Bitmap Select Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6925

Assign Vertex Colors Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6927

Channel Info Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6936

Clean MultiMaterial Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6942

Instance Duplicate Maps Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6947

Chapter 18 Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6955

Render Setup Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6956

Rendered Frame Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6963

mental ray Rendering Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6974

Render Output File Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6979

View Image File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6985

Rendering Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6988

Render Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6989

Area to Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6992

Render Flyout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6998

Render Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6999

Render Iterative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7000

ActiveShade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7000

Rendering with ActiveShade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7001

ActiveShade Floater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7008

Contents | xxxiii

Page 34

ActiveShade Viewport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7009

ActiveShade Commands (Quad Menu) . . . . . . . . . . 7010

Preset Rendering Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7013

Render Last . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7016

Print Size Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7016

Common Panel (Render Setup Dialog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7020

Common Parameters Rollout (Render Setup Dialog) . . . . . . 7020

Configure Preset Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7029

Email Notifications Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7030

Scripts Rollout (Render Setup Dialog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7032

Assign Renderer Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7034

Choose Renderer Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7035

Renderers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7037

Renderer Panel (Render Setup Dialog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7037

Default Scanline Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7041

Default Scanline Renderer Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7042

Advanced Lighting Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7054

Raytracer Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7120

Using Multi-Pass Rendering Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . 7126

mental ray Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7129

Rendering with the mental ray Renderer . . . . . . . . . 7132

Getting Good Results with mental ray Rendering . . . . . 7134

3ds Max Materials in mental ray Renderings . . . . . . . 7137

Enhancements to Standard Features . . . . . . . . . . . . 7140

mental ray Messages Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7143

mental ray Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7144

mental ray Renderer Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7184

Quicksilver Hardware Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7258

VUE File Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7267

Rendering Elements Separately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7269

Render Elements Panel and Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7269

Render Elements Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7280

Render Element Output File Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7282

Individual Render Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7286

Blend Element Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7286

Diffuse Texture Element Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7287

Hair And Fur Render Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7288

Illuminance HDR Data Element Parameters Rollout . . . . 7288

Lighting Texture Element Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7290

Luminance HDR Data Element Parameters Rollout . . . . 7291

Matte Texture Element Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7292

mr A&D Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7293

mr Labeled Element Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . 7298

mr Shader Element Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . 7300

Object ID Element Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7303

Velocity Element Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . 7304

xxxiv | Contents

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Z Depth Element Parameters Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . 7306

Render to Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7307

Baked Texture Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7312

Target Map Slot Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7319

Creating and Using Normal Bump Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7320

Troubleshooting Normal Bump Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7322

Render to Texture Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7333

Render to Texture: General Settings Rollout . . . . . . . . 7334

Render to Texture: Objects to Bake Rollout . . . . . . . . 7336

Render to Texture: Output Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7341

Render to Texture: Baked Material Rollout . . . . . . . . . 7345

Render to Texture: Automatic Mapping Rollout . . . . . . 7347

Render to Texture: Add Texture Elements Dialog . . . . . 7349

Render to Texture: Projection Options Dialog . . . . . . . 7351

Rendering Previews and Grabbing Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7356

Create Still Image File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7356

Create Animated Sequence File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7358

View Animated Sequence File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7361

Rename Animated Sequence File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7361

Panorama Exporter Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7362

Panorama Exporter Render Setup Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7363

Panorama Exporter Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7366

Network Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7368

How Network Rendering Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7370

Basic Procedures for Network Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7372

Starting Network Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7385

Troubleshooting Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7390

System Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7395

Checking Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7395

Setting Up for Network Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7397

Setting Up TCP/IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7398

Configuring TCP/IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7400

Creating a Special User Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7407

Setting Up Rendering Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7409

Setting Up Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7409

Sharing a Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7411

Mounting a Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7412

Using Configure User Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7414

Network Job Assignment Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7415

Job Dependencies Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7424

Notifications Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7426

Strips Setup Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7428

Advanced Settings Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7431

Manager and Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7435

Initial Setup for Manager and Server Programs . . . . . . 7435

Installing Network Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7437

Contents | xxxv

Page 36

Logging Properties Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7439

The backburner.xml File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7442

Network Rendering Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7443

Network Rendering Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7449

The Queue Monitor Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7455

Module Info Report Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7466

Queue Monitor: Job Settings Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . 7468

Viewing Jobs and Servers with the Queue Monitor . . . . 7473

Job Report Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7474

Job Archives Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7475

Activating and Deactivating Jobs in the Queue . . . . . . 7477

Activating and Deactivating Servers in the Queue . . . . . 7477

Managing Jobs in the Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7478

Week Schedule Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7479

Batch Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7481

Quick Start Batch Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7482

Using Backburner for Batch Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7483

Batch Rendering: Batch Render Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7485

Batch Render Tool: Batch Render Warning Dialog . . . . . . . . 7493

Command-Line Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7495

Command-Line Rendering Switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7499

Backburner Command Line Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7511

Chapter 19 Effects and Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7513

Environment and Effects Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7514

Rendering Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7515

Rendering Effects Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7516

Effects Panel and Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7517

Merging Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7519

Hair And Fur Render Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7520

Lens Effects Rendering Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7526

Glow Lens Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7531

Ring Lens Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7538

Ray Lens Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7548

Auto Secondary Lens Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7555

Manual Secondary Lens Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7563

Star Lens Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7570

Streak Lens Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7577

Lens Effects Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7584

Blur Rendering Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7598

Brightness and Contrast Rendering Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . 7607

Color Balance Rendering Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7609

File Output Rendering Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7610

Film Grain Rendering Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7613

Motion Blur Rendering Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7615

Depth of Field Rendering Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7617

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Environment and Atmosphere Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7620

Environment Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7621

Fire Environment Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7629

Fog Environment Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7640

Volume Fog Environment Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7646

Volume Light Environment Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7654

Exposure Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7665

Automatic Exposure Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7668

Linear Exposure Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7670

Logarithmic Exposure Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7673

mr Photographic Exposure Control . . . . . . . . . . . . 7677

Pseudo Color Exposure Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7686

Lighting Data Exporter Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7692

Atmospheric Apparatuses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7694

Add Atmosphere Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7694

BoxGizmo Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7695

CylGizmo Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7699

SphereGizmo Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7702

Chapter 20 Video Post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7707

Video Post Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7708

Video Post Status Bar / View Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7710

Troubleshooting Video Post . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7712

Useful Video Post Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7715

Video Post Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7731

New Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7731

Open Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7732

Save Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7733

Edit Current Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7734

Delete Current Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7735

Swap Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7735

Execute Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7736

Configure Presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7739

Edit Range Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7739

Align Selected Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7741

Align Selected Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7741

Make Selected Same Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7742

Abut Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7742

Add Scene Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7743

Add Image Input Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7748

Image Input Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7752

Add Image Filter Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7755

Add Image Layer Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7758

Add Image Output Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7762

Add External Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7765

Add Loop Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7768

Contents | xxxvii

Page 38

Filter Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7771

Contrast Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7771

Fade Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7772

Image Alpha Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7773

Lens Effects Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7774

Animating Lens Effects Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7775

Lens Effects Flare Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7777

Lens Effects Focus Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7801

Lens Effects Glow Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7804

Lens Effects Highlight Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7815

Lens Effects Gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7829

Negative Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7837

Pseudo Alpha Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7839

Simple Wipe Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7839

Starfield Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7841

Layer Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7844

Alpha Compositor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7845

Cross Fade Compositor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7845

Pseudo Alpha Compositor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7846

Simple Additive Compositor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7847

Simple Wipe Compositor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7848

Chapter 21 Managing Scenes and Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7851

Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7855

Container Workflows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7857

Working With Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7875

Container Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7885

Locking and Unlocking Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7897

Container Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7905

Groups and Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7909

Using Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7909

Using Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7912

Character Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7920

Group Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7924

Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7924

Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7926

Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7926

Ungroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7927

Explode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7928

Detach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7928

Attach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7929

Assembly Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7929

Assemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7929

Open Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7933

Close Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7934

Disassemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7934

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Explode Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7935

Detach Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7935

Attach Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7936

Assembly Head Helper Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7936

Assembly Head Helper Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7936

Luminaire Helper Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7937

Character Assembly Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7939

Create Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7940

Destroy Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7944

Lock/Unlock Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7944

Insert Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7945

Save Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7945

Skin Pose Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7946

File-Handling Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7947

New . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7947

Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7949

Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7950

Open from Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7953

Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7955

Save As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7956

Save As Previous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7958

Save Copy As . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7963

Save Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7965

Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7967

Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7968

External References (XRefs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7969

XRef Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7971

XRef Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7999

Missing XRef Paths Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8013

File Link Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8014

File Link Manager Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8016

File Link Settings: FBX Files Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8024

File Link Settings: DWG Files Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . 8028

New Settings Preset Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8097

Rename Settings Preset Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8099

Preset Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8100

Merge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8101

Merge File Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8105

Replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8106

Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8109

Export Selected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8111

Set Project Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8112

Asset Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8114

Asset Tracking Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8115

Global Settings and Defaults for Bitmap Proxies

Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8130

Contents | xxxix

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Prompts Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8133

Asset Tracking Dialog Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8135

Summary Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8137

File Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8138

Exit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8141

Missing External Files and Missing Map Files Dialogs . . . . . . 8141

File-Handling Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8143

Asset Browser Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8143

Preferences Dialog (Asset Browser) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8154

Internet Download Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8155

Favorite Location Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8157

Bitmap/Photometric Path Editor Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8158

Bitmap / Photometric Path Editor Dialog . . . . . . . . . 8159

Resource Information Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8161

MAX File Finder Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8162

Resource Collector Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8165

Fix Ambient Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8167

Bitmap Pager Statistics Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8170

Internet Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8171

i-drop Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8172

Geometry File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8173

Importing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8173

Working with MAX Files from Autodesk VIZ . . . . . . . . . . 8174

VIZ Render (DRF) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8178

Working with DRF Files in 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . 8181

3D Studio Mesh (3DS, PRJ) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8183

Importing 3DS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8183

Importing PRJ Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8185

Exporting to 3DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8187

Importing SHP Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8188

Adobe Illustrator Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8189

Importing Adobe Illustrator 88 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 8190

Exporting to Adobe Illustrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8190

Exporting to ASCII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8191

AutoCAD (DWG) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8194

Importing AutoCAD Drawing Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 8194

DWG/DXF Import: Geometry Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . 8199

DWG/DXF Import: Layers Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8209

DWG/DXF Import: Spline Rendering Panel . . . . . . . . 8211

Legacy AutoCAD Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8214

Exporting AutoCAD DWG Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8219

AutoCAD Interchange (DXF) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8222

Importing DXF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8222

Exporting to DXF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8223

Importing Autodesk Inventor Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8224

Exporting 3D DWF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8229

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FBX Files: Data Sharing with Maya, MotionBuilder, Revit,

Softimage, and Toxik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8235

OpenFlight (FLT) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8236

Importing OpenFlight (FLT) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8241

Exporting OpenFlight (FLT) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8243

Flight Studio Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8246

IGES Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8257

Overview of IGES in 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8257

IGES Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8259

Importing IGES Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8260

IGES to 3ds Max Import Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8262

Exporting IGES Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8264

3ds Max to IGES Export Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8266

JSR-184 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8267

JSR-184 Object Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8271

JSR-184 Texture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8276

JSR-184 Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8277

JSR-184 Standalone Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8279

LandXML (XML, DEM) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8282

Importing LandXML/DEM Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8282

LandXML/DEM Model Import Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . 8283

Lightscape Files (LP, LS, and Other Formats) . . . . . . . . . . . 8286

Lightscape Materials Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8289

Motion Analysis Files (HTR/HTR2, TRC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8291

Importing HTR/HTR2 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8292

Importing TRC Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8294

Exporting HTR/HTR2 Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8296

Exporting to Shockwave 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8299

Shockwave 3D Scene Export Options Dialog . . . . . . . 8300

Shockwave 3D Export Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8307

Shockwave 3D File Analysis Window . . . . . . . . . . . 8309

SAT Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8311

Body Objects Category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8315

Body Object Rollouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8316

Combining Body Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8347

Import/Export/Snaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8352

SketchUp Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8357

Stereolithography (STL) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8361

Importing STL Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8361

Exporting to STL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8364

Wavefront (OBJ) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8365

Exporting Wavefront Object (OBJ) Files . . . . . . . . . . 8366

Importing Wavefront Object (OBJ) Files . . . . . . . . . . 8369

Map-Export Dialog (OBJ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8376

VRML Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8378

Importing VRML Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8378

Contents | xli

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Exporting to VRML97 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8380

Image File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8411

AVI Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8412

BMP Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8414

CIN (Kodak Cineon) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8414

CWS (Combustion Workspace) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8415

DDS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8416

EPS and PS (Encapsulated PostScript) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . 8418

GIF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8420

IFL Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8420

Image File List Control Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8423

IFL Manager Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8424

IMSQ Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8426

JPEG Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8427

MOV (QuickTime Movie) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8428

MPEG Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8429

OpenEXR Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8429

Saving OpenEXR Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8431

Opening OpenEXR Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8439

PIC Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8442

PNG Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8443

PSD Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8444

Radiance Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8448

RLA Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8453

RPF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8455

SGI Image Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8458

TGA (Targa) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8459

TIFF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8461

YUV Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8463

RAM Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8463

RAM Player Configuration Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8467

Scene Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8469

Using Scene Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8471

Scene Explorer Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8476

Scene Explorer Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8481

Scene Explorer Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8485

Manage Scene Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8488

Advanced Search Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8490

Advanced Filter Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8492

Scene States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8495

Manage Scene States Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8498

Schematic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8503

Using Schematic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8507

Schematic View Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8511

Schematic View List Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8515

Schematic View Preferences Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8517

xlii | Contents

Page 43

Schematic View Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8523

Schematic View Display Floater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8527

Schematic View Selection Right-Click Menu . . . . . . . . . . . 8529

Schematic View Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8533

New Schematic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8533

Delete Schematic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8533

Saved Schematic Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8533

Using Layers to Organize a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8534

Manage Layers Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8537

Layer Properties Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8548

Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8555

Create New Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8557

Add Selection to Current Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8558

Select Objects in Current Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8558

Set Current Layer to Selection's Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8558

Chapter 22 Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8559

List of Available Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8559

Chapter 23 User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8563

The 3ds Max Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8564

Special Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8567

Additional Keyboard Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8572

Toggling Dialogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8574

Starting 3ds Max from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8575

Caption Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8578

Application Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8579

Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8585

InfoCenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8587

Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8588

Edit Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8589

Tools Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8591

Containers Submenu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8593

Align Submenu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8593

Grids and Snaps Submenu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8594

Group Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8595

Views Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8596

Create Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8598

Modifiers Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8606

Animation Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8612

Graph Editors Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8616

Rendering Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8617

Customize Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8618

MAXScript Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8620

Help Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8621

Contents | xliii

Page 44

Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8623

Main Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8623

Axis Constraints Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8627

Layers Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8628

reactor Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8630

Extras Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8630

Render Shortcuts Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8631

Snaps Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8632

Animation Layers Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8632

Container Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8633

Brush Presets Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8633

Brush Preset Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8636

Right-Click Menu for Scripted Toolbar Buttons . . . . . . . . . 8640

Quad Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8640

Additional Quad Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8645

Animation Quad Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8646

Snaps Shortcut Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8650

Tools 1 Quadrant for Light Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8651

Status Bar Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8652

Prompt Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8653

MAXScript Mini Listener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8653

Status Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8655

Time Slider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8656

Track Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8659

Selection Lock Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8667

Coordinate Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8669

Adaptive Degradation Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8671

Grid Setting Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8671

Time Tag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8672

Add Time Tag Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8673

Edit Time Tag Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8674

Animation and Time Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8677

Auto Key Animation Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8679

Set Key Animation Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8682

Default In/Out Tangents For New Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8687

Go To Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8690

Previous Frame/Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8690

Play/Stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8691

Next Frame/Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8693

Go To End . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8694

Current Frame (Go To Frame) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8694

Key Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8694

Time Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8696

Viewport Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8703

Viewport Label Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8707

General Viewport Label Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8707

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Point-Of-View (POV) Viewport Label Menu . . . . . . . . 8712

Shading Viewport Label Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8719

Viewport Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8723

Controls Available in All Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . 8726

Walkthrough Controls for Perspective and Camera

Viewports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8728

Perspective and Orthographic Viewport Controls . . . . . 8729

Camera Viewport Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8742

Light Viewport Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8753

Command Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8770

Object Name and Wireframe Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8771

Create Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8771

Modify Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8773

Modifier Stack Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8776

Modifier Stack Right-Click Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8789

Make Unique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8794

Modifier Sets Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8797

Configure Modifier Sets Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8798

Hierarchy Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8801

Motion Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8802

Assign Controller Rollout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8803

Display Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8805

Display Floater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8805

Utilities Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8810

Utilities Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8812

Configure Button Sets Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8813

MAXScript Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8816

New Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8816

Open Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8817

Run Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8817

MAXScript Listener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8817

Macro Recorder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8819

Visual MAXScript Utility (See MAXScript Help) . . . . . . . . . 8820

MAXScript Debugger Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8820

Running Scripts from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 8820

Chapter 24 Customizing the User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8823

Useful Customization Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8823

Customize Display Right-Click Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8827

Show UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8829

Lock UI Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8830

Plug-In Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8830

Custom UI and Defaults Switcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8832

Market-Specific Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8834

COM/DCOM Server Control Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8836

Customize User Interface Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8837

Contents | xlv

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Keyboard Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8837

Toolbars Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8840

Edit Button Appearance Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8846

Quads Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8847

Advanced Quad Menu Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8852

Menus Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8857

Colors Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8860

Saving and Loading Custom User Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8864

Load Custom UI Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8867

Save Custom UI Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8868

Revert to Startup Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8871

Configure Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8871

Configure User Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8872

File I/O Path Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8875

External Path Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8877

XRefs Path Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8880

Configure System Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8881

System Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8882

3rd Party Plug-Ins Path Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . 8884

Network Plug-In Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8885

Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8886

General Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8887

File Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8892

Viewport Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8896

Graphics Driver Setup Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8901

Gamma and LUT Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8917

Gamma Pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8927

Rendering Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8929

Animation Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8933

MIDI Time Slider Control Setup Dialog . . . . . . . . . . 8937

Inverse Kinematics Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8939

Gizmos Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8941

MAXScript Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8945

Radiosity Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8948

mental ray Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8950

Containers Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8953

Units Setup Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8955

System Unit Setup Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8959

File Load: Units Mismatch Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8961

Viewport Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8963

Rendering Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8963

Viewport Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8968

Safe Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8969

Adaptive Degradation Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8972

Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8976

Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8978

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Lighting and Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8980

ViewCube . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8988

SteeringWheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8990

Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8993

Defining Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8996

Reviewing and Editing Strokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9000

Stroke Preferences Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9002

Strokes Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9005

Chapter 25 Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9007

Keyboard Shortcut Override Toggle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9008

Chapter 26 Find the Information You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9009

Search For and Receive Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9009

Overview of Searching for and Receiving Information . . . . . 9009

Search for Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9013

Receive Product Updates and Announcements . . . . . . . . . 9015

Overview of Communication Center . . . . . . . . . . . 9015

Receive New Information Notifications . . . . . . . . . . 9016

Save and Access Favorite Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9017

Specify InfoCenter Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9018

Learn the Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9023

Access Subscription Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9025

Overview of Subscription Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9025

Manage Files with Autodesk Vault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9026

Join the Customer Involvement Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9027

Chapter 27 Using the 3ds Max Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9029

Finding Information Fast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9030

Using the HTML Help Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9031

Searching for Help Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9034

Browsing Help Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9038

Favorites Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9039

HTML Help Viewer Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9040

HTML Help Viewer Right-Click Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9041

Keyboard Shortcuts in the Help Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9042

Chapter 28 Troubleshooting 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9045

Handling File Corruptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9045

Fixing Boolean Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9049

Performance Issues While Running 3ds Max . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9059

Problems Caused by Unit Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9063

User Interface Problems and Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9064

Video Driver and Display Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9072

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Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9079

2-Sided (Double Sided) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9079

2D Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9080

3D DWF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9080

3D Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9080

3DS and PRJ Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9080

Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9081

Active Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9081

Active Time Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9082

Active/Inactive Footsteps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9082

ActiveShade Initialize and Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9083

Adapt Locks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9083

Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9084

Adaptive Degradation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9084

Additive Opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9085

Adjust Talent Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9086

Affine Transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9086

Airborne Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9087

Aliasing/Antialiasing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9087

Alpha Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9088

Ambient Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9089

Ambient Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9089

Animated Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9090

Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9090

Animation Controllers / Transform Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . 9091

Animation Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9092

Applied IK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9092

Area Lights (mental ray Renderer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9092

Area Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9095

Aspect Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9096

Asset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9098

Attachments (IK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9098

Attenuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9098

Autodesk Material Library for mental ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9099

AutoGrid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9100

Avoid Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9100

Avoidance Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9100

Axonometric View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9100

B-Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9101

Balance Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9101

Balance Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9102

Ballistic Gait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9102

Ballistic Tension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9102

Barycentric Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9102

Behaviors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9103

Bend Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9103

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Bezier Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9104

BioVision Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9105

BIP Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9105

Biped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9106

Biped Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9106

Birth Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9106

Bitmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9108

Blend Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9109

Block Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9109

Block/Style Parent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9110

Blur / Blur Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9110

Body Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9111

Boolean Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9111

Bound Vertex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9113

Bounding Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9113

Bulge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9114

Bulge Angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9114

BVH Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9114

By Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9114

Center of Mass (COM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9115

CGFX File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9115

Chamfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9115

character studio Marker Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9116

CIBSE Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9116

Clip Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9117

Clipping Planes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9117

Codec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9118

Cognitive Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9118

Composite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9118

Compound Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9119

Constrained Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9120

Contact Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9120

Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9121

Containers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9122

Continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9122

Continuity Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9122

Control Lattice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9123

Control Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9124

Control Vertex (CV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9124

Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9125

Convex Hull Property . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9125

Cool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9126

Coordinate Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9126

CPY Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9127

Creation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9127

Cross Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9127

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Crowd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9127

Crowd System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9128

CSM Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9128

Curve View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9128

CV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9128

CV Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9129

CV Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9130

Deformable Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9131

Deformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9132

Deformation Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9132

Degree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9134

Delegates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9134

Dependent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9134

Dependent (NURBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9134

Depot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9135

Description Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9135

Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9136

Diffuse Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9137

Dithering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9138

Dock and Float . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9139

Double Support Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9139

Dummy Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9139

DWG Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9140

DXF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9140

Dynaflector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9141

Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9141

Dynamics Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9141

Ease Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9142

Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9143

Editable Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9143

Editable Poly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9143

Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9143

Emitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9144

End Effector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9144

Envelopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9145

Environment Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9145

Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9148

Event Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9150

Event Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9151

Extents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9151

Face/Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9151

Faceted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9152

FFD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9153

FGM File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9153

Field of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9153

Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9154

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Figure Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9156

Fillet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9156

Filter Color / Filter Opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9157

Filtering (Antialiasing) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9158

Filtering (Character Animation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9159

Final Gathering (mental ray Renderer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9160

First Vertex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9162

Flat Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9163

Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9165

Fluorescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9165

Flyout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9166

Follow Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9167

Foot States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9167

Footstep Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9168

Footsteps Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9168

Forward Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9169

Forward Kinematics (Bipeds) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9169

Frame/Frame Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9169

Freeform Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9170

Freeform Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9170

Freeze/Unfreeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9171

Function Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9172

Fusing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9172

FX File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9172

G-Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9173

Gait Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9174

Gait Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9175

Gamma Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9175

Geometric Primitives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9177

Gizmo/Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9177

Global Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9178

Global Motion Clip Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9180

Glossiness and Specular Level Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9180

GravAccel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9181

Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9181

Grid Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9181

Head Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9182

Helper Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9183

Hide/Unhide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9183

Hierarchical Linkage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9183

Home Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9184

Horizon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9185

Hot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9186

Hotspot/Falloff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9187

IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification) . . . . . . . . . . . . 9188

IK Blend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9189

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IK Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9189

IK Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9190

Illuminance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9190

Image Motion Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9190

In Place Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9192

Independent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9193

Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9193

Initial Pose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9193

Initialize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9193

Inputs: Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9194

Instance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9195

Instance (Motion Mixer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9195

Interactive Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9196

Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9196

Inverse Kinematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9196

Inverse Kinematics (Biped) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9197

Iso Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9197

Isometric View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9198

Keyframe Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9199

Keyframes/Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9200

Kinematic Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9200

Knot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9201

Launch Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9201

Layer Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9201

Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9201

Layout Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9202

Lift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9202

Light Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9202

Linked Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9204

Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9204

Listener Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9204

Local Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9204

Local Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9205

Local Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9207

Lofting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9207

Log File (mental ray Renderer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9208

Look At Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9208

LTLI Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9209

Luminance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9209

Luminous Flux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9209

Luminous Intensity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9209

LZF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9209

LZG Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9210

LZH Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9210

LZO Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9210

LZV Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9210

lii | Contents

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Map Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9210

Mapped Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9212

Mapping Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9212

Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9215

Marker Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9215

Marker Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9216

Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9216

Master Motion Clip Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9216

Match Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9216

Material ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9217

Material/Map Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9218

Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9219

Matte Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9220

MAX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9222

MAXScript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9222

Mesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9222

Metaballs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9222

MFE Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9223

MI Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9223

Mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9223

Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9223

MIX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9223

Mixdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9224

MNM Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9224

Modal/Modeless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9224

Modifier Stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9225

Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9226

Morphing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9227

Motion Blending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9228

Motion Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9228

Motion Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9230

Motion Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9230

Motion Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9230

Motion Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9231

Motion Flow Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9231

Motion Flow Scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9231

Motion Mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9231

Motion Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9232

MSP (MAXScript Package) Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9233

Multiplicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9233

Multiplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9233

Multiplier Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9235

N Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9235

Network Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9235

Network Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9236

Network Rendering Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9237

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Newton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9237

Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9237

Normal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9237

NTSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9238

NURBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9239

NURBS Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9239

NURBS Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9239

NURBS Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9240

NURMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9240

Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9240

Object Instance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9241

Object Motion Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9242

Object Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9243

Object Space (Biped) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9244

Obstacle-Avoidance Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9244

Object-Space Modifiers (OSM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9244

Omnidirectional Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9245

Omniflector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9246

Opacity Falloff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9246

Operand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9248

Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9248

Operator Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9248

Optical Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9249

Orientation Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9250

Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9250

Orthographic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9251

Out-of-Range Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9253

Outputs: Source / Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9254

Overshoot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9255

PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9257

Parameter Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9257

Parameters Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9257

Parameter/Parametric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9258

Parent Particle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9259

Particle Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9260

Particle Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9261

Particle System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9261

Particle System (Particle Flow) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9261

PASS File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9261

Patch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9262

Patch-Based Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9262

Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9262

Path Follow Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9264

Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9264

Perspective View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9264

Phases of Leg Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9266

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Photometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9266

Photon Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9267

PHY Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9268

Physique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9268

Pivot Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9269

Pixel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9270

Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9270

Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9270

PMAP File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9270

Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9270

Point Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9271

Point Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9272

Poses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9272

Positional Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9272

Posture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9273

Precedence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9273

Premultiplied Alpha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9273

Procedural Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9274

Projector Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9276

Prop Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9277

Quadtree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9277

Queue Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9278

Radiosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9278

Radiosity Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9278

Ray-Trace Acceleration (mental ray Renderer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9278

Ray-Traced Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9279

RAYHOSTS File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9279

Real Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9280

Recognize Scene-Loading Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9280

Red, Green, Blue / Hue, Saturation, Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9280

Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9282

Reference Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9282

Refine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9282

Reinitialize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9283

Repel Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9283

Reservoir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9283

Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9283

Reveal Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9284

Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9284

Rotoscoping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9284

Rubber-Band Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9285

RVT Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9285

Safe Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9285

Sample Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9287

Sampling (mental ray Renderer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9288

Scale Stride . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9292

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Scanline Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9292

Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9292

Scene Extents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9293

Scene Motion Blur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9293

Scene Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9295

Schematic View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9297

Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9297

Script Editor Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9298

Scripted Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9298

Scripted Utility Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9298

Scripts (Motion Flow) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9298

Scripting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9298

Seed Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9299

Seek Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9299

Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9299

Self-Illumination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9300

Shaders (mental ray Renderer) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9302

Shaders (Standard Materials) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9302

Shadow Bias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9304

Shadow Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9305

Shapes and Splines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9306

SHP Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9309

Skylight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9309

Sliding Footstep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9310

Smoothing Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9310

SMPTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9311

Source Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9311

Space Warp Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9312

Space Warps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9312

Spawn Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9313

Specular Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9313

Speed Vary Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9314

Splice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9314

Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9315

Spline Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9315

Startup Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9316

SteeringWheels Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9317

Sub-Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9317

Sub-Object Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9319

Subtractive Opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9320

Sunlight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9321

Super Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9322

Supersampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9322

Support Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9322

Surface Arrive Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9323

Surface Follow Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9323

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Synthesis, Synthesize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9323

Talent Figure Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9323

Tangents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9323

TCB (Biped) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9324

TCB (Tension, Continuity, Bias) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9324

Tendons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9325

Tension, Continuity, Bias (Biped) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9325

Terrain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9326

Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9327

Texel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9327

Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9327

Ticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9328

Tile/Mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9328

Topology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9329

Topology-Dependent Modifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9330

Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9330

Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9330

Track View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9332

Trackgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9332

Trajectory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9332

Trajectory (Biped) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9334

Transform Gizmo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9334

Transforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9336

Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9336

Transition Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9337

Translucency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9337

Truecolor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9338

Twist Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9338

Unique Container . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9338

Universal Naming Convention (UNC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9339

UVW Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9340

Vector Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9341

Vector Field Space Warp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9341

Vectors and Vector Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9341

Velocity Interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9343

Vertex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9343

ViewCube Navigation System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9343

Viewport (Interactive) Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9343

VIZBlock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9344

VPX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9344

VUE File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9344

Walking Gait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9347

Walkthrough Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9347

Wall Repel Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9348

Wall Seek Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9348

Wander Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9348

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Weight Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9348

Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9349

Wireframe Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9350

Wireframe Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9351

Workbench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9352

Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9353

World Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9353

World Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9354

World Space (Biped) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9355

World-Space Modifiers (WSM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9355

xref (AutoCAD External Reference) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9355

XRef (3ds Max externally referenced file) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9356

XMSL File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9356

ZT File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9356

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9357

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Introduction

Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 is a 3D modeling, animation, and rendering solution for design visualization, games, film, and television.

Old Metal Train

Vincent Dany

dany20cent@skynet.be

http://ermite.net/

Page 60

Home Remodeling Series: Plumbing

Tim Wilbers, University of Dayton

2 | Chapter 1 Introduction

Page 61

Big Diamonds

Jeff Patton

www.jeffpatton.net

What's New in Autodesk 3ds Max 2011

Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 offers compelling new techniques for creating and texturing models, animating characters, and producing high-quality images. Incorporating tools that accelerate everyday workflows, Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 software helps significantly increase productivity for both individuals and collaborating teams working on games, visual effects, and television productions. Artists can focus on creativity, and have the freedom to iteratively

What's New in Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 | 3

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refine their work to maximize the quality of their final output in the least amount of time.

NOTE This topic lists all significant new features, but does not include every change in 3ds Max. As you proceed through the documentation, keep an eye out for the

icon, which indicates a new feature.

You can also use the index in this help to find topics that contain information about new features. For topics that describe new program features, check the index entry "new feature." For changes in existing features, check the index entry "changed feature."

Following are lists (high-level, then detailed) of major new features with brief descriptions and links to the relevant reference topic:

■ New Quicksilver hardware rendering on page 10

■ New local edits to containers on page 7

■ New Viewport Canvas features on page 10

■ New 3ds Max Composite on page 6

■ New Slate Material Editor on page 9

■ Enhanced viewport material display on page 9

■ Simplified material/map browsing on page 9

■ New CAT character-animation toolset on page 10

■ New FBX File Link for Revit files on page 8

■ Better Inventor importing on page 8

■ SAT Import/Export and solid-model support on page 8

■ New Caddy interface on page 7

■ New ribbon customization on page 7

■ New Autodesk Materials library and workflow on page 9

■ New Save to 3ds Max 2010 on page 8

■ New mental ray 2011 on page 11

■ SketchUp file support on page 8

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■ Improved OpenEXR support on page 8

■ Enhanced SGI file support on page 9

■ New and changed online resources on page 5

■ Improved interactive selection on page 7

■ Better snapping on page 7

■ Bitmap pager changes on page 10

■ Animation-preview changes on page 10

■ Windows 7 Support on page 6

Online Resources

The following Web-based resources have changed or are new:

■ All tutorials and associated files are available online only, here:

http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-tutorials-v2011

■ An HTML version of the help is available here:

http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-help-v2011

■ Access the Student Community at Help menu ➤ 3ds Max on the Web

➤ Student Community

■ Access the new Vegetation Library, a downloadable collection of free

vegetation scene files, at Help menu ➤ 3ds Max on the Web ➤ Download Vegetation Library. This launches the Autodesk Seek page in your default Web browser.

TIP To get a plant model and all associated files, including variations and maps, click the ZIP icon for the plant and then download the 3ds Max version of the Zip file.

What's New in Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 | 5

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General Improvements

3ds Max Composite

You can install the 32- or 64-bit version of 3ds Max Composite to use with Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 from the Tools and Utilities section of the installer. 3ds Max Composite includes:

■ Raster and Vector Paint

■ Image Processing

■ Color Correction

■ Keying and Rotoscoping

■ Stereoscopic Production Support

■ Motion Blur

■ Advanced 2D Tracking

■ Camera Mapping

■ Depth of Field

■ Node and Layer-based Compositing Options

■ Spline-Based Warping

■ Enhanced Render Passes

■ Data Managing and Collaborating

Refer to the Installation Guide for complete details on specifications for this release (Click Documentation in the bottom-left corner of the Installer).

Windows 7 Support

Windows® 7 is a supported OS for Autodesk 3ds Max 2011. Refer to the Installation Guide for complete details on specifications for this release (Click Documentation in the bottom-left corner of the Installer).

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Modeling

Modeling Ribbon

The modeling ribbon boasts a new Object Paint on page 2144 toolset, a significant new customization utility on page 2163, and a number of refinements that streamline modeling workflow. These include:

■ A command to switch the ribbon between horizontal and vertical

orientation is available from the ribbon right-click menu.

■ You can now minimize the ribbon to panel buttons, each of which includes

a descriptive icon.

■ A number of ribbon tooltips include new ToolClips: short videos that show

how to use the tool.

Caddy Settings Controls

Most editable poly settings now use the caddy on page 2338, a new “in-canvas” interface that comprises a label and a set of buttons superimposed on the viewport. The caddy replaces the old settings dialogs, leaving a greater portion of the model visible and accessible.

Control-key Behavior

In versions of 3ds Max prior to Autodesk 3ds Max 2011, holding down the Ctrl toggled an object’s selection state. That is no longer the case. To add an object to a selection, use Ctrl. To remove an object from a selection, use Alt. See Basics of Selecting Objects on page 155.

Snap Improvements for the Move Tool

A new snap handle located at the axis center gives you more accurate control over snapping when you move an object, with better visual feedback. See Snap

Handle When Moving an Object on page 2834 for details.

Scene and Project Management

Container Expansion

The Container feature has been significantly expanded with new rules and locking tools, proxy containers, and more. For details, see What’s New in

Containers on page 7857.

What's New in Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 | 7

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File Link for Revit FBX Files

With the File Link Manager on page 8014, you can now link FBX files exported from Revit 2009 and Revit 2010. File Link lets you create high-quality renderings in 3ds Max while maintaining a single design database in another application such as Revit, AutoCAD, or AutoCAD Architecture.

For details about how to link Revit FBX files, see File Link Settings: FBX Files

Dialog on page 8024.

Save As Previous Feature

The Save As Previous on page 7958 feature allows you to save Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 scenes as 3ds Max 2010 scenes. You can also save Container (MAXC) files in 3ds Max 2010 format.

Not all features supported in Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 are supported in 3ds Max 2010. See Save As Previous on page 7958 for details.

Improved Inventor File Support

You can now import Autodesk Inventor files (IAM and IPT) without needing to have Inventor installed, and you can keep the data in ACIS-solids format by importing as Body Objects. See Importing Autodesk Inventor Files on page

8224.

SAT File Import and Export

Import and export solid models in the SAT format supported by Autodesk Inventor and Revit as well as applications from other vendors. Imported geometry takes the form of Body Objects, which you can modify and render just like standard objects; you can even combine Body Objects with 3D Boolean operations. You can also convert standard objects to Body Objects and export them as ACIS solids. See SAT Files on page 8311.

SketchUp File Import

You can now import 3D data in the Google SketchUp format (SKP), including cameras and materials. Imported objects take the form of editable polys. See

SketchUp Importer on page 8357.

Improved OpenEXR Support

The OpenEXR plug-in on page 8429 from previous releases has been replaced by a plug-in that offers improved performance and feature support.

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The improvements include:

■ Better performance

■ Unlimited number of layers in one EXR file

■ Ability to save Render Elements

■ Ability to save G-buffer data

■ Available to MAXScript applications

Improved Support for SGI Image Files

The SGI Image File plug-in on page 8458 has been updated to support all formats. It now includes an option to turn off Compression when you save an SGI Image File. The new plug-in is compatible with SGI Image files used by OpenFlight (FLT) files, and the option to use a special RGB file loader has been removed from the Flight Studio utility on page 8246.

Materials and Mapping

Slate Material Editor

The Slate Material Editor on page 6083 is an alternative Material Editor that provides a visual, node-based interface for creating and editing materials with complex networks of maps and shaders. It includes aids for managing the large numbers of materials required by today’s productions.

MetaSL Shaders

Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 provides a number of MetaSL shaders on page 6858 you can use in the Slate Material Editor to create shader trees. In addition, with the Map To Material Conversion material node on page 6378 MetaSL shader trees can be visible in viewports and renderings.

Material/Map Browser

The Material/Map Browser on page 6167 has been redesigned to feature a simpler and more accessible interface that is also an integral part of the Slate Material Editor.

Autodesk Materials and the Autodesk Material Library

Autodesk Materials on page 6224 replace ProMaterials, using a new interface

that allows you to share materials with models from AutoCAD, Autodesk Revit,

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and Autodesk Inventor. (Scenes from earrlier 3ds Max versions that use ProMaterials continue to render in Autodesk 3ds Max 2011.)

In addition, the Autodesk Materials form the basis for the Autodesk Material Library, which provides 700 ready-made materials you can use in your scenes.

Viewport Canvas Expansion

Viewport Canvas on page 6877 has been significantly enhanced and improved

to the point that it is, in effect, an entirely new feature. For example, you can now paint directly onto any 3D object with any map in any material. And new painting tools include Blur, Sharpen, Dodge, and Burn. But perhaps most important, you can now paint in multiple layers that can interact with one another the same way as in Adobe Photoshop.

Rendering

Quicksilver Hardware Renderer

The Quicksilver Hardware renderer on page 7258 is an extremely fast renderer that uses your system’s graphics hardware (GPU) to produce high-quality images.

Bitmap Pager Changes

In Autodesk 3ds Max 2011, you can disable or enable bitmap paging from the

Asset Tracking dialog on page 8115 ➤ Bitmap Performance And Memory menu,

or the Global Settings And Defaults For Bitmap Proxies dialog on page 8130.

Preview Animations

“Preview” has been renamed “Animated Sequence File,” and the commands for preview animations are now grouped with Create Still Image File on page 7356 in the Grab Viewport Group on the Tools menu on page 8591. See Create

Animated Sequence File on page 7358.

Character-Animation Improvements

CAT

CAT provides a complete toolset ideally suited for rigging and animating multi-legged characters as well as humanoids. It includes numerous built-in rigs such as a dragon with four legs and two wings, a spider, and a centipede with 18 legs. These can easily be animated along paths with no foot sliding using the graph-based CATMotion editor. CAT’s easy-to-use layering system supports color-coding of layers so you can see which layer is contributing to

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the motion at any given moment. See CAT on page 4504, and for a comparison of CAT and character studio, see Character Animation on page 4503.

mental ray Improvements

mental ray 2011

mental ray 2011 is supported with 3ds Max. For further information about mental ray 2011, view the help file from Help > Additional Help.

3ds Max Documentation Set

The documentation set for 3ds Max® comprises online material only. Most documents are available from the Start menu > Programs > Autodesk > [program folder] > Help folder, as well as from the Help menu within 3ds Max or the Additional Help dialog.

■ Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 Installation

Guide: Contains complete installation, configuration, and troubleshooting instructions, including system requirements. Also includes information on uninstalling and maintaining 3ds Max, as well as descriptions of the full install documentation set. Also find information about network deployment in this guide. View the Installation Guide in the Installation Wizard.

NOTE The complete installation documentation set is found on your install DVD in the \en-US\Docs folder at the root of the DVD.

■ Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 Readme (3ds_Max_Readme.htm): Contains the

latest information about 3ds Max. This file is displayed when you finish installing 3ds Max.

■ Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 Help: This document covers fundamental concepts

and strategies for using the product, as well as details about the features of 3ds Max. Access the reference by choosing Help > Autodesk 3ds Max Help.

■ Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 Tutorials: Contains tutorial information and

detailed procedures to walk you through increasingly complex operations. This is the best source for learning 3ds Max. Access the tutorials by choosing Help > Tutorials.

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NOTE Note that these tutorials reside on the web so an internet connection is required. To access the tutorial scene files, go to

http://www.autodesk.com/3dsmax-tutorials-scene-files-v2011.

■ MAXScript Help: Describes the MAXScript scripting language on page 14.

Check out the “Learning MAXScript” chapter there if you're new to MAXScript. Access the MAXScript Help by choosing Help > MAXScript Help.

■ Additional mental ray

Help Files: Documentation from mental images

is available from Help menu > Additional Help. There, you'll find the mental ray Reference, comprising the mental ray Manual, mental ray Shader Reference,

and LumeTools Collection. You’ll also find PDF files documentating various mental ray shader libraries.

NOTE The Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 Help documents most mental ray components available in the 3ds Max user interface. This includes documentation for lights for mental ray and specific shadow types, controls for adding mental ray shaders to lights and cameras, mental ray materials, custom shaders for 3ds Max, and the mental ray renderer controls.

■ Additional Backburner Files: Procedures for using Backburner from inside

3ds Max are documented in this Autodesk 3ds Max Help File. For further information on using and configuring Backburner, refer to the additional Backburner documentation available from Additional Help as well as from the Start menu location described in the introduction of this topic. The two documents related to Autodesk Backburner are called:

■ Backburner Installation Guide

■ Backburner User’s Guide

NOTE For information on installing Autodesk Backburner, see the Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 Installation Guide.

■ FBX Plug-in Help: Access the FBX Plug-in Help from the Additional Help

menu. You can also click the ? (Help) button on the FBX Importer/Exporter dialog. The FBX plug-in changes often, with the result that Autodesk updates it more frequently than it does this program. Be sure to check regularly for updated versions by clicking the Web Updates button on the dialog.

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How to Print from the Online Help

If your computer is connected to a printer, you can print single help topics or entire chapters.

To print a topic or chapter, highlight the topic or chapter title and click the Print button at the top of the help display. A dialog opens.

Choose to print only the selected topic, or to print all topics in that chapter. After you make your selection, another dialog appears where you can choose your printer and other options.

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The tabs available at the top of the dialog depend on the selected printer. Choose options for the print job, and click OK to begin printing.

How to Contact Us

We are also interested in hearing your views about 3ds Max. We’d like to hear ways you think we can improve our program, features you’re interested in, as well as your views on the documentation set.

Please send us email about the documentation set at:

me.documentation@autodesk.com

About MAXScript

MAXScript is the built-in scripting language for 3ds Max.

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With MAXScript, you have the ability to:

■ Script all aspects of 3ds Max use, such as modeling, animation, materials,

rendering, and so on.

■ Control 3ds Max interactively through a command-line shell window.

■ Package scripts within custom utility panel rollouts or modeless windows,

giving them a standard 3ds Max user interface.

■ Build custom import/export tools using the built-in file I/O.

■ Write procedural controllers that can access the entire state of the scene.

Build batch-processing tools, such as batch-rendering scripts.

■ Set up live interfaces to external system using OLE Automation.

The MAXScript language is specifically designed to complement 3ds Max. It is object-oriented, and has several special features and constructs that mirror high-level concepts in the 3ds Max user interface. These include coordinate-system contexts, an animation mode with automatic keyframing, and access to scene objects using hierarchical path names that match the 3ds Max object hierarchy.

The syntax is simple enough for non-programmers to use, with minimal punctuation and formatting rules.

Visual MAXScript

Visual MAXScript is a powerful addition to MAXScript, making the MAXScript feature easier to learn and use. With Visual MAXScript, you can quickly create UI elements and layouts for scripting.

For detailed information about Visual MAXScript, open the MAXScript Help, available from Help menu > MAXScript Help.

Getting Started with 3ds Max

You use 3ds Max to quickly create professional-quality 3D models, photorealistic still images, and film-quality animation on your PC.

Image by Michael McCarthy

Before using this reference material, we highly recommend you get to know 3ds Max firsthand by following the included tutorials. You can access the tutorials using the Help menu ➤ Tutorials command.

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Project Workflow

Once you've installed 3ds Max (see the Installation Guide included with your software package), you open it from the Start menu, or use any other Windows method. The figure below shows the application window with a scene file loaded.

Main program window

NOTE If you open 3ds Max from a Command Prompt window or batch file, you

can add command-line switches. See Starting 3ds Max from the Command Line on page 8575.

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NOTE 3ds Max is a single-document application, meaning you can work on only one scene at a time. You can run 3ds Max several times and open a different scene in each instance, but doing so requires a lot of RAM. For best performance, open only one instance and work on one scene at a time.

Modeling Objects

You model and animate objects in the viewports, whose layout is configurable. You can start with a variety of 3D geometric primitives. You can also use 2D shapes as the basis for lofted or extruded objects. You can convert objects to a variety of editable surface types, which you can then model further by pulling vertices and using other tools.

Another modeling tool is to apply modifiers to objects. Modifiers can change object geometry. Bend and Twist are examples of modifiers.

Modeling, editing, and animation tools are available in the command panels and toolbar. See Modeling Objects on page 25.

Material Design

You design materials using the Material Editor, which appears in its own window. You use the Material Editor to create realistic materials by defining

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hierarchies of surface characteristics. The surface characteristics can represent static materials, or be animated. See Material Editor on page 6019.

Lights and Cameras

You create lights with various properties to illuminate your scene. The lights can cast shadows, project images, and create volumetric effects for atmospheric lighting. Physically-based lights let you use real-world lighting data in your scenes and Radiosity on page 7068 provides incredibly accurate light simulation in renderings. See Lights on page 5672.

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The cameras you create have real-world controls for lens length, field of view, and motion control such as truck, dolly, and pan. See Cameras on page 5905.

Animation

You can begin animating your scene at any time by turning on the Auto Key button. Turn the button off to return to modeling. You can also perform animated modeling effects by animating the parameters of objects in your scene. You can learn more about animating in Animating Your Scene topic on page 32.

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When the Auto Key button is on, 3ds Max automatically records the movement, rotation, and scale changes you make, not as changes to a static scene, but as keys on certain frames that represent time. You can also animate many parameters to make lights and cameras change over time, and preview your animation directly in the 3ds Max viewports.

You use Track View on page 3827 to control animation. Track View is a floating window where you edit animation keys, set up animation controllers, or edit motion curves for your animated effects.

Rendering

Rendering adds color and shading to your scene. The renderers available with 3ds Max include features such as selective ray tracing, analytical antialiasing, motion blur, volumetric lighting, and environmental effects. See Rendering

Your Scene on page 32.

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When you use the default scanline renderer, a radiosity solution on page 7068 can provide accurate light simulation in renderings, including the ambient lighting that results from reflected light. When you use the mental ray renderer, a comparable effect is provided by global illumination on page 7160.

If your workstation is part of a network, network rendering can distribute rendering jobs over multiple workstations. See Network Rendering on page

7368.

With Video Post on page 7707, you can also composite the scene with animations stored on disk.

A Typical Project Workflow

These topics explain the basic procedures for creating scenes:

Setting Up Your Scene on page 24

Modeling Objects on page 25

Using Materials on page 26

Placing Lights and Cameras on page 28

Animating Your Scene on page 32

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Rendering Your Scene on page 32

Setting Up Your Scene

You start with a new unnamed scene when you open 3ds Max. You can also start a new scene at any time by choosing New or Reset from the Application

menu on page 8579.

Choosing a Unit Display

You choose a system of unit display on the Units Setup dialog on page 8955. Choose from Metric, Standard US, and Generic methods, or design a custom measuring system. You can switch between different systems of unit display at any time.

NOTE For best results, use consistent units when you are going to:

■ Merge scenes and objects on page 8101.

■ Use XRef objects on page 7971 or XRef scenes on page 7999.

Setting the System Unit

The System Unit setting, in the Units Setup dialog on page 8955, determines how 3ds Max relates to distance information you input to your scene. The setting also determines the range for round-off error. Consider changing the system unit value only when you model very large or very small scenes.

Setting Grid Spacing

Set spacing for the visible grid in the Grid And Snap Settings dialog ➤ Home

Grid panel on page 2863. You can change grid spacing at any time.

See Precision and Drawing Aids on page 2807 for information about the system unit, unit display, and grid spacing.

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Setting the Viewport Display

Viewport layout options

The default four viewports in 3ds Max represent an efficient and popular screen layout. Set options in the Viewport Configuration dialog on page 8963 to change viewport layout and display properties.

See Viewing and Navigating 3D Space on page 47 for more information.

Saving Scenes

Save your scene frequently to protect yourself from mistakes and loss of work. See Backing Up and Archiving Scenes on page 43.

Modeling Objects

You model objects in your scene by creating standard objects, such as 3D geometry and 2D shapes, and then applying modifiers to those objects. 3ds Max includes a wide range of standard objects and modifiers.

1. Modify panel

2. Create panel

3. Object categories

Creating Objects

You create objects by clicking an object category and type on the Create panel and then clicking or dragging in a viewport to define the object's creation parameters. 3ds Max organizes the Create panel into these basic categories:

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Geometry, Shapes, Lights, Cameras, Helpers, Space Warps, and Systems. Each category contains multiple subcategories from which you can choose.

You can also create objects from the Create menu by choosing an object category and type and then clicking or dragging in a viewport to define the object's creation parameters. 3ds Max organizes the Create menu into these basic categories: Standard Primitives, Extended Primitives, AEC Objects, Compound, Particles, Patch Grids, NURBS, Dynamics, Shapes, Lights, Cameras, Helpers, Space Warps, and Systems.

See Basics of Creating and Modifying Objects on page 290.

Selecting and Positioning Objects

You select objects by clicking or dragging a region around them. You can also select objects by name or other properties such as color or object category.

After selecting objects, you position them in your scene using the transform tools Move, Rotate, and Scale. Use alignment tools to precisely position objects.

See Selecting Objects on page 149, Moving, Rotating, and Scaling Objects on page 821, and Precision and Drawing Aids on page 2807.

Modifying Objects

You sculpt and edit objects into their final form by applying modifiers from the Modify panel. The modifiers you apply to an object are stored in a stack. You can go back at any time and change the effect of the modifier, or remove it from the object.

See Basics of Creating and Modifying Objects on page 290.

Using Materials

You use the Material Editor to design materials and maps to control the appearance of object surfaces. Maps can also be used to control the appearance of environmental effects such as lighting, fog, and the background.

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A variety of materials in the Material Editor's sample slots

Room on left uses the a neutral, gray material.

Room on right uses a realistic materials, including transparent glass and a snowfall..

Basic Material Properties

You set basic material properties to control such surface characteristics as default color, shininess, and level of opacity. You can create realistic, single-color materials using just the basic properties.

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Using Maps

You extend the realism of materials by applying maps to control surface properties such as texture, bumpiness, opacity, and reflection. Most of the basic properties can be enhanced with a map. Any image file, such as one you might create in a paint program, can be used as a map, or you can choose procedural maps that create patterns based on parameters you set.

3ds Max also includes a raytrace material and map for creating accurate reflections and refraction.

Viewing Materials in the Scene

You can view the effect of materials on objects in a shaded viewport, but the display is just an approximation of the final effect. Render your scene to view materials accurately.

See Designing Materials on page 5982.

Placing Lights and Cameras

You place lights and cameras to complete your scene in much the same way lights and cameras are placed on a movie set prior to filming.

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Lights and cameras placed to compose a scene

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The resulting scene

Default Lighting

Default lighting evenly illuminates the entire scene. Such lighting is useful while modeling, but it is not especially artistic or realistic.

Placing Lights

You create and place lights from the Lights category of the Create panel or menu when you are ready to get more specific about the lighting in your scene.

3ds Max includes the following standard light types: omni, spot, and directional lights. You can set a light to any color and even animate the color to simulate dimming or color-shifting lights. All of these lights can cast shadows, project maps, and use volumetric effects.

See Guidelines for Lighting on page 5688.

Photometric Lights

Photometric lights on page 5707 provide you with the ability to work more

accurately and intuitively using real-world lighting units (lumens and candelas).

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Photometric lights also support industry-standard photometric file formats (IES on page 5735, CIBSE on page 9116, LTLI on page 9209) so that you can model the characteristics of real-world manufactured luminaires, or even drag ready-to-use luminaires from the Web. Used in conjunction with the 3ds Max

radiosity solution on page 7068, photometric lights let you evaluate more

accurately (both physically and quantitatively) the lighting performance of your scene.

Photometric lights are available from the Create panel ➤ Lights drop-down list.

Daylight System

The Daylight system on page 5852 combines sunlight on page 9321 and skylight on page 9309 to create a unified system that follows the geographically correct angle and movement of the sun over the earth at a given location. You can choose location, date, time, and compass orientation. You can also animate the date and time. This system is suitable for shadow studies of proposed and existing structures.

Viewing Lighting Effects in the Scene

When you place lights in a scene, the default lighting turns off and the scene is illuminated only by the lights you create. The illumination you see in a viewport is just an approximation of the true lighting. Render your scene to view lighting accurately.

TIP If the Daylight system appears to wash out the scene, try using the Logarithmic

exposure control on page 7673.

Placing Cameras

You create and place cameras from the Cameras category of the Create panel. Cameras define viewpoints for rendering, and you can animate cameras to produce cinematic effects such as dollies and truck shots.

You can also create a camera automatically from a Perspective viewport by using the Create Camera from View command on page 129 found on the Views menu. Just adjust your Perspective viewport until you like it, and then choose Views ➤ Create Camera From View. 3ds Max creates a camera and replaces the Perspective viewport with a Camera viewport showing the same perspective.

See Common Camera Parameters on page 5931.

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Animating Your Scene

You can animate almost anything in your scene. Click the Auto Key button to enable automatic animation creation, drag the time slider, and make changes in your scene to create animated effects.

Controlling Time

3ds Max starts each new scene with 100 frames for animation. Frames are a way of measuring time, and you move through time by dragging the time

slider on page 8656. You can also open the Time Configuration dialog on page

8696 to set the number of frames used by your scene and the speed at which the frames are displayed.

Animating Transforms and Parameters

While the Auto Key button is on, 3ds Max creates an animation key on page 9200 whenever you transform an object or change a parameter. To animate a parameter over a range of frames, specify the values at the first and last frames of the range. 3ds Max calculates the values for all of the frames in between.

See Animation Concepts and Methods on page 3398.

Editing Animation

You edit your animation by opening the Track View window or by changing options on the Motion panel. Track View is like a spreadsheet that displays animation keys along a time line. You edit the animation by changing the keys.

Track View has two modes. You can display the animation as a series of function curves that graphically show how a value changes over time in the Curve Editor mode. Alternatively, you can display your animation as a sequence of keys or ranges on a grid in the Dope Sheet mode.

See Track View on page 3827.

Rendering Your Scene

Use the rendering features to define an environment and to produce the final output from your scene.

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Rendering "fills in" geometry with color, shadow, lighting effects, and so on.

Defining Environments and Backgrounds

Rarely do you want to render your scene against the default background color. Open the Environment And Effects dialog ➤ Environment panel on page 7621 to define a background for your scene, or to set up effects such as fog.

Setting Rendering Options

To set the size and quality of your final output, you can choose from many options on the Render Setup dialog on page 6956. You have full control over professional grade film and video properties as well as effects such as reflection, antialiasing, shadow properties, and motion blur.

Rendering Images and Animation

You render a single image by setting the renderer to render one frame of your animation. You specify what type of image file to produce and where 3ds Max stores the file.

Rendering an animation is the same as rendering a single image except that you set the renderer to render a sequence of frames. You can choose to render

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an animation to multiple single frame files or to popular animation formats such as AVI or MOV.

See Render Setup Dialog on page 6956.

The 3ds Max Interface

The 3ds Max window is the entry point to most of the features of this application.

3ds Max window, showing viewports, controls, and a rendered frame

See The 3ds Max Window on page 8564 for an introduction to the components of this interface. See Special Controls on page 8567 for descriptions of some of the special controls that 3ds Max uses. Becoming familiar with these controls is especially useful if you are new to using 3ds Max.

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Managing Files

3ds Max supports many types of files for working with plug-ins, image maps, models from other programs, rendering images and animations, and of course saving and opening your scene files.

File-management dialogs

File dialogs (such as Open, Save, Save As) uniformly remember the previous path you used, and default to that location.

Importing, Merging, Replacing, and Externally Referencing Scenes

You can realize great productivity gains when you reuse work by combining geometry from scenes or other programs. 3ds Max supports this technique with the Import, Merge, and Replace commands. You can also share scenes and objects with others working on the same project using XRef functionality.

Gear model imported to become part of another scene

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Importing Geometry from Other Programs

Use Application menu on page 8579 ➤ Import on page 7968 to bring objects from other programs into a scene. The types of files that you can import are listed in the Files Of Type list in the Select File To Import dialog.

Depending on the file type you choose, you might have options available for that import plug-in.

Merging Scenes Together

Use Merge on page 8101 to combine multiple scenes into a single large scene. When you merge a file, you can select which objects to merge. If objects being merged have the same name as objects in your scene, you have the option to rename or skip over the merged objects.

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Pipe and ashtray models merged into one scene

Merging Animation into Scenes

Use Merge Animation on page 4163 to merge the animation from one scene into another with the same (or similar) geometry.

Replacing Scene Objects

Use Replace on page 8106 to replace objects in your scene with objects in another scene that have duplicate names. Replace is useful when you want to set up and animate your scene with simplified objects, and then replace the simple objects with detailed objects before rendering.

The Replace dialog looks and functions the same as Merge, except that it lists only objects that have the same name as objects in your current scene.

Using External References

Use XRef Objects on page 7971 and XRef Scenes on page 7999 to use objects and scene setups in your scene that are actually referenced from external MAX files. These functions allow sharing files with others in your workgroup, with options for updating and protecting external files.

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Using the Asset Browser

The Asset Browser provides access from your desktop to design content on the World Wide Web. From within 3ds Max you can browse the Internet for texture samples and product models. This includes bitmap textures (BMP, JPG, GIF, TIF, and TGA) and geometry files (MAX, 3DS, and so on).

Left: Dragging geometry into the scene

Right: Dragging a bitmap onto the geometry

You can drag these samples and models into your scene for immediate visualization and presentation. You can snap geometry into predefined locations, or drag and drop them interactively in your scene.

You can also use the Asset Browser to browse thumbnail displays of bitmap textures and geometry files on your hard disk or shared network drives. Then you can either view them or drag and drop them into your scene or into valid map buttons or slots.

NOTE The thumbnail display of a geometry file is a bitmap representation of a view of the geometry. Since the thumbnail display is not a vector-based representation, you can't rotate it or perform zooms on it.

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You can drag and drop most graphic images that are embedded in a Web page into your scene. The exception is images or regions of a Web page that are tagged as hyperlinks or other HTML controls (such as when a bitmap is tagged as a button).

IMPORTANT Downloaded content might be subject to use restrictions or the license of the site owner. You are responsible for obtaining all content license rights.

For complete details, see Asset Browser on page 8143.

Startup Files and Defaults

When you start 3ds Max, several auxiliary files load, setting things like program defaults and UI layout. You can even create a scene, named maxstart.max, that automatically loads when you start or reset 3ds Max. In some cases, 3ds Max updates files when you change settings and when you quit 3ds Max.

NOTE 3ds Max comes with several different market-specific defaults on page 8834. These set different program defaults on startup, based on the type of files you expect to work on most often. You can load the preset defaults that come with 3ds Max, or you can create your own.

In general, you don't need to work directly with the auxiliary files, but it's good to know about them. Among the auxiliary files 3ds Max uses are:

■ 3dsmax.ini on page 42 : This file gets updated when you start and exit 3ds

Max, as well as when you change most Preferences settings. It contains values relating to program defaults, including the graphics driver, directories used to access external files such as sounds and images, preset render sizes, dialog positions, snap settings, and other preferences and default settings. If you edit this file, be sure to make a copy first, so you can return to the original if anything goes wrong.

NOTE Many program defaults are set in currentdefaults.ini, found within the \defaults directory. For more information on this file, see Market-Specific

Defaults on page 8834.

■ maxstart.max: At startup and when you reset 3ds Max, 3ds Max looks for

this file in the MaxStart folder specified in Configure User Paths ➤ File

I/O panel on page 8875, and if found, loads it. This allows you to specify the

default state of the workspace whenever you start or reset 3ds Max. For

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example, if you always use a ground plane, you can make it the default setup by creating one, and then saving it as maxstart.max. If you save a different file over maxstart.max, you can return to program defaults by deleting the maxstart.max file, and then resetting 3ds Max.

■ maxstart.cui: This is the default custom user interface file. You can load

and save CUI files, and set 3ds Max to use a different default CUI file. See

Customize Menu on page 8618.

■ plugin.ini: This file contains directory paths for plug-ins. Most other paths

are kept in 3ds Max INI file, but plugin.ini is maintained as a separate file because third-party plug-ins often add entries to the list at installation.

NOTE It is possible to use multiple plug-in configuration files by nesting additional paths in your plugin.ini file. This can be very useful for allowing an entire network of users to share one plugin.ini file, making the system easier to maintain for the network administrator. For more information, see Network

Plug-In Configuration on page 8885.

■ startup.ms: A MAXScript file that automatically executes at startup time.

For more information, see Startup Script on page 9316.

The Initialization File

The file 3ds Max uses to store settings between sessions is named 3dsmax.ini. In most cases, you don’t need to access this file directly. To find it, if necessary, use the Windows Search function.

You can make changes to 3ds Max startup conditions by editing the 3dsmax.ini file in a text editor such as Notepad. If you do edit the file, be sure to maintain the structure and syntax of the original file.

TIP If you encounter unusual and unexplained user-interface problems using 3ds Max, try deleting the 3dsmax.ini file and restarting. 3ds Max writes a new INI file to replace the deleted one. Often this fixes problems related to the state of the user interface.

NOTE Startup scene conditions are defined by the maxstart.max file. To save a particular startup condition, such as a Plane object representing the ground, create a scene file with the condition present and then save it as maxstart.max. 3ds Max automatically opens this file when you start 3ds Max.

The 3dsmax.ini file includes the following categories of settings:

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