LA 2101 : 3ds Max Fundamentals 6

Animation

Concepts & Skills:

You should be able to identify and locate:

• the time configuration menu
• the RAM player
• the time slider

You should be able to:

• animate an object using keyframes (either autokey or set keys)
• augment an object’s animation by moving keyframes on the timeline
• animate a camera
• configure an animation’s frame rate and frame count
• render an image sequence from an animation
• compile an image sequence into a video using the RAM player

Resources:

• Textbook : Chapter 14

• Autodesk 3ds Max Essential Skills : Animation
• The New Boston : Animation

Additional Information:

To render an image sequence and create a video:

• Create and animate your scene, including a camera.
• Assign a viewport to your camera’s view.
• Open the render setup menu.
• Select ‘active time segment’.
• Choose your ‘output size’.
• Under ‘render output’, select/create a folder for your image files. Choose a file name and file type (typically .jpg).
• Back in the render setup menu, make sure ‘save file’ is checked.
• Under ‘assign renderer’, choose the appropriate renderer (typically mental ray).
• Hit ‘render’ to render your image files.
• Open the RAM Player, from the rendering menu.
• Click on the ‘open channel A’ button. Select the first image from your image sequence.
• Two pop-up menus follow. Check over the default options in each, and hit OK.
• Click the ‘save channel A’ button and save your video as a .avi file.