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Using Ghosting

As you’re trying to animate objects, using the ghosting feature can be very helpful. This feature displays a copy of the object being animated before and after its current position. To enable ghosting, choose Views Show Ghosting. This command uses the options set in the Preference Settings dialog box. Access this dialog box by choosing Customize Preferences. In the Viewports panel of this dialog box is a Ghosting section.

You use this Ghosting section to set how many ghosted objects are to appear, whether the ghosted objects appear before, after, or both before and after the current frame, and whether frame numbers should be shown. You can also specify every Nth frame to be displayed. You also have an option to display the ghost object in wireframe (they are displayed as shaded if this option is not enabled) and an option to Show Frame Numbers. Objects before the current frame are colored yellow, and objects after are colored light blue.

Figure 30-10 shows a Sphere object that is animated to travel in a bumpy circle with ghosting enabled. The Preference settings are set to show three ghosting frames at every five frames before and after the current frame. The Trajectory path has also been enabled.

Figure 30-10: Enabling ghosting lets you know where an object is and where it’s going.

Animating Objects

Many different objects in Max can be animated, including geometric objects, cameras, lights, and materials. In this section, we look at several different types of objects and parameters that can be animated.

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Animating cameras

You can animate cameras using the standard transform buttons found on the main toolbar. When animating a camera that actually moves in the scene, using a Free camera is best. A Target camera can be pointed by moving its target, but you risk its being flipped over if the target is ever directly above the camera. If you want to use a Target camera, attach both the camera and its target to a Dummy object using the Link button and move the Dummy object.

Two useful constraints when animating cameras are the Path constraint and the Look At constraint. You can find both of these in the Animation Constraints menu. The Path constraint can make a camera follow a spline path, and the Look At constraint can direct the focus of a camera to follow an object as the camera or the object moves through the scene.

Tutorial: Animating darts hitting a dartboard

As a simple example of animating objects using the Auto Key button, we animate several darts hitting a dartboard.

To animate several darts hitting a dartboard, follow these steps:

1.Open the Dart and dartboard.max file from the Chap 30 directory on the CD-ROM. This file includes a dart and dartboard objects created by Zygote Media.

2.Click the Auto Key button (or press the N key) to enable animation mode. Drag the Time Slider to frame 25, and click the Select and Move button on the main toolbar.

3.Select the first dart in the Left viewport, and drag it to the left until its tip just touches the dartboard.

This step creates a key in the Track Bar for frames 0 and 25.

4.Click the Select and Rotate button on the main toolbar, set the reference coordinate system to Local, and constrain the rotation to the Y axis. Then drag the selected dart in the Front viewport to rotate it about its local Y axis.

This step also sets a key in the Track Bar.

5.Select the second dart, and click the Select and Move button again. Right-click the Time Slider to make the Create Key dialog box appear. Make sure that the check boxes for Position and Rotation are selected, and click OK.

This step creates a key that keeps the second dart from moving before it’s ready.

6.With the second dart still selected, drag the Time Slider to frame 50 and move the dart to the dartboard as shown in Step 3. Then repeat Step 4 to set the rotation key for the second dart.

7.Repeat Steps 3, 4, and 5 for the last two darts.

8.Click the Auto Key button (or press the N key) again to disable animation mode, maximize the Perspective viewport, and click the Play Animation button to see the animation. Figure 30-11 shows the darts as they’re flying toward the dartboard.

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Figure 30-11: One frame of the dart animation

Animating lights

The process for animating lights includes many of the same techniques as that for animating cameras. For moving lights, use a Free Spot light or attach a Target Spot light to a Dummy object. You can also use the Look At and Path controllers with lights.

To flash lights on and off, enable and disable the On parameter at different frames and assign a Step Tangent. To dim lights, just alter the Multiplier value over several frames.

Animating materials

Materials can be animated if their properties are altered while the Auto Key button is active. Max interpolates between the values as the animation progresses. The material must be consistent for the entire animation — you cannot change materials at different keys, you can only alter the existing materials parameters.

If you want to change materials as the animation progresses, you can use a material that combines multiple materials, such as the Blend material. This material includes a Mix Amount

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value that can change at different keyframes. The next tutorial shows how to use the Blend material in this manner.

Several maps include a Phase value, including all maps that have a Noise rollout. This value provides the means to animate the map. For example, using a Noise map and changing the Phase value over many keys animates the noise effect.

A useful way to view animated materials is to click the Make Preview button (the sixth button from the top) to open the Create Material Preview dialog box, shown in Figure 30-12. Select the Active Time Segment option, and click OK. The material renders every frame and automatically opens and plays the material preview.

Figure 30-12: The Create Material Preview dialog box can render the entire range of frames or a select number of frames.

Tutorial: Dimming lights

Occasionally, you’ll want to change materials in a scene to gradually alter it in some way, such as dimming a light. You can easily accomplish this task with the Blend material.

To create a light that dims with time, follow these steps:

1.Open the Dimming light.max file from the Chap 30 directory on the CD-ROM. This file contains a simple lamp object with a sphere to represent a light bulb.

2.Open the Material Editor by pressing the M key, and select the first sample slot. Then click the Type button, and select the Blend material from the Material/Map Browser. Give the material the name Dimming Light.

Note When using composite materials, a dialog box appears asking whether you want to discard the old material or keep it as a submaterial. If you choose to keep it, the current material in the sample slot becomes one of the maps for the composite material.

3.Click the Material 1 button, and give the material the name Light On. Set the Diffuse color to yellow and the Self-Illumination to yellow. Then click the Go Forward to Sibling button.

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4.Name the second material Light Off, and select a gray Diffuse color. Then click the Go to Parent button to return to the Blend material.

5.With the Time Slider at frame 0, click the Auto Key button (or press the N key). Then drag the Time Slider to frame 100, and change the Mix Amount to 100. Click the Auto Key button again to deactivate it. The material changes gradually from the “Light On” material to the “Light Off” material. By dragging the Time Slider, you can see the material in the sample slot change.

6.Select the light bulb object, and click the Assign Material to Selection button to assign the material to the bulb object.

Figure 30-13 shows a simple lamp object with a dimming sphere in its center. The actual dimming effect isn’t visible in the viewport — only when the image is rendered.

Using IFL files

Anywhere you can load a bitmap map, you can also load an animation file such as a Microsoft Video (AVI) or a FLC file. Another way to create animated material is with Image File List (IFL) files.

IFL files are text files that list which images should appear and for which frames. You save them with the .IFL extension and load them using the Bitmap map. To create an IFL file, open a text editor and type the name of the image followed by the number of frames for which it should appear. Be sure to include a space between the name and the number of frames. The images are displayed in the order they are listed and repeated until all frames have been displayed. Once applied, the IFL file is visible in the sample slot if you drag the Time slider, or you can create a material preview.

Note You can also use the * and ? wildcard characters within an IFL file. For example, flyby* includes any image file that begins with “flyby,” and flyby? includes any image file that begins with “flyby” and has one additional character.

Generating IFL files with the IFL Manager Utility

If you don’t want to create text files by yourself, you can use the IFL Manager Utility to generate IFL files for you. To use this utility, open the Utilities panel and click the More button. Then select the IFL Manager Utility, and click OK.

In the IFL Manager rollout, shown in Figure 30-14, the Select button opens a File dialog box where you can select a sequential list of images to include in an IFL file. After you select a list of images, you can specify the Start and End images. You can cause the images to be displayed in reverse by placing a greater number in the Start field than is in the End field. The Every Nth field can specify to use every Nth image. You use the Multiplier field to specify in how many frames each image should appear.

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Figure 30-13: This lamp object dims as the animation proceeds.

Figure 30-14: IFL Manager utility can help to create IFL files.

The Create button opens a File dialog box where you can save the IFL file. The Edit button opens an IFL text file in the system’s default text editor for editing.

Tutorial: What’s on TV?

Animated files such as AVI and FLC can be opened and mapped to an object to animate the texture, but you can also use IFL files.

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Figure 30-15 shows one rendered frame of the television with the IFL file applied.