3D Animation

Today we started to look at animation on 3DS Max for the first time. We learnt that the coordinate system must be 100% accurate in animation. To set the frames per second we had to click on the time configuration button.
Here in England we always work in PAL which is 25 frames per second which is the closest to film which is 24fps. In America they use their own variation which is called NTSC, this 29 something frames per second. Not very accurate I know but I cant remember the exact number now. I will find out later and post it on here. We usually need to work with 1X for the speed.
For our first exercise we created simple box shapes and converted them all into editable polys.We moved all of our boxes and observed the results. It is more important then ever to name all your shapes sensibly and uniquely to help with the selection process. It is then easy as pie to use the select by name tab located along the top.
To start animation we turned on the AUTOKEY and a noticable red box and line appeared on the screen. It is also important to check your pivot points aswell. We were shown how to change these if we felt it nessecary. For this we had to go to the Hierachy tab/panel and select Affect pivot only and then move the postion to one that is suitable for your purposes. This panel is also good for grouping objects together. We were told that we must deselect affect pivot only when we had finished moving pivots into position.
With the alignment section you can centre pivots to the middle of the object instantly and automatically.
Next we recorded our motion on the timeline by selecting AUTOKEY.Which I mentioned above, when it is highlighed red, it means it is recording all motion. The key frames are shown with a little green line. You can re-position these keyframes if you like, by clicking and dragging up or down the timeline. These highlight in white when moving them.
With the key toggle button is switched on you can choose to select the next keyframe or previous key frames.
We were also told about the view panel, which in this case must be set to WORLD. Paul also informed us that the GIMBAL + LOCK is a deadly combination. We are to avoid GIMBAL at all costs as this special system locks movement in one direction. The other rotations we learnt were HEADING, PITCH AND BANK.
We then moved on to looking at keyframes, 3DS MAX draws a line between these points and fills in the details itself. There are several types of keyframe.
Straight tangent - A srtaight line, so the object will move equally and maintain the same speed throughtout.
Slow in - key will start at 0 and slowly move forward and speed up
Slow out - Move quickly then slow
Bazier - You can use handles of keyframes and can control curves and bend them yourself.
We then played with the controller panel located to the far left of the timeline, in here you can access all of the keyframe movement lines and change the flow and movement.
Then we looked at parenting objects. You can create a dummy object in the helpers panel.
A dummy object doesnt show in the final render, and will often be referred to as a null object. The dummy can act as a parent (a mummy) and you can link other objects to this mummy (the children) with the link tool, by clicking and dragging the child to the parent. This will allow you to move the parent object around and have the child or children follow. The children can also move around by themselves if they want ( abit like children being rebellious) Paul told us a fasinating story about Johnny and Mummy in the supermarket to illustrate this.