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Chapter 21: Understanding Animation and Keyframes

Viewing previews
When a preview file is finished rendering, the default Media Player for your system loads and displays the
preview file. You can disable this autoplay feature using the Autoplay Preview File option in the General
panel of the Preference Settings dialog box.
At any time, you can replay the preview file using the Tools ➪ Grab Viewport ➪ View Animated Sequence
File menu command. This command loads the latest preview file and displays it in the Media Player.

Renaming previews
The preview file is actually saved as a file named scene.avi and is saved by default in the previews subdirec-
tory. Be aware that this file is automatically overwritten when a new preview is created. To save a preview
file by renaming it, choose Tools ➪ Grab Viewport ➪ Rename Animated Sequence File. This command
opens the Save Preview As dialog box, where you can give the preview file a name.

Summary

This chapter covered the basics of animating objects in Max, including working with time and keys. You
also learned about the two key creation modes and editing keys. Several animation helps are available, such
as trajectories and ghosting. This chapter also discussed how to animate materials and how to create pre-
view animations. In this chapter, you learned how to do the following:
l Control time and work with keys
l Use the two key creation modes
l Work with the Track Bar and the Motion panel
l View and edit key values
l Use trajectories and ghosting
l Animate materials and use IFL files
l Create preview animations
The next chapter shows how to automate the creation of animation keys with constraints and controllers.

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