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.You might want all the mar-ble exterior elements to be grouped in one layer, with all the marble ele-ments having the same texture and reflective attributes.Then you mightplace all the glass elements, with the transparency and reflectivity appro-priate for glass, grouped in another layer.By Layer Properties By arranging various groups of common objectsinto layers, and slaving the properties of those objects to the layer (we callthis assigning the properties by layer), you can automate the properties andspeed up your work.For instance, if you wanted to see all the floors of thebuilding without having to peer through the walls, you could hide the wallslayer (do this by clicking the light bulb icon off) and all the walls would notdisappear.The properties of an object that can be controlled by layers are display,lock/unlock, rendering control, color, radiosity, and motion blur.By Object Properties But what if you want to have Carrie-Anne Mossfrom The Matrix, dangling from a helicopter, smash into a set of windowswhile the rest of the windows in the building stay put? What do you dothen? Certain windows can have their properties set up differently than thewindows on the rest of the layer using individual object controls.Instead ofbeing controlled by layers, the set of windows that are broken by Carrie-Anne crashing into them are set by objects.You might also want to render all the computer-generated elements ofthis famous scene in one pass while you render the overlay of Ms.Moss ina different pass.This is a common workflow tactic, based on the fact thatthe actor s layer is already at maximum quality when it is digitally acquiredand that the background elements may need several rendering passes toperfect.You wouldn t want to take time to render Carrie-Anne every timeyou tested the render of the glass wall, so you wouldn t render the actor slayer until the rest of the scene was perfected.Every object created in or imported into 3ds max is assigned an initiallayer.The default layer for all objects is layer 0, which has unique proper- 04_200505_Avg_ch04 9/5/03 11:29 AM Page 207The Mechanics of Three Leading Animation Programs207ties.Layer 0 enables random colors for new objects, and it is the layer whereall imported objects are automatically assigned.Finding the Layers function in 3ds max is a bit tricky.First, open theLayers toolbar, which is not visible by default, by right-clicking the Maintoolbar (see Figure 4-22).Then choose Layers from the pulldown menu (seeFigure 4-23).Notice in the Layers Properties dialog box under the Name column, thefirst name listed is Layer 0.Under that layer are all the objects within thatlayer listed alphabetically.To the right of the object s name are clickableicons that represent the properties that can be set by layer, as indicated bya dot, or that can be set by object, as indicated by the pictorial icon.Figure 4-22The Layers toolbarin 3ds max.Theicon second fromthe left opens theLayers Propertiesdialog box.Figure 4-23The LayersProperties dialogbox in 3ds max. 04_200505_Avg_ch04 9/5/03 11:29 AM Page 208Chapter 4208TrackbarThe timeline in 3ds max is called the Track Bar and appears in a defaultlength of 100 frames at the bottom of the interface window.Below the time-line are five VCR-type controls: play, frame step forward and backward, goto beginning, and go to end. Animation is created by sliding the timeline cursor to a specific frame,manipulating an object or scene, and then creating a keyframe.3ds maxfeatures an Auto Key button that creates a keyframe automatically in thecurrent timeline position whenever a manipulation is made.Oncekeyframes have been added, the VCR keys can immediately be used to seepreviews of the animation in any or all views.Here is a simple example of animation, adapted from one of the tutorialsin 3ds max, where I have animated the orange to fall onto the table andbounce away (see Figure 4-24).Notice the keyframes that define the move-ment for the bouncing orange at frames 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40.Because frame20 also features a one-frame scaling change (a slight y-axis squashing),frames 19 and 21 have been added to define a normal, spherical shape tothe orange immediately before and after the impact.The orange is dis-Figure 4-24The 3ds maxtimeline is shownat the bottom ofthe screen withAuto Key on. 04_200505_Avg_ch04 9/5/03 11:29 AM Page 209The Mechanics of Three Leading Animation Programs209played in its current frame as well as several ghosted images of previousframes for the operator s reference.}In this example, movement and shape are the two properties that havebeen animated, but you should know that any property of the object, itsmodifiers or materials, can be animated and in fact are in every scene.Youmay not see the animation, because every keyframe has precisely the samesettings, so no change occurs.Therefore, you don t see anything getting ani-mated, but the computer is paying attention to each and every attribute.In 3ds max, you can see these attributes and their respective keyframesin two ways: Curve Editor and Dope Sheet.Curve Editor The Curve Editor features an expandable list of all ascene s elements and the attributes of each element (see Figure 4-25),such as the attributes of the orange I ve named Sphere01
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