| Animating
a camera in 3D Studio MAX ( 3DS
MAX ) - Tutorial / Lesson |
|
We
have discussed the fundamentals
of keyframe animation
in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds
max ) in the last few
pages. Now lets extend
our scene a bit. Lets
put a camera into the
scene, animate it, add
a few lights and render
the whole scene as an
animation. It will be
just a cakewalk for you.
Simply follow my instructions
carefully. |
|
Create
a Free Camera
in the 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max
) scene by going to the Create
Panel and then choosing
Cameras 
. Choose the Free Camera
and click some around
the center of the Front
Viewport. The creation
in the Front view situates the
camera in the most favourable
orientation. Now select the Perspective
viewport by Right-clicking
on some blank space inside it.
Now press ' C
' in your keyboard
to switch the view to the camera
you just created. Now the 3D Studio
MAX ( 3ds max ) viewport shows
the view through our Free Camera.
You can't see anything in it right?
Just use the Dolly Camera
tool from the camera/viewport
tools and click drag within the
viewport downwards, to zoom out
the view. Refer
back to Chapter 2 tutorials
to brush up your memory. Perform
the Dolly till the ball bouncing
scene is fully visible through
the camera. |
|
Now move the Time
Slider in 3D
Studio MAX ( 3ds max )
to frame 0 (left most
end). We are going to
animate the camera. First
zoom out and rotate the
camera view using the
camera handling tools,
to get a view shown in
the first figure. This
will be the position of
the camera in the 0th
frame. Take your time
to get a similar view,
but keep in mind that
you need not be a perfectionist
in this. You can use Orbit,
Dolly, Truck tools in
3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max
) to get the desired view.
Or you can use the Move
and Rotate tools to directly
move and rotate the camera's
icon in a viewport (recommends
Top view)
We have fixed the position
of the camera in 3D Studio
MAX ( 3ds max ), but haven't
set a keyframe yet. First
make sure that the Camera
is the currently selected
object in the scene. Use
Select by Name
tool to select it if it
is not the currently selected
item. Now lets use the
Auto Key feature
to learn it. Shall we?
Click on the Auto
Key button to
toggle Autokey mode in
3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max
). The time bar and the
button should have turned
red now, signalling that
the animation mode is
on. In Auto Key mode we
can create a keyframe
simply by right clicking
on the Time slider. It
pops up the Create key
dialog. The key will be
created for the currently
selected object in the
frame where the time slider
now points to.
Make sure that camera
is currently selected
and that the Time slider
points to the zeroth frame
(reads 0/50)  .
Now right click on the
Time Slider in 3D Studio
MAX ( 3ds max ). It opens
up the Create key dialog.
Simply click OK. This
creates a key at the 0th
frame. Now move the Time
slider to the 50th frame.
Here we are going to use
the Auto Key feature of
3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max
). Dolly and pan the camera
to get a view as shown
on the second figure.
Since the Auto Key is
on, all the changes you
make to the camera (dollying,
panning etc indirectly
moves and rotates the
camera) gets keyframed
at the current frame (50th
frame). Hence we needn't
set a key manually.
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Lets
continue with the camera animation
in the next page of this tutorial |
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