Animating
the Fire, Lights & scene in
3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ) - Tutorial
/ Lesson |
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In this chapter, we
are going to animate
the fire effect, lighting,
the duck and the camera
movement in the room
scene. You will learn
many techniques that
will be useful in a
variety of situations.
Open the scene 'chap10-fireplace.max'.
(Download
the scene here if
you don't have it).
Save the scene under
a new name 'chap11-room-animated.max'
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| -Animating
the Fire in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds
max ) - Tutorial / Lesson |
In the last lesson, you
learned how to create
fire using the fire effect
in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds
max ). But the fire that
we created was not animated.
Animating the fire is
simple. Click on
Rendering> Environment
from the main menu bar
and select the fire effect
that we created in the
last lesson from the list.
Within the parameters,
you can see the Motion
subcategory . It has two
parameters - Phase
and Drift.
You animate these parameters
in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds
max ) for animating the
fire. Animating the Phase
value in 3D Studio MAX
( 3ds max ) , causes the
fire samples to wave,
whereas animating the
drift causes simulation
of the flames moving up.
Click on the Auto
Key button to
turn automatic keying
on in 3D Studio MAX (
3ds max ). Now make sure
that the time slider is
at Frame 0.
With the Auto Key mode
turned on, move the time
slider to the last frame
and change the value of
Phase
to 300
and Drift
to 200.
Once you change these
values, you will notice
that a red boundary surrounds
the value fields signifying
that they are being animated
in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds
max ). This happened because,
while you changed the
values, the Auto Key mode
was turned on in 3D Studio
MAX ( 3ds max ). Simply
drag the time slider to
and fro to see the values
changing with time. Now
the fire is animated.
But you can see the effect
of the animation, only
if you render the whole
scene into a file and
play it back, which we
will do later.
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| Animating
the Light
in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max
) - Tutorial / Lesson |
In the case of fireplaces
in the real world, the
lighting in the immediate
neighbourhood fluctuates
a great deal due to
the flame motion. We
can simulate this effect
in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds
max ) by animating the
light that we have placed
just over the fire sticks.
Click on the Omni at
the centre of the gizmo,
just over the sticks
to select it. Go to
the Modify panel. Now
turn Auto Key
on. Move the
time slider
to frame
5.
Set the multiplier
value in the
modify panel as 3.
Go to frame
15 and change
the multiplier value
to 1.
Frame 18
- multiplier value:
3.
Frame 20
- multiplier value:
2. Frame
23 - multiplier
value: 2.5,
Frame 25
- multiplier value:
2.
Now we have created
a series of keys that
changes the multiplier
value over a range that
in fact is a cycle (starting
and ending multiplier
values: 2). This cycle
can be repeated over
the entire animation
sequence to stimulate
the light fluctuation
in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds
max ). We can make the
short cycle of key frames
to repeat by using the
track view. Open the
Track view by
clicking Graph
Editors > Track View
- Curve Editor.
Make sure that the Omni
is the one presently
selected in the scene.
In the left-hand side
of the track view, expand
the Object (Omni
Light) group
by clicking on the
+ symbol to
its left. Within the
expanded hierarchy,
click Multiplier.
This displays the change
in multiplier values
in the track view as
a graph. You can see
that the graph ends
at frame 25.
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In the toolbar
located at the
top region of
the Track
View
you will find
the button named
Parameter
Curve-out-of-range
types
towards the right
most end (Move
the mouse pointer
over it to display
the names). Click
on it. A dialog
box appears, showing
that the currently
selected pattern
is Constant,
which means that
the frames don't
repeat.
Click on both
the small
buttons,
just below the
category named
Loop
so that it gets
depressed. See
the figure. Now
click OK.
This causes the
keyframes that
were displayed
in the track view
to get repeated
as a loop. This
will be visible
in the track view,
which is shown
as a dotted continuation
of the original
graph that now
spans over the
entire time range.
This results in
the light fluctuation
to get repeated
over the whole
3D Studio MAX
( 3ds max ) animation
sequence. This
technique comes
very handy at
times.
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Save
the scene. Lets
continue with animation
in the next page of this tutorial. |
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