[Tutorial] How To: Animate in 3DsMax

[enenra - {SM}]

When working for my mods, I didn't know how to animate in 3DsMax, so I asked laux about it. I made some notes which I'm going to post here.

• 1. Enable the three magnet-like-looking symbols in the upper toolbar
  
  
• 2. Click on the button "Time Configuration" in the lower right toolbar and type in the field for "End Time" the lenght of your animation. This number has to be divisible by 3! (like 3333 or 9999)
  
  
• 3. Press "Default In/Out Tangents for New Keys" and select the straight line.
  
  
• 4. Push the slider to zero
  
  
• 5. Select the object you want to animate and press the button "Auto Key", then click on the Key-symbol.
  
  
• 6. Push the slider to the very right side.
  
  
• 7. Move/Rotate the object like you want it to happen in the animation.
  
  
• 8. Deactivate "Auto Key".
  
  
• 9. Press play to check if it worked.
  
  
• 10. Export it (for X) as a scene with animation.

If you have further questions, feel free to aks.

 0 Comment(s)

[apollo]

Hey DSE, your tutorial was just in time for me, just about to animate some objects.
Regarding time configuration, does the number of frames control the speed of the animation? Also, do you know what say 1 second is in terms of frames in the timeline?

Cheers, Apollo.

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[enenra - {SM}]

1. The number you put in is the total lenght of the animation.
That means: If you type 3333 and then rotate your object 360° (I did that when trying to animate a planet), the planet rotatet quite fast.
So what I do is to put at the place of 3333 the number 9999 - the planet rotates now only a third as fast as before.

2. Sorry, I don't know that exactly but I think it could be about 1000.

 0 Comment(s)

[Mokonzi]

Remember different CPUs will speed up animation.

Some of the XTM users had a Kha'ak Corvette that spun crazy fast, while others it ran slower.

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[kayanat]

I am adding textures by unwrapping. I already have some added by procedural texturing to separate elements. For example my boots have a separate procedural texture so they are their own element and I guess detached. When I animate my character will the boots go with her? Or do I have to unwrap everything. That would suk. Thanks for any input.

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[Jeff]

Well in 3D max it self the default fps is 30 (NTSC), but you can also set that to 25 (PAL). Anyway you can find the fps in the "Time Configuration" screen in top left corner. The fps is grayed out if any option but "Custom" is selected, as the other 3 are industry standards.
Anyway that's within 3D max, I have no idea what fps X3 uses for animations or if it uses the fps you assigned in 3D max. Especially due to Mokonzi's remark about the speed up, I'm not sure how X3 handles animations. Though a faster CPU speeding up animation speeds seems very illogical, I only know of one very old game where that happened (Populaus:The beginning) and that was only with some small decorative things... I'm not saying your wrong, I just don't think the CPU is the problem here.
DSE what happens if you use a number of frames that's not dividable by 3? Have you tried changing the framerate?

@ Kayanat: I don't quite understand how your model is put together and you should know that character animation is on a whole different level from animation described here. Animation here is just for moving and rotating things, but not with bone structures or anything (I assume your using bones). Anyway as long as everything is one mesh (1 editable poly/mesh) and it is properly rigged it should work fine, at least your textureing won't have problems. If your character consists of sepperate models with different textures it could pose a problem, but not nessecerely. As long as you intend to keep it within 3D max that is (so useing it to make a animation in 3D max for example, not for exports to games). Hope that helps you a bit

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