The School of InfoComm Technology

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

IT/MMC Year 2 Basic Animation 2005/ 06 Practical 1

At the end of this practical session, you will be

• Familiar with the basic layout and functions of 3D Studio Max

• Able to create simple 3D objects

Introduction to 3D Studio Max

1. Start 3D Studio Max

2. Examine the screen.

Menus Toolbar

Command
Pa
ne

Status Line
Prompt Line Time and Navigaton Controls

Menus

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The standard Windows Menu at the top of the screen should be familiar to you already.

1. Take some time just to have a look at all the menu possibilities to become familiar
with them
2. Choose File->Open

3. Load the file Earth.max (Download from Mel-> Basic Animation-> Learning
Materials-> Week 1- Introduction to course and Module Introduction > Practical)

Toolbar

The toolbar allows you to access the useful tools in 3D Studio Max. When a tool is
selected it will turn orange to show it is active, it will always be active unless you have
clicked on another tool

1. Point the mouse over any of the tool buttons in the toolbar and leave it there.

2. After a moment a tool tip will appear – an extended description of the tool appears in
the prompt line.

3. Click the Select by Name button. This enables you to select an object in the
scene to work with.

4. The select by name dialogue box appears

5. Click to highlight Earth in the list window and then click select. It turns white and is
now ready to be modified etc.

Command Panels

This is the most important area of 3D Studio Max and contains tools and commands to
create, model and edit the object in a scene.
Modify Hierarchy Motion Display Utilities

Geometry Shapes Lights Camera Helpers

The default panel is the Create command panel. You can use the seven buttons to create
geometry, shapes, lights cameras and other objects. There is also a drop-down menu that
offers other categories of shapes.

1. Open the Modify command panel by clicking its button

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 The name of the object you selected appears at the top and a collection of object
modifiers will appear in a drop down list box below titled ‘Modifier List’.

2. Open the Hierarchy command panel.

These buttons and controls relate to hierarchically linked objects.

3. Open the Motion command panel.

These controls access the animation key values for transformations

4. Open the Display command panel

These controls affect the way objects are displayed in the viewports while you are
working. One way is to hide objects.

5. Click Hide Selected – the Earth disappears. This enables you to hide/unhide various
objects when you are working with a scene which simplifies creating and modifying
the scene.

6. Click Unhide All – the Earth reappears.

7. The final command panel Utilities contains general plug-ins that work with MAX.

Rollouts and Scrolling

Because not all the commands and information fields can be

displayed on the screen at the same time 3D Studio Max uses
rollouts and scroll bars to access these areas.

1. Each of the command panels are organised into sub-

panels called Rollouts (panel wide buttons with + or –
signs next to it).

2. Open the Display command panel and look at the

Rollouts displayed. Click on one of these.

3. The + sign means the rollout is closed, the – sign means

the rollout is open.

4. There are often too many panels that can fit on the screen
at one time. As a result there is also a scroll bar.

5. Move the mouse cursor to an area where there is no

control button – or move it to the right hand side of the
command panel – the cursor becomes a hand.

6. While the mouse cursor is a hand drag the panel up and

down.

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Time Controls

These controls let you set key-frames for animation and play back any animation.

1. Drag the time-slider back and forth – the animation will play through frame by frame.
Play

2. Click the Play button to start the animation

3. Right click the mouse cursor in a different viewport to make it active.

Click the Stop button (where the Play button was) to stop the animation.

Viewports

The viewports are an important feature of animation software as you use them to look at
your scene from different angles. The default set up is the four viewpoints front, top, left
and perpspective but there can be others.

1. Click on the Views->Viewport Configuration menu to access the dialogue box.

2. Click on each of the tabs to see what options are available

3. Click cancel to exit the dialogue box

Top Front

Left Perspective

You can also change these settings through shortcuts

4. Right click the label Left in the lower viewport

5. Choose Views->Right, the view changes to the right.

6. Right click the Perspective viewport label

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7. Choose Wireframe – the scene is now no longer rendered.

You can change the rendering settings for every viewport while you are working.

You can activate a viewport in three different ways:

•Click or drag in the viewport – this activates the viewport and performs an action
• Click the viewport label – this only activates the viewport
•Right click on the viewport label – this only activates and lets you change the
settings

You can also change the viewport settings with keyboard shortcuts : T = Top, B =
Bottom, L = Left, R = Right, K = Back, P = Perspective, C = Camera (a camera must
first exist in your scene). Try these on your viewports.

Viewport Navigation

These controls alter your view of the scene but not the objects in the scene.
Zoom Zoom All Zoom Extents Zoom Extents All

Region
Zoom Pan ArcRotate Min/Max Toggle

1. Activate the Perspective viewport and click the Min/Max toggle – this enlarges the
viewports.

2. You can also press the W key in order to toggle maximising and minimising the
viewport – try that now.

3. You can also use the viewport keyboard shortcuts to change view while the viewport
is maximised – try that now

4. Click on the Zoom button – it turns orange briefly signifying it has been activated.

5. Drag the mouse vertically up and down in the Front view – the view zooms in and
out. This can be done in any viewport.

6. Click on the Zoom Extents – the view zooms so that all objects can be seen in the
viewport.

7. Notice that the Zoom button is still orange– you are still in Zoom mode – you can get
out of this by clicking another button or right clicking in the viewport. This is true of
all 3D Studio Max buttons.

8. Click Zoom All and drag downwards in the Front view – all four views zoom out.

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9. Click Zoom Extents All – all four views zoom to the extents of the objects in the
scene.

10. Click on the Pan button – Drag in any direction in the Front view

11. Activate the Perspective viewport.

12. Click the Arc-Rotate button – a yellow circle appears in the viewport.

13. Drag the mouse inside the circle in various directions – the view rotates around the X
and Y axis.

14. Release the mouse and then drag it outside the yellow circle – the view rolls about the
Z axis.

15. Try dragging the tags around the circle – this restricts the rotation to the X or Y axis.

Creating Objects

1. Use File->Reset to clear 3D Studio Max, do not save the changes.

2. Click Cylinder in the object type rollout of the Create

command panel. The button turns orange and is awaiting
additional input and means you can continue to create
cylinders without returning to the panel.

Create

3. Create a cylinder in the

Top view by pointing the
mouse at the origin of the
viewport. Drag the cursor
outwards to define a
circle that will be the base
of the cylinder.

4. Release the mouse and

move it up and down –
the radius has been set
and now you are setting
the height and direction
of the cylinder.

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5. Click the mouse once you have decided how high you want the cylinder to be.

6. You can now do four things:

• Click in any viewport and create another cylinder.
• Adjust the parameters of the newly created cylinder
• Adjust the viewport navigation controls
• Choose another tool and exit the cylinder creation mode.

Be sure you know what you want to do as you are still in Create Cylinder mode and can
easily create a cylinder by mistake.

7. Create more cylinders by repeating the previous steps

8. You can adjust the radius and the height by typing in values in the command panel.
Try that now and change the other variables

You can change the values in the panel by typing in, or adjusting the spinners to the left
of the textbox. You can click or you can click and drag to change them quickly.

9. Right click on the Perspective view label and change some of the rendering options.

Modifying Objects

1. Click Select Object in the tool bar – move the mouse over the objects in a viewport –
notice the cursor changes when it moves over a selectable object.

2. Click to select an object in the scene (you can also click and drag to create
an area of selection – any objects within this area will be selected.) The object turns
white. To unselect the object, click anywhere within the window (but not near an
object).

3. Click on the Modify command panel Modify

Panel
4. Adjust any of the parameter spinners

5. Click to select a different object – change some of its parameters.

6. Click to select another object – press DEL – the object is removed.

7. Select another object and delete that too.

8. Click on Undo – the last object is restored

9. Click Undo twice – the previous object is restored. 3D Studio Max has a history list
for Undo – note that selection is considered as an action so that is why we had to undo
twice to restore the previous object.

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Exercise

Use some of the other primitives to create more objects in your scene. Try to use at least
four different ones – box, teapot etc.

Save your work as Lab1.max.

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