Animation Tutorial 1

We are beginning to learn how to animate using 3ds max. This will obviously be vital to the rest of the assignment. There are two different methods of animating, using set key and auto key. Auto key is easier, but set key is more precise.

The first thing I have decided to animate is my gun model, firing a bullet out of it. This is possible as the gun barrel has been booleaned out, so I can hide a bullet inside to be fired.

To demonstrate the different techniques, I have used Auto key for the movement of the bullet and Set key for the gun recoil.

To use auto key, select the object in the scene and press the auto key button. Then move to the frame you wish and move the item, in this case the bullet. If you scrub along the frame bar you will see the item move.





Set key is a bit more involved but far more precise. Select the item (the gun) and go to the frame you wish. In this case it is the frame where the bullet is fired (frame 3). With set key you have to press the set keys button every time you wish to insert a keyframe. This example uses the rotation tool to create the recoil.






Finally the rendering window needs to be altered to cope with animation. In Render Setup, the time output is changed from single to range and the number of frames to be rendered are inserted. The render output must be set and the file saved in an appropriate format (AVI etc)