Animation Concepts and Methods

Animation is used throughout 3ds max. You can animate the position, rotation, and scale of an object, and almost any parameter setting that affects an object's shape and surface. You can link objects for hierarchical animation, using both forward and inverse kinematics, and you can edit your animation in Track View.

This section discusses the basics of creating animation. It looks briefly at a comparison between computer animation and classic hand-drawn animation, and then describes the creation of keyframed animation. The following topics are covered here:

Animation Concepts

Using Auto Key Mode 

Using Set Key Mode

Viewing and Copying Transform Keys

Controlling Time

Setting Time Segments

Moving Through Time

Choosing a Frame Rate and Playback Speed