CGTalk - Animation technical question

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-JT-

01-12-2002, 04:16 AM

I'm trying to animate things from time to time and i have to say i'm not good at all ! I feel i can improve but i can't make the software do what i have in mind.
So i guess i need to understand the software first, does anyone know any good book or tutorial on animation within max ?
I 'm not searching tutorials on principles of animation, i'm looking for something that can explain things like that (and more):
http://mapage.noos.fr/jtromeur01/maxblue.gif

The help in max that i usually find really good isn't helpful in this case.

Thanks. :)

Staffan Norling

01-12-2002, 05:48 AM

AAAww....Tricky to explain what those buttons are for. But show you i can....

Make a simple object. Keyframe an animation by using the animate button.(press button, go to frame 20, moce the object, go to frame 40, move the object and so on)

Now, open trackview.
Press the little '+' next to objects...Then next to the name of the animatied object, then transformation. You shouldnow be able to see the position track.
Now, push the "function curves" button. (it's in the bar on the top). Highlight th position track.

You see the tree curves? On blue, one red and one green. Those curves describe the motion of an keyframed object. The x-axis in the diagram is time, and the y-axis is position. The different curves represents the x,y and z axis.

Now right-click one of the points of the curves. There you got the strange buttons again. Change them and see what happens...
Make all points sharp corners and the animation becomes jerky...Make them smooth and the animation becomes smooth. Use the curves to control the motion of your objects.

-JT-

01-12-2002, 06:00 AM

Thanks a lot Staffan !
I don't have time right now but i'll give it a try, i'll post the feedback.

Nice site you have by the way. :)

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