9

Trajectory 1025
• Animation tracks contain the actual animated
values for an item. Only controller items have
an animation track.
Thevaluesinananimationtrackareusually
displayed as keys. S ome controllers don’t use
keys and instead display their values as a range
barorsomeothergraphicsymbol.Forexample,
theWaveFormitemdisplaysasoundfileasa
two-channel sound wave.
Animat ion tracks are also the only track type that
canbedisplayedasafunctioncurve.
Traje c tory
Scooter following a trajectory
Whenever an object moves through world space,
you c an view its trajectory. A trajectory is t he
visible path the object ma kes because of its
movement. You can think of a trajectory as a
three-dimensional function curve for the Position
track of an object.
Object trajectories appear with the following
properties:
• T he t rajectory curve is drawn in blue.
• Frame increments are displayed as yellow dots
on the curve.
• Positionkeysaredisplayedaswhiteboxes
surrounding the appropriate frame dot on the
curve.
• S elected keys are displayed in gr ay.
In 3ds Max trajectories are created from animated
objects.Youmustanimatetheobjectfirstinorder
to create the trajectory.
The Path constraint (page 2–398) lets you picks a
spline in the scene to use as a motion path for an
object. The spline becomes the object’s explicit
trajectory.
Traje c tory (Bip ed)
The path an object follows as it moves through
space. In 3ds Max, you can think of a tr ajector y
as a three-dimensional function curve for the
Position track of an object.
When you animate a biped (page 2–843),youcan
turn on the display of its trajectory. See Trajector y
Display (page 2–931).
Transform Gizmo
A gizmo (page 3–949) that is displayed in viewports
and prov ides a visual aid when you transform
objects.