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Project Workflow 3
Material Design
You design materials using the Material Editor,
which appears in its ow n window. You use the
Material Editor to create realistic materials by
defining hierarchies of surface characteristics.
The surface characteristics can represent static
materials, or be animated. S ee Material Editor
(page 2–1409). Tutorials especially helpful for
learning about materials include "Overview of
Creating a Scene: Still Life" and "Using Materials."
Lights and Cameras
Yo u c r e a t e l i g h t s w i t h v a r i o u s p r o p e r t i e s t o
illuminate your scene. The lig hts can cast shadows,
project images, and create volumetric effects for
atmospheric lighting. Physically-based lights let
you use real-world lighting data in your scenes and
Radiosity (page 3–51) provides incredibly accurate
light simulation in renderings. See Lights (page
2–1272). You can learn more about lighting by
following the Introduction to Lighting tutorial.
The cameras you create have real-world controls
for lens length, field of view, and motion control
such as tr uck, dolly, and p an. See Cameras (page
2–1365).
Animation
You can begin animating your scene at any time by
turning on the Auto K ey button. Turn the button
offtoreturntomodeling. Youcanalsoperform
animated modeling effects by animating the
parameters of objects in your scene. You can learn
more about animating in the Animating Your Scene
topic (page 1–8) and f rom most of the tutorials.
When the Auto Key button is on, 3ds Max
automatically records the m ovement, rotation, and
scale changes you make, not as changes to a static
scene, but as keys on certain frames that represent
time. You can also animate many parameters to
make lights and cameras change over t ime, and
preview your animation directly in the 3ds Max
view por ts.
Yo u u s e Track View (page 2–501) to control
animation. Track View is a floating window
where you edit animation keys, set up animation
controllers, or edit motion curves for your