9

Understanding Views 25
Ax onometr ic Vi ews
There are two types of axonometric views you can
use i n viewports: orthog raphic and rotated.
An orthographic view (page 3–986) is a st raight-on
view of the scene, such as the view shown in the
Top, Front, and Left viewports. You can set a
viewport to a specific orthographic view using the
viewport right-click menu (page 3–731) or keyboard
shortcuts (page 3–871). For example, to set an
active v iewport to Lef t view, press
L .
You can also rotate an orthographic view to see
the scene from an angle while retaining parallel
projection. This type of view is represented by a
User viewport.
Per specti ve Vi ews
A perspective viewport, labeled Perspect ive, is
one of the startup viewports in 3ds Max. You can
change any active viewport to this "eye-like" point
of view by pressing
P .
Came ra Vie w
Once you create a camera object in your scene,
you can change the act ive v iewport to a camera
view by pressing
C and then selecting from a list
of cameras in your scene. You can also create a
camera view directly from a perspective viewport,
using the Create Camera from View (page 1–48)
command.
A camera viewport tracks the view through the
lens of the selected camera. As you move t he
camera (or target) in another viewpor t, you see the
scenemoveaccordingly.Thisistheadvantageof
the Camera view over the Perspective view, which
can’t be animated over time.
IfyouturnonOrthographicProjectionona
camera’s Parameters rollout, that camera produces
an axonometric view like a User v iew. See Cameras
(page 2–1365).
Theviewportontherightisseenthroughacamerainthescene.
Two and Three-Point Perspective and the
Camera Correction Modifier
By default, camera v iews use three-point
perspective, in which vertical lines appear to
converge with height (in traditional photography
this is k nown as keystoni ng). The Camera
Correction modifier (page 2–1392) applies
two-point perspect ive to a c amera view. In
two-point perspective, vertic al lines remain
vertical. A sim ilar effect can be attained by putting
a Skew modifier on a camera.
Light V iew
Light view works much like a targeted camera
view.Youfirstcreateaspotlightordirectionallight
andthensettheactiveviewporttothatspotlight.
The easiest way is to press the keyboard shor tcut
$ .SeeLights (page 2–1272) .