9

Transform Managers 433
Example: To animate an object moving among three
points:
1.
Turn on the Auto Key button (page
2–278).
The Auto Key button and the highlight border
around the active viewport both turn red.
2. Dragthetimeslidertoframe25.
3. Move the object from its current position (point
A) to another lo cation (point B).
ThesoftwarecreatesMovekeysatframes0and
25. These appear on the track bar (page 3–703).
The establishing key at frame 0 describes the
object’s original position, at point A. The key
atframe25describestheobject’spositionat
point B.
4. Dragthetimeslidertoframe50.
5. Move the object from point B to a third loc ation
(point C).
ThesoftwarecreatesaMovekeyatframe50
that describes the object’s position at point C .
6. Click the Auto Key button to stop recording.
7. Click the Play button (page 3–723).
TheobjectmovesfrompointAtopointBover
frames 0 to 25, and then proceeds to point C
over frames 26 to 50.
8. The Play button has turned into a Stop
button; click Stop to stop playback.
You can combine different transforms in a single
animation sequence, so that an object appears to
move as it rotates and changes in size.
See Animation Concepts and Methods (page 2–275)
for more information on animation techniques.
An object animated among three points
Transform Managers
3ds Max provides three controls, collectively
referred to as the transform managers, for
modifying the action of the transform tools.
The transform manager controls are as follows:
•TheReferenceCoordinateSystemdrop-downlist
(page 1–443), which controls the orientation of
the transform axes, is found to the right of the
Move, Rotate, and Scale transform buttons on
the main toolbar.
•TheTransform Center flyout (page 1–445),
which controls the cen t er about which the
software applies the transform, is found to
the r ight of the Reference Coordinate System
drop-down list.
•TheAxis Constraint setting (page 1–437) lets
you restrict the tr ansform to a single axis or two
axes (that is, a plane). The axis constraint tools
appear on the Axis Constraints toolbar, which
is off by default. You can open the toolbar
by right-clicking an empty spot on t he main
toolbar and choosing Axis Constraints from
the menu.
Tip: You can also restrict transforms with the
transform gizmos (page 1–426).