• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

5. In the Output rollout, click on the Add button and select the Normals map. From the Target Map Slot drop-down list, select the Bump option. Click the 512 button to set the map size, and enable the Output into Normal Bump option.

6. Click the Render button at the bottom of the Render to Texture dialog box.

7. Drag the low-res gator model away from the high-res model.

8. To see the normal map when rendered, open the Material Editor and use the Material⇒Get All Scene Materials menu. This loads all the material nodes including the normal map. There are separate materials for the skin, eyes, and claws. Locate and select the green material node. The normal map is connected to this material's Bump map. Locate the Bump map in the Maps rollout of the Parameter Editor rollout and increase the Bump Amount to 100, and then drag the green material's output socket and drop it on the low-res gator's skin.

9. Render the two gators side by side.

Figure 34.9 shows the resulting normal map rendered on the right gator.

FIGURE 34.9

The normal map for the gator can be applied as a bump map to reclaim the high-res details.

Summary

If you're working with games, then you'll want to use these features to help keep your models small and fleet. This chapter covers the following topics:

• Discovering what channels the models have

• Learning how to bake textures

• Creating normal maps using the Projection modifier

The next part takes up the topic of animation again, starting with animation modifiers.

Part VIII: Advanced Animation Techniques

IN THIS PART

Chapter 35

Using Animation Layers, Modifiers, and Complex Controllers

Chapter 36

Animating with the Expression Controller and Wiring Parameters

Chapter 37

Working with the F-Curve Editor in the Track View

Chapter 35: Using Animation Layers, Modifiers, and Complex Controllers

IN THIS CHAPTER

Using animation layers

Saving and loading animation files

Using the Point Cache modifier

Using the Morpher modifier

Adding secondary animation with the Flex modifier

Animating geometry deformations

Using other animation modifiers

Examining controllers

Just as layers can be used to organize a scene by placing unique objects on different layers, you also can separate the various animation motions into different layers. This gives you great control over how motions are organized and blended together.

If you've worked to animate some Max object and are pleased with the result, you can save the animation clip and reuse it. Several animation clips can be mixed together to create an entirely new animation sequence.

Modifiers can be used to deform and otherwise alter the geometry of objects, but they also can be used to affect other aspects of an object, including animated changes. One such important animation modifier is the Point Cache modifier. This modifier lets the movement of each vertex in the scene be saved to a cached file for immediate recall and for animating multiple objects simultaneously.

The Modifiers menu also includes an Animation submenu that contains many such modifiers. These modifiers are unique in that each of them changes with time. They can be useful as an alternate to controllers, but their resulting effects are very specific. Included with this submenu are modifiers such as Morpher, which allows an object to move through several different preset shapes, and Flex, which is used to add soft-body dynamics to your scene. Other animation modifiers include Melt and PathDeform.

This chapter also discusses all those miscellaneous Controllers that weren't covered earlier. These Controllers are more complex and enable a wide range of unique motions.

Using the Animation Layers Toolbar

Behind the scenes, animation layers add several new controller tracks to objects that are visible in the Motion panel and in the Track View interface, but the front end is accessible through a simple toolbar. The Animation Layers toolbar, shown in Figure 35.1, is similar in many