3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [393]
Cross-Reference
Chapter 22, “Animating with Constraints and Simple Controllers,” presents the functions that are part of the Expression controller. •
Table 37.8 describes the buttons found in the Track Selection and Key Stats toolbars.
Other toolbars
The other toolbars provide access to features that also are available through the menus. These toolbars are hidden by default, but they can be made visible using the Show Toolbars menu command in the right-click pop-up menu.
Controller and Key panes
Below the menus (and below the topped docked toolbars) are two panes. The left pane, called the Controller pane, presents a hierarchical list of all the tracks. The right pane is called the Key pane, and it displays the time range, keys, or function curves, depending on the layout. You can pan the Controller pane by clicking and dragging on a blank section of the pane: The cursor changes to a hand to indicate when you can pan the pane.
Tip
Using the triangle icon in the upper-left corner of the Key pane, you can quickly hide the Controller pane. •
Each track can include several subtracks. To display these subtracks, click the plus sign (+) to the left of the track name. To collapse a track, click the minus sign (–). You can also use the Settings menu to Auto Expand a selected hierarchy. Under the Options⇒Auto Expand menu are options for Selected Objects Only, Transforms, XYZ Components, Limits, Keyable, Animated, Base Objects, Modifiers, Materials, and Children. For example, if the Auto Expand⇒Transforms option is enabled, then the Transform tracks for all objects is automatically expanded in the Track View. Using these settings can enable you to quickly find the track you're looking for.
The Options⇒Auto Select⇒Animated toggle automatically selects all tracks that are animated. You can also auto select Position, Rotation, and/or Scale tracks. The Options⇒Auto Scroll menu command can be set for Selected and/or Objects tracks. This command automatically moves either the Selected tracks or the Objects track to the top of the Controller pane.
Note
You can also select, expand, and collapse tracks using the right-click pop-up quadmenu. •
The Controller pane includes many different types of tracks. By default, every scene includes the following tracks: World, Sound, Video Post, Global Tracks, SME, Anim Layer Control Manager, Environment, Render Effects, Render Elements, Renderer, Global Shadow Parameters, Scene Materials, Medit Materials (for materials in the Material Editor), and Objects, as shown in Figure 37.3.
FIGURE 37.3
Several tracks are available by default.
The Shift, Ctrl, and Alt keys make selecting and deselecting multiple tracks possible. To select a contiguous range of tracks, select a single track and then select another track while holding down the Shift key. This selects the two tracks and all tracks in between. Hold down the Ctrl key while selecting tracks to select multiple tracks that are not contiguous. The Alt key removes selected items from the selection set.
Below the right pane is the Time Ruler, which displays the current time as specified in the Time Configuration dialog box. The current frame is marked with a light blue time bar. This time bar is linked to the Time Slider, and moving one updates the other automatically.
At the top right of the Key pane (above the vertical scroll bar) is a split tab that you can use to split the Controller and Key pane into two separate views, as shown in Figure 37.4. Using this feature, you can look at two different sections of the tree at the same time. This makes it easy to copy and paste keys between different tracks.
Tip
You can drag the Time Ruler vertically in the right pane. •
FIGURE 37.4
Drag the tab above the vertical