3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [41]
FIGURE 2.19
The clipping planes can be used to show the interior of this car model.
Tutorial: Viewing the interior of a heart with Clipping Planes
You can use the Viewport Clipping setting in the viewport point-of-view label to view the interior of a model such as this heart model created by Viewpoint.
To view the interior of a heart model, follow these steps:
1. Open the Heart interior.max file from the Chap 02 directory on the CD.
2. Choose Views⇒Viewport Configuration to open the Viewport Configuration dialog box. Enable the Viewport Clipping option, and then close the dialog box.
3. The Clipping Plane markers appear to the right of the viewport. The top marker controls the back clipping plane, and the bottom marker controls the front clipping plane. Drag the bottom clipping plane marker upward to slice through the heart model to reveal its interior, as shown in Figure 2.20.
FIGURE 2.20
By using Clipping Planes, you can reveal the interior of a model.
Setting the Field of View
You can also alter the Field of View (FOV) for the Perspective view in the Viewport Configuration dialog box. To create a fish-eye view, increase the FOV setting to 10 or less. The maximum FOV value is 180, and the default value is 45. You can also change the Field of View using the Field of View button in the Viewport Navigation Controls. The Viewport Configuration dialog box, however, lets you enter precise values.
Cross-Reference
See Chapter 19, “Configuring and Aiming Cameras,” for more coverage on Field of View. •
Grabbing a viewport image
It's not rendering, but you can grab an image of the active viewport using Tools⇒Views - Grab Viewport. Before grabbing the image, a simple dialog box appears asking you to add a label to the grabbed image. The image is loaded into the Rendered Frame Window, and its label appears in the lower-right corner of the image, as shown in Figure 2.21. The Tools⇒Grab Viewport menu also includes options for creating, viewing, and renaming animated sequence files, which provides a quick way to create animation previews.
Tip
If you want to save the image loaded in the Rendered Frame Window, simply click the Save Image button. You also can copy, clone, and print from this same window. •
Cross-Reference
More on working with animation previews is covered in Chapter 21, “Understanding Animation and Keyframes.” •
FIGURE 2.21
A viewport image can be grabbed using a menu command found in the Tools menu.
Altering the viewport layout
Now that you've started to figure out the viewports, you may want to change the number and size of viewports displayed. The Layout panel, shown in Figure 2.22, in the Viewpoint Configuration dialog box, offers several layouts as alternatives to the default layout (not that there is anything wrong with the default and its four equally sized viewports).
FIGURE 2.22
The Layout panel offers many layout options.
After selecting a layout from the options at the top of the panel, you can assign each individual viewport a different view by clicking each viewport in the Layout panel and choosing a view from the pop-up menu. The view options include Perspective, Orthographic, Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Left, Right, ActiveShade, Track, Grid (Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Display Planes), Scene Explorer, Extended (Biped Animation WorkBench, Motion Mixer, Material Explorer, MAXScript Listener), and Shape. These view options are also available by right-clicking the viewport Point-of-View label in the upper-left corner of the viewport. Figure 2.23 shows a viewport layout with the Track view, Schematic view, Asset Browser, and Perspective views open.
Views can also be set to Camera and Spotlight if they exist in the scene. Each camera and light that exists is listed by name at the top of the pop-up menu.
Using Safe Frames
Completing an animation and converting