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Cross-Reference

Environment maps are covered in Chapter 23, “Rendering a Scene and Enabling Quicksilver.” •

Loading viewport background animations

The Animation Synchronization section of the Viewport Background dialog box lets you set which frames of a background animation sequence are displayed. The Use Frame and To values determine which frames of the loaded animation are used. The Step value trims the number of frames that are to be used by selecting every Nth frame. For example, a Step value of 4 would use every fourth frame.

Tip

Loading an animation sequence as a viewport background can really help as you begin to animate complex motions, like a running horse. By stepping through the frames of the animation, you can line up your model with the background image for realistic animations. •

The Start At value is the frame in the current scene where this background animation would first appear. The Sync Start to Frame value is the frame of the background animation that should appear first. The Start and End Processing options let you determine what appears before the Start and End frames. Options include displaying a blank, holding the current frame, and looping.

If you select an animation as the background, make sure that the Animate Background option is selected. Also note that the viewport background is not visible if the Display Background option is not selected.

The Aspect Ratio section offers options for setting the size of the background image. You can select to Match Viewport, Match Bitmap, or Match Rendering Output.

The Lock Zoom/Pan option is available if either the Match Bitmap option or the Match Rendering Output option is selected. This option locks the background image to the geometry so that when the objects in the scene are zoomed or panned, the background image follows. If the background gets out of line, you can reset its position with the Views⇒Viewport Background⇒Reset Background Transform command.

Caution

When the Lock Zoom/Pan option is selected, the background image is resized when you zoom in on an object. Resizing the background image fills the virtual memory, and if you zoom in too far, the background image could exceed your virtual memory. If this happens, a dialog box appears to inform you of the problem and gives you the option of not displaying the background image. •

You can set the Apply Source and Display to option to display the background in All Views or in the active viewport only.

Tutorial: Loading reference images for modeling

When modeling a physical object, you can get a jump on the project by taking pictures with a digital camera of the front, top, and left views of the object and then load them as background images in the respective viewports. The background images can then be a reference for your work. This is especially helpful with models that need to be precise. You can even work from CAD drawings.

To load the background images of a brass swan, follow these steps:

1. Choose File⇒New (or press Ctrl+N) to open a blank scene file.

2. Right-click the Front viewport to make it the active viewport, and choose Views⇒Viewport Background (or press Alt+B).

The Viewport Background dialog box opens.

3. Click the Files button, and in the File dialog box that opens, select the Brass swan-front view.jpg image from the Chap 02 directory on the CD.

4. Select the Match Bitmap, Display Background, Lock Zoom/Pan, and Active Only options, and click OK to close the dialog box.

The image now appears in the background of the Front viewport.

5. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 for the Top and Left viewports.

Figure 2.32 shows the Max interface with background images loaded in the Front, Top, and Left viewports.

FIGURE 2.32

Adding a background image to a viewport can help as you begin to model objects.

Summary

Viewports are the window into the Max world. Remember that if you can't see it, you can't work with it, so you need to learn to use the viewports. You can also configure