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3D STUDIO MAX LESSON

3D Studio Max Lesson 1.1: A Basic Overview of 3DSMax's Main Tool Bar
From Adrien-Luc Sanders,
Your Guide to Animation.

Introduction



In this tutorial, we'll just be taking a look at parts of the environment of 3D Studio Max version 4.26, and helping you to get more familiar with the tool panels, how to navigate them, and how to use the sets of basic tools you'll need to begin animating; in this tutorial, we’ll only be looking at the viewports and the top toolbar, so that we can cover each set of tools in more detail in successive tutorals.
If you're using a version later than 4.26, don't worry; the basics still apply. Because we're covering the principle foundations of animating in three dimensions, we won't be looking at the more advanced plugins and automated functions that come with later versions of the program.

When you first open 3D Studio Max, it can look a little daunting, with dozens of buttons and tabs, screens and panels. But don't worry; just follow along, and we'll get started on figuring out just what's what.


Main Tool Bar


For this lesson, let’s look at the tools displayed below the File menu, above the viewports. This toolbar contains many tools and settings required to manipulate your scene and control how various point-and-click tools work. The toolbar actually contains so many buttons that you have to click and drag the right edge to pull the remaining objects into view, creating a sort of sliding/scrolling toolset that you’ll soon get used to when working in various areas. In the next pages, we’ll go over the individual buttons

Undo, Redo, Linking, and Space Warps

• Undo: Undoes your last action.
• Redo: Redoes an undone action.
• Select and Link: Groups any number of selected objects together so that they can be acted on as a whole.
• Unlink Selection: Breaks selected objects away from their link group to once more act as individual objects.
• Bind to Space Warp: Click this button, and then click and drag from a renderable object to an object modifier called a “space warp” to bind the two together so that the space warp’s forces will affect the object.

Selection Tools



• Select Object: Selects clicked objects to make them active for editing.
• Selection Region: Defines the shape of a click-drag-release selection region. It defaults to rectangular, but clicking on the small tick in the lower right corner of the button will expand it to allow you to select a circular region or a “fence” region outlined by your mouse selections.
• Selection Filter: Dropdown menu that allows you to define which classes of objects are affected by your selections. Defaults to all, but can be set so that only mesh objects, or lights, or other specific objects are selected.
• Select by Name: Opens a second dialogue with a list of all objects in your scene, allowing you to select them by name one at a time or in multiples.


Selection Tools



• Select Object: Selects clicked objects to make them active for editing.
• Selection Region: Defines the shape of a click-drag-release selection region. It defaults to rectangular, but clicking on the small tick in the lower right corner of the button will expand it to allow you to select a circular region or a “fence” region outlined by your mouse selections.
• Selection Filter: Dropdown menu that allows you to define which classes of objects are affected by your selections. Defaults to all, but can be set so that only mesh objects, or lights, or other specific objects are selected.
• Select by Name: Opens a second dialogue with a list of all objects in your scene, allowing you to select them by name one at a time or in multiples.

Centering and Axis and Coordinate Plane Restrictions



• Center Controls: Breaks down into “Use Pivot Point Center”, “Use Selection Center”, or “Use Transform Coordinate Center”. These settings define whether or not an object or group of objects rotate around the central pivot points of individual objects, the center of a group of objects, or the central pivot point of the axis that it/they are being rotated on.
• Restrict to X: Locks a transformation (move, rotate, scale) so that it occurs only on the X plane/coordinate.
• Restrict to Y: Locks a transformation (move, rotate, scale) so that it occurs only on the Y plane/coordinate.
• Restrict to Z: Locks a transformation (move, rotate, scale) so that it occurs only on the Z plane/coordinate.
• Restrict to Coordinate Plane: Instead of locking to a single coordinate, it locks transformations to a set of coordinates; can be the XY plane, the XZ plane, or the YZ plane.

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