Animating the Still Life Objects

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Introduction > Animated Still Life >

In this lesson you'll animate the objects in this scene. You'll learn how to make objects fly off screen, much like the network logos you see on television.

You'll do this with keyframe animation. The Auto Key tool in 3ds Max lets you set the important or key positions for the objects in the scene at different points in time. Then the software figures out all the in-between positions.

The procedure consists of three steps. At frame 50, you will rotate the bottle and the knife to create rotation keys for them. You will then position the apple and the orange so they are floating in the air. Then you'll shift the keys around to reverse the animation.

3ds Max gives you three different ways to create keyframes. One is to turn on the Auto Key button, move to any point in time, and transform (move, rotate, or scale) the object. A second method is to right-click the time slider and then set keys using the Create Key dialog. There is also a Set Key animation mode, designed for professional character animators.

You’ll use the Auto Key button in this exercise.

Animate the position of the orange:

Continue with your own scene, or open still_life_with_orange.max.
Click the Auto Key button.
The button turns red. You are now in automatic animation mode.

Tip The time slider bar also turns red, and the active viewport is outlined in red to remind you that you are in Auto Key mode.
In the Perspective viewport, move your mouse over the orange.
After a moment a tooltip appears that says Orange.
On the toolbar, click the Select Object button, if it isn't already active, then click to select the orange.
The time slider is the wide button located directly above the time scale display below the viewports. Move the time slider to frame 50.
Right-click the orange and choose Move from the transform quadrant of the quad menu.
In all viewports, you see the transform gizmo.
As you move your mouse over the Transform gizmo, the different axes highlight one at a time. When the Z axis (blue) highlights, click and hold the left mouse button, and drag the orange straight up in the Perspective viewport until it is almost out of view. Release the mouse button.

Because you’re working in Auto Key animation mode, you've just set a key for the orange. The key appears as a red rectangle in the time scale, below the time slider.
Move the time slider back and forth from frame 0 to frame 50, and watch the orange rise up from the wooden counter.
NoteIf you still have one of the viewports set to Camera01, you will see the animated view of Camera01.

Animate the rotation of the bottle:

Return to frame 50.
In the Perspective viewport, click the bottle to select it, or press H and select the bottle by name.
Right-click the bottle in the viewport and choose Rotate from the transform quad.
The transform gizmo appears over the bottle.

As you move your cursor over the transform gizmo, different axes display as yellow. The axes are color-coordinated (red, green, and blue equals X, Y, and Z, respectively).
Rotate about the Y axis approximately 127 degrees so the bottle is upside down, with the bottle bottom up in the left-hand corner of the viewport. (See illustration).
You can see the X,Y,Z values displayed in yellow above the transform gizmo as you rotate the bottle. These values also appear in the Coordinate Display below the viewport.

TipYou can enter values directly in the coordinate fields for precision in your work.

Bottle rotated 127 degrees about Y axis
Again move the time slider back and forth from frame 0 to frame 50 to observe the animated effect.
You'll repeat this for the knife and the apple.
Return the time slider to frame 50. Then select the handle of the knife in the viewport, or press H and select the object namehandle from the list.
The knife blade is linked to the handle, so when you animate the handle, you'll be animating the knife blade as well.
The Rotate tool should still be active; if not, click Select And Rotate on the toolbar. Use the transform gizmo to rotate the knife handle around in the viewport. Then right-click and choose Move from the quad menu. Move the handle in Z, then in X, and then in Y so the knife is closer and larger than before in the viewport.
Repeat for the apple.

Rotated still life objects
In the animation playback controls, click the Go To Start button, and then click the Play Animation button.
Watch the animated objects fly up in the air.
Turn off Auto Key.
To avoid accidentally creating unwanted animation, develop the habit of turning Auto Key off after animating.

Reverse the animation:

It's a simple procedure to reverse this animation. You'll move keys in the track bar to accomplish this.

Press H on the keyboard.
The Select Objects dialog appears.
Hold down the Ctrl key and click the bottle, apple, orange, and handle in the list. Then click Select.
The objects are displayed with selection brackets in the viewport. The keys for all the animated objects are displayed on the track bar.
In Ohe track bar, drag a selection rectangle around the keys at frame 0.
The keys turn white on the track bar to show they are selected.
Hold down the Shift key and drag the keys from their position at frame 0 to frame 100
This creates a copy of the keys from frame 0 to frame 100.
Press the Play Animation button in the VCR controls to see the animation you've created
The still life objects fly up and around at frame 50 and then return to their positions at frame 100. The animation loops because the position and rotations at frame 0 and 100 are the same.
Save your scene as my_still_life_animated_loop.max to your folder on your local drive.

Experiment with changing the animation:

You can change the animation so the objects fly in from off screen.

With all four objects still selected, select the keys at frame 0 as before. Delete them with the Delete key.
Drag a selection rectangle around the remaining keys, at frames 50 and 100. Next, drag the keys to the left, so the animation starts at frame 0 and ends at frame 50.
Again play the animation.

TipDepending on how you rotated your objects, you might need to re-create the rotation keys if the objects no longer spin the way you want them to. To do this, go to frame 0 and, with Auto Key on, rotate the objects again.
Again save your scene to your local folder, this time as my_still_life_animated_flyin.max.

Rendering the Animation