Using Hand-Animated Rigid Bodies

Introduction to reactor

Reducing File Size

 

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Special Effects > Introduction to reactor > 

Preparing Output

Now that you have your simulation behaving correctly, you need to create keyframes for the objects’ motions. This can be done as before using the Create Animation button on the Toolbox.

In this example, you will create keyframes for the first 100 frames of the motion, and then simulate from frame 100 on. This shows how the reactor dynamics functionality can extract initial velocities from the scene so that simulating from frame 0 to 100 in one step is the same as simulating from frames 0 to 20, then from 20 to 40, 40 to 60, 60 to 80, and finally 80 to 100.

Extract initial velocities for rigid bodies:

1. On the reactor toolbar, click Create Animation.

   Keyframes are created between frame 0 and 100 for your rigid bodies' motions.

2. On the Utilities panel click reactor, then on the Preview & Animation rollout, set Start Frame=100 and End Frame=500.
3. Click Preview Animation.

   You will see that the objects start simulation with initial linear and angular velocities.

4. In the Time Controls, click Time Configuration.
5. In the Time Configuration dialog, set End Time to 500.
6. Click Create Animation again.

   Keyframes will be created from frame 100 to 500. If you examine the keyframes behavior in the viewport, you will see that the objects’ motion is smooth as it passes over frame 100, since the objects’ initial velocities were extracted and used for simulation.