Navigating a Scene

In this lesson, you'll open an existing scene of a still life and learn to adjust the view and navigate the viewports.

Navigating the scene

1. Choose File menu > Open.
   All the files necessary for this tutorial are provided on the program disc in the \tutorials\still_life directory. Before starting the tutorials, copy the \tutorials folder from the disc to your local program installation.
   Find the \tutorials\still_life directory on your hard drive and highlight still_life_start.max, then click Open.
   
   

   
   

   Perspective viewport
   The Perspective viewport should be active, indicated by a yellow border. If it's not, right-click to activate this viewport.
2. Click the Zoom button in the viewport navigation controls at the lower-right corner of the screen.
   The button turns yellow to show it's active.
3. Press and drag downwards in the viewport.
   Your view zooms back so you can see the corner in the scene.
   
   

   
   

   Zooming back reveals the corner.
4. Click Arc Rotate in the viewport navigation controls at the lower-right corner of the screen. It highlights when active.
   A yellow navigation orb appears in the viewport.
5. Move the cursor inside the yellow circle. Press the left mouse button and move the mouse.
   The viewport arc rotates, changing the perspective view.
   
   

   
   

   Rotating the viewport
   Tip: Avoid pressing outside the yellow navigation orb, unless you want to roll the entire viewport.
6. Use the orb to spin your view so you can see the scene from every angle.
   You'll notice that the backside of the corner is dark. This is because there are already hidden lights in this scene prepared to cast shadows in your rendering.
7. Right-click in the viewport to dismiss the yellow circle.
8. Click Pan in the viewport navigation controls and move the mouse in the viewport.
   The viewport pans with your movement.
   Note: You can also start a pan operation by holding down the middle mouse button or wheel as you pan. If the middle mouse button doesn't pan the viewport, check your mouse driver settings.
9. To return the viewport to its original orientation, press SHIFT+Z repeatedly to undo the viewport changes all the way back to the beginning.

Next you will create a camera and a Camera viewport. The Camera viewport is similar to the Perspective viewport, but with more functionality. It can be animated, and effects can be added to it.

Creating a camera

1. Right-click the Top viewport to activate it.
   The Top viewport is outlined in yellow.
2. Right-click the Top viewport label (the word Top at the upper left corner of the viewport). On the menu that appears, choose Smooth + Highlight.
   The viewport display changes from wireframe to shaded.
   Tip: You can press F3 to turn a wireframe viewport display into shaded display.
   
   
3. On the Create panel, click the Cameras tab, then click Target.
4. In the Top Viewport, on the lower left-hand corner of the wooden shelf, press and drag to create a camera pointing toward the knife (see the following illustration).
   
   

   
   

   Camera created in Top viewport
   Press CTRL+D to make sure the new camera is not selected.
   To see what the camera sees, you need to change one of the viewports into a Camera viewport. You'll replace the Front viewport with a Camera viewport.
5. Right-click the Front viewport to activate it. Then press C on the keyboard.
   The Select Camera dialog appears.
   Click Camera02, then OK.
   The camera you created is Camera02. There was already a Camera01 hidden in this file.
   Tip: When a scene contains more than one camera and none of the cameras is selected, pressing C will cause the Select Camera dialog to appear. If there is just one camera in the scene, or if just one camera is selected, pressing C will change the active viewport to the indicated camera.
6. Press F3 to change the wireframe display into Smooth + Highlight shading.
   
   

   
   

   The view from Camera 02
   If you look at the navigation controls, you'll see they have changed. Tools and controls are context-sensitive, so the active Camera viewport has shifted the navigation controls.
7. Experiment with the various camera navigation controls, to zoom, pan, arc-rotate, and so on in the Camera viewport.
   Tip: To undo Camera viewport changes, press CTRL+Z, or click Undo at the left end of the Main toolbar. Unlike the Perspective viewport, Camera viewport changes are based on the movement of the camera.

Next you will render the scene.

Rendering the scene

You've looked at the scene from many different angles now. But the viewport only tells part of the story. You need to render the viewport to an image to see the full effect.

1. On the toolbar, press the Render Scene button.
   The Render dialog appears.
2. Look at the very bottom of the dialog. Make sure the Viewport: field says Camera02, then click Render.
   The virtual frame buffer appears, and the rendering takes place line-by-line from the top to the bottom of the image.
   
   

   
   

   Rendering from Camera02 zoomed in
3. Change the Camera viewport to Camera01. Make sure the Camera viewport is active and no cameras are selected, then press C and select Camera01 from the list.
4. Render again.
   Observe the rendering. You'll see shadows on the wall, reflections in the knife blade and bottle, and transparency on the leaf objects. None of these were visible in the viewport display.
   
   

   
   

   Rendering from Camera01
   
   
5. Right-click the Camera viewport label, and choose Views > Front to change the Camera viewport back to a Front viewport.

Next, you'll create an orange to add to the scene. Then you'll animate the objects so they fly into place.

Next

Creating an Orange