Rendering the Animation

Rendering multiple frames for a complete animation is time consuming, even on fast machines. Each frame is individually processed. Realistic materials, shadow casting, and other factors can slow the process as well. When you're ready to take a break, you can render this animation, then come back after a short time and see the results.

Render your animation:

To complete this tutorial, render the animation you made earlier. The rendering time is probably under 15 minutes, depending on the speed of your machine.

1. On the menu bar, do the following:
   • Choose File > Open to load your saved animations, either my_still_life_animated_loop.max or my_still_life_animated_flyin.max. Or you can open still_life_animated.max.
   • Choose Rendering menu > Render to display the Render Scene dialog.
2. If you did not save the completed files back to the same tutorial directory, when you select one of your files to open you might encounter a Missing Map / Photometric Files dialog. If you do run into this problem, press the Browse button. The Configure Bitmap / Photometric Paths dialog will appear. Click the Add button. In the Choose New Bitmap Path dialog, navigate to the directory where you loaded the original file. Click the Use Path button. On the Configure Bitmap / Photometric Paths dialog, click OK. On the Missing Map/Photometric Files dialog, click Continue.
3. In the Render Scene dialog > Output Size group, change the default (640 x 480) to 320 x 240.
   This smaller size has only one-quarter the area of the default, making it much faster to render.
4. In the Time Output group, turn on Active Time Segment.
5. In the Render Output group, click the Files button. In the Render Output File dialog, name your animation mystill_life_animated.avi. Click Save to save the animation to the \images subdirectory.
   Warning: You must either add the extension .avi in the file name, or else select AVI as the file type. If you don't tell the program what type of animation format to save in, the rendering won't work.
   Tip: When working professionally it is better practice to not render directly to a movie file format. You should instead render to a sequence of still image files such as TGA or TIF and then assemble them into a movie using Video Post or the Ram Player. For more information on this method see the Rendering chapters in the online tutorials.
6. In the Video Compression dialog, do the following:
   • If necessary, change the compressor to Cinepak Codec. There are lots of different codecs to choose from. Cinepak generally gives satisfactory results.
   • Set the Compression Quality high, between 90 and 100.
   • When you’re done, click OK.
7. On the Render Scene dialog, notice that the field next to the Files button now shows the location of mystill_life_animated.avi.
8. At the bottom of the Render Scene dialog, from the list labeled Viewport, select Perspective.
   You always want to be sure you’re rendering the right viewport.
   Tip: Usually you will use a camera viewport, rather than rendering the Perspective viewport. In this case, since the animation was created in the Perspective viewport, you'll use that.
9. Click Render to begin the rendering process.
   Watch a few frames to make sure nothing is terribly wrong. The Time Remaining estimate will give you an idea of how long the rendering will take.

Play the rendered animation:

1. When your animation is finished rendering, chose File menu > View Image File.
   By default, the View File dialog opens in the \images subdirectory.
2. Highlight mystill_life_animated.avi and click Open to display the Media Player.
3. Play your animation from the Media Player.
4. If you like the animation, you can render it again at 640 x 480. This will take 4 times as long as the smaller resolution, probably around 30 minutes. Or you can load the other animation file and render that one.
   You'll find finished AVI files of both animations (the fly-in and the loop) in the \tutorials\still_life folders if you want to skip the rendering entirely.

Summary

You have created an animated still life and learned to find your way around the 3ds Max user interface. You've learned viewport navigation, created an orange using primitives, and assigned materials. You've also learned to move objects, animate and render your animation.