Week 1- My First 3D Animation

Today is the first time I have attempted to create an animation in 3Ds Max, and with this in mind feel I have managed to complete the tasks quite well.

To begin with I just added key frames along the timeline and adjusted the position of the content at these points. At first I did occasionally forget to click on the key button, but after some practice I started to remember this each time.

When I went on to look at the Curve Editor I found understanding it quite difficult. When I was just concentrating on the shape moving up and down I found the graph in the Curve Editor easy to work with, as when the object went up so did the line and vice versa, however when I added movement along other axis’s I did find the graphs quite confusing to understand, but I hope with further use of the software for animation I will be able to work with these more easily.

I also looked at the dope sheet during the lesson. I did not use it to make any alterations as the animation I was creating was very simple, but if I ever need to align more complex movements I believe this would be very useful.

Lastly I went on to practice attaching and using a dummy. During the tutorial I only tried a simple movement of a single object, but from this I feel it will be a very useful tool when animating several objects at once, especially if they are close together.

I feel I have understood how to produce a basic animation during today’s tutorial well and, along with the notes I made, I believe I will be able to create another animation in the future using these techniques. I hope to build on these skills in future tutorials so by the end of the semester I can create a more sophisticated animation.