976 Part IX Dynamics

reactor Troubleshooting

reactor identifies problems before you try to preview or compute the simulation. These problems are displayed in an error window. The following are some common errors you can avoid. Use the Analyze World button to look for warnings.

Don’t use the default Plane primitive: reactor complains if the plane object is co-planar. The problem is that without any depth, reactor can’t accurately compute collisions. Instead, use a Box primitive or use reactor’s Plane Primitive object (found in its toolbar).

Low Mass value: reactor complains if the Mass value for any objects is too low. To fix this problem, increase the Mass value for the identified object.

Interpenetrating objects: Objects that intersect cause an error in reactor. Make sure that none of the objects intersect with each other.

Summary

This chapter covered the basics of animating a dynamic simulation using the reactor. In this chapter, you

Experimented with the reactor plug-in

Worked with collections

Applied reactor modifiers

Used reactor objects

Previewed reactor animations

Used constraints

This chapter concludes the part of the book on animation. In the next part, we finally get to look into rendering our creations.

P A R T

Rendering

X

In This Part

Chapter 41

Rendering Basics

Chapter 42

Using Atmospheric

Effects

Chapter 43

Using Render Elements

and Effects

Chapter 44

Raytracing and mental ray

Chapter 45

Network Rendering

Rendering Basics

After hours of long, hard work, the next step — rendering — is where the “rubber hits the road” and you get to see what you’ve

worked on so hard. After modeling, applying materials, positioning lights and cameras, and animating your scene, you’re finally ready to render the final output.

Max includes a Scanline Renderer that is optimized to speed up this process, and several settings exist that you can use to make this process even faster. Understanding the Render Scene dialog box and its functions can save you many headaches and computer cycles.

Understanding the Max Renderers

Rendering deals with outputting the objects that make up a scene at various levels of detail. Max performs rendering operations in several different places: The viewports are rendered to show wireframe or smooth highlights; the sample slots in the Material Editor are also rendered; the ActiveShade windows show another level of rendering, as do the Render Scene dialog box and the Video Post interface.

The need for all these different rendering engines comes about because of a trade-off between speed and quality. For example, the renderer used to display objects in the viewports is optimized for speed, but the renderer used to output final images leans toward quality. Each renderer includes many settings that you can use to speed the rendering process or improve the quality of the results.

The plug-in nature of Max enables you to select the renderer to use to output images. To change the default renderer, look in the Assign Renderers rollout in the Common panel of the Render Scene dialog box (F10). You can select different renderers for the Production, Material Editor, and ActiveShade modes.

Previewing with ActiveShade

The ActiveShade window gives a quick semi-rendered look at the current scene. You can open it as a floater window or within a viewport using the Rendering ActiveShade Floater or Rendering ActiveShade Viewport. The ActiveShade window displays the effects of lights and shading as well as material maps.

41C H A P T E R

In This Chapter

Understanding the

Max renderers

Working with the

ActiveShade window

Setting render parameters and preferences

Creating VUE files

Using the Rendered

Frame Window and

the RAM Player

Understanding render types

Creating an environment

980 Part X Rendering

Caution	The ActiveShade window doesn’t display a complete rendered image. Although it includes
	lighting effects and material maps, it does not include many other features such as Render
	Effects and Atmospheric effects.

Only one ActiveShade window can be open at a time. If you try to open more than one window, a warning dialog box lets you know that opening it will close the previous window. The ActiveShade window has access to the same toolbar that is found in the Rendered Frame Window. The buttons on this toolbar are covered in the “Using the Rendered Frame Window” section later in this chapter.

Right-clicking the ActiveShade window opens a quadmenu of commands, as shown in Figure 41-1. The Render quadmenu in the upper right contains the common rendering menu options. The View quadmenu in the upper left contains the command to close the ActiveShade window.

Figure 41-1: The ActiveShade window’s quadmenu includes commands for updating the scene.

Chapter 41 Rendering Basics 981

	In the lower-left quadmenu, the Act Only on Mouse Up option waits to update the rendered
	scene until the mouse is released. If disabled, the window updates immediately. Auto
	Initialization updates as soon as a new mapped material is applied, and the Auto Update
	option updates any time a non-mapped material is applied or when the lights are altered.
Tip	You can drag materials from the Material Editor and drop them directly on the ActiveShade
	window.
	The Draw Region option (keyboard shortcut, D) changes the cursor to look like a pen. Using
	this pen cursor, you can select a region in the ActiveShade window by dragging from corner
	to corner. Within a selected region, only that section is updated. The Initialize option (key-
	board shortcut, P) reinitializes the window if the Auto Initialization option isn’t enabled. The
	Update option is a manual update if the Auto Update option isn’t selected. The Select Object
	option lets you pick an object in the ActiveShade window. The selected object is bounded by
	brackets, and any initialization updates the mapped material on the selected object only.

Using the ActiveShade Floater

Choosing Rendering ActiveShade Floater opens the ActiveShade Floater window. You can zoom in on an ActiveShade window by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking the window. Right-clicking causes the view to zoom out. Holding down the Shift key lets you pan the ActiveShade window. You can also zoom in and out with the mouse scroll wheel (and you don’t need to hold the Ctrl button). Holding down the mouse scroll wheel lets you pan the window.

Holding down the Alt key while right-clicking in the ActiveShade window changes the cursor to an eyedropper and lets you select colors. The selected color is displayed in a color swatch at the right end of the toolbar. Holding down the mouse button when clicking reveals a floating info box with details about the image size and the selected color values.

Enabling ActiveShade in a viewport

Choosing Rendering ActiveShade Viewport makes the current active viewport an ActiveShade window. You can toggle the toolbar on and off with the spacebar. Selecting the Close quadmenu option returns the viewport to its previous state.

Figure 41-2 shows the ActiveShade window in a viewport.