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Shout3D™ 2.0 - 3D Studio MAX Export Tutorial

Finishing with Animation

Shout3D supports most of the important animation controllers in MAX. Any animation created with these controllers will export correctly, using precisely the keys created in MAX. If you do not use a supported controller, you�ll need to sample periodic frames when you export.

To remain compatible with VRML, Shout3D preserves a rule under which rotations greater than 90 degrees between two adjacent keys are not practical. If you need to rotate an object more than 90 degrees, break the rotation up into two or more keys.

Let's make the ball rotate 360 degrees over 100 frames. You can use either the default TCB Rotation controller or the Euler XYZ controller for this purpose. Instead of creating keys at frames 0 and 100, 360 degrees apart, you must create keys at frames 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100, at 90-degree intervals. Pull the Time Slider in MAX to make sure that the complete rotation is 360 degrees.

Get rid of the texture map and the bump map. Export the animated, but textureless scene under a new name, ball_anim.s3d.

When you export, don't just pass through the dialog box. Make sure you check the box labeled Export Animation Keys. By default, the Use Keys option will be active. This will export the precise spline interpolated keys created in MAX. Had you used an unsupported animation controller, you would have needed to sample keys.

Load this new .s3d file into the Shout3D Wizard and preview. The animation will begin running automatically in a continuous loop. Spend some time looking over the .s3d file in a text editor to identify the TimeSensor and Interpolator nodes, and their related ROUTE statements.

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