CHAPTER 2

Controlling and Configuring the Viewports

Although Max consists of many different interface elements, such as panels, dialog boxes, and menus, the viewports are the main areas that will catch your attention. The four main viewports make up the bulk of the interface. You can think of the viewports as looking at the television screen instead of the remote. Learning to control and use the viewports can make a huge difference in your comfort level with Max. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to rotate, pan, and zoom the view.

The viewports have numerous settings and controls that you can use to provide thousands of different ways to look at your scene, and beginners can feel frustrated at not being able to control what they see. Max includes several handy little gizmos that make navigating the viewports much easier. This chapter includes all the details you need to make the viewports reveal their secrets.

Understanding 3D Space

It seems silly to be talking about 3D space because we live and move in 3D space. If we stop and think about it, 3D space is natural to us. For example, consider trying to locate your kids at the swimming pool. If you're standing poolside, the kids could be to your left or right, in front of you or behind you, or in the water below you or on the high dive above you. Each of these sets of directions represents a dimension in 3D space.

Now imagine that you're drawing a map that pinpoints the kid's location at the swimming pool. Using the drawing (which is 2D), you can describe the kid's position on the map as left, right, top, or bottom, but the descriptions of above and below have been lost. By moving from a 3D reference to a 2D one, the number of dimensions has decreased.

The conundrum that 3D computer artists face is, how do you represent 3D objects on a 2D device such as a computer screen? The answer that 3ds Max provides is to present several views, called viewports, of the scene. A viewport is a small window that displays the scene from one perspective. These viewports are the windows into Max's 3D world. Each viewport has numerous settings and viewing options.

Learning Axonometric versus Perspective

When it comes to views in the 3D world, two different types exist—Axonometric and Perspective. Axonometric views are common in the CAD world where the viewer is set at an infinite distance from the object such that all parallel lines remain parallel. A Perspective view simulates how our eyes actually work and converges all points to a single location off in the distance.

You can see the difference between these two types of views clearly if you look at a long line of objects. For example, if you were to look down a long row of trees lining a road, the trees would eventually merge on the horizon. In Axonometric views, lines stay parallel as they recede into the distance. Figure 2.1 shows this example with the Axonometric view on the left and the Perspective view on the right.

FIGURE 2.1 Axonometric and Perspective views

Learning Orthographic and Isometric views

If you dig a little deeper into Axonometric views, you find two different types: Orthographic and Isometric. Orthographic views are displayed from the perspective of looking straight down an axis at an object. This reveals a view in only one plane. Because orthographic viewports are constrained to one plane, they show the actual height and width of the object, which is why the CAD world uses orthographic views extensively. Isometric views are not constrained to a single axis and can view the scene from any location, but all dimensions are still maintained.

Discovering the viewports in Max

Available orthographic viewports in Max include Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Left, and Right. Max starts up with the Top, Front, and Left orthographic viewports visible. The top-left corner of the viewport displays the viewport name. The fourth default viewport is a Perspective view. Only one viewport, known as the active viewport, is enabled at a time. A yellow border highlights the active viewport.

Figure 2.2 shows the viewports with a Viewpoint model of a PT-328 U.S. Torpedo boat. You can see the model from a different direction in each viewport. If you want to measure the boat's length from aft to stern, you could get an accurate measurement using the Top or Left viewport, whereas you can use the Front and Left viewports to measure its precise height. So, using these different viewports, you can accurately work with all object dimensions.

FIGURE 2.2 The Max interface includes four viewports, each with a different view.

Isometric views in Max are called Orthographic viewports. You can create an Orthographic viewport by rotating any of the default non-perspective views.

Using the Navigation Gizmos

One of the key advantages of working in 3D is that you can view your models from an endless number of viewpoints, but you won't be able to switch to these endless viewpoints until you learn to navigate the viewports. Being able to quickly navigate the viewports is essential to working in Max and one of the first skills you should master.

To make the process of navigating within the viewports and switching among the various views easier, Max has some navigation gizmos that make this chore easy. These semitransparent gizmos hover in the upper-right corner of each viewport and provide a way to change the view without having to access a tool, select a menu, or even use a keyboard shortcut.

Working with the ViewCube

The ViewCube consists of a 3D cube that is labeled on each side and centered in a ring located on the ground plane. Its purpose is to show the current orientation of the viewport, but it is also interactive and provides a way to quickly move among the different views.

If you drag the cursor over the top of the ViewCube, shown in Figure 2.3, you'll notice that the cube's faces, corners, and edges are highlighted as the cursor moves over them. If you click when any of the cube's parts are highlighted, the viewport is animated and moves to the new view so it's positioned as if it's pointing at the selected part. By slowly animating the transition to the new view, you get a better idea of the size and shape of the model. It also makes it easy to reorient the model if it gets twisted around to an odd angle. For example, if you click the cube's face labeled Top, then the view moves from its current view until the Top view is assumed.

FIGURE 2.3 The ViewCube lets you quickly change the current view.

The ViewCube also lets you click and drag on the cube to rotate the view around. You can also click and drag on the base ring to spin the model about its current orientation. Above the ViewCube is a small house icon. Clicking this icon changes the view to the defined home view. You can set the Home view by right-clicking the ViewCube and selecting the Set Current View as Home option from the pop-up menu. These same menu options are also available in the Views ViewCube menu. If the ViewCube isn't visible, you can enable it using the Views ViewCube Show For Active View. There is also an option to Show For All Views.

Other pop-up menu options let you switch the view between Orthographic and Perspective views. You can also set the current view as Front, reset the Front view, and open the ViewCube panel that is located in the Viewport Configuration dialog box, as shown in Figure 2.4.

FIGURE 2.4 The ViewCube panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box lets you control where and how the ViewCube appears.

The ViewCube panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box includes settings for turning the ViewCube on and off for All Views or for Only the Active View. You can also set the ViewCube size and its inactive opacity.

You also have options to control what happens when you click or drag the ViewCube. You can snap to the closest view when dragging the ViewCube and options to automatically make the models fit to the view when the view changes, to use animated transitions, and to keep the scene upright. If you find that the view keeps ending up at odd angles when you drag the ViewCube, try enabling the Keep Scene Upright option. Finally, you have an option to display the compass under the ViewCube and a setting for the Angle of North so you can change the compass’ orientation. The compass is helpful in being able to spin the model around, but if your model is something like a planet that doesn't have a top or bottom, disabling the compass makes sense.

Using the SteeringWheels

The ViewCube is great for switching between the default views and for rotating the current view, but there are many additional navigation tools that aren't covered with the ViewCube. To handle many of these other navigation tools, such as zooming and panning, Max includes the SteeringWheels, another gizmo for navigating the viewports.

When Max is first started, the SteeringWheels are turned off, but you can enable this gizmo with the Views SteeringWheels Toggle SteeringWheels menu or by pressing the Shift+W shortcut. Once enabled, different parts of the wheel are highlighted when you move over them. The full navigation wheel, shown in Figure 2.5, includes the following modes:

FIGURE 2.5 The SteeringWheel gizmo includes several different ways to navigate the viewports.

• Zoom: Causes the view to zoom in and out of the scene about the pivot. The pivot is set by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking.
• Orbit: Causes the view to orbit about the pivot. The pivot is set by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking.
• Pan: Causes the view to pan in the direction that you drag the cursor.
• Rewind: As you change the scene, Max remembers each view where you stop and keeps these views in a buffer. The Rewind mode displays these views as small thumbnails, as shown in Figure 2.6, and lets you move through them by dragging the mouse. This allows you to rewind back and move forward through the buffered views.

• Center: Lets you click an object to be the pivot center for zooming and orbiting.
• Walk: Moves you forward through the scene as if you were walking through it. Holding down the Shift key lets you move up and down.
• Look: Causes the camera to rotate side to side as if looking to the side.
• Up/Down: Moves the view up and down from the current location.

FIGURE 2.6 Rewind mode lets you move back and forth through recent views.

In the upper-right corner of the wheel is a small X icon. This icon is used to close the SteeringWheel gizmo. In the lower-right corner of the wheel is a small down arrow. This icon opens a pop-up menu. Using the pop-up menu, you can select a different wheel type, go to the home view as defined by the ViewCube, increase or decrease the walk speed, restore the original center, or open the SteeringWheels panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box, as shown in Figure 2.7. These same options are also available in the Views SteeringWheels menu, along with an option to Toggle the SteeringWheels on and off (Shift+W).

Using the SteeringWheels panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box, you can set the size and opacity of the SteeringWheels. There are also settings for controlling many of the different modes.

FIGURE 2.7 The SteeringWheels panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box includes settings for the various wheels.

Tutorial: Navigating the active viewport

Over time, navigating the viewports becomes second nature to you, but you need to practice to get to that point. In this tutorial, you get a chance to take the viewports for a spin—literally.

To practice navigating a viewport, follow these steps:

1. Open the Bruce the dog.max file from the Chap 02 directory on the CD.

   This file includes a model of a dog (affectionately named Bruce) created by Viewpoint. It provides a reference as you navigate the viewport. The active viewport is the Perspective viewport.

2. Click the Maximize Viewport Toggle button (or press Alt+W) to make the Perspective viewport fill the space of all four viewports.
3. Click the Front face in the ViewCube to transition the view to the front view. Then move the cursor over the upper-right corner of the ViewCube and click to set the view to a perspective view.
4. Select the Views SteeringWheels Toggle SteeringWheels (or press Shift+W); then hold down the Ctrl key and click Bruce's head to set the pivot. Then move the cursor over the Zoom button and drag until Bruce's head fills the viewport.
5. With the Steering Wheel still active, move the cursor over the Pan button and drag the window until Bruce's head is centered evenly in the viewport, as shown in Figure 2.8. Right-click in the viewport to toggle the SteeringWheel gizmo off.

FIGURE 2.8 The Perspective viewport is zoomed in on the dog's head using the Zoom and Pan controls.

Controlling Viewports with a Scroll Wheel Mouse

Now that I've explained the viewport navigation gizmos, I'll explain another easy way to control the viewports. Often, the quickest way to control the viewports is with the mouse. To really get the benefit of the mouse, you need to use a mouse with a scroll wheel (which also acts as a middle mouse button).

Rolling the scroll wheel in the active viewport zooms in to and out of the viewport by steps just like the bracket keys ([ and ]). You can zoom precisely by holding down the Ctrl and Alt keys while dragging the scroll wheel.

Clicking and dragging the scroll wheel button pans the active viewport. Clicking and dragging with the Alt button held down rotates the active viewport. If the scroll wheel isn't working, check the Viewports panel in the Preference Settings dialog box. You can select to use the scroll wheel control to pan and zoom in the viewports or to define and use Strokes.

Using the Viewport Navigation Controls

Although the ViewCube, the SteeringWheels, and the scroll wheel make navigating the viewports easy, you can still use the standard navigation tools located in the bottom-right corner of the interface. The standard viewports show you several different views of your current project, but within each viewport you can zoom in on certain objects, pan the view, or rotate about the center of the viewport. Clicking a viewport with any of the Viewport Navigation Controls automatically makes the selected viewport the active viewport. In Table 2.1, the keyboard shortcut for each button is listed in parentheses next to its name.

TABLE 2.1 Viewport Navigation Controls

Zooming a view

You can zoom into and out of the scene in several ways. Clicking the Zoom (Alt+Z) button enters zoom mode where you can zoom into and out of a viewport by dragging the mouse. This works in whichever viewport you drag in. To the right of the Zoom button is the Zoom All button, which does the same thing as the Zoom button, only to all four viewports at once. If you hold down the Ctrl key while dragging in Zoom mode, the zoom action happens more quickly, requiring only a small mouse movement to get a large zoom amount. Holding down the Alt key while dragging in Zoom mode has the opposite effect; the zoom happens much more slowly, and a large mouse move is required for a small zoom amount. This is helpful for fine-tuning the zoom.

The Zoom Extents (Ctrl+Alt+Z) button zooms the active viewport so that all objects (or the selected objects with the Zoom Extents Selected button) are visible in the viewport. A Zoom Extents All (Ctrl+Shift+Z) button is available for zooming in all viewports to all objects’ extents; the most popular zoom command (and the easiest to remember) is Zoom Extents All Selected (Z), which is for zooming into the extents of the selected objects in all viewports.

You can use the brackets keys to zoom in ([) and out (]) by steps. Each key press zooms in (or out) another step. The Region Zoom (Ctrl+W) button lets you drag over the region that you want to zoom in on. If you select a non-orthogonal view, such as the Perspective view, the Region Zoom button has a flyout called the Field of View. Using this button, you can control how wide or narrow the view is. This is like using a wide angle or telephoto lens on your camera. This feature is different from zoom in that the perspective is distorted as the Field of View is increased.

Panning a view

The Viewport Navigation Controls also offer two ways to pan in a viewport. In Pan mode (Ctrl+P), dragging in a viewport pans the view. Note that this doesn't move the objects, only the view. The second way to pan is to hold down the I key while moving the mouse. This is known as an interactive pan. In addition, the Ctrl and Alt keys can be held down to speed or slow the panning motions.

Walking through a view

The Walk Through button, found as a flyout button under the Pan button, allows you to move through the scene in the Perspective or Camera viewport using the arrow keys or the mouse just as you would if you were playing a first-person computer game. When this button is active, the cursor changes to a small circle with an arrow inside it that points in the direction you are moving. You need to first click in the viewport before you can use the arrow keys.

The Walk Through feature includes several keystrokes for controlling the camera's movement. The arrow keys move the camera forward, left, back, and right (or you can use the W, A, S, and D keys). You can change the speed of the motion with the Q (accelerate) and Z (decelerate) keys or with the [ (decrease step size) and ] (increase step size) keys. The E and C keys (or the Shift+up or Shift+down arrows) are used to move up and down in the scene. The Shift+spacebar key causes the camera to be set level. Dragging the mouse while the camera is moving changes the direction in which the camera points.

A handy alternative to Walk Through mode is the Walkthrough Assistant, which is found on the Animation menu. This utility opens a dialog box that includes buttons for creating and adding a camera to a path. It also has controls from turning the view side to side as the camera moves along the path.

Rotating a view

Rotating the view can be the most revealing of all the view changes. When the Orbit (Ctrl+R) button is selected, a rotation guide appears in the active viewport, as shown in Figure 2.9. This rotation guide is a circle with a square located at each quadrant. Clicking and dragging the left or right squares rotates the view side to side; the same action with the top and bottom squares rotates the view up and down. Clicking within the circle and dragging rotates within a single plane, and clicking and dragging out side of the circle rotates the view about the circle's center either clockwise or counterclockwise. If you get confused, look at the cursor, which changes depending on the type of rotation. The Ctrl and Alt keys also can speed and slow the rotating view.

FIGURE 2.9 The rotation guide appears whenever the Orbit button is selected.

Maximizing the active viewport

Sooner or later, the viewports will feel too small. When this happens, you have several ways to increase the size of your viewports. The first trick to try is to change the viewport sizes by clicking and dragging any of the viewport borders. Dragging on the intersection of the viewports resizes all the viewports. Figure 2.10 shows the viewports after being dynamically resized.

FIGURE 2.10 You can dynamically resize viewports by dragging their borders.

The second trick is to use the Maximize Viewport Toggle (Alt+W) to expand the active viewport to fill the space reserved for all four viewports. Clicking the Maximize Viewport Toggle (or pressing Alt+W) a second time returns to the defined layout.

Maximizing the viewport helps temporarily, but you can take another step before convincing your boss that you need a larger monitor. You can enter Expert Mode by choosing Views Expert Mode (Ctrl+X). It maximizes the viewport space by removing the main toolbar, the Command Panel, and most of the Lower Interface Bar.

With most of the interface elements gone, you'll need to rely on the menus, keyboard shortcuts, and quadmenus to execute commands. To reenable the default interface, click the Cancel Expert Mode button in the lower right of the Max window (or press Ctrl+X again). Figure 2.11 shows the interface in Expert Mode.

FIGURE 2.11 Expert Mode maximizes the viewports by eliminating most of the interface elements.

Controlling camera and spotlight views

You can set any viewport to be a Camera view (C) or a Spotlight view ($) if a camera or a spotlight exists in the scene. When either of these views is active, the Viewport Navigation Control buttons change. In Camera view, controls for dolly, roll, truck, pan, orbit, and field of view become active. A light view includes controls for falloff and hotspots.

Changing the Viewport Display

Although the Viewport Navigation Controls are focused on controlling what is visible in the viewports, there are also a number of useful commands in the Views menu and in the viewport labels at the top-left corner of each viewport that directly affect the viewports. The three viewport labels include the General viewport label (which is a simple plus sign), the Point-of-View viewport label, and the Shading viewport label. The last two labels show the current setting.

Undoing and saving viewport changes

If you get lost in your view, you can undo and redo viewport changes with Views Undo View Change (Shift+Z) and Views Redo View Change (Shift+Y). These commands are different from the Edit Undo and Edit Redo commands, which can undo or redo geometry changes.

You can save changes made to a viewport by using the Views Save Active Viewport menu command. This command saves the Viewport Navigation settings for recall. To restore these settings, use Views Restore Active Viewport.

Disabling and refreshing viewports

If your scene gets too complicated, you can experience some slow-down waiting for each viewport to be updated with changes, but fear not, because several options will come to your rescue. The first option to try is to disable a viewport.

You can disable a viewport by right-clicking the general viewport label and selecting the Disable View menu command from the pop-up menu, or you can press the keyboard shortcut, D. When a disabled viewport is active, it is updated as normal; when it is inactive, the viewport is not updated at all until it becomes active again. Disabled viewports are identified by the word “Disabled,” which appears next to the viewport's labels in the upper-left corner.

Another trick to increase the viewport update speed is to disable the Views Update During Spinner Drag menu option. Changing parameter spinners can cause a slowdown by requiring every viewport to update as the spinner changes. If the spinner is changing rapidly, it can really slow even a powerful system. Disabling this option causes the viewport to wait for the spinner to stop changing before updating.

Sometimes when changes are made, the viewports aren't completely refreshed. This typically happens when dialog boxes from other programs are moved in front of the viewports or as objects get moved around, because they often mask one another and lines disappear. If this happens, you can force Max to refresh all the viewports with the Views Redraw All Views (keyboard shortcut, ‘) menu command. The Redraw All Views command refreshes each viewport and makes everything visible again.

Viewing materials in the viewports

The Views menu also includes several commands for making scene details such as materials, lighting, and shadows visible in the viewports. Each of these options can slow down the refresh rate, but they provide immediate feedback, which is often helpful.

Texture maps can also take up lots of memory. The Views Show Materials in Viewport As Shaded Materials with Maps command shows all applied texture maps in the viewports. If you don't need to see the texture maps, then switching to Views Show Materials in Viewport As Shaded Materials without Maps will speed up the display. There is also an option to use Realistic Materials without Maps and Realistic Materials with Maps that uses the video card's memory to display the applied textures.

The Views Show Materials in Viewport As menu also includes a toggle to Enable Transparency in the viewport.

Displaying lights and shadows in the viewports

Options for enabling lighting and shadow effects within the viewports are located in the Shading viewport label menu. By default, both shadows and ambient occlusion are enabled when the Realistic shading mode is selected, but you can disable them using the toggle menu options under the Lighting and Shadows menu. There is also an option to Illuminate the scene using Scene Lights or Default Lights. Figure 2.12 shows an example of viewport shadows and Ambient Occlusion.

FIGURE 2.12 Viewport Shading shown with shadows enabled

Ambient Occlusion is a lighting effect that adds to the realism of a scene by making objects cast shadows on surrounding objects based on how they block the light. Objects that are close to one another spread a soft shadow onto nearby objects. Figure 2.13 gives a good example. Notice how the columns cast a light shadow onto the walls and onto the areas around the column caps.

FIGURE 2.13 Ambient Occlusion can often be used as an alternative to full shadows

Configuring viewport lighting and shadows

The Viewport Configuration dialog box includes a number of settings for the viewport lighting and shadows in the Visual Style & Appearance panel, shown in Figure 2.14. This panel includes options to illuminate the scene with Default lights (either one or two) or with Scene lights, just like the viewport Shading label menu. The one-light option creates a single light positioned behind the viewer and at an angle to the scene. Scenes with one light update more quickly than scenes with two lights.

The Default Lighting toggle deactivates your current lights and uses the default lights. This option can be helpful when you're trying to view objects in a dark setting because the default lighting illuminates the entire scene without requiring you to remove or turn off lights. This dialog box also includes options for enabling Highlights and displaying light from the selected lights.

FIGURE 2.14 The Lighting and Shadows panel includes default settings for displaying interactive lights and shadows in the viewport.

The Lighting and Shadows Quality slider lets you select from several different quality settings by dragging the slider. The options range from Point Lights/Hard Shadows and Point Lights/Soft-Edge Shadows on the left through 0.125X-Very Low to 16X-Very High Quality on the right. The rightmost options can take longer to render and use area lights to improve the quality.

Beneath the Quality slider are options to enable or disable Shadows and Ambient Occlusion. You also have options to adjust the Intensity/Fade value for shadows and the Radius and Intensity/Fade amount of the Ambient Occlusion effect. These values are used to override the Viewport Shadow Intensity to dim the shadows if they are too dark. The Radius value sets how close objects need to be in order to be included in the ambient occlusion solution.

To enable and configure lighting and shadows in the viewports, follow these steps:

1. Open the Foot bones.max file from the Chap 02 directory on the CD.

   This file includes a set of foot bones created by Viewpoint Datalabs. There is also an Omni light added to the scene.

2. Click in the viewport Shading label, and select the Lighting and Shadows Shadows option. Then select the Configure option from the same menu to access the Visual Style & Appearance panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box.

   Caution

   If you don't see the Visual Style & Appearance panel in the Viewport Configuration dialog box, then you probably have a different display driver enabled.

   Select the Enable Ambient Occlusion setting with the Radius of 10 and an Intensity/Fade value of 1. Select the Point Lights/Soft-Edged Shadows option in the Lighting and Shadows Quality slider. Then click the OK button.

3. Click the Select and Move toolbar button, and drag the light object about the scene.

   The shadows under the foot bones are automatically updated as the light is moved, as shown in Figure 2.15. Notice how the shadows are soft.

   FIGURE 2.15 Lights and shadows are updated in real time when the light is moved about the scene.

   

Another option available in the Visual Style & Appearance panel is the Auto Display Selected Lights. This option also is available in the Views Viewport Lighting and Shadows menu. It is helpful when you're placing and aiming lights in the scene. It causes the selected light to be displayed in the shaded viewport automatically. The Views Viewport Lighting and Shadows menu also includes options for locking and unlocking selected lights.

Locating mesh problems with xView

When modeling or importing mesh objects, a number of problems with the geometry could cause rendering artifacts such as flipped normals, overlapping faces, and open edges. Locating these problem areas can be tricky, requiring multiple renders to get it right. Within the viewports is a powerful analysis feature for locating a number of specific problem areas. This feature is called xView, and you can access it from the Views menu.

The xView analysis tool can locate and highlight the following anomalies:

• Show Statistics (7): Displays the number of Polys, Tris, Edges, Verts, and FPS for the entire scene and for the selected object.
• Face Orientation: Highlights the back side of the faces in the current selection to quickly identify faces with flipped normals.
• Overlapping Faces: Highlights any faces that are stacked on top of each other, which can cause render problems.
• Open Edges: Identifies unwanted holes in the geometry.
• Multiple Edges: Checks for edges that are stacked on each other. Each edge should be connected to only two faces.
• Isolated Vertices: Highlights vertices that aren't connected to anything. These vertices just take up space.
• Overlapping Vertices: Flags vertices that are within a given tolerance.
• T-Vertices: Highlights vertices where three edges meet. This can terminate an edge loop.
• Missing UVW Coordinates: Shows any faces that have no UVW coordinates for applying textures.
• Flipped UVW Faces: Highlights any faces that are flipped with opposite-pointing normals.
• Overlapping UVW Faces: Displays any faces where the textures are overlapping.

Whichever option is selected is listed at the bottom of the viewport in green along with the number of offending subobjects, such as Isolated Vertices: 12 Vertices. The menu also includes options to Select the Results, which provides to a way to quickly select and delete problem subobjects like isolated vertices. If the selected option has a setting such as the Tolerance of overlapping edges, you can select the Configure option to set this setting or click the Click Here to Configure text at the bottom of the viewport. There are also menu options to See Through the model, Auto Update the results, and display the results at the top of the viewport.

Configuring the Viewports

If the Viewport Navigation Controls help define what you see, then the Viewport Configuration dialog box helps define how you see objects in the viewports. You can configure each viewport using this dialog box. To open this dialog box, choose the Views Viewport Configuration menu command. You can also open this dialog box by right-clicking the viewport's general label located in the upper-left corner of each viewport and choosing Configure from the pop-up menu.

The viewport labels are divided into a General menu (shown as a plus sign), a point of view label, and a shading method label. The various pop-up menus for these labels also include many of the settings found in the Viewport Configuration dialog box, but the dialog box lets you alter several settings at once. You can also make this dialog box appear for the active viewport by right-clicking any of the Viewport Navigation Control buttons in the lower-right corner.

The Viewport Configuration dialog box contains several panels, including Visual Style & Appearance, Layout, Safe Frames, Display Performance, Regions, Statistics, ViewCube, and SteeringWheels. The Preference Settings dialog box also includes many settings for controlling the behavior and look of the viewports.

Setting the viewport visual style

Complex scenes take longer to display and render. The renderer used for the viewports is highly optimized to be very quick, but if you're working on a huge model with lots of complex textures and every viewport is set to display the highest quality view, then updating each viewport can slow the program to a crawl. The Viewport Configuration dialog box's Visual Style & Appearance panel, shown earlier in Figure 2.13, lets you set the visual style settings for the current viewport.

Rendering levels

The Rendering Level options, from slowest to fastest, include the following:

• Realistic: Shows smooth surfaces with lighting highlights
• Shaded: Shows smooth surfaces without any lighting effects
• Consistent Colors: Shows the entire object with minimal lighting
• Hidden Line: Shows only polygon edges facing the camera
• Wireframe: Shows all polygon edges only
• Bounding Box: Shows a box that would enclose the object

Although it really isn't a rendering method, the Edged Faces option shows the edges for each face when a shaded rendering method is selected. You can enable and disable this option with the F4 keyboard shortcut. Figure 2.16 shows, side by side, all the various viewport rendering methods applied to a simple sphere.

FIGURE 2.16 The viewport rendering methods are shown from left to right. First Row: Realistic, Shaded, Consistent Colors, Hidden Line, and Wireframe. Second Row: Bounding Box, and Edged Faces applied to Shaded.

The Realistic shading method uses any applied textures and high-quality lighting and shadows. The Shaded method is similar, but it uses a quick shading method called Phong shading. The Consistent Color method displays the entire object using a single color without any shading. The simplest rendering setting that represents the shape of the object is Wireframe. It gives a good representation of the object while redrawing very quickly. By default, the Top, Front, and Left viewports are set to Wireframe, and the Perspective viewport is set to Realistic. The Bounding Box method shows only the limits of the object as a rectangular shaped box.

Viewing transparency

In addition to these shading types, you also can set the viewport to display objects that contain transparency (which is set in the Material Editor dialog box). The Transparency option is located under the viewport Shading label in the Material submenu. The Enable Transparency option also is located in the Visual Style & Appearance panel of the Viewport Configuration dialog box and in the Views Show Materials in Viewport As menu. Figure 2.17 shows the transparency option disabled and enabled with the help of a hungry little animated creature and his ghostly rival.

FIGURE 2.17 Transparency in the viewport can be enabled using the Views Show Materials in Viewport As menu.

Other rendering options

The other rendering options, such as Disable View (D), Viewport Clipping, and an option to turn Textures on and off also are available. These options can help speed up viewport updates or increase the visual detail of the objects in the viewport.

Within the Selection section are several options that make it easier to see the selected object and/or subobjects. The Selection Brackets option displays white corners around the current selection. Selection brackets are useful for helping you see the entire size of a grouped object, but can be annoying if left on with many objects selected. Uncheck this option (or press the J key) to make these brackets disappear. The option to Display Selected with Edged Faces helps to highlight the selected object. If this option is enabled, then the edges of the current selection are displayed regardless of whether the Edged Faces check box is enabled. Figure 2.18 shows the grips of an M-203 rifle that was created by Viewpoint Datalabs selected with the Display Selected with Edged Faces and the Use Selection Brackets options enabled. These options make the current selection easy to see.

FIGURE 2.18 The Display Selected with Edged Faces and Use Selection Brackets options make identifying the current selection easy.

You use Shade Selected Faces (F2) to shade selected subobject faces in red, making them easy to see. The Shade Selected Objects option causes the selected object to be shaded. This is noticeable only if the render level is set to Wireframe or Hidden Line. It causes the selected object to be shaded.

Using clipping planes

Clipping planes define an invisible barrier beyond which all objects are invisible. For example, if you have a scene with many detailed mountain objects in the background, working with an object in the front of the scene can be difficult. By setting the clipping plane between the two, you can work on the front objects without having to redraw the mountain objects every time you update the scene. This affects only the viewport, not the rendered output.

Enabling the Viewport Clipping option in the viewport point-of-view label menu places a yellow line with two arrows on the right side of the viewport, as shown in Figure 2.19. The top arrow represents the back clipping plane, and the bottom arrow is the front clipping plane. Drag the arrows up and down to set the clipping planes.

FIGURE 2.19 The clipping planes can be used to show the interior of this car model.

Tutorial: Viewing the interior of a heart with Clipping Planes

You can use the Viewport Clipping setting in the viewport point-of-view label to view the interior of a model such as this heart model created by Viewpoint.

To view the interior of a heart model, follow these steps:

1. Open the Heart interior.max file from the Chap 02 directory on the CD.
2. Choose Views Viewport Configuration to open the Viewport Configuration dialog box. Enable the Viewport Clipping option, and then close the dialog box.
3. The Clipping Plane markers appear to the right of the viewport. The top marker controls the back clipping plane, and the bottom marker controls the front clipping plane. Drag the bottom clipping plane marker upward to slice through the heart model to reveal its interior, as shown in Figure 2.20.

FIGURE 2.20 By using Clipping Planes, you can reveal the interior of a model.

Setting the Field of View

You can also alter the Field of View (FOV) for the Perspective view in the Viewport Configuration dialog box. To create a fish-eye view, increase the FOV setting to 10 or less. The maximum FOV value is 180, and the default value is 45. You can also change the Field of View using the Field of View button in the Viewport Navigation Controls. The Viewport Configuration dialog box, however, lets you enter precise values.

Grabbing a viewport image

It's not rendering, but you can grab an image of the active viewport using Tools Views - Grab Viewport. Before grabbing the image, a simple dialog box appears asking you to add a label to the grabbed image. The image is loaded into the Rendered Frame Window, and its label appears in the lower-right corner of the image, as shown in Figure 2.21. The Tools Grab Viewport menu also includes options for creating, viewing, and renaming animated sequence files, which provides a quick way to create animation previews.

FIGURE 2.21 A viewport image can be grabbed using a menu command found in the Tools menu.

Altering the viewport layout

Now that you've started to figure out the viewports, you may want to change the number and size of viewports displayed. The Layout panel, shown in Figure 2.22, in the Viewpoint Configuration dialog box, offers several layouts as alternatives to the default layout (not that there is anything wrong with the default and its four equally sized viewports).

FIGURE 2.22 The Layout panel offers many layout options.

After selecting a layout from the options at the top of the panel, you can assign each individual viewport a different view by clicking each viewport in the Layout panel and choosing a view from the pop-up menu. The view options include Perspective, Orthographic, Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Left, Right, ActiveShade, Track, Grid (Front, Back, Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Display Planes), Scene Explorer, Extended (Biped Animation WorkBench, Motion Mixer, Material Explorer, MAXScript Listener), and Shape. These view options are also available by right-clicking the viewport Point-of-View label in the upper-left corner of the viewport. Figure 2.23 shows a viewport layout with the Track view, Schematic view, Asset Browser, and Perspective views open.

Views can also be set to Camera and Spotlight if they exist in the scene. Each camera and light that exists is listed by name at the top of the pop-up menu.

Using Safe Frames

Completing an animation and converting it to some broadcast medium, only to see that the whole left side of the animation is being cut off in the final screening, can be discouraging. If you rely on the size of the active viewport to show the edges of the final output, you could be way off. Using the Safe Frames feature, you can display some guides within the viewport that show where the content must be to avoid such problems.

FIGURE 2.23 Other interfaces such as the Track view, Schematic view, and Scene Explorer can be opened within a viewport.

The Safe Frames panel of the Viewport Configuration dialog box lets you define several safe frame options, as shown in Figure 2.24, including the following:

• Live Area: Marks the area that will be rendered, shown as yellow lines. If a background image is added to the viewport and the Match Rendering Output option is selected, then the background image will fit within the Live Area.
• Action Safe: The area ensured to be visible in the final rendered file, marked with light blue lines; objects outside this area will be at the edge of the monitor and could be distorted.
• Title Safe: The area where the title can safely appear without distortion or bleeding, marked with orange lines.
• User Safe: The output area defined by the user, marked with magenta lines.
• 12-Field Grid: Displays a grid in the viewport, marked with a pink grid.

FIGURE 2.24 The Safe Frames panel lets you specify areas to render.

For each type of safe frame, you can set the percent reduction by entering values in the Horizontal, Vertical, or Both fields. The 12-Field Grid option offers 4×3 and 12×9 aspect ratios.

The Show Safe Frames in Active View option displays the Safe Frame borders in the active viewport. You can quickly enable or disable Safe Frames by right-clicking the viewport Point-of-View label and choosing Show Safe Frame in the pop-up menu (or you can use the Shift+F keyboard shortcut).

Figure 2.25 shows an elongated Perspective viewport with all the safe frame guides enabled. The Safe Frames show that the top and bottom of my dinosaur will be cut off when rendered.

Setting Display Performance

Within the Display Performance panel, shown in Figure 2.26, are a couple of simple settings. The Improve Quality Progressively setting causes a rough approximation of the viewport update to be rendered immediately, and gradually the details are added to improve the displayed results as time progresses. This progressive update doesn't slow you down but provides more detail if there is time to add it before the next update.

FIGURE 2.25 Safe frames provide guides that help you see when the scene objects are out of bounds.

You also can set the display resolution used on procedural maps. Higher resolution values have more detail, and lower resolution maps render and are updated more quickly.

You can enable Progressive Display option using the Views Progressive Display menu command (or by pressing the O key). You also can turn Adaptive Degradation on and off with a button located at the bottom of the interface between the Prompt Bar and the Add Time Tag. The Progressive Display button looks like a simple cube.

FIGURE 2.26 The Display Performance panel offers only a few simple settings.

Defining regions

The Regions panel enables you to define regions and focus your rendering energies on a smaller area. Complex scenes can take considerable time and machine power to render. Sometimes, you want to test render only a portion of a viewport to check material assignment, texture map placement, or lighting.

You can define the size of the various Regions in the Regions panel of the Viewport Configuration dialog box, shown in Figure 2.27.

FIGURE 2.27 The Regions panel enables you to work with smaller regions within your scene.

After you've specified a Blowup Region or a Sub Region, you can select to render using these regions by selecting Region or Blowup from the Render Frame Window and clicking the Render button. If you click the Edit Region button, the specified region is displayed as an outline in the viewport. You can move this outline to reposition it, or drag its edge or corner handles to resize the region. The new position and dimension values are updated in the Regions panel for next time. Click the Render button to begin the rendering process.

The difference between these two regions is that the Sub Region displays the Rendered Frame Window in black, except for the specified sub-region. The Blowup Region fills the entire Rendered Frame Window, as shown in Figure 2.28.

FIGURE 2.28 The image on the left was rendered using the Sub Region option; the right image used the Blowup Region.

Viewing statistics

The Statistics panel, shown in Figure 2.29, lets you display valuable statistics in the viewport window. These statistics can include Polygon Count, Triangle Count, Edge Count, Vertex Count, and Frames Per Second. You can also select to view these statistics for all the objects in the scene (Total), for just the selected object, or for both. You can toggle statistics on and off for the active viewport using the Views xView Show Statistics menu command or the 7 key.

FIGURE 2.29 The Statistics panel lets you display polygon count and frames per second in the viewport.

By enabling the Show Statistics in Active View option, the selected statistics are overlaid on the active viewport, as shown in Figure 2.30.

FIGURE 2.30 The active viewport can be set to display the selected statistics.

Working with Viewport Backgrounds

Remember in grade school when you realized that you could immediately draw really well using tracing paper (where all you needed to do was follow the lines)? Well, it's not quite tracing paper, but you can load background images into a viewport that can help as you create and position your objects.

Loading viewport background images

The Views Viewport Background Viewport Background menu command (Alt+B) opens a dialog box, shown in Figure 2.31, in which you can select an image or animation to appear behind a viewport. Each viewport can have a different background image. The displayed background image is helpful for aligning objects in a scene, but it is for display purposes only and will not be rendered. To create a background image to be rendered, you need to specify the background in the Environment dialog box, opened using the Rendering Environment (keyboard shortcut, 8) menu command.

If the background image changes, you can update the viewport using the Views Viewport Background Update Background Image menu command (Alt+Shift+Ctrl+B). This is helpful if you have the background image opened in Photoshop at the same time. You can update the background image, save it, and then immediately update the image in Max. The Views Viewport Background Reset Background Transform menu command automatically rescales and recenters the background image to fit the viewport. You should use this if you've changed the viewport size or changed the background's size.

The Files button in the Viewport Background dialog box opens the Select Background Image dialog box, where you can select the image to load. The Devices button lets you obtain a background from a device such as a Video Recorder. If an environment map is already loaded into the Environment dialog box, you can simply click the Use Environment Background option. Keep in mind that the background image will not be rendered unless it is made into an Environment map.

FIGURE 2.31 The Viewport Background dialog box lets you select a background source image or animation.

Loading viewport background animations

The Animation Synchronization section of the Viewport Background dialog box lets you set which frames of a background animation sequence are displayed. The Use Frame and To values determine which frames of the loaded animation are used. The Step value trims the number of frames that are to be used by selecting every Nth frame. For example, a Step value of 4 would use every fourth frame.

The Start At value is the frame in the current scene where this background animation would first appear. The Sync Start to Frame value is the frame of the background animation that should appear first. The Start and End Processing options let you determine what appears before the Start and End frames. Options include displaying a blank, holding the current frame, and looping.

If you select an animation as the background, make sure that the Animate Background option is selected. Also note that the viewport background is not visible if the Display Background option is not selected.

The Aspect Ratio section offers options for setting the size of the background image. You can select to Match Viewport, Match Bitmap, or Match Rendering Output.

The Lock Zoom/Pan option is available if either the Match Bitmap option or the Match Rendering Output option is selected. This option locks the background image to the geometry so that when the objects in the scene are zoomed or panned, the background image follows. If the background gets out of line, you can reset its position with the Views Viewport Background Reset Background Transform command.

You can set the Apply Source and Display to option to display the background in All Views or in the active viewport only.

Tutorial: Loading reference images for modeling

When modeling a physical object, you can get a jump on the project by taking pictures with a digital camera of the front, top, and left views of the object and then load them as background images in the respective viewports. The background images can then be a reference for your work. This is especially helpful with models that need to be precise. You can even work from CAD drawings.

To load the background images of a brass swan, follow these steps:

1. Choose File New (or press Ctrl+N) to open a blank scene file.
2. Right-click the Front viewport to make it the active viewport, and choose Views Viewport Background (or press Alt+B).

   The Viewport Background dialog box opens.

3. Click the Files button, and in the File dialog box that opens, select the Brass swan-front view.jpg image from the Chap 02 directory on the CD.
4. Select the Match Bitmap, Display Background, Lock Zoom/Pan, and Active Only options, and click OK to close the dialog box.

   The image now appears in the background of the Front viewport.

5. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 for the Top and Left viewports.

Figure 2.32 shows the Max interface with background images loaded in the Front, Top, and Left viewports.

FIGURE 2.32 Adding a background image to a viewport can help as you begin to model objects.

Summary

Viewports are the window into the Max world. Remember that if you can't see it, you can't work with it, so you need to learn to use the viewports. You can also configure viewports to display just the way you desire.

This chapter covered the following topics:

• Understanding 3D space and the various viewport points-of-view
• Navigating with the ViewCube, the SteeringWheels, and the scroll wheel
• Using the various Viewport Navigation Control buttons
• Changing the Visual Style & Appearance options in the Viewport Configuration dialog box
• Discovering the other panels of the Viewport Configuration dialog box that allow you to change the layout, safe frames, regions, and statistics
• Finding out how to use Progressive Display to speed up viewport updates
• Working with viewport background images

In the next chapter, you find out all the details about working with files, including loading, saving, and merging scene files. The next chapter also covers import and export options for interfacing with other software packages.