Post by Harkker on Aug 9, 2013 4:22:59 GMT
Lesson 7; Tooling around Gmax
« on: July 25, 2007, 07:27:58 PM »
Lesson 7; Tooling around Gmax
In this lesson I am going to talk about some of the important controls you’ll have to become accustomed with in order to work in Gmax.
The 4 view windows are completely changeable, I generally make the “perspective” window very large and the others very small. You can just left click on the boundaries and adjust them
You can minimize the NWmax control panel on the left. I generally do. DO NOT X exit out of it. It’s important and I don’t know how to bring it back without restarting NWmax and Gmax together.
First of all, you can normally select objects one at a time by left clicking them. You can also hold down the left mouse button to drew a box around several objects to select them all. If you hold down the “Ctrl” button on your keyboard, you can add or remove objects to those already selected.
I zoom my view in and out using the wheel on my mouse. I’m not sure how those of you without a wheel mouse would do this. If you know or figure it out, please comment below.
You can slide your view up, down, right or right by right clicking and holding you mouse wheel on an open area and moving your mouse in the desired direction.
You can rotate your view around a model by holding down your mouse wheel and the “Alt” key and then moving your mouse.
Sometimes you will want to see what is linked to what in parent child relationships. Doing this is easy. Select an object normally so that it has the white box around it. If you want to see it’s parent, press the “Page Up” button. The parent object will now be selected. If you press the “page down” button, all of the objects children will instead become selected.
Here is a picture of my Gmax window so I can point out some of the most relevant buttons and controls. Please note that NWmax is minimized.
1 “Undo”- You will use this button frequently. It simply negates the last mistake you made. I use it a lot when I have accidentally selected the wrong object and moved it before realizing I had the wrong object.
2 “Select and Link”- You’ll not likely have to use this one often, but just in case, it is important. Remember earlier we talked about higherarchy. Well, this is the button that lets you link objects together. Sometimes as an animator you’ll find that a modeler has linked things together in a goofy way and corrections are needed. This is how you do it. You always connect child to parent! NEVER PARENT TO CHILD!
3 “Unlink Selection”- This control breaks any links a selected object or objects many have. It ends all parent and child relationships.
4 “Select Object”- A simple button. When it is pressed down, it simply means you can select object by left clicking them.
5 “Select by Name”- This button will bring up a pop up list of all model objects by name. Rather than selecting and deselecting objects by clicking them directly, you can select them by clicking their names in this pop up box. It makes it a lot easier for hard to reach pieces.
6 “Select and Move”- When this button is depressed, model pieces that are selected can be moved around. I recommend that moving of objects be done by Right clicking and holding on the arrows rather then the object itself. If you grab the object itself and move it, its free to move in any direction and often will shift in ways hard to notice form your perspective. When you move with the arrows, the object con only move along the axis of the arrow your holding
7 “Select and Rotate”- One of the most important buttons for animators. This is the button that when depressed allows an animator to rotate an object around it’s Pivot point as described in Lesson 5. Like with the “Select and Move” button, I recommend that you rotate objects by manipulating the blue, red and green line arrows that point to the objects Pivot point. Think of each of these lines as a knob on the pivot that you can turn clockwise or counter clockwise, which will in turn swivel the Pivot, which will in turn swivel the entire part (which will also carry along any of that object’s children and children’s children).
8 “Modify Tab”- Remember the blue rainbow I talked about in an earlier lesson? This is it. You will use this whenever you want to make any changes to an object other than it’s placement. Changing piece names, and shapes are done with the help of this tab.
9 “Toggle Animation Mode”- Another very important button for animators. This button when depressed tells Gmax if your working on the model in it’s base / primal form, or if your altering is pose in various frames. The default for this is off and gray. When it is like this, anything you do to the model is being done to the original non animated form of the model. When it is depressed and red, any changes you make are changes specific to the frame you are in. I’ll talk about this a lot more in later lessons.
10 “Animation Frame Bar”- This bar shows the array of animation frames that a model exists in various forms across. If a creature’s animations take up 1400 frames, there will be 1400 frame designators lined up down here. In our picture above, 3972 frames are arrayed here.
11 “Animation Frame Shuttle” – This little slider moves back and forth across the top of the Frame Bar. It tells you what frame your viewing out of how many there are in total. If you want to look at various different frames, you slide this back and forth to focus in on the frame you want. The number it indicates on the left is the number of the frame you are seeing in all 4 of your view windows.
« on: July 25, 2007, 07:27:58 PM »
Lesson 7; Tooling around Gmax
In this lesson I am going to talk about some of the important controls you’ll have to become accustomed with in order to work in Gmax.
The 4 view windows are completely changeable, I generally make the “perspective” window very large and the others very small. You can just left click on the boundaries and adjust them
You can minimize the NWmax control panel on the left. I generally do. DO NOT X exit out of it. It’s important and I don’t know how to bring it back without restarting NWmax and Gmax together.
First of all, you can normally select objects one at a time by left clicking them. You can also hold down the left mouse button to drew a box around several objects to select them all. If you hold down the “Ctrl” button on your keyboard, you can add or remove objects to those already selected.
I zoom my view in and out using the wheel on my mouse. I’m not sure how those of you without a wheel mouse would do this. If you know or figure it out, please comment below.
You can slide your view up, down, right or right by right clicking and holding you mouse wheel on an open area and moving your mouse in the desired direction.
You can rotate your view around a model by holding down your mouse wheel and the “Alt” key and then moving your mouse.
Sometimes you will want to see what is linked to what in parent child relationships. Doing this is easy. Select an object normally so that it has the white box around it. If you want to see it’s parent, press the “Page Up” button. The parent object will now be selected. If you press the “page down” button, all of the objects children will instead become selected.
Here is a picture of my Gmax window so I can point out some of the most relevant buttons and controls. Please note that NWmax is minimized.
1 “Undo”- You will use this button frequently. It simply negates the last mistake you made. I use it a lot when I have accidentally selected the wrong object and moved it before realizing I had the wrong object.
2 “Select and Link”- You’ll not likely have to use this one often, but just in case, it is important. Remember earlier we talked about higherarchy. Well, this is the button that lets you link objects together. Sometimes as an animator you’ll find that a modeler has linked things together in a goofy way and corrections are needed. This is how you do it. You always connect child to parent! NEVER PARENT TO CHILD!
3 “Unlink Selection”- This control breaks any links a selected object or objects many have. It ends all parent and child relationships.
4 “Select Object”- A simple button. When it is pressed down, it simply means you can select object by left clicking them.
5 “Select by Name”- This button will bring up a pop up list of all model objects by name. Rather than selecting and deselecting objects by clicking them directly, you can select them by clicking their names in this pop up box. It makes it a lot easier for hard to reach pieces.
6 “Select and Move”- When this button is depressed, model pieces that are selected can be moved around. I recommend that moving of objects be done by Right clicking and holding on the arrows rather then the object itself. If you grab the object itself and move it, its free to move in any direction and often will shift in ways hard to notice form your perspective. When you move with the arrows, the object con only move along the axis of the arrow your holding
7 “Select and Rotate”- One of the most important buttons for animators. This is the button that when depressed allows an animator to rotate an object around it’s Pivot point as described in Lesson 5. Like with the “Select and Move” button, I recommend that you rotate objects by manipulating the blue, red and green line arrows that point to the objects Pivot point. Think of each of these lines as a knob on the pivot that you can turn clockwise or counter clockwise, which will in turn swivel the Pivot, which will in turn swivel the entire part (which will also carry along any of that object’s children and children’s children).
8 “Modify Tab”- Remember the blue rainbow I talked about in an earlier lesson? This is it. You will use this whenever you want to make any changes to an object other than it’s placement. Changing piece names, and shapes are done with the help of this tab.
9 “Toggle Animation Mode”- Another very important button for animators. This button when depressed tells Gmax if your working on the model in it’s base / primal form, or if your altering is pose in various frames. The default for this is off and gray. When it is like this, anything you do to the model is being done to the original non animated form of the model. When it is depressed and red, any changes you make are changes specific to the frame you are in. I’ll talk about this a lot more in later lessons.
10 “Animation Frame Bar”- This bar shows the array of animation frames that a model exists in various forms across. If a creature’s animations take up 1400 frames, there will be 1400 frame designators lined up down here. In our picture above, 3972 frames are arrayed here.
11 “Animation Frame Shuttle” – This little slider moves back and forth across the top of the Frame Bar. It tells you what frame your viewing out of how many there are in total. If you want to look at various different frames, you slide this back and forth to focus in on the frame you want. The number it indicates on the left is the number of the frame you are seeing in all 4 of your view windows.