Animation Preferences

Use the Animation panel of the Preference Settings dialog to set options relating to animation. Options include displaying animated objects in wireframe viewports, the assignment of sound plug-ins, and controller defaults.

Standard menu: Customize menu > Preferences > Preference Settings dialog > Animation tab
Enhanced menu: Customize menu > Customization > Preferences > Preference Settings dialog > Animation tab

Procedures

To change the default transform center:

Open the Preference Settings dialog to the Animation panel.
Turn off Local Center During Animate in the Animate group.
This changes the default and activates all the transform center buttons. You can now move about the selection, coordinate center, or local pivot.

To set the key bracket display:

Open the Preference Settings dialog to the Animation panel.
Use the controls in the Key Bracket Display group to specify how you want key brackets displayed in wireframe viewports.

To specify default controller settings:

Open the Preference Settings dialog to the Animation panel.
Click Set Defaults in the Controller Defaults group.
The Set Controller Defaults dialog appears.
Choose a controller type from the list of available controllers and click the Set button.
A dialog containing the default settings supported by the selected controller type appears in, for example, the In and Out tangents for a Bezier controller.
Make changes to the controller settings.
Once you click OK in the Set Controller Defaults dialog, the controller defaults are changed.

Changes to the controller default settings are written to your 3dsmax.ini file and become the defaults for all newly assigned controllers and all new scenes.

If you decide that you want to revert to the original 3ds Max defaults for all controllers, you can click Restore To Factory Settings.

Interface

Key Bracket Display group

When you move to a frame, 3ds Max displays white brackets around objects that have transform keys at that frame, including cameras and lights.

Attention: These key brackets appear only in wireframe viewports. In all other viewport display types, including shaded (Smooth + Highlights), Hidden Line, and so on, selected objects always show the brackets, and this control has no effect.

All Objects / Selected Objects / None

Specifies which objects display key brackets.

Use Current Transform

Displays brackets only on those frames containing keys for the active transform tool (Move, Rotate, or Scale).

If no transform tool is active, brackets appear in frames containing any of the three transforms.

To define which types of transform display brackets, turn off Use Current Transform and use the Position/Rotation/Scale switches (see following) .

Note: When actively scrubbing the frame slider, brackets always appear for all transforms.

Position/Rotation/Scale

Specifies which types of transform display brackets. For example, if only Rotation is on, brackets appear only on those frames containing Rotation keys. These checkboxes become available when Use Current Transform is off.

Animate group

Local Center During Animate: Locks the center method to local. Turn off if you want to animate around a non-local center such as world or selection.

MIDI Time Slider Control group

The On checkbox enables use of a MIDI device to control the time slider. Click Setup to open the MIDI Time Slider Control Setup dialog and choose a device.

Sound Plug-In group

Assign: Displays a dialog listing all sound plug-ins installed in the system. Select a new plug-in to replace the current one.

Controller Defaults group

Sets the default values for animation controllers capable of supporting default settings. For example, set the default values for tension, continuity and bias in the TCB float controller.

Override Parametric Controller Range By Default: When on, new parametric controllers are active throughout the timeline, independent of their animation range. Otherwise, they respect it and are only active within their range. Refer to Ignore Animation Range and Respect Animation Range for more details. Default=on.
Spring Quick Edit: Toggle to increase the accuracy of all spring controllers in the scene. To be used with the Rollback input field. Default=off.
Note: This option is saved in the 3dsmax.ini file as SpringsQuickEdit.

Note: Turning on this option can impact scene performance.
Rollback: Sets the number the frames a spring controller goes back before becoming invalid. Default=6.
Note: This option is saved in the 3dsmax.ini file as SpringsRollingStart.

Note: Setting a high number can impact scene performance.
Set Defaults: Displays a dialog listing all controllers that can have their default values changed. The Set button becomes available when you choose a controller class from the list. Highlight a controller class, click Set, edit the default key values, and then click OK.
Restore To Factory Settings: Prompts you to verify if you want to reset all controllers to the 3ds Max default settings. If you choose Yes, the defaults are reset for all controllers currently in the system.

Auto Key Default Frame group

On: When on, using Auto Key mode to set a key at a frame other than the start frame (0 or 1) also creates a key at the start frame. When off, no key is created at the start frame.
[default frame]: When Auto Key Default Frame is on, this setting specifies the start frame at which 3ds Max sets a key when you use Auto Key to set a key at a frame other than the start of the animation.
The available settings are 0 and 1. When you set the default frame to 1, 3ds Max uses the equivalent in the current time display system, set via the Time Display settings on the Time Configuration dialog. For instance, if Time Display is set to MM:SS:TICKS, the equivalent to frame 1 is 0:0:160.