Verge3D for 3ds Max: Animation — Soft8Soft
Description: Find out how to create and control animation in Verge3D for 3ds Max. Whole-object, skeletal, blend shapes and procedural animation types explained.

# Animation / 3ds Max

This page contains the information about 3ds Max's animation types which can be used with Verge3D, as well as supported playback options and means to control the animation interactively.

- Setting Up in 3ds Max
  - Whole-Object Animation
  - Skeletal Animation
  - Material Animation
  - Morphing Animation
  - Procedural Animation
- Playback Options
  - Verge3D Global Animation Settings
  - Verge3D Per-Object Animation Settings
  - Frame Rate
- Animation Control with Puzzles

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## Setting Up in 3ds Max

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### Whole-Object Animation

Animation keyframes can be added in standard way in 3ds Max, by using the Set Keys button or pressing K on the keyboard.

For performance reasons, we recommend setting keys separately, only for channels which are required to be animated, e.g:

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### Skeletal Animation

An object can be animated in Verge3D by using 3ds Max's skin modifier. Verge3D support maximum 4 weights per joint (4 most influential weights are selected, others are ignored).

Skeletons can be animated directly by setting transformation keys on bones or by utilizing auxiliary controllers such as IK solvers. To animate bones indirectly, enable Skeleton Root and Custom Frame Range properties on their common parent object and set proper From/To as frame values. See below for more info.

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### Material Animation

To use keyframed material animation, simply set keys on any material controller.

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### Morphing Animation

3ds Max's Morpher modifier is intended for creating an object's morph channels (targets). The channel's weights can be animated using keyframes in standard way. Please, note, the channel, with no target object, is not supported. See this page for more info.

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### Procedural Animation

Instead of playing back some animation which was pre-made in 3ds Max, you can use Puzzles or JavaScript to modify coordinates or some other parameters with time. Particularly, the animate param puzzle (based on the Tween.js library) is a convenient way to create your own animation on the fly.

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## Playback Options

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### Verge3D Global Animation Settings

By using the Animation section of Verge3D Export Settings you can assign global animation parameters which will affect all animatable objects in your scene.

Export Animations
  Export scene animations to be used in Verge3D.
Export Within Playback Range
  By default Verge3D exporter honors per-object animation keyframe ranges. Enabling this option will force exporter to honor global playback range.
Keyframes Start with 0
  Edit exported animation keyframes so they always start with frame 0.

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### Verge3D Per-Object Animation Settings

Each object in 3ds Max is assigned with Verge3D settings, including the settings for animation playback.

Animation settings:

Auto Start
  whether this object's animation will start after the scene is loaded.
Loop Mode
  playback mode: Repeat - plays from the start to the end and repeats, Once - plays one time and stops, Ping Pong - plays from the start to the end and then in reverse.
Repeat Infinitely
  Whether this object's animation will be played all over again. Valid only for Repeat and Ping Pong modes.
Repeat Count
  How many times the animation will be played. Valid only for Repeat and Ping Pong modes if Repeat Infinitely is disabled.
Offset
  How many frames will be skipped before the animation starts.
Custom Frame Range
  Enable and specify From/To values to override object's keyframe ranges or global animation timeline. Activating this property will force an object to be animated even if it does not have any keyframes. This is useful to bake indirect animation such as IK handles/effectors affecting bones movements.
Skeleton Root
  Consider object a skeleton root, e.g make all child bones inherit animation parameters from that object.

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### Frame Rate

The frame rate value (default — NTSC or 29.97 fps) which affect the playback speed can be changed using the Time Configuration panel.

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## Animation Control with Puzzles

You can use animation puzzles for playing back a pre-made animation (click on the link for more details).

Animation can also be implemented with other visual scripting blocks — see Camera and Time puzzles.

## Got Questions?

Feel free to ask on the forums!