With Autodesk VIZ, you can create computer animations of your designs. You can import files from CAD programs, or create models within Autodesk VIZ itself. You can create animated cameras, moving them around and through your designs and then create rendered animations from those cameras. You can animate the components of the design itself, such as elevators rising in a hotel atrium, or cars driving down a street. You can animate the lighting to produce shadow studies.
The basic way to animate is quite simple. You animate the transform parameters of any object to change its position, rotation, and scale over time. Turning on the Auto Key button, then moving the time slider places you in a state in which any changes you make will create animation for the selected objects in the viewport.
Animation is used throughout Autodesk VIZ. You can animate the position, rotation, and scale of an object, and certain parameter settings, such as opening a door or window. You can link objects for hierarchical animation, using both forward and inverse kinematics, and you can edit your animation in Track View.
Unlike 3ds Max, Autodesk VIZ supports only limited sub-object animation. You cannot animate most modifier parameters or geometry sub-object selections in Autodesk VIZ. You can animate parameters for lights and cameras, doors and windows, luminaires and the Daylight system, as well as settings for render effects and exposure control. If you open files with animated parameters from 3ds Max, you will see those keys in the track bar, and the keys will remain intact when you save the file.
This section discusses the basics of creating animation. It looks briefly at a comparison between computer animation and classic hand-drawn animation, and then describes the creation of keyframed animation. The following topics are covered here: