3ds max Time Configuration
Keyframe Animation Setting up And now with the end time of 5 seconds and 0 frames we have a duration of exactly five seconds. Or I could use SMPTE conventions and start on frame 0. Set the Start Time to 0 and set the End Time to 429. And now we're back at a duration of exactly five seconds. All right, so that's if you want to use SMPTE or time code. If you want to use just ordinary frames, of course, you can do that. You can go back to Frames in the Time Display, and now my last frame, or the End Time is frame 149, but I have a total of 150 frames of animation. All right, that's the time configuration dialog. I'll click OK to close that. If we want to change the length of the track bar timeline without drilling into that Time Configuration dialog. There are some keyboard and mouse shortcuts for that. To change the start time hold down control and alt and drag with the left mouse button. And if I drag over to the right notice that we can actually go into negative numbers on the track bar. And that can come in handy in some situations. For example, we might want a character to assume a neutral start pose, also known as a skin pose. A common practice for that is to use frame 0 for the skin pose and begin the actual animation on frame 1. But if you're using time code conventions you'll want the animation to start on frame 0. In that case you can use frame -1 for the skin pose and start the animation on frame 0. All right, I'll set that back to starting on frame 0. Control alt and left mouse button. To change the End Time for the track bar, hold down control and alt and drag with the right mouse button, changing the end time. To shift the entire time range, keeping the same animation duration, but moving the start and end times by the same amount, hold down control and alt and drag with the middle mouse button. All right, just to make sure that I get everything back the way I want it, I'll go back into Time Configuration. I'll set my Start Time to frame 0 and my End Time to frame 149. And that's a pretty comprehensive overview of how Time Configuration works.
