- [Illustrator] The time configuration dialogue allows us
to choose the range of time displayed in the timeline.
And that range of time is also known
as the active time segment.
Because we can have key frames
or other animation outside of this time segment.
The time configuration dialogue
also determines the display conventions for units of time.
Whether that be frames, seconds or time code.
Open the time configuration from the button
near the bottom of the interface, time configuration.
And the active time segment is set
in the animation section here.
The first thing that's kind of unorthodox
is that the start time is frame zero by default.
In many animation programs,
the animation starts from frame one.
But Max defaults to a start time of frame zero.
But this actually makes a lot of sense
from the perspective of a production environment
which uses time code.
Each second of time code starts on frame zero.
And so does the default 3ds Max start time.
If we want to view the timeline in seconds and frames,
then the start time of frame zero starts
to make a lot of sense.
We can go up into the time display section here
and switch that over to SMPTE or Society of Motion Picture
and Television Engineers.
And we'll need to actually close the time configuration.
Sometimes it doesn't update
and you'll need to sometimes click actually
in the timeline and that will refresh it.
Now we're seeing SMPTE time code in the timeline
and we have minutes, seconds and frames.
Back in the time configuration dialogue.
Now, as is kind of typical
with some of these very old features of 3ds Max,
it's actually not technically correct.
SMPTE time code always uses leading zeros.
So the start time here really should be 00:00:00.
But it isn't, it's missing all those leading zeros.
But let's not get too pedantic here.
The point is that the beginning
of this animation clip will start
on the first frame of a time code second.
And that first frame is always labeled zero.
For 30 frames per second time code,
the first frame is labeled zero,
the last frame is labeled 29
and each frame is one 30th of a second.
It's important to recognize this.
A frame is a single still image.
And a still image has no inherent duration.
But in the context of a series
of moving images or a motion picture,
the still image of a single frame is always displayed
for some amount of time.
Its duration is determined by the frame rate.
Let's say we wanted five seconds of animation.
And without thinking about it too deeply,
we might enter a value in the end time here
of let's say zero minutes, five seconds
and zero frames, type that in, press Enter.
So we might think now
that we actually have five seconds of animation.
But in reality, we now have five seconds
plus one frame of animation.
Because we're stopping on the first frame
of second number five,
we're actually going to include that last frame
within our clip.
In the frame count field over here,
we see that the clip duration is five seconds and one frame.
And this is the relevant field that tells us
the actual length of our animation,
how long it will take to play back.
Now above that, we see something that says length.
This length field up here is completely bogus
and I would block that out of your mind
if possible and just pretend it doesn't exist
because it makes no sense.
It's merely the end time minus the start time,
but that does not give us any useful information.
If I wanted exactly five seconds of animation,
I could either start on frame one
or I could end on frame four seconds and 29 frames.
Let's do it by starting on frame one.
I'll just click once on the start time's spinner Up Arrow.
And now the start time is zero seconds and one frame.
Our end time is five seconds and zero frames.
And our frame count lands at five seconds and zero frames.
Or we could use the SMPTE conventions
and start on frame zero.
I'll click on the Down Arrow of the start time,
send that back to zero seconds and zero frames.
And likewise, on the end time, I could click
on the Down Arrow and send that
to four seconds and 29 frames.
And again, we land at a frame count
of exactly five seconds and zero frames.
All right, so that's if you want to use SMPTE or time code.
If you want to use numbered frames,
you can go back to frames in the time display.
And now we see the end time is frame 149.
But the total frame count is 150
because we're including frame zero.
All right, cool.
So we can close the time configuration dialogue,
refresh the timeline by clicking in it.
And we see it highlights in blue
and that's in order to select all the key frames
but there aren't any key frames.
So we can just click in the view port to unselect.
We can change the active time segment
without going into that time configuration dialogue
with some hotkeys.
They're keyboard and mouse shortcuts.
To change the start time,
hold down Control and Alt, and drag
with the left mouse button in the timeline.
And you're setting a new start time.
And you get a little tool tip telling you
what your new start time is going to be.
And notice we can actually go into negative numbers
and that's actually quite useful.
Sometimes you need a negative value to your current time.
For example, maybe you've got a dynamic stimulation
that needs a run up time
and we need it to be fully in motion
by the time we reach the first frame of our animation,
such as frame zero.
Or another situation, this can come in handy
is when you're doing character rigging.
You can set a neutral start pose,
also known as a skin pose.
And a common practice for that is to use frame zero
for the skin pose
and begin the actual animation on frame one.
But if you're using time code conventions,
you'll want the animation to start on frame zero.
In that case, you can use frame negative one
for the skin pose and start the animation on frame zero.
All right, I'll set that back to starting
on frame zero with Control+Alt and the left mouse button.
Drag that over until my tool tip start time says frame zero.
To change the end time for the current time segment,
hold down Control and Alt
and drag with the right mouse button.
So we're extending time or removing time
from the current time segment.
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.
And we can now shift our entire time range.
All right, just to make absolutely sure
I get this back the way I wanted,
I'll go back into time configuration.
I'll set my start time to frame zero
and my end time to frame 149.
Press Enter and click Okay.
All right, that's how to control the active time segment
and the time units such as frames or SMPTE time code.