- Set key is a manual creation mode
for animation key frames.
It gives you a little more control than auto key
but it takes a little more setup in advance.
In this scene,
I already have position key frames on the camera.
Let's take a look at that.
I'll press play in the transport controls.
The camera moves across the room
in a light arc over a period of five seconds.
Okay, so that looks pretty good.
I'll stop that and rewind.
I want to layer some animation on top of this.
I'll add some rotation to make the camera orbit
through the room.
I'll rewind that,
select the camera and select the rotate tool
and from the reference coordinates to pull down,
choose Gimbal coordinates.
For a pan left to right,
we'll want to rotate around the gimbal Z axis
and that's what will be recorded in the animation tracks.
We can edit that curve in the function curve editor later.
We don't have any key frames for rotation just yet
but I like the comp position
of the shot that I see on frame zero.
So I'll manually create a rotation key using set key mode
but in preparation for using set key,
we need to choose the desired tracks.
And that's found in the key filters.
There's a button down here in the lower right.
Key filters, click on that.
And since we only want to create rotation keys
we want to turn everything else off.
And now rotation's the only thing with a checkbox
and we can close a set key filters dialogue.
To go into set key mode,
click the button labeled set key
and then to create a new key frame
at the current time for the selected object
simply click the set keys button
which is the button that looks like a big plus sign
with a skeleton key on it.
Click that button.
And now there's a key frame for rotation
at the current time.
We can see that by moving the time slider over
we've got a key frame at frame zero
and it's a red and green box.
That is color coding.
The other key frames that we see
that I created earlier are red in the timeline
which is also known as the track bar
because animation channels are called tracks in 3ds max.
These keys are color coded,
red indicates position and green is rotation.
The key frame at frame zero has both
position and rotation data in it.
Let's now create a key frame at the end of the timeline.
I'll just click the button to go to the end
and at frame 149
let's rotate the camera around the gimbal Z axis.
I'll go to the top view board,
click on that Z axis and drag
and pan the camera around.
When you have what you want,
release the mouse and click the big set keys button again.
And now we've got a key frame head frame, 149.
So let's play that back.
We'll rewind, press play.
See what we've got.
Now we've got an arc or orbit through the scene.
Pretty cool, that was easy.
All right, we're not quite finished.
We can improve that and make it better.
We'll do that later using the curve editor
or maybe motion paths,
but for now stop it and rewind once again.
That's the basic concept of creating
key frames in set key mode.
One thing to keep in mind,
is that when you're in set key mode
any changes previously key framed
transforms or parameters will not take effect
until you actually click the big
plus sign button to create the keys.
That means if you change an animation track such
as this rotation
and then change the current frame by playing scrubbing
or otherwise touching any transport control
the track will go into playback mode
and whatever changes you are working on will be lost.
So let me demonstrate.
Let's say I'm on frame zero
and I want to change the animation.
I've got the rotate tool and I'll rotate this pan
around to some other position there
panned over to that part of the room.
And let's say, I forget to press the set keys button
and then I scrub or play my timeline.
My camera instantly snaps back to where it was before.
This is another common rookie mistake,
forgetting to press the set key button and then scrubbing
to another point in the timeline to check something.
If you do that, you'll lose whatever you are working on.
The good news is that max is smart enough
to save the time slider movement in the undo buffer.
So it's actually easy to restore your work
if you make that mistake.
Just right click on the undo button,
and you'll see a list of the most recent command
and move frame slider is there.
So with that selected and highlighted,
we can just click undo and now we've restored the rotation.
And if we like that, we can click on the set key button.
Okay, let's play that back.
See what we get there, press play animation.
And you know what?
I think I liked what I had before better.
So I'm going to undo that.
I'll stop and rewind.
Once again, right click on the undo button.
And we'll see that set key has multiple entries in there.
We've got a rotate command and then set key.
There are three set key commands.
So there's one for each transform X, Y, and Z.
If I want to go back to the previous state
I'll select the rotate item here in the list
and then click undo, and that undid the rotation as well
as the setting of keys for X, Y, and Z.
And we can play this back
and we have the orbit that I had previously.
All right, cool.
So I'll rewind that.
Now that I have what I want
I can exit out of set key mode.
There's another thing to keep a mind about
Key frame creation, both set key and auto key modes.
And that is when both modes are off
and you make adjustments to an animated track.
You're actually offsetting the existing animation
changing the current frame in that case
does not take you back to the state you had before
you made the adjustment like it does in set key mode.
So in that regard, set key is actually safer
because it is a completely manual process.
We're safeguarded in set key mode
against mangling our animation.
Whereas when both key modes are off,
if we're not mindful
we can actually make some destructive changes to our work.
So just to illustrate,
I've got position and rotation keys
on the camera and auto key and set key are both off.
And if I grab the move tool
and go over to my front view, for example,
right clicking that view and move the camera upward
bring it up closer to the ceiling.
Now, if I rewind and play my animation
we see that I've adjusted the elevation for the camera
but I have not changed the other key frame data.
I have introduced an offset
and that's actually not what I wanted to do
but that's what happens when both of the key modes are off.
And then you change some animated track.
Okay. So I will want to undo that.
Right click on my undo button again
and I'll go back to before I did that move
just highlight the move item there and click undo.
And now I've restored my animation.
Okay. We're back where we were just be careful and remember
that if you're in any animation mode,
any changes you make will actually offset
the existing animation.
And that's how to create key frames in set key mode.