Workflow for Using State Sets

In State Sets, a state is basically an object that records changes to your scene. The basic workflow is this:

1. Choose State Sets from the Rendering menu.

   The State Sets dialog opens showing a State Sets item at the top of the Tree View, with an empty State01 item underneath it. The overall State Sets item is also known as the master state.

2. Click to add a new state.
3. Click (Make This State Current) to activate the new state.

   In Autodesk 3ds Max 2015, by default a state is always recording while it is active.

4. Make changes to the scene using standard 3ds Max tools. For example, change output resolution with the Render Setup dialog or hide an object in a viewport.
   Note: State Sets does not record transforms of objects in the scene. Any transforms you make affect all states. For a complete listing of the settings that State Sets records, see Properties Tracked by State Sets.
5. Finish recording by deactivating the state.

   The state now lists the changes it recorded. You can adjust these by expanding the entry and changing its child values.

   To toggle between the original scene—the "Base State"—and a recorded state, click the state's arrow button. Or switch among different states by clicking the corresponding arrow button. Only one state can be active at a time, as indicated by the green arrow. If all arrows are gray, no state is active and the original scene is present.

6. Continue adding states and recording changes as necessary.
7. If the Render Outputs panel isn't open, choose Render Outputs from the States menu, change the path and output file name if necessary, and click Set Path.
8. From the States menu, choose Render All States.

   State sets renders the states to files using the file pattern specified on the Render Outputs panel.

9. From the Compositor menu, choose Compositor View.

   State Sets opens the Compositor view containing a fully wired schematic. Each state is represented by a node that is wired to an Output Bitmap node containing a thumbnail of the state's rendered image. And all the Output Bitmap nodes are wired to the Compositor Output node, which contains a thumbnail that shows the default composition. In Compositor view you can edit the schematic and the nodes to modify the composition.

10. At this point, you can output the composition to a Photoshop PSD file or to After Effects via the Compositor Link command. Both commands are available on the Compositor menu.

    For instructions on sending a composition to After Affects, see Exchanging Data Between State Sets and Adobe After Effects.