Create Preview Animation

Create Preview Animation opens the Make Preview dialog, enabling you to create an AVI file or custom file type preview of the animation in the active viewport. You can also render a preview to a specified device.

• Standard menu: Tools menu > Preview - Grab Viewport > Create Preview Animation (or press Shift + V)
• Enhanced menu: Rendering menu > Screen Capture > Create Preview Animation (or press Shift + V)

When the preview is complete, 3ds Max starts the Media Player with the preview _scene.avi file ready to play. (If you don't want the Media Player to start, choose Customize Preferences General and, in the UI Display group, turn off AutoPlay Preview File.)

Procedures

To create a preview:

1. Choose Rendering menu Screen Capture Create Preview Animation.

   3ds Max opens the Make Preview dialog.

2. Change the preview parameters or accept the defaults, and then click OK.

   If the output type is AVI, 3ds Max renders the preview and saves it in a file called _scene.avi, in the path specified by Configure User Paths File I/O Previews. Immediately after rendering the preview, 3ds Max runs Media Player with this animation loaded.

3. View the preview by clicking Play in Media Player.

   If you dismiss Media Player and then want to view the preview again, choose Tools Grab Viewport View Animated Sequence File. This restarts Media Player with _scene.avi.

   You can save the preview under a different name, so it won't be overwritten the next time you make a preview. To do so, use Rendering menu Screen Capture Save Preview Animation As.

Interface

Left: Make Preview dialog for Nitrous viewports

Right: Make Preview dialog for legacy viewports

Preview Range group

Specifies the frames to be included in the preview, either the active time segment or a custom range of frames.

Frame Rate group

Specifies the playback frame rate in frames per second. Use Every Nth Frame to preview a regular sampling of the animation. For example, a value of 8 includes only every eighth frame in the preview.

Image Size group

Sets the resolution of your preview as a percentage of the current output resolution. You set the output resolution on the Render Setup dialog. For example, if the rendering output resolution is 640x480, and you set Percent Of Output to 50, the preview resolution is 320x240.

Note: The size of the preview image is limited by the size of the viewpanel region (the region that contains the viewports). The setting is clamped to the maximum value that allows the preview image to fit in the viewpanel region.

Display Filter group (Nitrous viewports)

For Nitrous viewports, specifies the types of objects to include in the preview.

Overlay group (Nitrous viewports)

For Nitrous viewports, specifies additional information to write to the preview frames.

Display in Preview group (Legacy viewports)

For legacy viewports (Direct3D or OpenGL), specifies the types of objects to include in the preview. Frame Numbers prints a frame number in the upper-left corner of each frame of the AVI file. Background includes the assigned viewport background in the preview.

Visual Style group (Nitrous viewports)

For Nitrous viewports, lets you choose the visual style, as well as whether the rendering will include face edges, lighting highlights, textures, or the viewport background.

Rendering Level group (Legacy viewports)

[Rendering Level drop-down list]

For legacy viewports (Direct3D or OpenGL), specifies the viewport rendering method to use in the preview.

Camera View group

Specifies whether the preview should include multi-pass rendering effects.

Output group

Specifies the preview output format.

• AVI When chosen, the preview is output as an AVI file. The button to the right displays the current AVI codec. Click it to adjust the assigned codec, or choose a different codec. The quality of your output AVI file depends on the type of codec you use and the codec settings, which vary. For the highest visual quality, choose the highest compression quality. The higher the compression quality, the lower the compression, and the larger the resultant file.
• Custom File Type Outputs the preview to the specified file format. Either click the File button or use a previous setting, which is displayed just below the File button. Clicking the File button opens a Create Animated Sequence File dialog, where you can name the file and specify the output file type. Controls on this dialog are the same as on the Render Output File dialog.

  For example, you can output the preview as a Quicktime movie by specifying a file name with a .mov extension. If you specify a single-image format, such as .tga, the preview is output as a series of sequentially numbered files. Once you have determined the settings, click the Create button to view an animation preview.

  Note: You can give the file an automatic name generated from the Name Template drop-down list. Templates assign a file name based on scene and system information. You can use text fields to enter new templates: For example, to change the order of the day and month fields.

  If you choose to use a previous setting, just click the Create button to view a preview.

• Use Device Lets you output the preview to an external device, such as a digital recorder. The button at right displays the name of the currently assigned device. Click it to either change the settings of the device, or assign a different device.

Render Viewport drop-down list

This list shows the names of the currently visible viewports, letting you choose which viewport to render from within the Make Preview dialog. Default=the active viewport.