Controlling Colors

You can animate colors in 3ds Max just as you can animate most other parameters.

Two data types are available for controlling colors:

• Point3: A general-purpose, three-component data type that works with RGB color values. It uses most of the standard controllers.
• Color: A special data type designed specifically for working with RGB and HSV color values. Color uses the Bezier and RGB controllers.

Color Point3 Controller

You can assign any of a variety of Point3 controllers to a material's color channels, including Point3 Expression, Point3 List, Color RGB (described later in this topic), and so on. When using Point3 controllers for color parameters, an important issue is behavior of the Key Value fields, labeled X, Y, Z. They store color values using only the RGB color model.

• The X value field stores Red color values.
• The Y value field stores Green color values.
• The Z value field stores Blue color values.

The Point3 Key Value fields do not clamp at the valid color range of 0 to 255. Values that drop below 0 or exceed 255 are ignored by the color parameter but are still displayed in Track View.

Bezier Color Controller

The Bezier Color controller (see Bezier Controllers) is a data type that uses Bezier key interpolation. You can use RGB or HSV color models with the Bezier Color controller.

The choice of color model is global for all keys used by the controller. You can switch between color models anytime and color key values are correctly converted.

The Color Value fields are limited to a range of 0 to 255. You can drag the color keys above 255 in Track View Curve Editor, but the values are clamped at 255.

Color RGB Controller

Assign a Color RGB controller to break a Color controller into three separate Bezier Float controllers. Each of the R, G, and B components of color uses its own track.

Use the Color RGB controller when you want to have separate key patterns or controller types for each color component.