The Make Preview dialog lets you 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.
When the preview is complete, 3ds Max starts the Media Player with the preview _scene.avi file ready to play by default. If you don't want the Media Player to start, clear the Play When Done checkbox.
Preview Range group
- Active Time Segment
- Includes only the active time segment in the preview.
- Custom Range
- Includes only the frames specified in the range in the preview.
Frame Rate group
- Every Nth Frame
- Provides a regular sampling by including only every Nth frame (number you specify) in the preview.
- Playback FPS
- Specifies the playback frame rate in frames per second.
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 in Preview group
Specifies what is displayed in the preview. Options include:
- Geometry
- Shapes
- Lights
- Cameras
- Helpers
- Space Warps
- Particle Systems
- Bone Objects
- Background
- Active Grid.
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.
Overlay group
Specifies additional information to be overlaid on top of the preview frames. Options include:
- Safe frames
- Frame numbers
- Camera/View Name
- MXS Snippet
Visual Style group (Nitrous viewports)
- Per-View Presets
- Options include High Quality, Standard, Performance, or DX Mode.
- Preference
- Sets how objects are rendered. Options include:
- Default Shading
- Wireframe
- Clay
- Facets
- Bounding Box
- Hidden Line
- Flat Color
- Model Assist
- Graphite
- Color Pencil
- Ink
- Color Ink
- Acrylic
- Pastel
- Tech
- Edged Faces
- Includes face edges in the preview.
- Use Multi-Pass Camera Effect
- Includes the effect of having multiple camera passes in the preview.
- Textures
- Includes textures in the preview.
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.
Output group
- Play When Done
- When the preview is created, opens the Media Player and automatically plays the preview.
- File
- Opens the Create Animated Sequence File dialog.
- File name
- Specify the file name. If you want a specific format, select it from the Name template list first.
- Save as type
- Specify the type of file to save. This list also serves as a filter.
- Name template
- Lets you choose a file name based on the 3ds Max scene and system settings, where:
- <scene> is the root name of the MAX scene file
- <camera/view> is the name of the active camera or viewport
- <mm> is the month
- <dd> is the day
- <yyyy> is the year.
- The text field lets you create new templates. Any text you enter becomes part of the name template. Up to 10 custom templates can be saved in addition to the default templates. Once the maximum number of templates has been saved, entering a new template causes the first custom template to drop off the list.
- Devices
- Lets you choose from the hardware output device; for example, a digital video recorder. The device, its driver, and its 3ds Max plug-in must all be installed on your system.
- Setup
- Displays controls for the selected file type. These vary with each different file format. Change the settings as necessary.
- Info
- Displays expanded information about a highlighted file such as frame rate, compression quality, file size, and resolution. The information here depends on the type of information saved with the file type.
- View
- Displays a highlighted file at its actual resolution. If the file is a movie, the Media Player opens.
- Gamma
- To set up gamma options for the output file, Enable Gamma Correction must be on in the Gamma panel of the Preferences dialog (Customize > Preferences > Gamma). Otherwise, the controls are unavailable.
- Automatic (recommended)
- Uses the gamma value embedded in the incoming bitmap. If there is no embedded gamma value, 3ds Max makes an intelligent decision based on the image's bit depth. Low-dynamic-range images (8- or 16-bit) are assumed to have the standard sRGB gamma of 2.2, and high-dynamic-range (floating-point or logarithmic) images are assumed to be linear and use a gamma of 1.0 (no correction). Use Automatic for most scenes.
- Override
- Sets a value you define as the gamma value, overriding the gamma value embedded in the bitmap. Use this option only if your scene uses bitmaps create or edited by a variety of other programs, where you need to adjust the gamma differently for each program.
- Sequence
- To render a sequence of still images, choose the Active Time Segment or define a range of frames. If you have selected a still image file type, each frame will append a 4-digit number to the frame you have selected, incremented with each frame.
- Preview
- Displays a thumbnail of the selected file.
- Statistics
- Displays the resolution, color depth, file type, and number of frames of the selected file.
- Location
- Displays the full file path.
- Render Viewport
- This list shows the names of the currently visible viewports, letting you choose which viewport to render from within the Make Preview dialog.
- Create
- Creates the animation preview.
- Cancel
- Closes the dialog without creating or saving the preview.