You can create a preview movie of an animated material. Use Make Preview in the Compact Material Editor, or Render Map in the Slate Material Editor.
The preview movie is saved in the \previews subdirectory in a file called _medit.avi. Each time you create a new preview, the Compact Material Editor overwrites this file. To keep a preview movie on hand, save it under a different name by using the Save Preview button on the same flyout as Make Preview.
To create a preview of an animated material in the Compact Material Editor:
The Material Editor creates the preview.
To create a material preview in the Slate Material Editor:
To play back a preview of an animated material, do one of the following:
3ds Max starts the Windows Media Player with the active preview movie loaded. Click Play to view the preview movie.
To save a preview movie under a different name:
The Material Editor displays a file save dialog.