In the next step, we are giong to render the animation sequence on to a file. If you haven't created the ball bouncing scene, following the instructions in the previous pages, then you may download the scene here (chapl4-ball-animated.max).

The process is much similar to the usual render that we have already learned to do. With the ball bouncing animation scene opened in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ), Click on Rendering > Render from the main menu, to bring up the Render dailog box (or press F10). In the dialog box, at the top, in the Time Output section, choose Active Time Segment instead of the default option- Single. The Active Time Segment specifies 3D Studio MAX ( 3DS MAX ) to render the whole time segment which consists of frames 0 to 50 in our current scene. Lets leave all the other parameters to defauls. You may choose 320X240 as the output resolution instead of 640X480 if you want the rendering to complete faster and also to reduce the file size.

In the section Render Output, click on the Files button. It brings up a dialog box for specifying where to save the animation. First choose the folder of your liking and specify a name in the File name file in the dialog box. In the Save As Type section, choose AVI File (*.avi) . If you choose JPEG or any other image format, all the 50 frames will be output as individual images. Choosing the AVI as output lets you write the whole animation into a single AVI file. Now click Save. This brings up a Codec selection dialog box. Choose the codec you need to use to compress the AVI. If you want a full quality uncompressed AVI but doesn't bother about the huge file size that results, choose Full Frames (Uncompressed) option. Otherwise choose DivX, Cinepak, Indeo or any other codec of your choice. Clicking on the Configure button, brings up the Codec's configuration dialog box which varies depending on the codec chosen. After choosing the codec, click OK to terminate the dialog box.

Now the name of the file will be displayed in the 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ) Render dialog box besides the Files button. Now choose Camera01 as the viewport if it is not already selected. What are you waiting for? Click Render. It brings up a progress dialog box. It might take some time to complete. Once finished you can open the Avi file in your media player and play it.

Give yourself a big treat for having completed all the basic lessons of 3D Studio MAX ( 3DS MAX ) successfully. You have done a realy great job by learning it all by yourself. And ofcourse you have saved a lot of money too. But as you know, maintaining an online informative resource totally FREE to the public is definitely expensive. But you can support us and help us remain completely FREE.