Expert: Andre Hickman - 7/5/2004

Question
Thanks for being so prompt at answering my question! It's really nice to have people that want to help others. I've tooken a screenshot of what my UI looks like and placed it on a server of a website that I designed for a company. (Sorry, couldn't think of any other way to get it to you!)

http://www.sportdental.ca/misc/screenshot.gif

Also, when I close 3DS MAX, my computer just about stops running! Its' 3Ghz HT processor and 1GB of RAM usage goes to 100%. The processes "winlogin.exe" and "explorer.exe" just about share the total system resources! That can't be right. I don't know if you know what could be happening, but the only thing that I could think of is that maybe none of the drivers unload after running 3DS MAX. I appoligize for bombarding you with questions, but I really appreachiate your help! Thanks again, Nick.

-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Hi, I'm just learning 3DS MAX 5, and I have read alot of turorials that make reference to a "Animate" button in the interface.
e.g. http://www.maxhelp.com/content/tutorials/campfire/campfire.htm

I can only find a set of "key" buttons; there're the closest I can find to animation controls. I  almost completed the tutorial above, but was held back by the animate part! (probally the most important step!) Also, is "F10" the best way to render this scene? Thanks in advance!
         Nick
Answer -
the animate button is not in the key controls.  It is a big, square button that should be always visible in the lower right hand corner, next to your timeline.  as for rendering, I always go to the pull down menu and use the render command.  then you can set the size of your render, motion blur and antialiasing, and what parts of the scene you want to render, as well as what format to save in.

I hope you can find the animate button, yeah that is a REEEEAL crucial part of animating. Try maximizing your 3d max, or changing your UI (user interface) settings.  If you still don't find it, I'll see what I can't find out for you, but it should be a BIG, SQUARE button in the lower right hand corner beside your "quad" windows.

Answer
Dude, I almost gasped in horror, as I looked at your screen shot...Where in hell is the animate button?!!!  See, I still use 3D Max 4.2, and don't upgrade with every new version of software, because that can get quite expensive when you have to not only upgrade the software, but also the extra plugins, who want to make money off of upgrades too, and the old versions of the plugin don't work with the new verion of the software, so you have to upgrade and...

...sorry, I'm rambling...anyway, I figured out your animate button problem.  There IS no problem.  the derned fools just changed the name and shape of the button.  The "Animate" button in version 5 is actually that rectangular button that says "Auto Key."  Heck, If I had upgraded, I'd be trying to figure that one out!!! So thanks for giving me a heads-up.

As for the RAM problem, I don't know what is happening there.  Are the system resources hanging like that indefinitely, or do they go back to normal after some time? What OS are you working on? I have a dual 1-GHZ machine with 1-GB of RAM, and I don't have that problem (with 4.2) Two things I would tell you to try. 1) Check and see if Discreet offers some special driver upgrades for your OS, Hyperthreading or Pentium 4 chipsets (I'm assuming it's a Pentium HT), and 2) If they don't have that, and it's not a tremendous amount of trouble, totally uninstall Max, reboot, and start with a new install, to see if that helps.

Hey, so far I'm batting .500! Maybe one of those suggestions will make it 1.000!

Cheers,

Andre'