Creating and Playing Animated Material Previews

You can create a preview movie of an animated material using the Material Editor. These controls are on the Make Preview flyout.

The active preview movie is saved in a file called _medit.avi. Each time you create a new preview, the Material Editor overwrites this file. To keep a preview movie on hand, save it under a different name.

Create Material Preview Parameters

The parameters in the Create Material Preview dialog correspond to parameters you use when you create an animation preview or create an animation with the renderer.

Active Time Segment: Choose to render frames in the active time segment. The default active segment is all frames in the animation.

Custom Range: Choose to specify a range from within this dialog. Use the spinners to specify the start and end of the range.

Every Nth Frame: Sets how many frames to render. Use a value greater than 1 to create a preview that renders and plays more quickly.

Playback FPS: Sets the playback rate in frames per second.

Percent of Output: Use to set a preview frame size other than the default of 100 per cent (101 x 99 pixels). Smaller frame sizes show less detail but render and play back more quickly. Larger frame sizes show greater detail but render and play back more slowly.

How To

To create a preview of an animated material:

  1. Choose Make Preview from the flyout.
  2. In the Create Material Preview dialog set the preview conditions you want, and then click OK.

    3. The Material Editor creates the preview.

To play back a preview of an animated material:

  1. Choose Play Preview from the flyout.

    2. The Material Editor starts the Windows Media Player with the active preview movie loaded.

  2. Click Play to view the preview movie.

To save a preview movie under a different name:

  1.  Choose Save Preview from the flyout.

    2. The Material Editor displays a file save dialog.

  2. Enter a new name for the preview, and then click OK.