GLOSSARY
The Track View hierarchy follows the traditional example of organizational headings in an outline. The highest levels of the hierarchy represent the main groupings in 3D Studio MAX of Sound, Environment, Materials, and Objects. Lower levels of the hierarchy progress through the details of your scene, such as individual materials, material maps, and map parameters.
Each type of item in the Track View Hierarchy List is represented by an icon. You can use these icons to quickly identify what each item represents.
Sound: Green cones indicate sound parameters. 3DS MAX provides only one sound source in Track View.
Material: Blue spheres indicate material definitions. All branches below a material definition are part of that material. Because a material can be composed of multiple materials it is possible to have nested material definitions in Track View. Blue spheres also appear in an object’s modifier branch when a material is assigned to an object.
Map: Green parallelograms indicate map definitions. All branches below a map definition are part of that map. This includes values used by parametric maps and other map definition that are part of a map tree.
Object: Yellow cubes indicate objects in the scene. Branches below the square icon beside a yellow cube contain linked descendents of the object. Branches below the circle icon beside a yellow cube contain transforms and modifications applied to the object.
Container: Blue cylinders indicate a container of other items. Branches below a blue cylinder can contain any number of other items. Containers are how 3D Studio MAX organizes complex items in the Hierarchy List.
Modifier: Orange diamonds indicate modifiers and Space Warp bindings. Branches below a modifier contain the modifier’s sub-objects and parameters.
Controller: Green triangles indicate controllers. Controllers are the animation workhorses of Track View. They contain the animated values for all parameters and are the only item in the Hierarchy List that can have a track containing keys.
Certain types of controllers can contain other controllers. Examples of these are Transform Controllers and List Controllers.