Storyboard and Animatic setup in Max Set up units to be generic, but to make one unit = 1 foot.
Set up your bipeds to be about 6 feet [6 generic units.]
Make all buildings and other objects reasonable size.
Set up your viewport so you can manage a top [aerial] view, a front view, a perspective view, and your camera view.
F10 to set up your frame dimensions.
Shift F to see the safe frame on your camera viewport so you see what you will get when you render.
Assign simple colors to help orient the viewer, differentiate one building or character from another, etc. Set up the top view like a map so you can see where characters are, the places they have to move, and your cameras.
Set up separate cameras for different characters or locations.
Use step key mode to jump from one camera key to the next, or, just render out shots as you need them. The virtue of setting keys is you can get back to your shots and possible to directly use this animatic file to build out your final file..
Use the step function curve to make the camera jump every 10 frames for a new shot.
Quickly make new keys before you even move the camera by right clicking on the time slider
Tip -- to save active view ... do this ... you can then restore the view the same way. This is like a clipboard that just save one current viewport. It is handy if you want to quickly experiment with a perspective viewport, find the best view, then convert to a camera.
Ctrl-C make a camera from any non-camera viewport.
Give meaningful names to your shots
When you have a good number of shots, start arranging them in word.
Put as many as you want on the page, but keep the sizes consistent.
Add valuable information, like an aerial view [top viewport] ... add notes to explain what you are showing.
Aerial view of Route 290 cutting between warehouse on your left and empty building on your right. |
