Autodesk 495B1-05A111-1301 - 3ds Max Design 2010, User Manual

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Global Time vs. Local Time
Global time is the time a Player, Schematic, or Animation Editor view uses.
This time may be either master or standalone time. Remember, you can use
master and standalone time to synchronize or separate playback between two
or more views—see
Playing Back in Multiple Views on page 192.
Local time becomes relevant when you add a Time Offset tool to a node of
the composition. A Time Offset tool creates a local time in all nodes that
precede it along the branch, i.e. the nodes at the left of the Schematic. When
you select a node affected by a Time Offset tool, you can disable the Global
button in the Tool Options area of the Tool UI to see the local time of the
tool—see
Converting the Frame Rate on page 695 and Offsetting Time on page
696.
The Time Offset tool lets you adjust the timing relationship between two
branches of the dependency graph. For example, if you need to synchronize
action in two separate shots, you can create a composition with a branch for
each shot and use a Time Offset tool along one branch to adjust the timing
relationship between the two shots.
You can examine the local time and global time of a node affected by a Time
Offset node in the Tool Options area of the tool UI.
Time Offsets, Keyframing, and Instancing
Only a single animation channel and a single set of animation keyframes per
attribute are stored. Selecting the Set Key button sets a keyframe per instance
and per local time.
690 | Chapter 27 Animation