The Track View hierarchy, as displayed in the Controller window, follows the traditional example of organizational headings in an outline. The highest levels of the hierarchy represent the main groupings in 3ds Max of Sound, Environment, Materials, Render Effects, 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.

World

The World icon represents the root of the scene hierarchy.

Sound

Indicate sound parameters. 3ds Max provides only one sound source in Track View.

Material

Indicates 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. Icons also appear in an object's modifier branch when a material is assigned to an object.

Map

Indicates 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

Indicates a scene node such as geometry, lights, and cameras. Branches below the square icon contain linked descendents of the node. Branches below the circle icon beside a yellow cube contain transforms and modifications applied to the node.

Modifier/Object Component

Indicate modified objects and Space Warp bindings. Branches below a modifier contain the modifier's sub-objects and parameters.

This icon can also indicate a node’s Object component that contains its creation settings.

Controller

Indicate an animation controller, which contains the animated values for all parameters and is the only item type in the Hierarchy list that can have a track containing keys. Every controller has its own individual icon. Some examples:

• Position controller
• Rotation controller
• Scale controller

Certain types of controllers can contain other controllers. Examples of these are Transform controllers and List controllers.