Overview
Zookeeper is a 3ds max tool which can be used for organizing scenes and performing tasks not otherwise possible with 3ds max's UI. It is made up of 4 major areas to work with your scene. These are Tree Views, Schematic Views, Palettes, and Synoptic views. Each of these have there uses and all are designed to work together very well. Lets have a look at a brief overview of each.
Tree views allow you to work with objects in a hierarchical way. Objects are displayed in an easy windows explorer like way so that you can navigate and edit them. Tree views also have filters so that you can see only the objects you are looking for and the ability to sort objects by type, name, and other methods. Lastly tree views allow you to filter objects based on a text search box so you can quickly find only objects named "Chair" or "Control". There are a few different kinds of Tree Views you can work with so lets take a look at them below.
Scene Object views allow you to quickly select and interact with objects in your scene. You can select, hide, and freeze one or multiple objects as well as set any number of object properties quickly. The Scene Objects view has the ability to filter by object types such as Lights, Cameras, or Helpers. You can also filter what is visible in view using the Type in filter box. Lastly you can order your objects using the Order drop-down. This will allow you to order objects by name, poly count, ID, size, etc. You may have multiple Scene Object views in separate tabs with different sorting orders and filters for more complex scenes or setups.
Layer Tree views have all the same filtering and sorting options as the Scene Objects Tree views. Here you can further organize your objects into layers. You can add new layers and quickly reorder layers and objects that are in them with drag and drop operations. Zookeeper layers also have the extra ability to arrange your layers into Layer Groups. Layer Groups are an additional level of customizable and control for complex scenes.
Advanced tree views give you access to all the different properties and hierarchies associated with an object in a tree view form. This includes Modifiers, Materials, Transformations and more.
Schematic Views
Schematic views are a place to work with your objects and visually see as well as edit their parameters and relationships. Schematic views are for working with Objects, Materials, Lights, Cameras, Effects, Particles, Controllers and everything that exists in 3ds max. They can be used to visualize and adjust hierarchies and other relation ships such as wires and custom attributes. In a schematic view you can "wire" in any one value from an object parameter or modifier to another Object, Modifier, or Material in 3dsmax. You can also implore the use of Expressions, and Maxscripts to further extend your setups.
The Palettes section of Zookeeper allows you to create any Object, Material, Controller etc in make by just dragging it to a schematic or tree view. This is also were you can store custom rollouts for Composites or Composite templates.
Synoptic view is a custom view created to select and edit complex scenes or character rigs in a quick and visual way. In the example below a screen capture of the characters face has been made with the bones that control certain areas visible. The nodes that control these bones are placed over the image in the appropriate places for easy selection and manipulation.
