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Non-Biped Crowds 1031

on which you use, you toggle options on the

Motion Clips tab of the Synthesis dialog. In both

cases, you use crowd delegates driven by behaviors

to motivate the creatures, which are linked to those

delegates.

Note: To animate a model for motion synthesis,

apply modifiers to the model and animate their

parameters. Modifiers such as Bend, Taper,

Wave, and Xform produce animation you can use

w ith motion synthesis. Do not use sub-object

animation, such as animation of vertices on an

Editable Mesh object.

Cyclic In-Place Animation

First you create a creature with a few short loop

cycles, like the b eating of w ings, gliding, turning

left and t urning right. This creature is assigned as

the

Global Object

or the master object from which

the motion clips will be derived. Then clones

oftheoriginalcreaturearecreated.Theclones

are positioned and linked to delegates. States are

created to select which clips wi l l play based on a

state.

For example, if a bird (delegate) is pitching up or

accelerating, the fast-beating clip is used; if the

bird (delegate) slows to a stop, the wings-at-rest

clip is used, and so on. During synthesis, the

software determines which state should be active

depending on the speed and direction of the

delegates. An active state determines which clip

should be applied to the clones of the original

object. Clips are blended together to create the

animation. Av ailable states are speed, acceleration,

pitch, pitch velocity, heading velocity, or script

(MAXScript).

Animation with Lateral Motion

For multi-legged creatures that walk, you can

animate lateral motion as well as the cyclic motion

of the legs moving. This is done to ensure that

thecreatures’feetdonotslideastheymove.The

software then uses the lateral motion information

to create a state that perfectly matches the actual

motion. T he software then strips the ac t ual

motion out. When a delegate approaches the speed

and heading recorded in that state, the appropriate

motion clip is triggered. This technique minim izes

sliding feet.

Use the charact er studio crowd tools to create

the initial motion for the delegates. Use a seek or

avoid behavior to steer birds, for example. Your

object with the loop animation is then copied and

the copies are linked to the delegates to create the

comp lete animation. The delegate handles the

path and the clip controllers handle the looped

animation.

You can create Master Motion Clip and Global

Motion Clip in Track V iew by assigning a

controller to the available controller under Block

Control. It is, however, simpler to use the Crowd

helper controls on the Global Clip Controller

rollout to apply and use the clip controllers.