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1032 Chapter 14: Character Studio
Master Motion Clip
Master Motion Clips are controllers that contain
motion clips , or individual clips of animation.
These motion clips are sequenced to create
animation, and overlap slightly w ith automatic
blending to smooth the transitions between clips.
Procedure
To use Motion Sy nthesis with non-bipedal creatures:
All of the work invol ved in copying and
sy nthesizing clips takes place using controls in the
Synthesis dialog (page 2–1098) .Thisdialoghas
three tabs: Motion Clips, State, and Synthesis.
This procedure assumes that the global object is
static and has animation that loops. For creatures
w ith many legs, you can animate lateral motion
on t he global object and then strip out the lateral
motion with the Synthesis dialog. This latter
approach serves to minimize foot sliding in a
multi-legged creature.
1. Animate an object.
Createanimationinoneposition,likeabird’s
beating wings. Create a variety of animation
like a gliding motion (wings st i l l), wings b eating
slowly, and so on. To animate the object, apply
modifiers and animate their parameters.
This wil l be the Global object, from which
animation clips will be derived.
2. Using the Create panel > Helpers > Object Type
rollout,addaCrowdobjectandaDelegate
object.
Create the objects in the Top or Perspective
viewport.
3. Use Scatter Objects (page 2–1040) in Crowd
function to clone the delegate and optionally
distribute the clones (you can also distribute
them manually).
Make sure you end up with an equal number of
delegates and animated object clones.
Next, associate and link the objects to the
delegates.
4. On the Setup rollout, click the
Object/Delegate Associations button.
The
Object/Delegate Associations dialog (page
2–1047)
appears.
5. Add the objects and delegates into their
respective columns.
6. Click Ali gn Objects With D elegates, and then
click Link Objects To Delegates, and then click
OK to exit the dialog.
The objects align themselves with the delegates
and are linked to the delegates.
Next, animate the delegates w ith behaviors.
See
Assigning Behaviors (page 2–1011) for
information on using behaviors.
When you solve the simulation, the cloned
objects follow the delegates, which are guided
by b ehaviors. You then generate motion
sy nthesis based on the delegate movement.
7. Select the Crowd object. On the Modify panel
> Global Clip Controllers rollout, click N ew,
and u se the S elect dialog to select the Global
object from step 1.
The object appears in the Global Clip
Controllers rollout list.
8. In the list, click the objec t , and then click t he
Edit button.
The Sy nthesis dialog displays. Its name is that
of the object.
9. On the Motion Clips panel, turn off all check
boxes in the From Global Object and Remove
Local groups.
Use these options only if your original object
has lateral motion to coordinate with footsteps.
10. On the Motion Clips panel, click New.