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682 Chapter 13: Character Assemblies

Althoughthecharacterassemblyfeaturewas

designed for use with character str uctures, it will

work equally well with any ty pe of hierarchy or

related set of objects.

Creat ing a Char a cter Assembl y

To create a character assembly, select the objects

that will make up the assembly. Choose Character

menu > Create Character.

All selected objects become members of the

assembly, and the character assembly node is

created. Other objects can be manually added to

the assembly after it has been created.

Once the character assembly has been created,

you can work with it in a variety of ways. For

information about the Modify panel options

available after a character assembly is created, see

Create Char acter (page 2–683)

L i n ked Ob je ct s i n Chara cte r A ss em b l i e s

Anyorallmembersofthecharacterassemblycan

be linked to a single object outside the assembly,

but no more than one. For example, ThighLeft and

ThighRight, which are both part of the assembly,

canbothbelinkedtoPelviswhichisnotpartofthe

assembly. However, if Thig hLef t and Thig hRi ght

are each linked to different objects outside the

assembly, the creation of the assembly will fail, and

w i ll show the following error message:

Parameter Wiring and Animation

If you plan to wire parameters between two

objects, create the assembly first, then set up the

wir ing. Be sure to include both objects in the

assembly.

Becausewiringshouldbedoneaftertheassembly

is created, you will probably find it easiest to

create the character assembly before animating

the char acter.