8

686 Chapter 13: Character Assemblies
See also
Character Assembly (p age 2 –681)
Insert Character
Character menu > Insert Character
Choose this command to insert a previously saved
character into t he current scene.
A character assembly can be saved as a .
chr file by
choosing Character menu > Save Character. A
.
chr file contains the character assembly node, all
members of t he assembly and any animation on
the members.
When a character is inserted into the scene, it is
placedatthesameworld-spacelocationithad
when saved.
See also
Character Assembly (p age 2 –681)
Save Character (p age 2–686)
Save Character
Character m enu > Save Character
Saving a character saves a character a ssembly
(page 2–681)
at its current locat ion, including
its node, all members, and any animation on its
members. This command is primarily u sed for
saving a character assembly prior to inserting it
into another scene.
Saving a character with this command saves the
assembly as a .
chr file. The . chr file can later b e
inserted into a scene by choosing Character menu
>
Insert Character (page 2–686) .
This option is available only w hen a character
assembly node is selected.
Sk in Pose Commands
Character menu > Set Ski n Pose
Character menu > Assume Skin Pose
Character menu > Skin Pose Mode
When the Skin modifier is first applied to a mesh,
thebonestructure’scurrentposeisusedasthe
skin pose. Subsequent animation of the bone
structure on frame 0 can cause the sk in pose to
bealtered.Theskinposecommandsallowyouto
changeandsettheskinposeeitherbeforeorafter
you apply the Skin modifier.
The
skin pose stores a specific position, rotation
andscaleforanobject. Itsintendeduseisfor
storing a character assembly’s pose for the Skin
modifier. However, a sk in pose can be u sed for
any object to store its current transforms for later
retrieval.
These commands work on any object, regardless
of w hether the structure is part of a character
assembly, or whether the bones have been assigned
toameshwiththeSkinmodifier.
Set Sk in Pose—Stores the selected objects’ cur rent
position, rotation and scale as the skin pose. If t he
selected objects are assigned as bones for the Skin
modifier, the envelopes and vertex weighting are
automatically recalculated to work with the new
pose.
Assume Skin Pose—Causes the selected objects to
takeonthestoredskinpose.Thisfeaturecanbe
useful during the animation phase. For example,
if you have animated the character on various
keyframes and want the character to animate back
to its skin pose at frame 50, you can turn on Auto
Key at frame 50 and click Assume Skin Pose.
Sk in Pose Mode—Poses the character in its skin
pose and allows the skin pose to be refined.
ChangestotheobjectswhenSkinPoseMode