8

Work ing with Biped 701
Use Crowds to A nimate Gr oups of
Characters
Once you’ve created animation sequences for
characters or other models (such as a bird flapping
its w ings), you can replicate the models or
characters and apply the motions to these groups
using the
Crowd system (page 2–1006) .Youcan
alsocombinethemwithawiderangeofsupplied
behaviorstocreatelifelikeactivitiesincrowds,
such as people streaming through a doorway, street
traffic, or birds a nd fish flocking and avoiding
obstacles. You can use Motion Flow mode to create
motion clip networks so that characters perform
animation sequences appropriate to their current
movement and transition smoothly between
sequences. And you can use Crowd’s cognitive
controllers to transition between behaviors based
on a variety of criteria. For more on crowd
behaviors, see
Creating a Crowd System (page
2–1007)
.
Biped
Crea t ing a B i ped S kelet on
Working with Biped
To work most efficiently with bipeds, it is
important to follow the general workflow
described in this topic.
Create Sk in Geometry
Before you create a skeleton for a character , you
should already have a character skin to put the
skeleton into.
Create a basic skin shape for your character using
any of the 3ds Max modeling tools and surface
types. Be sure to place your character’s skin in
a neutral pose with ar ms outstretched and legs
spaced slightly apart. You may also want to add
sufficient detail to your skin’s mesh or control
points around joints to facilitate deformation
during movement.
Character mesh in a neutral pose
Tip: Freeze your character mesh b efore adding a
biped skeleton. When the mesh is f rozen, you can
still see it, but you can’t select or alter it, reducing
thechanceforerrororfrustration.
Create a B ip ed Skeleton
Once you have a character mesh, you can create a
biped skeleton to fit inside. Use
Figure mode (page
2–835)
to set up your biped.
Before you position the skeleton, use controls on
the
Structure rollout (page 2–837) to alter the
biped to match your mesh, setting the number
of links for the spine, arms, neck, or fingers, or
adding props to represent weapons or tools.
Tip: You can use ponytails to create animated jaws,
ears, or horns.
Note: Certain biped body parts, including fingers,
tails, ponytails, props, and clav icles, can be
repositioned in Figure mode to suit different
characters.