8

716 Chapter 14: Character Studio
Yo u c a n a l s o u s e t h e character studio Set Key
tools found in the K ey Info rollout.
10.Play the animation again and make any
corrections to the upper body motion.
Footstep Method
In the viewp orts, footsteps represent support
periods in space for the biped feet. You can move
and rotate footsteps in viewports. In Track View,
each footstep appears as a block that represent s a
support period in time for each of the biped’s feet.
YoucanmovefootstepsintimeinTrackView.The
footstep position and orientation in the viewport
controls where the biped will step.
There are three ways to create footsteps for the
biped:
•Placefootstepsindividually.
• U se the footstep tools to automatically create a
walking, running or jumping animation.
•Importmotion-capturedatatofootsteps.
A key advantage of the footstep method is the
natural adaptation of the biped that occurs when
the footsteps are edited in time and space. Editing
footstepsintheviewportsallowsyoutoreposition
all of the footsteps to move the entire animation.
In Footstep mode, stride, length, width, and
direction can be changed quickly for an entire
animation and the biped automatically adapts.
Using the Footsteps Show/Hide button on the
Display rollout, all footsteps c an become visible.
Move the footsteps in the viewports to position
them for proper g round collision with the terrain
object. For example, if the biped toes are rotated
for the Lift key at the last f rame of a footstep (to
create more toe curl as the character walks) the leg
automatically repositions itself to maintain foot
contact with the ground (footstep).
These adaptations speed up the process of creating
and editing animation for the biped. If necessary,
the animator can prevent biped adaptation by
using the
Adapt Lo cks parameters (page 3–999) on
the
Dynamics & Adaptat ion rollout (page 2–833) .
Foot States
Withinafootstepanimation,therecanbefour
foot states (page 3–1037) : move,touch,plant ,and
lift . These correspond to the state of the biped feet
in relationship to the footsteps. Use the foot state
displays in the Biped rollout to determine the state
of the biped feet when you are editing the biped
footorlegkeys.Thefootstatescanbedisplayed
in the viewp ort by turning on Leg states in the
Display group of the expanded Biped rollout. The
Foot states are represented as colored keys in Track
View - Dope Sheet.
Footstep M ode
When Footstep Mode is activated, footstep
creation controls appear in the Motion panel.