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724 Chapter 14: Character Studio
After making changes to the footsteps, click
Create Keys for Inactive Footsteps in the
Footstep
Operations rollout (page 2–842)
.Thiswillrecreate
keys for the biped and cause it to follow the
footsteps.
Active footsteps are pale in color, while inactive
footsteps are brightly colored. This coloring
appears b oth on footstep icons in viewpor ts and
onfootstepkeysintheDopeSheet.
Note: Deactivating and reactivating footsteps
causes al l biped keys to be replaced with default
animation keys for the current footstep pattern
and timing.
Procedure
To deactivate footsteps:
1.
Select the f ootsteps to deactivate.
The footsteps you select must b e in sequence;
you cannot deactivate a nonsequential set of
footsteps.
2. Click Deactivate Selected Footsteps in the
Footstep Operations rollout.
Thefootstepsaredeactivated.Viewportsand
theDopeSheetdisplaytheminbrightcolors
again.
When to Dea ctiv ate Footsteps
There are many situations where you will want or
need to deactivate footsteps after activating them.
• When you move or rotate active footsteps
substantially, you might find that the original
keys generated are no longer appropriate for
your a nimation. If this happens, deactivate
footsteps, move the footsteps into the correct
locations, and act ivate footsteps again.
• When changing footstep t iming in the Curve
Editor’s Dope Sheet mode, you might receive an
error message st ating that what you are trying
todoviolatesoneoftherulesofbipedkey
placement. If this occurs, deactivate footsteps,
make timing changes in the Dope Sheet, then
activate footsteps again
• If you have a large number of active footsteps in
the scene, moving footsteps and mak ing timing
changescancausedelaysasallkeysareadapted
and updated. You might find your work is faster
if you deactivate footsteps whi le making your
changes.
• If you have activated footsteps then changed the
default animation, then find you want to return
to the default animation, you can deactivate
footsteps and activate them again to recreate
the default animation.
Activation/Deactivation Work flow
The fastest workflow with footsteps is to deac tivate
footsteps and ma ke changes, reactivate footsteps
and play the animation to check your work, and
repeat this process until the footstep timing and
placement are correct. However, deactivating and
reactivating footsteps replaces any biped keys w ith
the default animation for the current footstep
pattern and timing.
For this reason, it is recommended t hat you work
w ith footsteps exclusively first, ig nor ing the upper
body animation, and deac t ivate and reactivate
footsteps as needed. When t he motion of the feet
is perfect or near-perfect, only then should you
adjust the biped animation manually. Otherwise,
you will lose all your manual animation work
every time you deactivate and reactivate footsteps.
Ru les for I na ctive Footsteps
When you click deactivate footsteps, only selected
footsteps are deactivated. If you haven’t made
any changes to the default animation, it is
recommended that you deactivate all footsteps.
However , if you’ve changed or added animation