8

Merging and Cloning a Character 777
you might see your biped moving over footsteps
that are spaced inappropriately far apart or close
together for the size of your biped. Typically, you
should leave Scale Stride mode active, unless you
want to maintain the spatial relationship between
the biped and other objects in your scene.
Procedure
To turn off Scale Stride mode:
1.
Select the biped, and go to the Motion
panel.
2. On the Biped rollout, click
the b ar at the bottom to expand the rollout.
(If the rollout is already expanded, the bar
showsaminussignattheleft,insteadofaplus.)
3. In the Modes group, click Scale Stride
Mode to turn it off.
The button changes to indicate stride
scaling has been turned off.
4. UseFiguremodetoeditthefigure.
When you return to Keyframe mode or
Footstep mode, the biped’s stride length is
unchanged, regar
dless of the biped figure’s new
proportions.
MergingandCloningaCharacter
At some point you mig ht need to use the File
> Merge command to
merge a character into
your scene. Also, you can use Merge to clone a
biped that has a mesh with the Physique modifier
applied, as desc
ribed in this topic.
For a lesson that teaches you to merge and clone
a biped character, see “Merging and Cloning
Characters” in
the “Biped and Physique” tutorial.
Clo ning a Charac te r
To clone a character (that is, a biped with a
Physique mesh), save a scene that contains the
character, change the original biped’s name, and
thenuseFile>Mergetomergethecopyfromthe
saved fi le. You can merge from a saved version of
the scene that is currently open. See the procedures
for details.
Procedures
To merge a sk inned biped:
1.
Before y ou merge, make sure the root
name of the biped you want to import is
different from that of bipeds already in your
scene. If there is a name conflict, select the
conflictingbiped,gototheMotionpanel,and
use the St ruc t ure rollout’s Root Name field to
change the biped’s root name.
Ifyouskipthisstep,youwillgetaDuplicate
Name dialog for every object in the merged
biped’s hierarchy!
2. Cho o se File > Merge, then choose the MAX file
that contains the biped to import.
The Merge dialog displays.
3. ClicktoturnonSelectSubtreeintheMerge
dialog.
4. Locate and click the biped’s center of mass
name in the Merge dialog list.
The default name for the biped center of mass
is
Bip01 . Ifthebipedwasrenamedonthe
Structurerollout,findtherenamedcenterof
mass in the list.
Note: Thecenterofmassistherootobjectinthe
bipedhierarchy,ifthisisselectedwithSelect
Subtree turned on, then all the child links are
selected, including extra bones and the mesh
skin (the mesh skin is linked when Attach To
Node is used in Physique).