8
Combining BIP Motions 779
2.
On the Struc ture rollout, change the original
biped’s root name, as described above.
3. Merge the saved biped, as described in the
previous procedure, “To merge a skinned
biped.”
The original biped, with its Physique modifier,
is cloned. It appears in the same location as the
original biped.
4. OntheMotionpanel,ontheBiped
rollout, turn on Move All Mode.
5. Use Select And Move to move the clone
to a new location in the scene.
Combining BIP Motions
character studio provides two main ways of
combining BIP files to build more complex
character animations.
•
Motion flow (page 2–878)
uses BIP files as
clips
in a
script
. The motion-flow script joins
clips together using
transitions
. Transitions
can be unconditional, they can be chosen at
random, or they can be governed by rules such
as collision detection. You can control when a
transition begins and ends. You can use motion
flow to animate a single biped, or a crowd of
bipeds.
Motion flow scripts are saved as Mot ion Flow
Editor (MFE) files.
•The
Motion Mixer (page 2–581)
also uses BIP
files a nd MFE files as clips. In addition to
creating transitions from one BIP animation to
another, over time, Mixer scripts can combine
the upper-body movement of one biped w ith
the lower-body movement of another, adjust
the timing of movements, and provide a
number of other effects. The Mixer is especially
useful when you work with
motion-capture
files (page 2–910)
.
Mixer scripts are saved as BIP fi les or MIX files.
Loadi ng a nd Sa vi ng ST P Files
Step (STP) files save footsteps, but don’t save bo dy
keyframes.
The STP file format is an ASCII format that
enables developers to write programs that generate
step files for biped motion. The online document
stp.rt f
,providedwithcharacter studio in the
..\cstudio\docs
directory, describes the STP
format.
Procedures
To load footstep data:
1.
Select the biped to animate via saved
footsteps, go to the Motion panel.
2. On the Biped rollout, make sure you are
not in Figure mode, then click Load File.
3. Inthefiledialog,chooseStepFiles(.STP)asthe
file typ e to load.
4. Cho ose the footstep file to load, and then click
OK.
Thefootstepsareloadedontothebiped,andnew
default keys are generated to match the footsteps.
To save f ootstep da ta :
1.
Selectthebipedwhosefootstepsyou
want to save, and go to the Motion panel.
2. On the Biped rollout, make sure you are
not in Figure mode, then, click Save File.
3. Inthefiledialog,chooseStepFiles(.STP)asthe
file type to save.
4. Enter a name for the footstep file, and then
click OK.