8

846 Chapter 14: Character Studio
When Auto Timing is selected, these parameters
are automatically adjusted to reasonable values.
Control the footstep sequence by adjusting
theStrideLengthandTimeToNextFootstep
parameters.
When Auto Timing is off, you c an control the
footstep sequence by adjusting the gait timing
parameters, but you can’t change the Time To
Next Footstep parameter .
Interpolate—Control acceleration or deceleration
of the series of footsteps. When this box is selected,
a second set of step parameters under Last Step
is enabled.
Biped creates footsteps starting w ith the values of
the parameters under First Step and ending with
the values of the parameters under Last Step.
By interpolating between the two, Biped produces
a footstep series that changes over time.
When Interpolate is cleared, the Last Step
parameters are grayed out. Biped creates all the
footsteps using only the parameters under First
Step.
Start Af ter L ast Footstep—Appends the newly
created footsteps to the end of the existing footstep
sequence.
StartatCurrentFrame—Inserts the newly created
footsteps at the current frame after the existing
footstep sequence, allowing you to ma ke a gap in
time b efore the footsteps start again.
First Step and Last Step groups
Parametr ic S tride Length—Sets the str ide length for
the new footsteps as a percentage of the length of
thebiped’sleg.Thedefaultvalueof0.75givesan
averagestrideofnormalproportions.
Avalueof1.0willproduceastridelengthequal
to the leg length, which makes the biped stretch
slightly to reach the next step. A value of 0.0 will
make the biped walk in place. A negative stride
length will make the biped walk backwards.
Whenabipedwalksbackwards,itdoesnotsimply
reverse the forward movement but maintains the
correctfoot-statesequencewiththetoetouching
the ground first, followed by the heel.
AdjustingParametricStrideLengthautomatically
changes the value for A ctual Stride Length.
Stride Length=0.75 and Stride Length=1
Actual S tri de Length—Sets the stride length for new
footsteps in 3ds Max units.
The same r ules apply as for Parametric Stride
Length (described above).
Adjusting Actual Stride Length automatically
changes the value for Parametric Stride Length.
Actual Str ide Height—Sets the rise or fall between
footsteps. You can use this parameter to create a set
of footsteps going up or down a slope or a stairway.
The value for Actual Stride Height is the difference
in height in units between each of the new
footsteps. Positive values step up and negative
values step down.
Stride Height=5 units