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878 Chapter 14: Character Studio
Using Motion Flow
Working with Motion Flow
Selec t a biped > Motion pane l > Biped rollout > Motion
Flow Mode
Motion flow mo de provides an area to g r aphically
arrange clips into a network and tools to create
and edit transitions between clips. Motion flow
mode is used to organize clips into a network to
animate one or more bipeds. The network of clips
are joined together by transitions. A motion flow
script is u sed to associate the network of clips with
the biped. To animate one biped, you create a
single motion flow script that uses a list of clips to
animate the biped. To animate multiple bipeds or
a crowd of bipeds, you can either use the random
method of clip selection or a delegate–driven
approach.
The random method simply picks clips at random
and creates random scripts for each biped. This
approach works well if the bipeds are standing
still or are far apart and don’t require collision
detection: a crowd of cheering fans at a ball game,
for example. Clip a nd transition percentages are
set with the
Create Random Motion (page 2–906)
command during motion synthesis.
When dealing with a crowd, or multiple bipeds
that are close together, t he delegate driven
approach is the best solution. This approach uses
many parameters to simulate moving crowds
and incorporates collision detection, surface
follow and other parameters. The delegate–driven
method uses a network of clips, but instead of
random selection. it bases clip selection on a
delegate’s speed and heading. In a delegate–driven
crowd simulation, clips are arranged to follow a
logical sequence. For example, the first clip could
be a start walk clip, then a walk loop, then a branch
toaturnrightandturnleftclip,thenaslowto
stop clip and so on. During mot ion synthesis, this
arrangement is used to pick clips. If the software
senses a collision ahead, t he slow to stop clip is
selected, or a veer to avoid clip is chosen. For
a detailed break down of delegate driven crowd
behav ior, see
Working with Crowd Animation
(page 2–1006)
.
Pl acing M otions on the Moti on
Flow G r ap h
The Motion Flow Graph (page 2–897) contains the
tools you’ll use to add clips to the dialog window,
calculate optimized t ransitions, set random script
transition values, move and delete clips, and
display clip dependencies. Clips display as icons
and tr a nsitions appear as arrows in the Motion
Flow Graph.
The Motion Flow Graph displays when you click
Show Graph on the
Motion Flow rollout (page
2–896)
on the M otion panel.