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954 Chapter 14: Character Studio
Dummy objects at ends of bones
Mesh objects that are to b e animated along with
the face, such as the eyes and hair, should not be
linked to the bone structure until af ter Physique is
applied. If you link them beforehand, Physique
will treat them like bones. You can link these
objects to the main head bone after you apply
Physique.
S epar a te or Connected H ead
There a two ways a setup like this could be used
with a character b ody: The head could be attached
tothebodymesh,oritcouldbeseparate.
If possible, use a head that is separate from the
body mesh. For h uman characters, this often
works fine; most character animation doesn’t
provideaviewoftheundersideoftheneck,so
your viewers will most likely never notice that
they’re separated. If you use a separate head, it wil l
be easier to control the facial animation.
If you u se a separate head, apply Physique to the
head mesh alone. Click Attach to Node and pick
the main head bone. Check the lin ks to make sure
they extend to the ends of the bones. Then, link
the main head b one to the biped head.
If the character’s head is connected to the mesh,
linkthemainheadbonetothebipedheadbefore
applying Ph ysique. Alternately, you can use the
biped’s head a s the main head bone, linking the
facialbonesdirectlytothebiped’shead. When
you apply Physique and click Attach to Node, pick
the biped’s COM as usual.
AfterapplyingPhysiquetotheheadortheentire
structure, you can adjust envelopes and vertex
assignments for the facial bones as you would for
any biped bone.
Animating the Facial Structure
After you apply Physique to the structure, you can
animate it by rotating or moving bones. 3ds Max
manipulators are useful for setting up a custom
user interface for bone animation. For information
on manipulators, see the
3ds Max User Reference .