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Creating Crowd Helpers 1157
7. Solve the simulation.
8. Watch the solved simulation. If it needs
correction, make changes to behaviors or
delegate parameters. Solve again, and continue
until the simulation works as intended.
9. Create the objects that will follow the delegates,
and align and link them to delegate s (page
2–1169).
Creating Complex Simulations
The process describe d above creates a simple
crowd simulation. You c an also use other tools to
further control the simulation:
•Usecognitive controllers (page 2–1170) to ca use
delegates to switch behaviors based on their
proximity to objects in the scene, time elapsed
in the simulation, and other factors.
•Usemotion synthesis (page 2–1179) to cause
different portions of the link ed object’s
animation to be used based on delegate speed,
rotation, and other factors.
• Use bipeds and a motion flow network to
animate the bipeds with delegates. See Biped
Crowds (page 2–1172).
Cr e a t i n g Cr owd H el p e r s
The crowd system in char acter studio uses two
helper objects: Crowd and D elegate. The first
step in creating a crowd simulation is the creation
of these helpers. The crowd helper ser ves as the
command center for setting up and solving crowd
simulations, while delegates provide stand-ins for
animated objects. The crowd helper controls are
used to animate the delegates, then later you link
objects to delegates to create the finished scene.
Cr owd H e l p er
A c rowd helper object appears in viewports as
blue tetrahedron. The location and size of the
crowd helper does not affect the simulation. For
theeasiestworkflow,createthecrowdhelperwith
a relatively large size, and place it w here you can
easily select it. You’ll rarely need more than one
Crowd helper object per scene.
After you create delegates, you use the crowd
helper to clone delegat es and distribute the clones,
add behaviors, apply behaviors to delegates, link
delegates to animated objects, and much more.