9

1158 Chapter 14: character studio
Delegate Helpers
The Crowd system in character studio uses
Delegate helper objects as intermediaries between
the crowd simulation and the influenced objects.
A delegate is a non-rendering pyr amid-shaped
object. Its apex points in the d irection the c rowd
system uses as “forward” when it moves t he
delegate around.
Useonedelegateperobjecttobeanimatedby
the crowd system. You can add delegates one by
one, or use any of the standard 3ds Max methods
for cloning objects, including
Shi f t +clone
and the Arr ay function. However, the C rowd
object offers a convenient Scatter Objects (page
2–1189) function that lets you clone delegates and
distributetheclonesoverasurfaceorwithina
volume, with options for orientation and scaling.
Pr ocedur es
To crea te a Crowd helper object:
1.
OntheCreatepanel,clickHelpers.
2. Click Crowd, and drag the helper object to a
convenient size.
Tip: Makethecrowdhelperobjectlargeenough
so you can ea
sily select it in two or more
viewports. The size of the helper does not affect
the crowd simulation in any way.
To crea t e a Del eg a te h elp er ob j ect :
1.
OntheCreatepanel,clickHelpers.
2. Click Delegate. Drag in a viewport to set the
delegate position, and t h
en drag vertically to
set the size.
Tip: Thedelegatealwayspoints"up"inthe
view por t you add it in. So if you want it to
point"forward,"thati
s, toward the positive Y
directionintheWorldcoordinatesystem,you
should create it in the Top viewport.
To clone and scatter de
legates:
1.
Create a Crowd helper a
nd a Delegate helper.
2. Decide how to distribu
tethedelegateclones,
and create an object to define how the clones
aretobepositioned:agridobject,aprimitive
box or sphere, a shape
,oranyobjecttoserve
as a surface. Alternatively, you can choose to
distributeclonesinacircularareawithoutthe
use of a dist ributi
on object.
3. Select the Crowd ob
ject and access the Modif y
panel.
4. Click the Scatter Objects button to open
the Scatter O b jects dialog (page 2–1189).
5. On the Clone tab, set the number of clones to
create, and select the object to clone.
6. Click Generate Clones.
This produces the specified number of clones
in the same location. To vary positions,
orientations, and/or sizes, proceed with the
following steps.
7. On the Position tab > Placement Relative To
Object group, choose a distribution option.
Click the None button, and then select the
distribution object you created earlier.
Alternatively, to distribute delegates in a
circular area, choose Placement In Area group
> In Radial Area and set a center and radius.