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832 Chapter 14: character studio
If you want to animate motions manually, you can
use freeform animation (page 2–886).Thistypeof
animation is also suitable for characters with more
than two legs, or characters that fly or s wim. With
freeform animation, you c an animate the skeleton
with traditional inverse kinematic techniques.
You can also animate a biped skeleton by loading
motion capture files (page 2–925). You can convert
back and forth between these methods to take
advantage of their several benefits.
character studio also provides tools for skinning
a character using the biped skeleton, or any other
type of linked hierarchy.
Thesoftwareprovidesauniqueabilitytoseparate
the motion of the animation from the structure
of the character. This means you can animate a
giant wa l k ing and apply that mot ion to a tiny elf,
or animate a fat character and retarget the same
motion to thin one. Using a library of motions,
you can animate a character doing hundreds of
differentactions,aseasilyasloadingafile.
The software provides a comprehensive range
of tools for motion editing. You use motion
scripting to sequence animations with transitions.
Different animations can be overlaid using layers,
or blended with the new nonlinear Motion Mixer
(page 2–604).
You can use function curve editing, available
onthetrackbarorinTrackView,orinthe
new Animation Workbench (page 2–1008),to
alter animations. The workbench also provides
specialized tools to analyze and correct errors in
motion. Finally, the software provides options for
creating crowds of bipeds (page 2–1154) or other
objects with a procedural animation system that
uses forces and behaviors to drive the characters’
motions.
character studio consists of three basic
components:
• Biped® pro vides tools to create and animate
skeletons.
• The Physique® modifier (page 2–1076)
associatesaskeletonwiththecharacter’smesh
objects, so you can control the mesh with the
skeleton.
• Crowd provides tools to create and animate
crowds of animated objects, including bipeds.
What You S hould K now to Use
character studio
character studio provides you with a broad
range of tools for animating virtually any type of
character. To expedite your introduction to the
product, you should be familiar with the following
3ds Max concepts:
• Creation, transformation, and modification of
objects
• Selection of objects through clicking or
dragging in viewports, and by using the Select
Objects dialog (page 1–78)
• Navigationinviewportsandchangingyour
view por t configuration
• Use of the Track View - D ope Sheet and Track
View - Curve Editor, and the trackbar to view
and edit animation tr acks and keys