9

Understanding character studio Workflow 841
When using footsteps, biped dynamics (page
3–916) helps you by simulating gravity and
balance.
• Gravitycanhelpinajumpingmotionto
accelerate a character during the falling period
andtobendthelegsnaturallyonlanding.
• Balance adjusts a character’s posit ion when
the spine is rotated and keyframed to retain a
character’s balance.
• Dynamics can be turned off on a per-key basis
or for the entire animation. The animator can
override center of mass keyframes created
usingDynamicscalculationatanytime.Simply
set the dynamic properties of these keys or
choose Spline Dynamics (page 3–1015) for keys
generated by newly created footsteps.
Conver t Bet ween Ani mati on Types
Once you are satisfied with a particular footstep
animation and its corresponding dynamic
behavior, you can convert it (page 2–885) to
a freeform animation consisting of a simple
combination of keyf r ames and IK goals. T his
intelligent conversion gives you control of
animation behavior at every frame, for every joint
of the character .
Use Layers to Apply Global Changes
Animation layers (page 3–910) offer you a powerful
tool for introducing global changes to an existing
character animation. For example, by adding
alayerontopofanexistingrunmotion,and
creating a sing le key frame with the biped’s spine
rotated forward, an upright running motion can be
turned into a crouched run. Layered changes can
be stacked up, allowing you to refine your motion
composition and eventually collapse your layers
into a standard non-layered keyframe animation.
Use I n P la ce M ode to Control t he View
In Place Mode (page 2–930) is a tool that lets
you keep your biped in view during animation
playback. It offers a convenien t way of adjusting
and adding key frames to a character without
constantly changing your view to follow the
character’s motion.
Impor t Motion-Capture Files
Motion-capture files can be imported from the
BVHorCSMformats,edited,andsavedasBIP
files. You can import these files with or without
footsteps and dy namics and combine them in
Motion Flow mode with other animations.
Yo u c a n u s e t h e s u p p l i e d m o t i o n - c a p t u r e s a m p l e s
as is or adjust them to suit your needs using Biped’s
collection of animation tools. The ability to
import motion-capture marker files directly into
character studio using the CSM file eliminates
much of the cost of post-processing optical motion
capture data. You can import motion-capture files
with an additional prop bone, to define the motion
of an object such as a sword or club.
You can also import HTR/HTR2 motion-capture
files (page 3–576) ,aswellasTRC files (page 3–577).
Motion-capture files can be imported with key
reduction, making for more manageable tracks for
subsequent editing.
UseTrackViewforKeyframeEditing
Track View (page 2–1002) allows you to edit keys
and footsteps relative to the animation time line.
Footstep editing in Track View - Dope Sheet
allows you to move footsteps in time. If you need
a character to jump higher between footsteps,
move the landing footsteps further down in time;
dynamics automatically compensate by making
the character jump higher to keep it airborne
longer.