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866 Chapter 14: character studio
Footsteps should be deactivated when you
make substantial changes to footstep timing or
placement.
Footsteps are deactivate d by selecting
footsteps and clicking Deactivate Footsteps in the
Footstep Operations rollout (page 2–990).
After making changes to the footsteps, click
Create Keys for Inactive Footsteps in the Footstep
Operations rollout (page 2–990).Thiswillrecreate
keys for the biped and cause it to follow the
footsteps.
Active footsteps are pale in color, while inactive
footsteps are brightly colored. This coloring
appears both on footstep icons in viewports and
onfootstepkeysintheDopeSheet.
Note: Deactivating and reactivating footsteps
causes all biped keys to b e replaced with default
animation keys for the current footstep pattern
and t iming.
Procedure
To deactivate footsteps:
1.
Select the footsteps to deactivate.
The footsteps you select must be in sequence;
you cannot deactivate a nonsequential set of
footsteps.
2. Click Deact ivate Selected Footsteps in the
Footstep Operations rollout.
Thefootstepsaredeactivated.Viewportsand
theDopeSheetdisplaytheminbrightcolors
again.
When to Dea ctiva te Footsteps
There are many situations where you will want or
need to deactivate footsteps after activating them.
• When you move or rotate active footsteps
substantially, you might find that the orig inal
keys generated are no longer appropriate for
your animation. If this happens, deact ivate
footsteps, move the footsteps into the correct
locations, and activate footsteps again.
• When changing footstep timing in the Curve
Editor’s Dope Sheet mode, you might receive an
error message st ating that w hat you are trying
todoviolatesoneoftherulesofbipedkey
placement. If this occurs, deactivate footsteps,
make timing changes in the Dope Sheet, then
activate footsteps again
• If you have a large number of active footsteps in
the scene, moving footsteps and ma king timing
changescancausedelaysasallkeysareadapted
and updated. You might find your work is faster
if you deactivate footsteps while m aking your
changes.
• If you have activated footsteps then changed the
default animation, then find you want to return
to the default animation, you can deactivate
footsteps and activate them again to recreate
the default animation.
Activation/Deactivation Work flow
The fastest workflow with footsteps is to deact ivate
footsteps and make changes, react ivate footsteps
and play the animation to check your work, and
repeat this process until the footstep timing a nd
placement a re correct. However, deactivating and
reactivating footsteps replaces any biped keys w ith
the default animation for the current footstep
pattern and ti ming.
For this reason, it is recommended that you work
w ith footsteps exclusively first, i gnoring the upper
body animation, and deactivate and reactivate
footsteps as needed. When the motion of the feet
is perfect or near-perfect, only then should you
adjust the biped animation manually. Other wise,
you will lose all your manual animation work
every time you deactivate and reactivate footsteps.