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870 Chapter 14: character studio
• Movingfootstepkeystochangethetime
relationships between footsteps.
• Changing the lengths of footstep keys.
• Deleting footstep keys.
Youmustselectfootstepkeysbeforeyoucan
change their timing.
Sel ecting Footsteps for T ime Edi ting
Selectingfootstepkeysisthesameasselecting
footstep icons; when one is selected, the other is
selected as well. Footstep keys can be selected in a
number of ways for editing in Track View.
Note: To select footsteps, you must have
Footstep Mode turned on.
• Selec t footsteps in viewports as you would any
3ds Max object. Click a footstep to select it, and
hold down the
Ctrl k ey and click additional
footsteps to select them . You can also draw a
selection bo x around footsteps to select them.
Selecting footsteps also selects the footsteps in
Track View. A selected footstep in Track View
has a white border and a dot on both the left
and right edges of the footstep key.
Footstep key selected in Track View
• Click the center of a footstep key in Track View
to select it. Hold down the
Ct rl key and click
the center of additional footstep keys to select
multiple footsteps.
• To select several footsteps at once, draw a
selection box around the footstep keys in Track
View .
• You can also select one edge of a footstep key by
clicking the left or right edge in Track View. A
single wh ite dot appears at the selected edge.
You can change the duration of the footstep by
increasing or decreasing the length of t he key
on the selected edge.
Left edge of footstep key selected in Track View
• To select an e dge, rig ht-click the footstep
track in Track View to display the Footstep
Mode dialog (page 2–1000).Selectoneor
more footstep keys, and use the controls in the
Footstep Edge Selection group to select an edge.
Editing Footstep T iming
Editing the timing of footsteps is a simple matter
of moving selected footsteps or selected edges in
time.
Moving an entire footstep changes the time at
which it starts and ends, but not its duration.
Moving a footstep ed ge changes the duration of
the footstep.
Restr ictions on Footstep Time Editing
The timing for both active and inactive footsteps
can be changed. Edit ing timing for active footsteps
also changes keys for the center of mass and leg
keys, but not t he spine, arm or tail keys. This can
cause the resulting animation to look different
from the way you intended. For this reason, you
might prefer to deactivate footsteps before editing
timing. See D eactivating Footsteps (page 2–865).
When editing footstep timing in Track View, the
following limitations apply to both inactive and
active footsteps:
• There must be at least one frame between
footstep keys for the same foot.
• Footstep keys cannot start in negative frames.