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882 Chapter 14: character studio
4.
Click and drag the center of mass up or down
in the viewports.
The biped is repositioned vertically, a key is
created in the center of mass Body Vertical
track.
To set ballistic tension:
1.
On the Biped rollout, turn off Footstep
Mode if necessary.
2. in the Track Selection rollout, select the
biped’s Body Vertical track.
3. Move to the Vertical track keyframe you want
toadjust,eitheraTouchorLiftkey.
The Ballistic Tension parameter is available
only on Touch and Lift keys.
4. In the Key Info rollout, exp and the Body bar to
access the Ballistic Tension parameter.
5. Adjust the Ba llistic Tension value.
Adjusting the ballistic tension changes the
amount of crouch before a jump, and the
amount of dampening that occurs after landing.
To change Dynamics B lend for multiple B ody Ver tical
keys:
1.
Choose Graphs Editors menu > Track View
– Dope Sheet.
2. Select all the Body Vert ical keys you want to
change.
3. Right-click over one of the selected keys to
display the TCB dialog.
4. Change the v alue of Dynamics Blend in the
TCB dialog. This changes it for all selected keys.
Note: This only affects the biped during
airborne periods in a footstep animation.
Changing Dynamics Blend keys in a walk
motion does not affect the mot ion.
Saving Footstep Animation
After you have animated the biped with footsteps,
there are two ways you can save the data.
• ABIPfilesavesboththefootstepsandany
animation on the upper body. You can save the
entire footstep sequence, or just a portion of it.
• An.STPfilesavesjustthefootstepdata.These
files, in ASCII format, are sometimes used by
game developers to save just the leg and foot
motion data
Tosaveaeithertypeoffile,clickSaveFile
in the Biped rollout. Choose the desired file type
fromtheSaveastypepulldown.
For more detailed information on these file
form ats and how to work with them , see Loading
and S aving BIP Animation (page 2–920) and
Loading and Saving STP Files (page 2–924) .
Foots teps and Freef or m
Animation
character studio provides two distinct modes of
animation, footstep and freeform.
Footstep animation (page 3–943) was originally
designed for bipedal characters, that is, characters
that walk on two legs. It uses a structured system
of dynamics and balance to creat e secondary
motion in the upper body, including arm swinging
and tail swaying that is automatically applied when
footsteps are u sed. By using default footsteps, you
are assured that the biped’s foot doesn’t slide or
pass through the ground, and that the foot e asily
rolls from heel to the ball of the foot as is common
inatypicalwalk.
Freeform animation (page 3–943) provides a more
traditional method of animating to those familiar