9
916 Chapter 14: character studio
Working with Biped
Animation
Working wi th Eul er Curves on
Biped Animation
You can control a biped’s position and orientation
using Euler cu rves in addition to quaternion
cur ves in the Workbench and Curve Editor. Using
the Euler XYZ controller is an efficient way to
animateyourbipedbecauseyoucanuseBezier
tangents to change the interpolation of your XYZ
curves (quaternion curves do not have tangents).
To learn more about how the Euler XYZ and TCB
Rotation controllers differ from each other, refer to
Euler XYZ Rotation Cont roller (page 2–318).
You can switch between Euler XYZ and TCB
Rotation cont rollers via the Quaternion/Euler
rollout (page 2–948).TheCurve Editor (page
2–1012) displays the animation curves based
on the chosen controller. Each curve is labeled
starting with one of the following:
• “Quaternion Rotation of the ...”
• “Tangent Euler Rotation of the ...”
• “TCB Euler Rotation of the ...”
You can animate most biped parts (center of mass,
pelv is, spine, head, neck, arms, legs, and tail) in
Euler. However, fingers and toes are considered
differently, as al l first base links are controlled as
quaternionandanysubsequentlinksasTCB/Euler.
Fingers and toes do not have tangents.
Biped limbs with only one degree of freedom
(DOF), such as forearms and lower legs, are
controlled w ith a single TCB/Euler curve.
Tangent Euler Rotation curve
Note: Prop s are not suppor ted with the Euler
controller.
Rotation curves on a biped (including its center of
mass) are always set in local parent space, w hether
they are controlled in Euler or quaternion.
The XYZ function curves of an Euler rotation
track are locked together. This means that creating
anewkeyononeaxisautomaticallydoessoforall
axes. Also, moving a key in time drags all three
axes with it.
Displaying Position Cur ves
Bezier position curves are available only for the
biped’s hands, feets, and center of mass (COM).
Handsandfeets’positionsaresetinworldspace
while the COM position is set local to the world.
FK/IK key blending is il lustrated as follows:
• Full lines represent IK periods.
• Gaps between lines represent FK periods.
• Ver tical dotted lines represent a change in pivot
points.