2009

character studio

The character studio functionality in 3ds Max provides professional tools for animating 3D

characters. It is an environment in which you can quickly and easily build skeletons and then

animate them, thus creating motion sequences. You use the animated skeletons to drive the

movement of geometry, thus creating virtual characters. And you can generate crowds of

these characters using character studio, and animate crowd movement using a system of

delegates and procedural behaviors.

character studio comprises three components: Biped, Physique, and Crowd.

■

Biped on page 7923 builds and animates skeletal armatures, ready for character animation.

You can combine different animations into sequential or overlapping motion scripts, or

layer them together. You can also use Biped to edit motion capture files.

NOTE Biped does not create character mesh objects. Create your character mesh before using

Biped to create a skeleton for it.

■ Physique on page 8091 uses the biped armatures to animate the actual character mesh,

simulating how the mesh flexes and bulges with the movement of the underlying skeleton.

NOTE You can use Physique with other hierarchies beside the biped skeleton. And, as an

alternative to Physique, you can use the

Skin modifier on page 1672 to animate a character mesh

with any hierarchy, including a biped.

■ Crowd on page 7945 animates groups of 3D objects and characters using a system of delegates

and behaviors. You can create crowds with highly complex behaviors.

If you are new to 3ds Max, read What You Should Know to Use character studio on page 4129

and

Understanding character studio Workflow on page 4141.

If you are already use 3ds Max, proceed to

Understanding Biped on page 4130 to continue.

To find out about Physique, read

Understanding Physique on page 4132.

To learn about the Crowd system, read

Crowd Animation on page 4761.

4127