2009
■ Use of the Track View - Dope Sheet and Track View - Curve Editor, and
the trackbar to view and edit animation tracks and keys
For information on these areas, consult the remainder of this reference. If you
are not familiar with 3ds Max, do some of the introductory tutorials found
online in Help > Tutorials.
Understanding Biped
Biped on page 4147 is a 3ds Max component that you access from the Create
panel. Once you create a biped, you animate it using the Biped controls on
the Motion panel. Biped provides tools to let you design and animate the
figures and motion of characters.
The Biped
The biped skeleton created with the Biped module is a two-legged figure created
as a linked hierarchy, and designed for animation. The biped skeleton has
special properties that make it instantly ready to animate.
Figure and Keyframe Modes
character studio is designed to interchange motion and characters. In Figure
mode
on page 4420, you pose the biped to fit your character model. In Keyframe
mode
on page 8019, you animate the skeleton. Motions created for the biped
can be saved and loaded onto other biped skeletons with different physical
characteristics. For example, you could animate a giant ogre, save the
animation, and load it onto a small child. Motion files are saved in the
proprietary character studio
BIP format on page 7923.
You can use these files in a variety of ways with Motion Flow, the Motion
Mixer, and the Crowd tools to combine animation or animate multiple
characters.
Animating the Biped
There are two primary methods used in creating biped animation:
footsteps
method
on page 7986 and freeform method on page 7988. Each method has
advantages. You can convert from one method to the other, or you can use
a combination of both techniques in a single animation. For detailed
information, see the sections that follow:
Creating Footstep Animation on
page 4176 and
Creating Freeform Animation on page 4232.
4130 | Chapter 17 character studio