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When you first create them, footsteps are inactive. They exist in the scene
but don't yet control the biped's motion.
4 Create the footstep pattern in viewports. You can create footsteps in a
few different ways, each available in the Footstep Creation rollout:
■
Automatically create a number of footsteps with Create Multiple
Footsteps, or
■
Individually place each footstep with Create Footsteps
(append) or Create Footsteps (at current frame). Use Auto Grid to
create footsteps on a surface of a mesh.
5 Edit footstep placement by moving or rotating footstep icons in viewports.
6 Edit footstep timing in the Track View - Dope Sheet mode.
7 Activate the footsteps to create keys for the biped. The biped will now
move through the footsteps using the placement and timing you set up.
8 Play the motion to test it out, looking only at the leg and foot motion
and disregarding the upper body for now. If the footstep motion isn't
right, deactivate the footsteps, make changes to footstep placement or
timing, reactivate the footsteps and play it again. Do this until the foot
and leg motions are correct.
When footsteps are activated, keys are created for each of the tracks of
the figure: the head, spine, pelvis, arms, legs, and, if appropriate, tail and
ponytails. These keys form an initial sketch of your animation. The default
keys, when
interpolated on page 8016, form the basic, minimal motion
required to animate the figure according to the footstep pattern. Most
likely you will want to adjust or replace these keys.
9 Edit the animation of the upper body using ordinary 3ds Max animation
methods: Turn on Auto Key and move or rotate the biped parts. You can
also use the character studio Set Key tools on the
Key Info rollout on
page 4367.
10 Play the animation again and make any corrections to the upper body
motion.
Footstep Method
In the viewports, footsteps represent support periods in space for the biped
feet. You can move and rotate footsteps in viewports. In Track View, each
Footstep Animation | 4179