INSIDE 3DS MAX® 7 [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Quadrupeds and Extra Bones

Sometimes it seems that no matter what you do, it's never enough. The developers of character studio created a wonderful program for animating bipedal actors. But if two legs are good, then four legs must be better. Users immediately requested that character studio work for four-legged, six-legged, even eight-legged characters.

It is possible to use character studio to do these type of characters, but the results aren't perfect. If truth be told, cs is really a system designed mainly for bipeds. The developers have a tremendous amount of knowledge about how two-legged creatures walk, and that knowledge is the basis for cs.

That doesn't mean there are no tricks you can use to animate multiple-legged creatures. The first method for making a quadruped is to create two Bipeds and then hide the unnecessary body parts on the second Biped. You can hide the head and turn off the arms, then in Figure mode bend the spine components on the second Biped (Figure 15.54).

You can use Footstep animation to quickly animate each of the Bipeds. In the Create Multiple Footsteps dialog > General section, change Start Left to Start Right for the second Biped.

This method is good if you need to create creatures with large numbers of legs, like a centipede or caterpillar. But the drawback is that there is nothing to keep the two Bipeds in proximity, no linkage or constraint. You have to rely on the footstep timing to keep the rear end up with the front.

Another simple method that works for four-legged creatures is to go into Figure mode and bend the Biped over, so the hands become the front legs (Figure 15.55). This won't work for Footstep animation; it's only really useful when you're using Free Form methodology. If you use this technique, be sure to turn off Biped Dynamics and Balance Factor, or your Biped may try to stand up when you animate it! All in all, this works quite well, since you can easily use Pivot Point animation to achieve heel-to-toe roll on the feet and the hands.

The third method is to use 3ds max bones to create extra legs and other appendages (Figure 15.56). This method has the drawback that you cannot take advantage of Biped animation; you must animate the bones using 3ds max standard animation methods. You don't have access to the Pivot Point animation or Footstep methods.

Consider an approach within max rather than cs for tails that require more than the five links available within the Biped structure.

Speaking of tails, Biped includes the option for two ponytails. These Biped objects can be repositioned to be used as bones to animate jaws, ears, antennae, or any other element on the head. These have the advantage of being part of the Biped system, so you can animate them within the same context as the rest of the Biped.