886 Part VIII Character Animation

Using deformers

Below the Advanced Parameters rollout is the Gizmos rollout. You use this rollout to apply deformers to selected skin object vertices. Three different deformers are available in the Gizmos rollout: a Joint Angle Deformer, a Bulge Angle Deformer, and a Morph Angle Deformer.

Each of these deformers is unique. They include the following features:

Joint Angle Deformer: Deforms the vertices around the joint between two bones where the skin can bunch up and cause problems. This deformer moves vertices on both the parent and child bones.

Bulge Angle Deformer: Moves vertices away from the bone to simulate a bulging muscle. This deformer works only on the parent bone.

Morph Angle Deformer: Can be used on vertices for both the parent and child bones to move the vertices to a morph position.

All deformers added to a skin object are listed in the Gizmo rollout. You can add deformers to and remove deformers from this list using the Add and Remove Gizmo buttons. You can also Copy and Paste the deformers to other sets of vertices. Before a deformer gizmo can be applied, you need to select vertices within the skin object. To select vertices, enable the Vertices check box of the Parameters rollout and drag over the vertices in the viewport to select the vertices.

The parameters for the deformer selected in the Gizmo rollout’s list appear when the deformer is selected in the Deformer Parameters rollout. This rollout lists the Parent and Child bones for the selected vertices and the Angle between them. This rollout changes depending on the type of deformer selected.

For the Joint and Bulge Angle Deformers, the Gizmo Parameters rollout includes buttons to edit the control Lattice and to edit the deformer Key Curves. The Edit Lattice button lets you move the lattice control points in the viewports. The Edit Angle Keys Curves opens a Graph window that displays the transformation curves for the deformation.

Summary

The benefit of a bones system will become more apparent in Chapter 37 when we cover inverse kinematics. In this chapter, you learned how to create and work with bones systems and the skin modifier. This chapter covered the following topics:

Creating bones systems

Setting bone parameters and the IK Solver

Making objects into bones systems

Working with the Skin modifier

This knowledge prepares you to work with animating characters and using inverse kinematics, the topics of the next two chapters.

Animating

Characters

Acharacter is typically the main object in the scene. It is the object that moves and is the center of attention in all animation

sequences. Using the character structures, you can set poses that can be reused as you animate and save animation sequences that can be reused on different characters.

Creating Characters

Imagine that you’ve worked for weeks to create and animate a character, and you finally have it just right. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could save that character as a separate file and load it into a different scene? Well, now you can.

Characters can be unique, portable objects in Max. These objects are created using the Character menu commands. Characters are identified with a unique icon that is the head of the entire character hierarchy. This icon is called a node. Figure 36-1 shows the character icon. The icon itself is a simple 2D disc with a simple human figure on it.

You can control the size (radius) of the character icon with the Icon Size value in the Display rollout, but increasing the icon’s size has no effect on the character.

When a character is created, all the objects included in the character automatically become children objects of the Character node with the character icon acting as the parent object. Selecting the icon selects the parent object, and double-clicking the icon selects the entire character and all its objects.

The position of the character icon also defines the starting position of the character. Moving the character icon moves the entire character. Figure 36-2 shows the Futuristic man object after it has been converted into a character. The character icon is selected and looks like a hula hoop around the character’s waist.

36C H A P T E R

In This Chapter

Saving and loading characters

Setting a skin pose

Merging animations

888 Part VIII Character Animation

Character node icon

Figure 36-1: The Character node icon sits at the head of the character hierarchy.

Saving and loading characters

After you have a character that you’re pleased with, you can save the entire character as a separate file. Characters are saved with the .CHR extension. You can use the Character Save Character menu command. The File menu commands such as Open, Save As, Merge, and Replace recognize files with the .MAX and the .CHR extensions.

You can insert saved characters into the current scene using the Character Insert Character menu command. This command opens a File dialog box where you can specify the character to insert.

Destroying characters

Hierarchies that have been made into a character assembly can be unrecognized as a character using the Character Destroy Character menu command. This command doesn’t delete the objects, but only removes the character icon and returns the objects to their default status.

Caution	If the character objects are selected when the Destroy Character menu command is used,
	then the character objects also are deleted.

Chapter 36 Animating Characters 889

Figure 36-2: This character is identified by the character icon around its waist.

Working with Characters

After you create a character or insert one into a scene, you can work with the character by adding new objects to the character, saving and inserting animation, and setting poses. You find most of these commands in the Character Assembly rollout, which appears in the Modify panel when the character icon is selected, but some are also in the Character menu.

Defining character members

While a character object is selected, all individual objects that make up the character are listed in the Character Members rollout. You use the Add and Remove buttons at the top of this rollout to add to or remove objects from the current character object.

This Character Members rollout includes a check box next to each item on the list. If this check box is checked, then the item is marked to be visible during Low Res mode. The Display section of the Character Assembly rollout includes options for displaying Low Res or Full Res objects.

Tip	An easy way to create a low-res model is to apply the Optimize modifier to an object. This
	reduces the detail of the model.

890 Part VIII Character Animation

Locking and unlocking characters

Characters that are created can also be locked. A locked character hides the character icon, making it impossible to get to the character settings. To lock a character, choose Character Lock. You can still move characters that are locked about the scene, but you cannot make any other changes to the objects in the character set.

You unlock a character with the Character Unlock command.

Setting a skin pose

When a character is created, the character icon marks the character and its object’s initial position. In addition to its initial position, you can set a skin pose. This pose defines how the character stands. The initial pose of the character is determined by the bone structure when a skin is applied.

After the pose has changed, you can save the current pose using the Character Set Skin Pose menu command. This saves the current pose so it can be immediately recalled using the Character Assume Skin Pose menu command. Both of these menu commands are also available as buttons in the Character Assembly rollout.

The Skin Pose Mode button lets you make changes to the current skin pose. Figure 36-3 shows the future man character from Chapter 35 set to a pose.

Figure 36-3: The Set and Assume Skin Pose buttons let you save and recall character poses.

Chapter 36 Animating Characters 891

Tutorial: Creating a frog character

When you begin to work with characters and inverse kinematics systems, you’ll find that models with long arms and legs are easier to practice on. So for this example, I found one of the best long-legged creatures around — a frog.

To create a frog character, follow these steps:

1.Open the Frog character.max file from the Chap 36 directory on the CD-ROM.

This file includes a frog model created by Zygote Media. The frog already has a bone system, and the skin modifier applied an IK setup for its legs.

2.Select the entire frog, including all its bones and IK chains, using the Edit Select All menu command (Ctrl+A). Then select the Character Create Character menu command. Set the Icon Size to 500.

3.In the Character Assembly rollout, click the Set as Skin Pose button. A simple dialog box appears asking you to confirm this action; click Yes.

This sets the current pose as the default for the frog character.

4.Then select and manipulate the bones to create a new pose for the frog character.

5.Click the Set Key button (or press the ' key). In the drop-down list above the Key Filters button, select Character01 and drag the Time Slider to frame 30. Click the Set Keys button (or press the K key) With the Character icon selected, drag the Time Slider back to frame 0 and click the Assume Skin Pose button and click the Set Keys button (or press the K key) to create the necessary keys.

6.Click the Select and Move button (or press the W key), and move the Character icon to the left in the Top viewport. Drag the Time Slider back to frame 30 and click the Set Keys button (or press the K key) to set a key for the frog moving forward.

7.Open the Select Objects dialog box (by pressing the H key), and select all the bones. Then select Tools Display Floater, and click the Hide Selected button to hide all the bones.

8.Click the Play Animation button (or press the / key) to see the results.

Figure 36-4 shows the frog as it jumps forward.

Saving and inserting character animations

Characters that are animated can be saved. You can insert these saved animations into a scene. You use the Save Animation button in the Animation section of the Character Assembly rollout to save an animation sequence for a character. These files are saved using the .ANM extension and include all the keys.

Animation files can also be saved as .XML files. XML is a standard mark-up language for defining actions. Although XML files take longer to process than the .ANM files, they offer a standard format that can be used by other animation tools.

892 Part VIII Character Animation

Figure 36-4: Using the character assembly and skin poses makes animating this frog easy.

Merging animations

After you’ve saved an animated sequence for a character, you can reuse it on other characters using the File Merge Animation menu command. This command opens the Merge Animation dialog box, as shown in Figure 36-5. This dialog box includes settings for specifying the animation sequence and the destination object.

Figure 36-5: The Merge Animation dialog box lets you combine animation sequences from other characters.