Biped Workbench/Curve Editor Help!!
polycounter lvl 9
Hey Guys,
First time posting in tech talk, cool.
So I'm using biped for the first time, and coincidently it's also one of the first times I've used Max from start to finish on a piece so I'm in need of some assisstance.
I'm getting the hang of animation with biped, but the thing that has me hung up is the curve editing/lack there of (?).
I'll set some keyframes and have a trajectory as shown in the picture, which isn't a problem normally, but I am completely unable to make the curve editor or workbench cycle anything.
I've messed with multiple functions between Quaternion and Euler, and my main problems come down to; Not being able to edit one curve (In either Workbench or Curve Editor) without editing the rest.
So, if I want my X rotation to be linear, and my Y rotation to slow out, it will just do whatever the last function I pressed to all keys on all curves at that point in time. Same goes for deleting keys as well, deleting one key on the Y curve causes all other keys to be deleted at that frame.
I hope I'm just missing something blindingly obvious that a non-Bip oriented person would do out of habit, or on the other hand maybe I'm just missing that fantastic "Make Perfect Cycle Button" somewhere.
I've been google-ing topics related to this all day and have found zero advice on the subject besides "Play with the TCB", so any advice is good advice, and thanks in advance!!!
First time posting in tech talk, cool.
So I'm using biped for the first time, and coincidently it's also one of the first times I've used Max from start to finish on a piece so I'm in need of some assisstance.
I'm getting the hang of animation with biped, but the thing that has me hung up is the curve editing/lack there of (?).
I'll set some keyframes and have a trajectory as shown in the picture, which isn't a problem normally, but I am completely unable to make the curve editor or workbench cycle anything.
I've messed with multiple functions between Quaternion and Euler, and my main problems come down to; Not being able to edit one curve (In either Workbench or Curve Editor) without editing the rest.
So, if I want my X rotation to be linear, and my Y rotation to slow out, it will just do whatever the last function I pressed to all keys on all curves at that point in time. Same goes for deleting keys as well, deleting one key on the Y curve causes all other keys to be deleted at that frame.
I hope I'm just missing something blindingly obvious that a non-Bip oriented person would do out of habit, or on the other hand maybe I'm just missing that fantastic "Make Perfect Cycle Button" somewhere.
I've been google-ing topics related to this all day and have found zero advice on the subject besides "Play with the TCB", so any advice is good advice, and thanks in advance!!!
Replies
2. Play with the TCB.
J/K
I'm going to give you a simple solution, and you're not going to like it, but it's the easiest thing to do. If your animation loops from frames 0-30, then duplicate the animation before and after the loop. So that -30 to 0 and 30 to 60 have the same keys.
The nature of TCB controllers in 3ds Max (not just on biped) is that the trajectories are are calculated using the previous and next key. If there is no previous or next key then the key becomes linear.
Here's an example of a box with a TCB position controller. When you duplication the animation the trajectory smooths out.
I like this response, and it sounds perfect, No problem copying the keys before and after compared to what voodoo magic I thought I was going to have to do.
Thanks for the help and explanation monster!!
Trajectories are good for figuring out timing issues and getting smooth arcs of motion.
I agree with monster curve editing a biped is frustrating. I mostly animate in TCB but if I need to edit a curve I'll switch that biped piece over to Euler if TCB can't be tweaked quickly. I'm not a purest when it comes to mixing and matching Quaternion and Euler. When I'm all done if an engine only takes one I'll convert it over then. Most of the time it does a great job of keeping the curves the way they where intended in either system and I don't need to tweak anything.
Some notes about Biped:
Biped IK defaults to always on-ish. You can always grab a biped hand and move it around with the move tool, same with the feet and Center Of Mass.
BUT because of this functionality you will get key's on all bones in an IK chain, THIS IS NORMAL for IK/FK rigs set a key for the hand and keys get made in the bicep and forearm. You can turn off IK (in Key Info rollout, IK, IK blend 0) and the rig will become FK (rotation only) and it will no longer set keys, but then you lose IK functionality, which at that point you might as well just build your own bone rig without IK, you're wasting a lot of bipeds features.
Biped has its own workbench but you don't need to use the workbench, the standard curve editor works great. Workbench has some nice built in custom features like reduce keys and curve smoothing, but its just as easy to pop it open if you need that stuff. It's just easier to work in one curve editor instead of working in two different flavors.
I stick to the standard curve editor 95% of the time when working with biped. It works in Euler or Quaternion, the only real difference with biped is that you sometimes need to adjust position tracks which don't show up, unless you unhide some buttons.
Setting up the standard curve editor to work with Biped Position/Rotation Tracks:
A few versions back they changed the curve editor, basically they hid a bunch of max specific tools that confused people migrating from other apps. So you have to dig them back out.
Right click a blank spot in the toolbar and turn on, show toolbars, biped:Track View. If it pops up a floater, right click it and choose dock, top.
This gives you 5 buttons. The first two switch biped between position and rotation curves. The rest isolate XYZ curves.
This is critical when working with the COM and IK on hands and feet, you need that position curve which doesn't show up. (Workbench has a drop down for this but a button is actually faster to use).
If the standard curve editor ever sticks on position (and it will if you have it turned on and select another biped piece that doesn't have a position track). But you can easily fix it, click on a piece that has a Position track, COM is a good one, and click it off of rotation. Or just open workbench, set the drop down to rotation and reopen the standard curve editor, fixed.
Once you have your curve editor set up how you like, right a blank spot in the toolbar and "Save Layout" as "Function Curve Layout" this will overwrite the default and bring up your customized curve editor every time.
There is a crap load of other stuff I could write about animating with bipeds but I'll hold off, that's probably enough info to sort through
Yeah, the trajectories are awesome for smoothing out the arcs, but after one or two frustrating failed attempts I quickly learned I couldn't do much more then use them as a reference.
Also, using this customized curve editor is going to be extremely helpful, and thanks for the tips! Extremely helpful, feels like I'm starting to get the hang of this biped thing.