I'm trying to mix a simple idle and walking animation. Problem is when it transitions the feet will go upwards and sideways. I made sure both .bips were saved in 0,0,0 origin.
Thanks for the responce. The biped I'm inserting these bips into in the scene has no planted keys but the two bip animations I have do. One of them in a walk cycle so I need these planted keys.
Well that'll do it. Any stationary walk cycle you plan to use to animate the character through the scene should use free keys. Planted keys are linked to a specific spot in the world space, not the bipeds local space. When you move the biped off of the spot it was planted the feet will attempt to stay in that spot in world space. Even if the biped is in the same area it will probably freak out.
So quick rule of thumb, never use planted keys if you plan to save/load the motion.
But there are two solutions:
1) If you resave the .bips as a key per frame and reload them, it will get rid of the problem. This makes the motion really hard to work with later after its loaded but you can try reducing the keys in the workbench to make it more manageable or use the biped layer system.
2) Technically the real solution is to change the planted keys to free keys. You might need to add a few supporting keys to uphold the poses.
Went back and placed free keys on all planted and resaved etc. It works now but is a bit floaty. I'm not sure if motion mixer is what I need to be honest. All I want is to be able to to have my character playing bip files in any order I want with the abilty to change the duration of clips. I can't even seem to copy/paste my 24 frame walk cycle multiple times to make it longer. Maybe I need Motion flow?
edit, this motion flow system seems to be more what I'm after I think. I'm just not sure how to make my biped actually move when walking imstead of on the spot. Maybe link it to an animated dummy?
I can't even seem to copy/paste my 24 frame walk cycle multiple times to make it longer.
If your clips are loaded into motion mixer you need to mix them down and apply them to your biped then you'll have keys you can edit.
To mix down the tracks, in motion mixer right click on the trackgroup label (normally Bip01) and choose compute mixdown. Right click the trackgroup label again and choose copy mixdown to biped. That will put the keys on your biped that you can edit (after you turn off mixer mode lil egg beater in the biped menu).
Motion flow isn't really going to help you with what you're trying to do, motion mixer is the right tool or just copying keys. Motion flow is more for setting up different smart cycles and scenarios like for crowd simulations. Walk for 30sec unless it encounters another biped then stop and idle, pick a random idle for 2min then start walking again ect... thats not the only thing it can be used for but thats the most common.
If you right click in the time line go to configure, and turn on Show Selection Range. This will give you a little bar under your keys. If you select a range of keys you can click one of the end boxes and scale the selection of keys to slow it down or speed it up.
This is the whole reason why I read this forum - I've been having the exact same problem. I also came to the conclusion that planted keys were not compatible with Motion Mixer - I had to export my mixdown to .bip to unify the clips and got a bunch of hand/feet glitches that weren't in the source files. I now am manually going back through and fixing hand/foot glitches from planted keys. It's not fun but sometimes the brute force method is the way to get it done.
Capone, the "floatiness" is most likely needing to set additional free keys as Vig suggested or else you need to adjust your TCB settings on your free keys that are replacing your planted ones.
Vig, thanks for the tip about Show Selection Range. I've been messing with CS since 99 but I'm still always finding new stuff. You sound like you're thouroughly versed in CS, do you have any other cool tricks/tips?
Helpful Scripts:
Monster has some great scripts. http://monsterblues.wordpress.com/
I really like the key tools but they're mostly for editing Eular curves on standard objects not necessarily for biped. It takes some set up on your part but once set up and saved its great.
The biped tangent tool is pretty great too.
Worker of Biped (Max 32bit only) http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/worker-of-biped
I love WoB, I'm sad that because MS dropped activeX support for 64bit the script no longer works. I've thought about converting it to .NET or using parts of it to create my own script. If you're on 32bit this is pretty much a must.
JJTools http://www.jimjagger.com/Pages/Tools/JJTools_Complete2010.htm
Jim Jager has some nice tools for setting a key per frame on a selected biped piece.
His Biped selector script works pretty well too. It has a nice planted key pivot point picker, like WoB.
DViewPaintII http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/dviewpaint-ii
This is a must for blocking out animations. It renders out the viewport and allows you to draw over the top on each frame it ghosts the keys so you get a great sense of motion and timing without ever having to muck with a bunch of keys. The great thing is you can then save/load JUST the lines you drew into the viewport background as a guide when animating. It also makes critquing animations very very easy, its great for leads to send feedback to people and make notes.
Biped Keyer http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/bipedkeyer-v1-4
If you're using quaternion curves, Mike's Biped Keyer gives you incredibly quick access to some curve presets. In cases like this where you need to bookend a bunch of clips, this is pretty awesome.
- Select all biped pieces (see selection scripts above)
- Click Tension 50, done.
It also makes doing overshoots pretty easy with some of the other presets.
I almost always start in quaternion just to knock things in quickly and try things out. Then convert the biped pieces over to Eular for better curve control.
Track Crawler: http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/track-crawler-v1-0
This allows you to navigate the time bar based on sound files that are loaded. Great for doing a lip sync. Motion Mixer Tips:
In Motion Mixer You can filter bones per layer track (right click the track group label > filter). This allows you to filter out parts and mix in other animations. This is great if you have a walk cycle, but a bunch of different hand configurations for weapons.
You can assign a scale sub animation controller to your biped, giving it squash and stretch capabilities. Monster has a tutorial on this and uses a script but you can assign it the normal way you would assign a controller.
Biped has a look at system for the head but it can only look at one thing, so I create a dummy for it to look at and move that wherever I need the biped to look at. If it will be looking at a few different spots again and again I'll create dummies in those locations and snap my head look at dummie to them as I'm working.
I also create a look at for the eyes (actually one master parent and two children, one for each eye). The parent looks at a dummie put right between the eyes. This way my master parent always faces the eyes and keeps it from going cross eyed.
Biped layers are great, but can be difficult with planted keys, which loops right back into the "don't mix motion with planted keys".
http://store.cgsociety.org/product/000369/
Paul Hormis is pretty awesome, so are his DVD's, but they can be hard to get a hold of and at the price its best if you can get work to pay for them =P His scripts are pretty awesome too but he's a little light on documentation...
Angle snap set to 5 degrees is pretty nice, I have it set to a keyboard shortcut so its a quick toggle on/off.
WHOAAAAAAAAAAAA! I'm going to check every single one of these out! I've heard of WOB and JJ Tools but not the rest of these.
And I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I was in a used bookstore and found the Max 2.5 CS book. You know, the purple one with the orange-haired chick on the cover - from back when CS was a seperate product? That book was awesome, most of it is still totally relevant. Just no info on Motion Flow or Skin Modifier.
Hi! Don`t want to start new thread for my problem, so will ask here:
In Max 2015 SP3 Biped Motion Mixer is broken (compute mixdown will give empty animation) and only solution that I know - is to uninstall SP3. But maybe someone know another workaround with it to stay with SP3? Thanks!
Replies
So quick rule of thumb, never use planted keys if you plan to save/load the motion.
But there are two solutions:
1) If you resave the .bips as a key per frame and reload them, it will get rid of the problem. This makes the motion really hard to work with later after its loaded but you can try reducing the keys in the workbench to make it more manageable or use the biped layer system.
2) Technically the real solution is to change the planted keys to free keys. You might need to add a few supporting keys to uphold the poses.
edit, this motion flow system seems to be more what I'm after I think. I'm just not sure how to make my biped actually move when walking imstead of on the spot. Maybe link it to an animated dummy?
To mix down the tracks, in motion mixer right click on the trackgroup label (normally Bip01) and choose compute mixdown. Right click the trackgroup label again and choose copy mixdown to biped. That will put the keys on your biped that you can edit (after you turn off mixer mode lil egg beater in the biped menu).
Motion flow isn't really going to help you with what you're trying to do, motion mixer is the right tool or just copying keys. Motion flow is more for setting up different smart cycles and scenarios like for crowd simulations. Walk for 30sec unless it encounters another biped then stop and idle, pick a random idle for 2min then start walking again ect... thats not the only thing it can be used for but thats the most common.
If you right click in the time line go to configure, and turn on Show Selection Range. This will give you a little bar under your keys. If you select a range of keys you can click one of the end boxes and scale the selection of keys to slow it down or speed it up.
Capone, the "floatiness" is most likely needing to set additional free keys as Vig suggested or else you need to adjust your TCB settings on your free keys that are replacing your planted ones.
Vig, thanks for the tip about Show Selection Range. I've been messing with CS since 99 but I'm still always finding new stuff. You sound like you're thouroughly versed in CS, do you have any other cool tricks/tips?
Monster has some great scripts.
http://monsterblues.wordpress.com/
I really like the key tools but they're mostly for editing Eular curves on standard objects not necessarily for biped. It takes some set up on your part but once set up and saved its great.
The biped tangent tool is pretty great too.
Worker of Biped (Max 32bit only)
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/worker-of-biped
I love WoB, I'm sad that because MS dropped activeX support for 64bit the script no longer works. I've thought about converting it to .NET or using parts of it to create my own script. If you're on 32bit this is pretty much a must.
AndyE Tools
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/andye-tools-v1-0
Has a nice little biped selection script, not as great as WoB but a good 64bit replacement. It has some other scripts that are kind of handy.
JJTools
http://www.jimjagger.com/Pages/Tools/JJTools_Complete2010.htm
Jim Jager has some nice tools for setting a key per frame on a selected biped piece.
His Biped selector script works pretty well too. It has a nice planted key pivot point picker, like WoB.
DViewPaintII
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/dviewpaint-ii
This is a must for blocking out animations. It renders out the viewport and allows you to draw over the top on each frame it ghosts the keys so you get a great sense of motion and timing without ever having to muck with a bunch of keys. The great thing is you can then save/load JUST the lines you drew into the viewport background as a guide when animating. It also makes critquing animations very very easy, its great for leads to send feedback to people and make notes.
Biped Keyer
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/bipedkeyer-v1-4
If you're using quaternion curves, Mike's Biped Keyer gives you incredibly quick access to some curve presets. In cases like this where you need to bookend a bunch of clips, this is pretty awesome.
- Select all biped pieces (see selection scripts above)
- Click Tension 50, done.
It also makes doing overshoots pretty easy with some of the other presets.
I almost always start in quaternion just to knock things in quickly and try things out. Then convert the biped pieces over to Eular for better curve control.
Track Crawler:
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/track-crawler-v1-0
This allows you to navigate the time bar based on sound files that are loaded. Great for doing a lip sync.
Motion Mixer Tips:
In Motion Mixer You can filter bones per layer track (right click the track group label > filter). This allows you to filter out parts and mix in other animations. This is great if you have a walk cycle, but a bunch of different hand configurations for weapons.
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/13/ENU/Autodesk%203ds%20Max%202011%20Tutorials/index.html?url=./files/WS1a9193826455f5ff-e569a012180ce5891f55.htm,topicNumber=d0e16485
In Motion Mixer you can create a transition track which will blend two tracks together. Making it easy for you to transition your character from a a run to walk, then flow into a jump, then a roll, then you filter out the Center of Mass and animate it after you've mixed down to get the character moving through the scene.
Misc Biped Tips:
You can break off the different systems of a biped while in figure mode. This really helps with bigger and oddly shaped characters.
You can assign a scale sub animation controller to your biped, giving it squash and stretch capabilities. Monster has a tutorial on this and uses a script but you can assign it the normal way you would assign a controller.
Biped has a look at system for the head but it can only look at one thing, so I create a dummy for it to look at and move that wherever I need the biped to look at. If it will be looking at a few different spots again and again I'll create dummies in those locations and snap my head look at dummie to them as I'm working.
I also create a look at for the eyes (actually one master parent and two children, one for each eye). The parent looks at a dummie put right between the eyes. This way my master parent always faces the eyes and keeps it from going cross eyed.
Biped layers are great, but can be difficult with planted keys, which loops right back into the "don't mix motion with planted keys".
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/3ds-Max-Animation-with-Biped/Michele-Bousquet/e/9780321375728
Michele Bousquet has a pretty groovy book about animating biped.
Its short sweet and to the point without a lot of useless text. It covers making useful walk cycles from footsteps pretty well, also some simple crowd animation if I remember correctly...
http://store.cgsociety.org/product/000369/
Paul Hormis is pretty awesome, so are his DVD's, but they can be hard to get a hold of and at the price its best if you can get work to pay for them =P His scripts are pretty awesome too but he's a little light on documentation...
Angle snap set to 5 degrees is pretty nice, I have it set to a keyboard shortcut so its a quick toggle on/off.
That's all I can think of right now...
And I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I was in a used bookstore and found the Max 2.5 CS book. You know, the purple one with the orange-haired chick on the cover - from back when CS was a seperate product? That book was awesome, most of it is still totally relevant. Just no info on Motion Flow or Skin Modifier.
Thanks!
In Max 2015 SP3 Biped Motion Mixer is broken (compute mixdown will give empty animation) and only solution that I know - is to uninstall SP3. But maybe someone know another workaround with it to stay with SP3? Thanks!