Chapter 34: Combining Animations in the Motion Mixer


If you've worked to animate a biped or some other Max object and are pleased with the result, you can save the animation clip and reuse it. Several animation clips can be mixed together to create an entirely new animation sequence.

The Motion Mixer lets you add several different animations to the interface comprising both biped and non-biped objects. The animations then can be blended and transitioned between the loaded animation clips. You also can modify clips as needed.

Now that you've learned how to animate characters using a variety of techniques from Biped's Footstep and Freeform modes to custom bone systems with IK solutions, it's time for you to explore Max's set of features that enable you to reuse animation clips between characters. This technique is called Retargeting, which involves scaling the animation keys so that a single character animation can be reused on other characters that are different in size and width.

Saving Animation Files

Before an animation sequence can be mixed in the Motion Mixer, it must be saved. The Motion Mixer easily can load any existing animation sequence in the current opened Max file, but saving a sequence to the local hard disk makes it accessible for other Max scenes. The Motion Mixer can be accessed using the Graph Editors image from book Motion Mixer menu command.

Saving biped animations

Biped animations are saved to the hard disk as .bip files using the Save File button found in the Biped rollout. This opens a Save As dialog box, shown in Figure 34.1. For the animation sequence, you can select the range of frames to save. For .bip files, you also can save additional Max objects and controllers with the file, such as a target object that the head follows.

Note 

The Save File button in the Biped rollout may be used to save .FIG, .BIP, and .STP files, but only .BIP files save the motion information that can be loaded into the Motion Mixer. FIG files save only the structure and position of the biped, and STP files save footstep timing and location data, but no keys.

image from book
Figure 34.1: The Biped Save As dialog box is used to save biped animations.

Saving general animations

In addition to biped animation sequences, the animation of other objects also can be saved using the XML Animation File (XAF) format. To save the animation for the selected object, open the Save XML Animation File dialog box, shown in Figure 34.2, using the File image from book Save Animation.

image from book
Figure 34.2: The Save XML Animation File dialog box is used to save animations of the selected object.

For general animations, you can select to include tracks, constraints, only keyable tracks, and a specific range. The User Data fields let you enter notes or specific data used by plug-ins about the animation sequence.




3ds Max 9 Bible
3ds Max 9 Bible
ISBN: 0470100893
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 383

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