Animating Biped Crowds

Animating Biped Crowds

Associating Bipeds with Delegates

 

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Character Animation Tutorials > Animating Biped Crowds > 

Creating Character Families

In this lesson, you'll develop a crowd scene containing two families of panda bears roaming around their environment. In this first lesson, you'll set up one biped for each member of the Black and Brown families, and scale them accordingly to create a father, mother, and a child panda.

When creating a biped crowd scene, you will need a number of characters. You can easily create a number of similar characters from one character. The resulting crowd members can be slightly smaller or larger than one another, or have different clothing, skin or hair color.

You’ll save each character separately under its own file with a different biped and mesh name, and create families by merging each one into a scene with other characters.

Set up the lesson:

1. Load the file tut_black_papa.max.

   This file contains a lone black-and-white panda. From this panda you will create a series of six pandas, each with different biped and skin names. Some pandas will be black and white, others will be brown and white.

   

2. Press H on the keyboard to display the names of objects in the scene.

   The panda biped is named Black_Papa_Biped, while the panda mesh is named Black_Papa_Skin.

3. Close the Select From Scene dialog.
4. Save the file as my_black_papa.max.

   To create more characters for the crowd scene, you will save different versions of the black papa bear.

Scale to create a new character:

1. Select the mesh, and change its name to Black_Mama_Skin.
2. Select any part of the biped hierarchy (not the skin) and go to the Motion panel.
3. Turn on Figure Mode.
4. In the Structure rollout, change the biped’s Height value to 110.

   The skin changes size along with the biped. This creates a slightly smaller version of the bear, to represent the mama bear.

   NoteIn some situations, changing the biped’s Height won’t scale the character uniformly. If you have exclusively used envelopes for vertex adjustments, and haven’t made any custom vertex assignments with the Vertex sub-object level, the method described here will scale the character correctly.
5. Turn off Figure Mode.
6. In the Biped rollout, if necessary, expand the Mode and Display expansion bar to see the Name field, and enter the name Black_Mama_Biped.

Reposition the scaled character:

Now you'll need to move the mama bear away from its original location to prevent the bears from coming in on top of one another when they are merged later on.

1. In the Track Selection rollout, click Body Horizontal.
2. Turn on Auto Key and make sure that you're at frame zero.
3. In the Front viewport, move the mama bear's COM (center of mass) to the right of its original location.
4. Turn off Auto Key.
5. Save the scene to the file my_black_mama.max.

Change and save the baby bear:

1. Select any part of the biped and turn on Figure Mode.
2. In the Biped rollout, change the Name to Black_Baby_Biped.
3. In the Structure rollout, change the biped’s Height value to 60.
4. Turn off Figure Mode.
5. Turn on Auto Key and click Body Horizontal. While at frame zero, move the baby bear to the right of its original location. Turn off Auto Key.
6. Select the mesh, and change its name to Black_Baby_Skin.
7. Save the scene to the file my_black_baby.max.

Merge the family members to one file:

1. Choose File menu > Merge, and choose the file my_black_mama.max. If you didn’t create this file, you can choose tut_black_mama.max. In the Merge my_black_mama.max dialog, click All, then click OK to merge. When you see the message regarding the duplicate material name, click Use Scene Material.

   

   If the mama bear comes in on top of the baby bear, use the method described in earlier procedures to move them apart.

2. Merge the file my_black_papa.max or tut_black_papa.max. Merge all objects in the file. If necessary, move the bears apart by using the above procedure to reposition the scaled character.

   

   You have just created a family of black-and-white bears.

3. Save the scene as my_black_family.max.

Create a family of brown bears:

1. Open the Material Editor.

   The multi/sub-object material Black Panda has two sub-materials, Black and White. You will change the black material to a brown material to create brown-and-white pandas.

2. In the Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters group, click the Black (standard) button. In the Blinn Basic parameters group, click the Diffuse button and in the Color Selector, set the color to brown and click OK.
   TipTo make the color brown, create a dark red-orange color such as RGB:[95,79,38] .

   The color changes on all the pandas. Now you have a family of brown-and-white pandas.

   

3. In the Material Editor, change the name of the material to Brown.
4. Click Go to Parent on the Material Editor toolbar, and change the multi/sub-object material name to Brown Panda.
5. Select the papa bear biped, and change its Name in the Biped rollout to Brown_Papa_Biped.
6. Select the papa bear mesh, and change its object name to Brown_Papa_Skin.
7. Change the mama bear biped name to Brown_Mama_Biped, and the mesh name to Brown_Mama_Skin.
8. Change the baby bear biped name to Brown_Baby_Biped, and the mesh name to Brown_Baby_Skin.
9. Turn on Auto Key. For each biped, click Body Horizontal, and move the bears forward from their original locations. Turn off Auto Key.

   This will prevent the black bears from merging in on top of the brown bears in the next procedure.

10. Save the scene as my_brown_family.max.

Merge all the bears:

1. Choose File menu > Merge, and merge the file my_black_family.max or tut_black_family.max into the current scene.

   

   If necessary, move the bears apart.

   These two families of bears will be used to set up a biped crowd simulation in the lessons that follow. The family will be easier to work with if the meshes are hidden.

2. Select all six skins.
3. Right-click one of the skins, and choose Hide Selection from the quad menu.

   

4. Save the scene as my_families.max.

   You can find a finished version of this lesson in the file tut_families.max.

   With this technique of creating character families, the key is to name each biped, skin and material differently. When you merge the characters together in a scene, there will be no difficulties with duplicate object names or materials, and you’ll know the names of each character’s biped and skin.