AVI, MPEG and QuickTime movies aren't the only ways to view animations on the Web. The animation shown on the previous page was converted to VRML97 using Max's VRML export (virtual reality modeling language) capabilities, producing a 3D model shown here with 2000 polygons (290K), or here as a higher-quality 16,000 polygon (1.4MB) model. This way, the animation can be easily viewed by anyone with Internet Explorer or Netscape web browsers (etc.) and -- better still -- the model can be rotated or viewed from any angle. Because VRML models are "vector graphics" -- mathematical representations of a 3D object instead of just a bunch of pixels, they tend to be compact and can be saved as VRML or Flash Vector format using an optional plugin or utility such as Swift3D or Vecta3D.
The Vecta 3D "cartoon style" output samples (shown here in QuickTime or AVI formats) and the 3D Max-rendered example shown above were animated using an exciting capability of MAX called Motion Capture. With it, you can use a mouse, joystick, keyboard or even a MIDI keyboard or other custom input device to supply motion data that records the movement of your model in real time. Here's how we set up this model for real time animation with motion capture.
First, load or create a model. For this example, a model of an animal such as a dinosaur works best.
If you wish to assign a texture to your model, you can do this from the Modify panel by using the UVW panel to set the height, width and tiling values of a texture imported or selected from the Texture panel (the icon in the upper right of the screen with the colored cirecles). For our Rhino model, we used a scan of the side of a rhinoceros and applied it with planar mapping, aligned to the Y axis, with the following values: 28.614, 8.957, 11.522, 0.3, 1.48, and 0.94.
Next, make sure that you can see all four views of the model, by clicking the icon in the lower right corner of the Max screen that looks like a small square with an arrow. Then, select the mesh. Click Subobject Vertex in the Modify panel rollout, and then use your mouse to highlight the head and neck.
Then, apply a Bend modifier, with the following settings: Angle 13, Direction 180, X axis.
Follow it with another Bend modifier, with the settings: Angle: 6.5, Direction 90, X axis.
Now it's time to assign the controller to capture the motion of your mouse. Go to the animation panel and click the position button. Right-click and choose Properties. Then, assign the mouse to the first instance as "X axis" and the second instance as "Y axis." Now, close the panel and go to the utilities panel and click Motion Capture.
Click the Test button. With luck, you model should move its head in response toy your mouse movements.
Kinetix Character Studio 1.1a for MAX 1.x
Character Studio 2, announced in Mar. 1998, adds a number of great features to the best-known plug-in for MAX. Character Studio 2's Biped component adds support for motion capture files, better tools for working with characters with unusual physiques (such as those with short legs and long feet), separate tracks, allowing for extensive finger/hand type animation, layers that allow you to build up a hierarchy of character movements and a bevy of other new features.
The new Physique plugin adds controls for skin deformation, visual editing of bulges, and better support for facial animation.
Pros: lifelike biped motion and physique substitution and muscular deformation features.
Cons: extra-cost plugin. Numerous steps required to import third-party meshes.
Smirk
Need to create lip sync animations? MAXR2 is a nearly ideal tool, with its built-in support for sound (you can view waveforms and "scrub" them back and forth to align motions). MAX gets even better as a character animation tool when you add a lip-sync tool like Lambsoft's Smirk. We found Smirk's excellent tutorials a painless way to learn how to get your 3D characters to talk. A 12MB demo version (which is remarkably nag-free, allowing you to save and render animations) is here. Top marks for Smirk.
During the research phase of this article, we read a number of articles, tutorials and the manuals for the products for MAX and Character Studio. We found a considerable number of people complaining that Character Studio was impossibly difficult to use, that its Physique mesh-morphing tools were nothing but trouble, and so on. After reading the product manuals and getting some valuable tips in Animation magazine from Kinetix product support technician Adam Felt, we suspect that the majority of the complainers are probably struggling along with a pirated version of the program. Character Studio's Biped and Physique tools work fabulously well when you have the real program, folks.
Biped creates two-legged characters and eases the task of animating them (although it can be adapted to support creatures with more than two legs, we are inclined to recommend Digimation's Bone Pro Max for this task instead). Once created, you can easily make your Biped walk, run or jump.
A little trickier is the process of attaching a mesh (or even a series of random objects) to the Biped form.
Basically -- you create or import a mesh, freeze it and then create a Biped. Entering "Figure mode," you position this Biped so that its limbs exactly match up with those of your mesh. Then, you unfreeze your mesh, select the Physique function and attach the mesh to your biped character's pelvis. (It took us a while to figure out that it was a Very Bad Plan to attach the mesh to the biped's center of mass, which is usually in the same area.) This attaches the mesh to the biped using a framework resembling a skeleton. Then, you need to clean up any unattached points -- a process we won't detail here, except to say that it is essential -- and, finally, return to the Biped mode and animate it.
The animation process of Character Studio is superficially easy but, like all fine arts, the devil is in the details. At its simplest level, you merely need to invoke "footstep mode," define the number of steps, assign the footsteps to the model and press "play." And the next thing you know, your biped is parading across the stage. Of course, the program gives you numerous options to alter the footstep size, speed and direction. It's quite amazing how a few altered parameters can change a Frankensteinian lurch to a Cleese-like funny walk.
One of Physique's most notable features is its ability to alter the size and shape of an object based on its "musculature." In other words, you can build a character whose muscles flex as it moves. (Digimation's Bones Pro Max is also capable of this and even more sophisticated mesh-flexing subtleties, such as making a character "breathe.")
Using Character Studio 1.1a, we had great success importing and animating meshes from Fractal's Poser program, as the sample AVIs here demonstrate.
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