Animating a waltz: linking two bipeds together

Kyalie

Hello everyone!
I'm trying to animate a dancing couple. I've animated the guy, and i would like the woman to follow the Bip movement, and then animate her own steps. I've tried to link their bips together, but the thing is, the animation then totally ignores any planted key I put on the woman's feet.
I believe there's constraint controller that should do the trick, but i don't know which one to use.
(The animation doesn't need to be super detailed as it is just a base for pixel art)

Thank you for your help!

monster

When you link a Biped to any object the planted keys stay planted relative to the parent object. So they are not ignored they are just moving with the parent. (Just trying to explain.)

Constraints don't work with Biped objects, only bones and regular max objects.

This would be a difficult sequence for even an experienced animator.

If the sequence is short, and just a simple base for the pixel art I would just leave her linked, and ignore the floating feet.

But if you need full fidelity, I would link the biped as you have done, then create a dummy or box at the world origin. Set the IK object of the feet to the dummy. This will allow the planted keys to stay in place, as long as you don't move the dummy. But any free keys will follow the parent biped.


Look for IK Group on this page for more info on IK Objects.
http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/16/ENU/3ds-Max-Help/files/GUID-24693B38-20BD-435D-9816-BE5BDA528506.htm

Kyalie

When you link a Biped to any object the planted keys stay planted relative to the parent object. So they are not ignored they are just moving with the parent. (Just trying to explain.)

Yes, that's what i noticed, you put the words on it nicely

Thank you for your help, i'll try that.