Question about Max's Motion Mixer

TorQue[MoD]

Hey all,

So I'm working on a sequence for an in-game cinematic. I figured it would look better to animate the scene inside Max using motion mixer rather than trying to set everything up in-engine (UE4). The question I have is that all of the animations I'm using were animated in-place and now that I'm using them on a set, I want to add some extra forward movement to the walk cycles etc. so I can have the characters move through the scene. Is it possible to do this using motion mixer? How would you go about doing it? I've searched animating a biped along a spline etc. but haven't been able to find the right solution. I thought maybe if I used the Move all Mode, I'd be able to add keyframes to it, but sadly that doesn't work.

Thanks in advance.

monster

I assume you are using a Biped rig since you mentioned it.

1. You can either save your bip files out with forward motion and use those clips in the motion mixer.
2. Or once you are done with your compositing use Computer Mixdown > Copy to Biped. Then add a Biped layer to translate the animation.

I recommend the first option. It's goes by pretty fast once the bip animations are updated. But the second option might be easier if the cinematic will not be looking at the characters feet.

TorQue[MoD]

Yes, definitely using biped.
Ok my only problem then is if I'm using a walk cycle, I'd have to know how many cycles will be used to get the character to the correct position in the scene cause I can't add the forward movement to the bip itself and still have it loop. This is why I wanted to use the motion mixer in the first place, so I could load in 3 or 4 walk cycle loops (depending on what's needed) in a row and then transition to the other animations.
There has to be an easier way to convert a walk cycle to a forward movement animation without having to re-build the animations isn't there? I figured motion mixer would allow you to tweak the existing motions. It's not possible to use animations layers along with the mixer?

monster

TorQue[MoD] said:

...I can't add the forward movement to the bip itself and still have it loop.

I don't follow. The motion mixer is basically designed to string walk cycles with forward motion together. Make sure you use a Transition Track and not Layer Tracks.

There has to be an easier way to convert a walk cycle to a forward movement animation without having to re-build the animations isn't there?

Like I said in #2 above. You can animate everything in the Motion Mixer in place without modifying your clips. When you are done use Compute Mixdown > Copy To Biped, and exit Mixer mode. All the keys will be applied to the Biped and you can edit it as if it were a regular animation. Just add a layer and move things.

Mark Dygert

Move all is a one time adjustment, to move the entire animation into a new position in the scene. It is not animatable, it's a pretty drastic step that can go terribly wrong if you're not careful to collapse it. 

There are a few ways to do what you need.

1) Reanimate the center of mass on the biped.
There shouldn't be much stopping you from putting some new forward keys on the COM. This is what I do.

2) Layers.
You can apply a biped layer and animate a new position. You can also link the biped to an object and animate that object. That can get a little messy because the biped doesn't know it it's moving and you have to manage that other object separately outside of the biped system. 3dsmax also has a layer system for regular objects, you can use that on biped also.

3) Motion Mixer
If you have a COM already animated on a seperate biped, you can save that motion and apply it to your other biped using the layers in the motion mixer to filter out the limbs on the COM bip, and filter out the COM on the stationary bip. That way the COM overrides the stationary biped.

TorQue[MoD]

Thanks for the help guys. This is the first "cinematic" animation I've made and I'm still really new to motion mixer. I didn't realize that it would automatically continue the forward movement from the previous animation. I think what I'll do then is just add the forward movement to the walk cycle as that's going to be the fastest solution and I can do it easily enough with a new layer. 

Mark, when you say animate the COM, I didn't know this was possible... I always just animate the bip01's position in world space. I'll have to look into the COM and how to animate it. Thanks for the suggestion.

Mark Dygert

Yep you're doing it right the Center of Mass is named Bip001. It's the diamond shaped thing buried in the pelvis, the master root node of biped.

TorQue[MoD]

Ahh ok. Thank's for clarifying that Mark.
Do you know of a way to duplicate tracks that you've already inserted and configured correctly? I can't seem to find how to do that as it would save a lot of time if you're throwing in the same animation 5 or 6 times in a row.

TorQue[MoD]

Ok, so I'm having a problem with motion mixer not maintaining the Z height of the biped. I've made an animation where the character steps down from a curb (-21 in the Z) and this works fine, but when I load in a walk cycle from there, it snaps back up to the zero. I also tried creating a separate walk cycle where the character is walking -21 units lower but this also blends back to zero. How do I get the character to stay at this new lower height?

monster

There's two places you need to check.

• When you pick "New Clips from Files" make sure set lowest foot height to 0 is unchecked.
• In the Transition Track right click the dark red transition and pick Edit | Preserve Height.

TorQue[MoD]

Thank you monster! No way to copy and paste tracks that are already setup huh? I noticed you can add from pool but its not really much faster than from file.

monster

You can shift drag a selection to clone it, but no way to duplicate a layer track or transition track.

TorQue[MoD]

Ok thanks. Too bad cause that would be a really handy feature and make the Motion Mixer even more like a video editor.