Foot Anchoring problem in Max 7

TorQue[MoD]

Hey guys!

I just recently upgraded to Max 7 and was happy to find that the foot anchoring tool was working properly in that in Max 4.2, any time I would anchor a foot at a point in the animation, it wouldn't un-anchor itself even when I turn the anchors off. This problem seemed to be fixed when I first started animating, but now it seems to have come back. I anchored the feet of my bided at fram 40 and now I can't get them to un anchor. I can work around it, but its really irritating, especially when I rotate the charcter to face a different direction and his feet stay in the same place.

Anyone have any ideas on how to get the feet to unanchor from their spot in frame 40?

Thanks!

TorQue[MoD]

Never mind guys... apparently adding a layer in Max is virtually identical to working with layers in Photoshop. I just added a new layer and it fixed the problem.

Thanks anyway.

FatAssasin

Are you using Biped? Look up setting free and planted keys for the legs. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to unanchor the foot.

TorQue[MoD]

YEs actually I'm using biped and I must be doing something wrong because I've never been able to get this to work properly. Turns out that adding a new layer fixed the problem but only in max. If I collapse the stack to export the animation for in game use, it screws everything up.

But thanks for the topic ideas. I'll google it and see what I come up with.

TorQue[MoD]

so I did several searches on google and the best tutorial I came up with was one using CS R2.

http://www.3dlinks.com/LinkSender3.cfm?ID=2588

I was really excited until I discovered that they got rid of the IK panel in CS 4 so I can't do the IK blending like the tutorial suggests.

I can get feet to anchor perfectly, but I can't get them to unanchor. This has got to be one of the most basic elements of CS that I'm sure everyone uses. I must be doing something wrong. At frame 0 I anchor the feet by pressing the "anchor left leg" and "anchor right leg" buttons in the keyframing tools rollout. Then I add a keyframe with the Autokey button turned on. Then I move the biped where I want, set another key for both feet and then turn off the anchor buttons. And that's where I'm stuck, cause now if I want the character to move anywhere else, his feet are permanently anchored to the spot in frame 0.

Please, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

e_x

Don't use the anchor feet stuff.

You have to set sliding keys. It's in the 'Key Info' rollout. It is a red dot with an arrow through it sitting on a blue block.

Also, that IK Blend option is in CS 4, its in the 'IK Blend' rollout in the 'Key Info' rollout as well.

If you need more help, let me know.

TorQue[MoD]

Oh sweet lord! Thanks e_x!

I didn't even notice the different key types or that those little +s will actually expand those areas into roll outs

This rules! You helped me sooo much!

FatAssasin

The "set planted", "set sliding", and "set free" buttons are really just presets to change the ik information in the rollout. This is really pretty basic biped functionality that is covered very well in the help file. Have you tried reading that?

e_x

His main problem is following that tutorial that is probably 5 years old.

The help files are probably your best bet for learning CS.

I would also recommend doing some work with normal bones inside of max as well. They will give you a much better fell for how other packages (Maya, XSI...) work (curve editor). CS kind of has its own way of doing things (which you will learn to hate and love like most people).

Ryno

OK, this confuses a lot of people, so here goes:

The anchor controls in Biped are only meant to give you temporary assistance when positioning a character. They are not animatable, nor exportable. They just give you a temporary means for holding a hand or foot in place, as you work on setting up a pose. You'll notice that if you re-open a scene where you had the anchors on when you saved, this data will NOT be saved.

If you want to animate something staying in place, you will want to use the Set Planted keyframe option, which is found under the Key Info rollout. This keeps the hand/foot pinned down in the exact same location in world space. You can also pin it to an object by espanding the IK line, and selecting an object.

Once a planted key (IK) is set, that extremity will stay pinned to that exact spot, until a free or sliding key becomes active. No movement will be permitted with a planted key. A sliding key (IK) allows for the foot/hand to slide around, but will stay pinned as you work with the rest of the biped. A free key, or just "normal" key is a forward kinematics key, and will not stay pinned.

So, disregard the locks. They just allow you to momentarily keep things in place until you set real IK keys for the body parts.