Max 8 Character Studio Issue.

Geezus

I've been dealing with this for awhile now, and have not been able to figure this out. It's best if I give an example:
Let's say I have planted keys on frame 40 for both of my feet, I have a vertical key on the Bip01 at frame 50. Now...this is where my problem comes into play. Say...at frame 70 I want to set a vertical key for the Bip01 in the same position it's in at frame 50, so I either copy the frame from 50 to 70 or I simply 'Set Key' at frame 70 (since it hasn't moved since 50 anyhow). Either way, frame 50 and 70 are exact. Now when I play frames 50-70 back in the viewport, everything is fine; the Bip01 stays in place. Now...at frame 80 I want to move the Bip01 down a bit, so I bring the Bip01 down and 'Set Key'. From frame 70-80 everything plays fine, but now between frames 50 and 70 the Bip01 wants to magically move up for no apparant reason. This is a problem because it locks the legs or makes my Biped float in mid air. Frames 50 and 70 are still the exact same position, it's just that inbetween the two the Bip01 seems to have a mind of it's own. This also happens with feet/hands/anything of the Biped.
I hope I've explained myself correctly. Has this happened to anyone else before? If so, did you find a work around/fix? Can anyone else recreate this or am I just insane? I've only been working with Character Studio for the past 2 months, so there may just be a simple thing/fix I'm missing here, but I'm literally pulling my hair out over this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

arshlevon

that would a problem with the curves i believe, just posing a character is half the fun of animation, you have to go in an adjust the curves as well for best results. i have only animated with bones and i think biped uses a seperate curve editor, i am not sure really, i actually hate CS cause of poor intergration into max. hopefully someone who uses CS can be of more help. e_x is a great animator and i know he uses cs, hopefully he will stick his head in here.

monster

Biped uses TCB values (Tension Continuity & Bias) instead of the standard F-curves to interpolate between keyframes.

What you want to do is change the Continuity value to Zero on all your keys to essentially get a linear movement.

To access the TCB values select all the keys you want to edit, right click on the keyframe in the time slider, under controller properties choose "Bip01: Vertical" and change the Continuity to Zero.

The default value for all three is 25. This is similar to a "Smooth" key in the Curve Editor. A Zero Continuity will give a "Linear" key. Playing with the Tension will give you "Fast" and "Slow" keys. And Bias can help you overshoot before or after the key.

Hope this helps.

Geezus

Awesome! I should have noted that that's what I would do with any other piece of the Biped, but I would do that by going through the curve editor. However, with the Bip01 I wasn't able to view any keys with the curve editor. I had no idea I could simply change those values right in the slider. Thanks for your help monster, I appreciate it :]

@arsh: I too have a general dislike for CS. Editing curves with the Biped, to the best of my knowledge, is pretty much null. I hear C.A.T. is a great alternative to CS, but I've not toyed with it at all.