3d max motion mixer & character vertical position problem

Vikt0r

Hi.

Though I'm not a newbie in 3d max, but yesterday i tried to animate a character for the very first time. I used .bip files in motion mixer. All the char has to do is simple run then jump. But i need him to run from a hill. And i just can't get him animated on the z axis. I tried to google tutorials and max's help, ut it seems I'm so noob in the field that I can't even come up with a correct search phrase.

No need to even walk on surface or any other complex kind of thing. Just simple curve for z axis would be perfect.

Thank you.

Mark Dygert

Hi there,

So you have a run cycle and a jump cycle and you want to stitch them together to form a run then jump?
Or ...
You have the run jump animated but its straight in a line and you need to angle it down a hill?

Pics of what you have along with pics of what you want the character to do, would be helpful. Even if its just arrows drawn in MS paint.

I can think of 3-4 ways to tackle this but I'm not going to write up each of them, it would be a few pages long. Once I get a little more info I can suggest what I think is the best method.

Vikt0r

Yes, the hill is the problem.



Here's what i got. Character used to run straight.

I kind of solved the problem, but it looks not so straightforward.
What I've done is created a path and dummy object. Created path constraint for the dummy. And then linked biped to the dummy. Therefore, I have an opportunity to edit curve how dummy object moves along vertical axis.

Works fine, but please tell me if there is another way to do that. So I won't be using this method (if it's lame).

Mark Dygert

That works, there are a bunch of different ways to come at this. Keep in mind if this was for real time by linking the biped to a dummy you created a new root bone. Which could fubar exporting or throw off whatever engine because its looking for a specific name or number of bones.

I personally would adjust the Z curve for the root node of the biped, bip01 in bipeds curve editor. Biped has a special curve editor just for it, you'll run into a lot of problems using the standard curve editor.
- With a biped piece selected go to the Motion Tab (little Wheel) and click "Workbench".
- Click on Bip01 and turn on "controllers".
- Then adjust the curve for the Vertical Track.

Vikt0r

Thank you very much!
That is exactly what i was looking for.