3ds max Track Bar Showing all Grey Keys:

BradMyers82

I'm trying to get some practice animating (long overdue) and I have been following some tutorials, but I have one issue I can't seem to figure out.

In 3ds max 2010 64bit, I'm animating a biped and all the keys are coming in as grey, instead of the normal red, green, blue which is more useful because I can easily identify if I: Transformed, Rotated or Scaled respectively.

I know it's something simple I'm overlooking, but if anyone could fill me in I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

Mark Dygert

Biped doesn't animate like your normal objects in max with Position, Rotation, Scale (which is what each color normally indicate).
Biped normally only has rotation keys.
The only position track is on the Center of Mass (also on the hands and feet when planted keys "IK" are set).
By default you can't scale biped pieces, until you apply a scaleXYZ sub animation controller.

Grey = standard key, this indicates "a key" on a system. This normally indicates rotation.
Yellow = sliding key, hands or feet slide from one spot to another, like an ice skater
Orange = Planted key, sticks the hand or foot to a specific spot in the world
Blue = planted key that targets an object with the IK blend set to anything but zero

Also keep in mind that you animate systems in biped, all bones in the arm are a system when you set keys for one you set keys for them all. You can further define keys for each bone but its a little maddening at first when you move a key for a finger and all the arm keys move along with it.

If you're looking for the curve editor, biped has its own curve editor called workbench which is accessible through the biped menu on the motion tab (when you have a biped piece selected).

Depending on what you have the biped set to you'll be using either Quaternion (Default TCB curves) or Euler (standard bezier curves) which are actually interpeted TCB curves but the interface looks Euler, pretty nice since most animators never animate with quaternion curves and find them hard to work with.

It's also helpful to right click the time bar go to configure and turn on show selection range. This will let you select a range of keys and scale them, pretty handy but off by default.

Also I really like this selection script called Worker of Biped. It gives you quick access to the biped pieces without having to dig around in the scene for them. Some other handy tools in there too.
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/worker-of-biped

BradMyers82

Vig: Your the man!!! Thanks so much, and I almost just addressed this thread directly to you cause I knew you would give me the answer.

You have no idea how helpful this is for me, thanks again!

Mark Dygert

heh, no prob at all. There are a few guys that have used biped around there. This stuff is normally the biggest hurdle people face when using biped, it work a little different from any other traditional rig, but once you get the terms and the work flow down its pretty slick.