Stockmoves Tutorials:
3D Studio Max - Using Stockmoves with a Character Studio Biped -

Loading the Motion Capture Data

Once the Stockmoves file is converted to Biovision format, you can work with it just like any other Biovision file. To load it, first create a biped. Select one of the bones in the biped. Go to the motion control panel and expand the Motion Capture rollout. Under the Motion capture rollout, click on the icon for Load Motion Capture File. Change the extension to Biovision Files (*.BVH) and browse to the file you want to load. Then click OK.

After you click OK, the Motion capture conversion parameters dialogue comes up. Make sure if you want to extract footsteps, you turn it on and set appropriate tolerance values. When you are done, click OK. That is it.

Your biped should now assume the pose of the Stockmoves data. If you scrub the time slider you should see your biped move like the Stockmoves data that you blended with the client software.

Layering Keyframe Animation

In many instances, you'll want to be able to keyframe on top of the Stockmoves Motion capture keys. It is useful when your character has drastically different proportions compared to a normal human. It can also help you reduce "skating" or sliding of your character's feet against the ground if you have chosen to use the motion capture data in freeform mode.

First, we will discuss how to use keys to adjust a biped with different proportions. Open up the Layers rollout and click on the icon for Create Layer. Select the bone that you wish to reorient. Go to frame 0 and click on the Animate button. Now you can rotate the bone any way you like. You will see that the original orientation of the bone is represented by a figure drawn with red lines. After you rotate the bone, scrub through the animation with the time slider and you should see that the motion capture rotation in that bone has a constant offset at the angle you set on frame 0. If you click on the collapse button, Character Studio will collapse the layer, and modify original motion capture data appropriately.

To reduce the effect of "skating" or sliding of the character's feet, you need to speed up or slow down the root of the biped so that the biped's position corresponds with the motion that the feet are making in relation to the ground. You will again need to create a layer of animation by clicking on the Create Layer button. This time you will be offsetting the position of the root of the biped, so select the root bone. Whenever you are modifying the position of a bone in a layer, you must snap the bone to its position in the underlying layer before setting a key. Go to the first frame of the sequence and click on the Snap Set Key button. Then go to the last frame in the sequence and click on the animate button. Move the root bone either forward or backward in space to speed up or slow down the biped's movement. You will need to keep scrubbing back and forth in the animation to analyse how the pace of the root translation matches the pace of the movement of the legs and feet of your character. Keep moving the root of the biped on the last frame of the sequence until you find a position that reduces the skating as much as possible. For even more precise control, you can set a key every time a foot hits the ground and animate the foot to stay in place by translating the root and setting another key when the foot leaves the ground. Doing this will assure that the foot stays firmly planted for the duration of its contact with the ground. When you are done, you click on the collapse button to modify the original motion capture data to incorporate your changes.

After making any kind of changes in your original data through use of layers, it is best to save them out in biped format. Go to the General rollout and click on the Save file Icon. You can leave the extension set to Biped Files (*.BIP). Name the sequence, browse to the location where you want to save the file and Click OK. Saving the sequence as a Biped File will also allow you to use it in motion flow mode and combine it with various other sequences using nonlinear animation techniques. Motion flow mode will be discussed in more detail in the next section.

Using Motion Flow Mode

Now we will learn how to combine multiple sets of converted Stockmoves files to create longer sequences with varied motions. In order to enter motion flow mode, you need to have a scene with a biped containing no layers of animation. So if you have layers, collapse them, and save the resulting data as a Biped File. Once you have done this, click on the Motion Flow Mode icon in the general rollout.

First, we need to create a graph listing all of the files to be used in the sequence. Click on the show graph icon in the Motion Flow rollout. In the Motion Flow graph, click on the Create Clip button. Then click once in the graph for each clip you want to load into the graph. To load the clips, right click on each clip you have just created. Click on Browse and find the file you want to use. Then click OK.

After loading each clip, you will need to define a script for the clips. The script is where you control the transitions between clips, the order clips are played, and the amount of times each clip is looped. Click on The Define Script button in the Motion Flow Script rollout. You can name the script whatever you want and create as many scripts as you want. After the script is created, go back to the Motion Flow Graph and click once on each clip to be used in the order that you want them to flow. If you click more than once on a clip, a duplicate clip will be loaded into the script, which will make the clip loop.

After you have filled up the script with the clips that you want, you can now go and edit the transitions between them. Select the first clip in the transition to be edited in the Motion Flow Script. Then click on the Edit Transition button. This will bring up a dialogue for editing the transition. When editing the transition, you'll want to make the transition smooth, while not allowing for and skating or sliding of the character's feet. Use the start frame settings to get the two clips to line up as best as possible. In the view ports you will see a visual representation of how the two clips fit together. The starting clip is represented by a yellow stick figure and the second clip is represented by a red stick figure. If either of the sequences is a run or walk sequence, try to have the transition happen while the character's feet are in the air, otherwise the feet will "skate" or slide. Use the length setting to make the transition happen faster or more slowly.

Once you are happy with the transition, click on OK. Now, edit the transition of all of the rest of your clips. When you are satisfied with the entire sequence, you can save the whole thing as one Biped file. In the general rollout, click on save segment. In the Save As dialogue, Click on the Active Segment button to automatically include all frames in the Segment, or you can manually set which frames of the segment you want to save by entering their numbers in the boxes at the bottom of the dialogue. Name your file, and browse to the location where you want to save it. Once you have done this, click Save. Congratulations! You have just created animation using multiple nonlinear clips. You do not need to stay in Motion Flow mode to use the sequence you have just created. Exit Motion Flow Mode by clicking on the icon in the General rollout. Then load your newly created motion capture file by opening the Motion Capture rollout and loading the biped file that you created in Motion Flow Mode. If you want, you can also extract footsteps from your motion capture file by turning it on in the Motion Capture Conversion Parameters dialogue and setting the appropriate tolerance values.

You can load as many clips as you want and sequence them, loop them, make transitions between them, or even blend them again! You can come up with a lot of animation in a small amount of time!