BONES method versus Character Studio method

[jscarr]

Hi,

CS offers a quick and powerful setup for animating characters. It comes with a wide variety of tools like Crowd and the ability to include bones (in CS4), and overall is a really good solution for most character animation. Learning curve isn't too bad, either - use the tutorials.

Custom rigging offers the freedom to break the rules that CS must follow. You can setup bones to do things you normally can't do with CS like ankle auto-rotation and removable limbs, to name a few.

The difficulty with custom rigging is learning everything that's involved - math, scripting, expressions, and beyond. Try the Rigging a Character tutorial in 3dsmax_t.chm and you'll have a good start.

Before any project ask what the goal is.

Good luck,
-j

[visualasylum]

thanks for the info.

cheers,

Greg

[CiF]

I would also add that unfortunatly, knowing CS is almost a considtion in a lots of studio (mainly game studio).

I say unfortunatly because I hate CS and think that manual rigging is really better (anoying but better) once you get rid of the script/expression ... stuff, you will enjoy animating freedom that CS don't offer...

Of course, note that I didn't try yet the CS 4 version, wich is suppose to fix some lack of previous versions ...

Another thing to consider : None Linear animation !!!
CS is the only way to get benefit of this powerfull tool with MAX
(I think so, and would love to be wrong). XSI for exemple have a animation mixer (none linear anim) :(-

my 2cs...

[Mahlon]

I've just been building one rig with max bones -- copying several ideas from different sources to try and get the rig that I like working with (some parts from Michael Comet, some from Jazon Busby, some from the different books). All has gone well, and I've learned a bit about scripting and how the mechanics of rigging works in the first place. Like jscarr and CiF have said, you get a lot of extra freedom with regular bones and the workflow of animation is more universal.

But, I've been spending a few days with Character Studio 4, and it does make up for some of the lack in CS3 concerning bones, and now seems a good choice if you can get comfortable with the way you animate in CS. One of the things you have to get used to with CS is the workflow of setting keys. The way CS bones work is similar to using the IK for FK function in max regular bones. If you move the CS foot, for example, and set a key, a key will be created for the foot bone, the shin bone, and the thigh bone. This is a little different workflow from regular IK. But it has it's advantages.
For instance, with max regular bones, in a 24 fps walk cycle, I always have a problem of getting the leg extentions at the extremes of the cycle to read like they are straight and fully extended. And without it reading, it looks like the character is walking with somewhat bent legs. It's easier for me to get this right in CS, owing to the nature of the different ways you control limbs.

Another improvement in CS4 is the ability to assign sub-control animation in list controllers. Max bones has this of course already, but it's new for CS.

And then, like CiF said, the non-linear animation mixer in CS4 makes a difference. I'm pretty excited about that. Haven't played too much with it yet, but it seems well implemented and pretty powerful.
There are some things about CS4, though that seem a little unfinished -- like the ability to see/edit tangents in the CS trackview (workbench). In the promotional media for CS4, they show pictures of the workbench with that function, but I have yet been able to find it in the program, which makes me think it was intended but didn't make it. Also, I'd like to see function curves for the list controllers in the track view windows for Euler xyz, and position xyz subcontrollers. There are a lot of other small things I've run across and thought "Eh? What? That doesn't seem finished."

So, both bones and CS have different advantages. Definitely try CS. If you can get your head around the workflow, you might like it.

All that said, I was not a fan of CS3. CS4, I am becoming more of a fan. Still, I'd like to see discreet implement all that technology from CS into max regula flava and be done with it. Surely they can make a killer NLA mixer for max. Surely....

Mahlon:beer:

[AnimBot]

Still, I'd like to see discreet implement all that technology from CS into max regula flava and be done with it. Surely they can make a killer NLA mixer for max. Surely....

Amen to that brotha!

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