character animation?

[LFShade]

It depends on the requirements of the project. First off, CS only handles bipedal characters (quadrupeds are possible in CS3, but not well supported). CS has the advantage of built-in human dynamics, a footstep-driven approach, the ability to save, load, and mix animation sequences, and a crowd control utility.

These features provide a quick and easy way to get your characters in motion, but in order to keep your animation from looking 'canned', you need to do a lot of keyframe editing. And that's where CS shows one of its weaknesses: CS bipeds use TCB rotation exclusively on all their joints, eliminating the possibility of curve-level editing. Adjusting curve tangents on keyframes is essential for adding personality and individuality to a character's action.

Another caveat of using CS is limited external access, for things like scripting. Some powerful rigging techniques with standard bones involve script and expression controllers, and parameter wiring. Using these features can give a very wide range of control over a character's motion, while limiting the number of objects that need to be keyframed to provide good motion. There are things you can acheive with parameter wiring, etc., that are very useful, and yet impossible with CS. Automatic pelvis centering, progressive spine/neck/forearm rotation, head/body following a target, advanced hand posing through sliders -- these are just a few things that come to mind.

So, take a look at what your goal is. If you just need a couple (or many) characters to do simple actions with minimal setup, by all means go with Character Studio. If you need complete control over every aspect of your characters' motion, and have the time to spend in Track View editing keys, you'll get more impressive results with a set of well-rigged standard bones. Of course, use bones if your character has more than two legs:)

Best of luck!

[ed209]

Character Studio bad.

Max Bones good.

[jason-slab]

thx for the info :)

[PIXAR]

Since the first time i made a full rigged bones character, i forgot all about character studio. Bones can be used for no mather what, even for animated hair, cloths, name it.

i think bones are much more stable, well, that's my opinion.

it's cheaper also :)


btw skin is much more stable then physique, the advanced paramters in skin make this modifier realy worth using.

[R.R]

Yes, bones are more flexible, but Character Studio are simple and its good for game production.
you can set up your character very easy by using CS, and save the motion, but you cannot use the function curve.
It takes longer to set up and rig your character by using bones, and some game engine won't deform the bone based mesh well.

[Mahlon]

LFShade,
That was a very good review of Character Studio vs. Bones. You should publish in short form whenever this question comes up.

Mahlon

[LFShade]

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind:cool:

[luigi]

hi guys


I make a thread about this theme one month ago and alot of people give his opinion

talking about skin,physique bones rigging....


I think you should be interested on seeing it.

character vs skin thread (http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4536)


;)

[skunk184]

i defended character studio in the past and its good for some things ,its the only tool that gives you a sort or non linear animation in max although alot of patience is required when it comes to having to repin your hands and feet every five minutes.......i ve recently done two projects the first used character studio and the second use my own bone rig.....i enjoyed doing the second project more as it was nice to animate with a very easy to control rig and also you get access to the f-curves which is a big bonus.......use character studio physique to skin your character and bones,IK and constraints to animate it , if you can........


cheers craig

[jason-slab]

hey thanks for all the input

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