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Character Studio 3.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
Animatable behaviors, better IK, and crowd animation highlight new release
Character Studio, Discreet's character animation plug-in for its animation and modeling tool, 3D Studio Max, has been available since Max was first released almost five years ago. Even then, Character Studio was ahead of its time, and for years it was the only viable character animation tool for Max users.
In the last few years, however, Discreet has added to Max a skeletal deformation feature called Skin, as well as exciting new inverse kinematics (IK) features, making the base version of Max a capable character animation tool all by itself.
Where does that leave Character Studio? Well, it's still a great tool. The plug-in has a ton of cool features not found in Max or in other character animation packages. It also supports motion-capture files and enables users to apply motions between different-size characters with ease. And in its latest release, Version 3, Discreet improved the software's IK system as well as added new features, including animatable behaviors and a nice crowd animation system.
Character Studio comes as two modules: Biped and Physique. Biped enables users to create skeletons, and offers a wealth of tools for animating them. Physique provides skeletal deformation capability, including muscle bulging, animated tendons, and weighted blending between joints for Biped skeletons as well as other types of skeletons.
For Character Studio 3, Discreet increased the performance of both modules. For instance, those who prefer footstep-driven animation now can place Biped footsteps on an arbitrary terrain by turning on a feature called AutoGrid, which automatically snaps the footsteps to the center of each face of the terrain.
Some animators have avoided Character Studio in the past because of IK limitations in Biped. In Character Studio 3, Biped's IK system has been improved. As before, the software supports forward and inverse kinematics simultaneously. New capabilities allow you to animate between user-defined pivot points on a character's hands and feet, enabling you to quickly set up complex interactions between feet, hands, and surfaces.
- Autodesk Previews Biped "Super Plug-In" for 3D Studio MAX; First "Core...
- Press release article from: Business Wire August 8, 1995 700+ words
...1631), Autodesk, Inc. today previewed Biped(TM), a revolutionary 3D character animation...announced today (see separate release). The Biped software combines several technology firsts...center-of-gravity dynamics. Although Biped operates within 3D Studio MAX, it will...
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...have been considerable attentions to study biped robot. Particularly have been increasing...this reason, it is promising the use of biped robots in human environments as well as the development of biped robot's control algorithms (4...
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...for Autodesk 3ds Max software biped system control rigs, significantly...keyframing processes to animate biped characters, 3ds Max users are...bake them directly onto their bipeds. Mixamo accelerates productivity...of motion data onto 3ds Max biped characters," says Marc Stevens...
- biped
- Reference information from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology T. F. HOAD January 1, 1996 700+ words
biped XVII. — L. bipēs , biped- , f. BI- + pēs FOOT .
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...its toes. All these features, Berman notes, indicate the animal's strides were long, a major contributor to speed among bipeds. Berman describes E. cursoris as facultatively bipedal--in other words, it was a tetrapod that ran on two legs when it...
- GAME BIRDS BIPEDS EGGED ON AT OSTRICH RACES.(Local)
- Newspaper article from: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) Gonzales, Shelley July 19, 1998 700+ words
...guided a gangly ostrich over a 200-yard stretch. Just past the finish line, he tumbled off the bird and felt the three-toed biped stomp across his back. A little worse for wear, the 8-year-old Castle Rock boy savored his victory Saturday morning at...
- WHEN AN EARTHWORM BECOMES A BIPED.(LIFE & LEISURE)
- Newspaper article from: Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) November 15, 1995 700+ words
...him on the road. For those who don't know the story, it's your standard tale of an earthworm being transformed into a biped by a mysterious spacesuit sought by an army of intergalactic bad guys headed by the evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering...
- 'Horse Heaven' is no paradise for bipeds.(Features)(Books)
- Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor March 30, 2000 700+ words
...Tiffany, the Wal-Mart checker who's dating the rapper Ho Ho. And there are the horses, helpfully introduced - unlike the biped characters - in a prologue. When Elizabeth Zada isn't around to read their minds, Smiley narrates their equine thoughts...
