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Tutorial: Populous Part2
How to edit the walking spline for ArchVision’s and House of Moves’ 3.5D Populous Walking People in 3DS Max
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Editing the walking spline
As your scenes evolve, you may find that the original spline that you’d set for your 3.5D Walking person is not quite right. Perhaps a chair or tree blocks their path. Changing a spline is as easy as falling off a log and the following few steps will tell you how to fine tune the walking path to meet your needs exactly.
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Presently, 3.5D Walking People content is not supported in 3DS Viz 2.0, Lightwave, or Alias|Wavefront’s Maya.
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This tutorial assumes that you have already completed and understand the earlier tutorial Populous part1
Step 1: Adjusting the time
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| A. |
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By default, 3DS Max and 3DS Viz set the time (number of frames) to 100. To change time, click on the Time Configuration icon and set the end time to 1,000 and click OK. |
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| Move your time slider again. You’ll notice that when Beatrice gets to the end of her spline she stops. It is important to make sure that the spline is long enough or Beatrice will walk in place. |
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Step 2: Editing the walking spline
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| A: |
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To edit a walking path spline, make sure that the RPC is selected and Open the group. You can find this under Group:Open. |
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Select the spline and go to the Modify menu (a tab on the set of menus on the right of the screen, not the Modifier tab at the top of the screen). Click on the Sub-Object button (it will turn yellow). This gives you access to the spline vertices.> |
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With Sub-Object still selected, select the last vertex in the spline. This is the point where the RPC would stop walking forward and begins walking in place. |
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Right click and select the Move command. Drag the vertex to a new location, making the spline longer to allow the forward walking motion to continue for all frames. |
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To change the curves, or path of the spline, we’ll need to either edit existing vertices or add new ones |
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To add new vertices, keep Sub-Object selected. Under the Geometry rollout menu, click on Insert (turning the button green). |
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Now left click on the selected spline. This adds one new vertex. As you move the mouse you’ll see the spline change shape and direction. Continue to left click with each new vertex you’d like to add. |
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To modify an existing vertex, Select the vertex and right click. Options for the type of vertex will appear. Currently the vertex is set to Smooth. Select Bezier. |
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A bar will appear that crosses the vertex point. On either end of the bar are handles. By selecting and moving the control points at the end of the bar you will see the path change to your liking. Right click to end. Select Sub-Object to close the modify session. |
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With either the RPC or the spline selected, close the group by clicking Group:Close. |
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Switch back to your perspective viewport and drag your time slider. The RPC should walk along the spline and not stop for the duration of the animation. If the spline is still not long enough, re-edit the spline. |
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Step 3: Render your character’s walking path
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Go ahead and render your work! |