Biped Helper
A companion interface for use alongside the main Biped panel.
See online guide in links section.
Features include:
- Supports multiple Bipeds in the same scene (picked via a dropdown list)
- Limited selection
- Hiding/Unhiding Biped
- Trajectory toggling
- Key all, key selected, delete all keys, and delete frame keys
- Setting TCB continuity values on a selection at the current slider time, or over the full time range (if keys exist)
- Adding or modifying limb Body/Object spaces (set Free or Planted keys)
- Change IK pivots via selection dialogs for limbs
- Toggle limb spaces
- Store all limb space settings and load them back again
- A posture for a Biped selection can be copied for later pasting
- Limbs can be quickly mirrored
- Spine can be quickly straightened or untwisted
- Load & save BIP animations using either the standard Biped dialogs, or via a quick method using a single overwritten file
- Layers manipulation using move up & down buttons or via a dropdown list, toggles for active layers, snap & set keys, and retargeting via a separate UI.
- Pose Grabber; for saving and reloading a single pose
- Create a single semi-opaque snapshot of all skinned meshes stored in a specified scene layer for posing reference, based on the current slider time.
- Alignment methods (offset or match) for all root keys to a target object which also respects limbs IK state
- Bake animation for a linked Biped root and it's limbs (see below)
- PDF features guide in the About rollout.
Baking features...
- Baking of head rotation to track an active assigned Look At Target (target will be removed after baking)
- Bip root baking using either direct linkage to an animated object, or to an object using Link Constraint to a target object
- Baking of limbs between first and last sliding keys
- Baking of a selected limb up to the next sliding key (from the slider time)
- Baking of a selected limb up to the last sliding key (from the slider time)
IK Pivots Selection...
Latest Updates:
Version 3.1;
- Changed PDF guide button to link to an online guide.
- Added ability to hold shift to set planted keys for limbs. Store and load spaces now account for planted keys.
- IK pivot UI's and layers retargeting UI now follow main UI if moved.
The script can be found in category “LB Tools”.
The script creates its own macro to be placed as a toolbar icon or a keyboard shortcut added.
Installation:
Drag the MZP file into your Max viewport.
Files will be copied to...
C:\Users\<userName>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\<maxVersion>\ENU\scripts\startup
and...
C:\Users\<userName>\AppData\Local\Autodesk\3dsMax\<maxVersion>\ENU\usericons
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| lbtools_biped_helper.mzp | 19.36 KB |
Comments
seamless loop
if possible can you add a feature to make seamless loop on first and last keys of the biped? is one of the things that is missing on the biped.
On the little i tested the
On the little i tested the new version is working great. Align to match was did exactly what i wanted. You are a life savior. talking about hours of work saved with this neat feature. thanks for your amazing work.
Re: Animated align
I've kept the previous method I did and renamed it Align To Offset. I also created a new method called Align To Match, which might do what you want. It will re-animate all the root keys on the current Biped to match a target object's motion, which could be another Biped root - as well as preserve the limb IK settings.
Let me know if that works for you.
Cheers.
Lorne Brooks
Thank you for the update. It
Thank you for the update. It works but for some reason only partially. I tried to do the alignment from your script to the biped central node but it aligned it only on some of the frames and not on all. For example i wanted to bake the motion from an forward biped to the in place biped that is having the same motion but it aligned it only in some of the frames and not to all the keys. I tried to use the script on a normal mesh that had the same motion on it and did the same thing. On both attempts i did the result was like bungee motion instead. I tried it that on different versions of max and all gave the same result. But the fact that it keeps the Ik limps behave normal is an amazing feature.
Looking forward for your fix on this issue :)
Thanks
Re: Animated align
I've added a new rollout with a button to align animate to a picked object. It will only re-animate keys that already exist on the root and not bake all frames. It also keeps the existing limb IK settings.
Lorne Brooks
Animated align
Hello i was wondering if is possible to have a new feature on this biped helper.
Many times i found my self the need to animate align the biped to another object(mostly the base node), but that needs a lot of cleaning after and is not always working correctly. So i was thinking if there is a chance to have an animated align, only on keyframes of the object we wanna have it instead of manual align that takes lot of time specially when there is a scene with lots of frames. Thank you in advance.
Perfect! Thank you :)
Perfect!
Thank you :)
Re: Amazing work once again
I've added the Snap & Set Key button and separate UI for retargeting. They should function the same as the biped panel.
Lorne Brooks
Amazing work once again. a
Amazing work once again.
a little add on on this will be the ability to have the Snap & Setkey and the Retarget Arm and legs with the Ik check and "update" in one mini floating panel just like you did on the Hands and feet.
Once again thanks for you awesome work.
Re: Is possible to add a button
I've added a new rollout called Quick Layers to enable layer navigation as well as toggling the active layers.
Lorne Brooks