Biped Helper + Picker
Version:
3.4
Date Updated:
05/24/2024 Biped Helper is a support interface designed to be used in conjunction with the main Biped panel.
It is intended to provide both quick access to existing Biped panel tools, as well as functionality that is not supported by the Biped panel.
See online guide in links section.
Features include:
- Limited parts selection with IK limb pivot settings
- A dedicated Picker UI that uses most of the same functionality as the main UI
- Display options
- References: Ghosting, Pose buffering, Geometry snapshots, Placed trajectory helpers
- Time range settings (for all range-based operations)
- Keying operations
- TCB settings
- Apply transform and foot-step cleanup
- Limb space settings (Body/Object)
- Load and save animation clips
- Layers management and IK constraints retargeting
- Pose or Posture copy/paste
- Limb mirroring
- Finger and spine alignment
- Biped or prop alignment and baking tools
IK Pivots Selection...
Picker UI...
Latest Updates:
Version 3.4;
- Added a new Biped Picker UI which works with the Biped Helper functions. This can be opened in several ways including: From the main Biped Helper UI using a picker button; By clicking the Biped Helper toolbar icon while holding Shift; By assigning a hotkey to a macro; Or by placing a dedicated toolbar icon. The picker has been designed to work with a standard human Biped configuration.
- Moved pose buffering into the Reference rollout.
- Toggle trajectories now behaves as a check button and queries the current Biped state.
- Added new ability to toggle ghost on selected objects with all ghost settings in the Reference rollout.
- Added the ability to swap to the Pose Buffer when one is available and toggled active. Used after altering a pose to allow swapping between the new pose and pose buffer while keeping it active.
- Prevented pose buffer mesh from using display by layer property which resulted in an opaque rendering and not using opacity setting.
- Added new ability to copy the transform of an object (e.g. a hand or foot) then paste or bake to either the current frame or a selected time range. Different axes for position and rotation can be set when pasting or baking. Can also be applied generically to non-Biped objects. Found in the Keys rollout.
- Added new ability to cleanup footsteps by re-orienting a foot in pitch, roll or yaw, as well as snapping the base of the foot to the ground plane. Found in the Keys rollout.
- Added the apply increment functionaily (without displaying the dialog) to the Keys rollout.
- Added box mode and bend links toggles.
- Added new selection buttons for getting the parent, child, all children, or growing seleection up or down the hierarchy.
- Added new ability to add trajectory helpers to the surface of picked Biped parts, with the option to trim using a time range. Found in the Reference rollout.
Additional Info:
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
Version Requirement:
3dsmax 2020-2025 | Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| old_3-3_lbtools_biped_helper.mzp | 27.12 KB |
| lbtools_biped_helper.mzp | 91.35 KB |
Comments
Updated installer
Have re-uploaded the installer with missing button image that resulted in script crashing on start. No other changes.
Lorne Brooks
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.