9

Surface Follow Behavior 1019
Anexamplewouldbebirdsflyingoverarowof
telephone poles, and then each one dropping to
land on top of a different pole.
Surface Follow Behavior
In crowd animation (page 2–1154),theSurface
Follow b ehavior moves delegates with respect to
object surfaces. Target objects can be animated.
For example, you can apply an animated Noise
modifier to a patch grid to simulate a choppy water
surface, and objects guided by Surface Follow w i ll
stay on top.
Sy nt hesis, Sy nt hesi ze
Synthesizing is the process of computing (solving)
motions for crowd simulations (page 2–1154).The
resulting simulation is a synthesis.
Talent Figure Mode
When you work with motion capture (page
2–1059),afteryouloadarawmarker file (page
3–969),youcanturnonTalentFiguremodeto
scalethebipedrelativetothemarkers.Calibration
for the entire m arker file takes place when you exit
Talent Figure mode .
Tangents
Thetangentofafunctioncurveaffectsthe
interpolated va lues b e tween the ke ys of an
animation. Most animation controllers use fixed
tangents to define the function curve at a key
location.
By default, 3ds Max assig ns smooth tangents to
thekeysinaPositionfunctioncurve.Thisisthe
reason that an animated object moves in smooth
curves through the key f rames. 3ds Max assigns
smooth tangents b e cause they usually prov ide the
most natural motion.
Of course, you also need a way to add some corners
and abrupt turns w hen you need them. The Linear
controller (page 2–341) uses a discontinuous
tangentthatpointsattheprecedingandfollowing
keys, producing an abrupt change in motion at
that key.
Thetwolargeflyoutbuttonsatthebottomofthe
Key Info dialog provide five different typ es of
predefined tangent types (page 2–305),plusasixth
type that lets you create your own custom tangents.
If you look at a single key dot and the line running
through it, the line on the lef t side of the key dot
istheincomingtangent,andthelineontheright
is the outgoing tangent. Using the tangent flyout
buttons, you can assign a different tangent type
totheincomingandtheoutgoinglinesforeach
key dot.
Thebuttonontheleftassignstheincoming
tangent at the left side of the selected key dot,
and the button on the right assigns the outgoing
tangent on the r ight side of the selected key dot.
TCB (B i ped)
TCB is short for Tension, Continuity , and
Bias. T hese parameters quantify the traditional
animation technique of ease in and ease out (also
known as “slow in and slow out”). In freefor m
animation (page 3–945) of a biped, you can use
them to change the timing of a limb’s movement
from key to key.
The TCB controls are in the TCB section of the Key
Info rollout (page 2–954).