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Character Assembly 103
Character assembly node
A character assembly will not create a character
mesh or bone structure for you. The character
assembly tool is desig ned for use on character
structures that have a lready been set up using
other tools.
Althoughthecharacterassemblyfeaturewas
designed for use with character str uctures, it will
work equally well with any t ype of hierarchy or
related set of objects.
Adding Character Assembly Commands
to t he U I
By default, the character-assembly commands
describedherearenotpartofthe3dsMax
user interface. To add them, choose Customize
menu > Customize U ser Interface, click the tab
representing the part of the UI to which you’ll add
the commands (Keyboard, Toolbars, etc.) and
then, from the Category drop-down list, choose
Characters. Use standard CUI f unctionality (page
3–792) to add the commands.
Cr e a ti n g a Ch ar act e r A s sem b l y
To create a character assembly, first select the
objects that will make up the assembly. Next, you
need to add any character-assembly commands
you wish to use to the user interface; see Adding
Character Assembly Commands to the UI (page
1–103). Last,choosetheCreateCharacter
command.
All selected objects become members of the
assembly, and the character assembly node is
created. Other objects can be manually added to
the assembly after it has been created.
Once the character assembly has been created,
you can work with it in a variety of ways. For
information about the Modify panel options
available af ter a character assembly is created, see
Create Character (page 1–112).
Linked Obj ects in Char acter A ssembl ies
Any or all members of the character assembly can
be linked to a single object outside the assembly,
but no more than one. For example, ThighLeft
and ThighRight, which are both part of the
assembly, can both be linked to Pelvis, which is
notpartoftheassembly.However,ifThighLeft
and ThighRig ht are each linked to different objects
outside the assembly, the creation of the assembly
w i ll fail, and will show the following error message: