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Characters How to

@section NMaxHowtoCharactersOverview Overview

The Nebula2 Toolkit For 3DS Max previews and exports smooth-skinned 3DS Max characters with any number of bones, any number of skins and materials, and up to 4 weights per vertex.

Any exported characters are animated through the Nebula2 animation system which supports smooth animation transitions, and weighted animation blending. All transformation types (translation, rotation, scaling) are allowed on bones.

The following list are supported toolkit features related to the character.

@section NMaxHowtoCharactersStepByStep Step By Step

...need doc about other steps to create and export skinned character

@subsection NMaxHowtoCharactersMotionFlow Using Motion Flow Editor for Animation States

Nebula2 animation system supports transitions between each of animations and it is done by animation state and clip. You can think animation state and clip like followings:

One of the easy way to make animation states is using Motion Flow Editor which 3DSMax and Character Studio supports.

Select any one of the biped object through 'Select Objects' dialog. (shortcut is 'h' key) Select 'Motion Flow Modes' in 'Motion Panel' which brings up 'Motion Flow' rollout. Select 'Show Graph' button to show up 'Motion Flow Graph' dialog.

motionpanel01.png
You can link all the separated animations you've created with the motion flow editor. The Nebula 3DSMax toolkit will refer it and create needed animation states and clips which are needed when the toolkit exports the character.

moflow01.png
Note:
See the 3DSMax User Reference for more details about the Motion Flow Editor and its usage.
You can create animations states through Nebula 3DSMax toolkit animation states dialog. Select Nebula2 > Character Editor... menu item, this shows up 'Nebula2 Animation State' dialog.

chareditor01.png
Now, you can see the created animation states which corresponds to each clip of the motion flow editor in 'Nebula2 Animation State' dialog.

The Nebula 3DSMax Toolkit only refers to the 'Note Track' when it exports skinned animation objects. This means that you need to create note track to export animation states. The Nebula2 animation state dialog automatically generates note track for it. Click 'Create Note Track' button which creates note track based on the created animation states. You can see the created note track in Dope sheet Track View. Select 'Graph Editors > Track View - Dope Sheet...'

The Nebula2 animation state dialog creates note track on the root biped object. Select the root biped object and collapse to see its note track.

dopetrackview01.png
Note:
You don't need to use the motion flow editor to create animation states. You can manually create it by creating Note Tracks.
@subsection NMaxHowtoCharactersChangingAnimInViewer Changing Animations in the Viewer

The nviewer allows you to change the exported aniamtions. Type 'esc' to show the task bar then click 'Scn' icon. It brings 'Scene Control' dialog and you will find the various animation states shown on the 'AnimStates' listbox in the dialog. You can change the current animation to click the aniamtion state item in the listbox.