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Creating a Biped

In this lesson, you'll create a default biped: a simple skeleton consisting of

bones connected in a hierarchy. A default biped is different from 3ds Max

Bone system objects because the biped structure automatically has built-in

joints like a human being. You can bend your knee so your foot touches the

back of your thigh, but you can’t bend it forward so that your toe touches the

front of your thigh. Biped creates skeletons in the same fashion. They are

ready to animate, and work accurately without additional setup.

Set up the lesson:

■ Reset 3ds Max.

Create a biped:

1 On the Create panel, click Systems.

2 On the Object Type rollout, click Biped.

The Biped button turns gold.

3 If you can’t see the Height spinner in the Create Biped rollout, scroll to

the bottom of the command panel.

4 In the Perspective viewport, place your cursor over the center of the grid,

press and hold the left mouse button, and drag upward.

A biped appears and grows with your cursor movement.

5 Drag upward until the Height spinner on the Create Biped rollout reads

approximately 70 units, then release the mouse button.

A biped is created in the viewport.

The biped is a hierarchy of special objects. Its parent object (Bip01) is its

center of mass (COM). The COM is displayed in the viewports as a small,

blue tetrahedron, initially centered in the biped’s pelvis. After you create

a biped, only the center of mass object is selected (not the entire biped).

Name the biped:

When you create your first biped, it has a root name of Bip01. The root name

of each additional biped is incremented, so the next biped you create has a

Creating a Biped | 665