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JayG 1,164 posts
I got a new job today and had my first taste of the pos that is Character Studio.
The entire day was spent fighting trying to figure out why my keys didn't have tangents, why I couldn't just use normal IK, why I can't edit curves without jumping through 37 flaming hoops suspended above starving mountain lions, why I can't just have controllers and need to have enormous, obstructive boxes all over my viewports and just overall having an irritating, incredibly frustrating day.
I've started getting into the max help tutorials which are mildly helpful but if anyone could recommend some good training for it somewhere I'd be grateful.
Why do studios use this? I can't figure it out. If I had a few reasons I could convince myself it's not so bad and it's useful because ___________. But right now man it just seems like the worst system ever invented.
For anyone trying it out:
-Don't.
-Switch curves to Euler so you can see tangents (sometimes.)
-Press H, it's nice.
-Read the help section in max, found a couple of neat things in there.
-Switch Continuity to 0 to remove jiggles in planted keys.
Blarg!
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
Yup. I switched away from character studio about 4 years ago. Haven't looked back since, and don't ever plan to.
Character studio is absolutely horrible....it's only redeeming qualities are its compatibility with motion capture data, imo.
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kilroy 787 posts
HAHAHA.........yeah it does suck doesn't it.
Though....... I do like to play around with them when doing ragdoll and motion cap stuff just for fun. I mean if Iam testing out fume fx and want to blow up a biped well..........thats fun.
good luck with that.
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diemacht 1,045 posts
well i used it in 2-3 projects (no really complex animations) but it was ok. had no problems with it. but as i said i had nothing complex to do..
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Global 1,589 posts
Wow, it's still pretty bad huh?! If they made it just a little bit easier for key frame anim it would be awesome.
One of the reason it's so popular though Jay is because it is used by so many studios... now that may sound like a daft comment, but if you think about it (it's common so training is less expensive - easier to find people with experience - it fits the production pipeline - animation can be shared between biped very easily - no time is wasted on making custom rigs etc etc) Working in a production environment I can see how important all of these thigs are - but yeah, but from what I remember, using the damn thing sucks!
One thing I would suggest though, if you have any IT guys or some kinda dev team at work, start pushing them to make tools to make your life easier. Get some maxscripts to ease things and automate the 37 hoops you have to jump through (you will still have to face the mountain lion at the end though... we all do.)
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JayG 1,164 posts
I learned it so it's not so bad now, but I still yearn for the Graph Editor and real IK.
I realized the main thing I dislike about it, is that it does everything for you. In Maya you need to do everything yourself so you develop a specific workflow for all the different stages of an animation. Then when you try to use this, it does all sorts of things for you along with not allowing others, so your workflow is suddenly a tossed salad.
But yeah I got it down pretty well now. Actually found a few things I like about it believe it or not. =P
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mcernusca 113 posts
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JayG 1,164 posts
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mcernusca 113 posts
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kilroy 787 posts
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diemacht 1,045 posts
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diemacht 1,045 posts
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diemacht 1,045 posts
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kilroy 787 posts
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Richard 1,943 posts
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diemacht 1,045 posts
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diemacht 1,045 posts
