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 highlights.

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 root name of Bip02. The root name acts as a prefix for each part of the biped, to make it unique from any other bipeds in the scene.

1. In the Create Biped rollout, highlight the current root name entry, Bip01, in the Root Name field.

   

   NoteYou can also change the biped root name from the Motion Panel if you expand the Biped rollout.

   

2. Enter the new root name, MyBiped.

   Renaming the biped's root name to the name of the character is common practice and helps with scene organization.

3. On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Save File), and save the scene as MyBiped.max.