Topics in this section provide an overall introduction to using Physique.
A character mesh for deforming by a skeletal structure is called a skin. In character studio, Physique is a modifier you apply to a skin to make it deformable by biped or other skeletal structure. The following images show meshes for different skeletons.
The skeleton to which you attach a skin using Physique can be a 3ds Max hierarchy, bones in a hierarchy, bones not in a hierarchy, or splines. Physique deforms the skin based on the relative position of the bone or links in the hierarchy. Specifically, it uses the length of each link and the angle between two connected links; it can also use the scale of a link.
You can use 3ds Max bones, with or without the IK controller, with Biped for various effects. You can use bones with Physique to add extra links and envelopes to any character, or to animate assemblies on a robot or mechanical character. Bones can also be added to animate extra appendages, a hat, a jaw and so on.
The skeleton to which you attach a skin using Physique can be a 3ds Max hierarchy, bones in a hierarchy, bones not in a hierarchy, or splines. Physique deforms the skin based on the relative position of the bone or links in the hierarchy. Specifically, it uses the length of each link and the angle between two connected links; it can also use the scale of a link.
After you have created a skin and a skeleton, and fitted the skeleton to the skin, you apply the Physique modifier to the skin.
After you attach the skin to the skeleton, Physique deforms the skin when the skeleton is animated. From this point on, you can preview animation to see how the Physique skin deforms and whether you can use it in a finished animation or need to correct and refine it further.
The envelope is Physique's primary tool for controlling skin deformation. An envelope defines an area of influence about a single link in the hierarchy and can be set to overlap adjacent links. Vertices that fall in the overlap area of the envelopes are weighted to produce smooth blending at joint intersections. Each envelope comprises a pair of inner and outer bounds, each with four cross sections.
For some animations, simply attaching the skin and correcting its vertex assignments results in an animated skin you can use in final renderings. For other animations, you might need to give the skin more realistic movement: for example, muscles that bulge.
Tendons tie links together, extending the effect of moving one link to another link where the tendon is based. Their effect is similar to that of tendons in a body.
You can save Physique data to a Physique (.phy) file to save data common to all objects that share a given Physique modifier
When you need to reset vertex, envelope, and other skin parameters on a Physique mesh, click Reinitialize to display the Physique Initialization dialog. Using controls in this dialog, select the category to update, and apply the new global settings.
At times, you'll need to alter the fit of the hierarchy in the Physique mesh, or change its structure. To do so, you change the default, initial pose, which Physique uses as a reference for various operations, including reinitializing.
This topic presents some ways to improve the interactive performance of Physique.
Using standard 3ds Max scale transform tools, you can adjust a biped's posture by scaling the size of its links. You must be in Figure mode to scale the biped links. If you try to scale a biped without going into Figure mode, nothing happens.
You can use Physique for facial animation, as an alternative to morphing. To do so, you must set up the face of a character with extra links. By setting up 3ds Max bones or other objects at appropriate locations on the mesh head, you can define a skeletal structure for moving the facial features.
Although you can apply Physique to an object with modifiers, this can affect performance. If you use other animated modifiers in combination with Physique, this reduction is unavoidable. If the other modifiers are not animated, you can collapse the stack to remove modifiers prior to Physique. This can significantly improve performance.
You can apply Physique to a Free-Form Deformation (FFD) space warp, which in turn can animate a mesh that is bound to the FFD. For example, you could use this technique to animate a credit card or a box of cereal.
