Dear all,

is there any way to make a character follow a walk path?

I'd like to use a bvh animation and not the crappy walk designer. How can I follow the walk path outside the walk designer?

Thanks a lot

Rap

Maybe a Python script is needed to sync the animation to the path and number of frames used?

Quote - is there any way to make a character follow a walk path?

This is off the top of my head without testing, but I think that it will work.

Create a pz2 file that locks every actor except BODY. Make another pz2 file that unlocks every actor.

Set up your walk path, then apply the lock pose to the figure. Run the figure through the walk designer. This should give you the motion for the BODY actor, without affection any other actors in the figure. Finally apply the unlock pose.

It should not matter if you do the above steps before or after applying the bvh.

Whilst I think this should work to make the figure follow the walk path, without changing the pose of any part other than BODY translations and rotations, unfortunately it probably won't give you what you want. Making the figure follow the walk path is not much use in itself, unless you can synchronise the motion of the BODY with the motion of the legs, or vice versa. I don't see any easy way to achieve that synchronisation.

I am assuming that you want to use a walk path so that you can have your figure move throughout the stage and interact with other figures and props in a predetermined route? The only way I found to do that was using the animation pallete and tweaking the keyframes when I loaded a BVH file. And yeah, the walk designer could use a good reboot.

It's one of the reasons I gave up trying to do animation. For now...

I agree with lesbentley, there is not much point in using the path as you originally requested, you could still use it as a guide though. Load the bvh, parent your figure to a primitive prop placed directly beneath the figure, then animate the prop along the path, hide the prop and delete the path

Hello,

I don't know if my solution is applicable, but may be useful for others. Since the path involves translation along the x and z axis, why not to create a dependent relationship between the x translation and z translation of the BODY part. I made a basic test as:

Step 1: For the BODY, take note of xTran and zTran values for the starting location of the path and the final location of the path. If you path is not linear, take note of the xTran and zTran positions of the turning location also. If you want to orientate the figure so that its always face the path direction, take note also of the yRotate.

Step 2: Select the xTran as a Master dial and open the Dependent Parameters Window. Now slave the zTran (and the yRotate if applicable) by using the values that you have noted before. The resulting spline curve is the path that you figure will follow if you drag the xTran dial. 

With this approach, it is possible to define any complex path and the spline function of the dependent editor will intrapolate the values between the anchor points.

As described, step 2 implies a knowledge of the Dependent Editor.  Sorry of not being more precise.

Someone should post a YouTube video showing how it's done.