Choose a gait pattern for determining the initial timing of a newly added footstep.
Biped can create walking, running, or jumping footstep patterns. These gaits are foundation for a more complex biped animation, Character Studio provides you with the basic movement. The fine touchs are left to you.
Create footsteps.
For extended movement that can be described by periodic gaits, such as walking through the scene, you can quickly create multiple footsteps. For more detailed footstep placement that is non-periodic, such as a dance, you can create footsteps individually. After the footsteps are initially created, you can adjust or change both their spatial location and their timing (in Track View). At this stage they are displayed in dark colors to indicate that no keyframes have been generated for them. They are called inactive.
Activate the footsteps.
When you activate the footsteps, Biped creates default keyframes for each of the tracks of the figure: the head, spine, pelvis, arms, legs, and, if appropriate, tail and ponytails. These keys form an initial sketch of your animation. The default keys, when interpolated, form the basic, minimal motion required to animate the figure according to the footstep pattern. Once the keys have been generated for them, they are active and their footstep color changes to a lighter shade of green (right) and blue (left).
Note: By default, Biped Dynamics is selected in the Animation Properties rollout; gravity (Dynamics Blend) and ballistic tension calculate the trajectory of the center of mass for all newly created keys in a footstep animation containing a running or jumping motion. If Spline Dynamics is selected in the Animation Properties rollout before footsteps are created and activated, then the center of mass uses Spline Dynamics. Using Spline Dynamics, you must set keys for the top of a jumping motion or the dip when the character lands; this trajectory is automatically calculated with Biped Dynamics.
Edit the default keys to refine the movement.
Using the default keyframes as a starting point, you can interactively insert, replace, or delete keyframes in order to refine the motion of the biped and fill in the details of movement that are unique to your animation.
Edit the footstep pattern
At any point in the design process, you can choose to interactively edit your footstep's spatial pattern in the scene or the timing of footsteps in Track View. The keyframes adapt to each edit: changes to footstep location retain the details of all your keyframe positions. Keyframe timing remains synchronized with changes to footstep timing, except in cases where default leg keys must be regenerated to account for timing edits that alter the basic gait pattern, such as creating a hop in the middle of a walk.
Use Footstep mode to create and edit footsteps. Use Keyframe mode to create and edit your character's keys. You can always edit the timing of both footsteps and keyframes in Track View.
While the biped's feet are airborne, you can animate its legs as you do its upper body. Biped does not create keys based on physics while the biped is off the ground, so animating the legs might be necessary to make long leaps realistic. Alternatively, you might want to make the biped appear to be floating in midair, or underwater, or have it ride a bicycle. See Freeform Editing Between Footsteps.
You can make the biped interact with other objects in the scene: throwing or kicking a ball, opening a door, and so on. You do this by attaching a biped limb to an object in the scene.
An animatable IK Blend parameter lets you store the anchored position and combine inverse with forward kinematics. Remove the anchors once keys have been set.
Tip: You can often get good results by loading an existing biped motion and then varying it. character studio installs a set of sample motion files in the \cstudio\motions directory.