HELP - linking a character to his battle robot

[VinsanityV20]

Using Max 9 32-bit

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/vinsanityv20/Helpplz.jpg

I'm trying to link a character to his robot so when the robot jumps down from one part of the bridge to another, he comes with. Then, he can jump out and do stuff without effecting the robot. I have a dummy object set up around the character, and tried linking the Bip to it, than THAT dummy object to another surrounding the robot. The thing is, the character's dummy follows ok, but the character doesn't. I seem to remember doing this before, but it doesn't matter.

How can I get the character linked to his battle robot for this animation?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

Not a user of biped, but I think there is an option somewhere in there that allows the feet to move freely.

[VinsanityV20]

Thanks for the reply Big Toe, but it's not an issue with the feet. And yes, I realize the biped is less-than-ideal, but this is for an extremely short animation (15 seconds or so) so I didn't feel compelled to custom rig the guy.

All I need it to do is follow the robot down so he can jump out of it - then I don't need the character to stay with the robot anymore.

(MAX 9)

[Pirateguybrush]

Probably a dumb question, but would it be too hard to keyframe, if it's only that short?

[VinsanityV20]

No, not really GuyBrush: it's just that it will bug ME if he slides at all:) At this point, I'm probably gonna get with keying it, unless I get an answer by noon-ish tommorow. But still, linking a character to a vehicle shouldn't be this hard right?

[BiG ToE-3DT]

its true, it shouldn't be that hard.

If your able to drag the dummy box, and the mesh/biped follows then it would work with linking, so if it isn't the feet that's holding it back, then maybe the option I'm thinking about has to do with the main node thingy. I remember someone having a similar problem, and they switched it off something, sorry I can't help more.

[poopipe]

first up - it "should" work the way you say you're doing it.

is the bip object keyed (in the position tracks) ? This could (but shouldn't) prevent it working

stupid, patronising things to check...
you're not in figure mode are you ?
you're not in Move All mode are you ?
it is all linked in the right order isn't it?
you're not using footsteps are you ?

like big toe says - if you can move the dummy and the character follows then it ought to be ok.

for a more pure method of going about this - you should be able to use a link controller to attach the bip (or its parent dummy) to the mech object. these can be animated on and off so you can choose when he's linked and when he isn't

[juggernot]

umm not sure if this is a help or not but you can use a link constraint. itll allow you to link the character to the model from frame number to frame number and then at that point itll allow you to move one without the other.

[Awakener]

I m not sure if I got the problem right but I did some experimentation and this is my advice to you !!

1st get service pack 2 for max 9 :D

2nd Select the Bip01 (the diamond shape in the pelvis area :)) and link it to the Dummy object you have created. I did that and it worked perfectly. The only reason I mention this is because if you do it the other way (link the dummy to the Bip01) I got the effect of the dummy follows ok, but the character doesn't!!

I v tried to use link constrain (which is pretty cool), but it doesn’t seem to work!!. One thing that you can do, if you want to use link constrain, is to do the 2nd step and link your Dummy directly to your robot, set the range of time that you want it to be connected and your done!!


I hope I was of some use :)