Tutorial Options:

You may have wondered why the leg object was so simple. Okay I'll say it "Blocky". When working with character animation and Inverse Kinematics, things are difficult enough without having to work with complex objects that slow your system down. In LightWave 5.0 a couple of different solutions are possible to fix the chunkiness. The first is object replacement. You simply replace the blocky object with a smoother one. This will be explained in the Option 1 along with the use of advanced bone options. The second solution is MetaMation. This is a function that MetaForms on a frame by frame basis throughout the animation. This is explained in Option 2.

Option 1: Object Replacement and Advanced Bone Options

When doing character animation it's a good idea to start out with a "stand-in" object that is less complex that your desired result. This makes the system more responsive because it's not being bogged down by a lot of points and polygons. With most of the organic modeling being done with MetaForm and MetaNurbs, this makes life a lot easier. The pre-metaformed objects make perfect stand-ins. The animation process works exactly as it did before, except when you are ready to render, simply use Objects Panel -> Replace Object, select a higher-res object and you're ready to go! Anytime you do this, the same exact skeleton is used inside of a different set of points and polygons.

We are going to do something similar with the leg in our current tutorial, plus we are going to add some muscle flexing.

Replacing the object

1. We already have the leg, the skeleton and the animation, to make it smooth we have to do one more step. Go to the Objects Panel and make sure that the leg.lwo object is selected. To replace the object, select Objects Panel -> Replace Object. From the file requester choose the LegMeta2.lwo object. This is metaformed version of the leg that we have already created for you. When you continue back to Layout, you will notice that the blocky leg is now replaced with a much smoother version. The skeleton and animation are left untouched, the only thing that has changed is the object.

   Note: You could also accomplish this by importing the leg.lwo object into the modeler, metaforming it, and exporting the new object back into Layout.

Adding Muscle Flex

2. The second enhancement to our animation will come in the form of muscle flexing. To turn on muscle flexing, select the lower leg bone (Bone (2)). Hit the p key to open the Skeleton Panel. You will see two options at the bottom of the panel, Muscle Flexing and Muscle Flexing for Parent. Turn both of these on and set their values at 400%.
   
3. Continue back to Layout and slide the Current Frame slide through time. You should notice a bulge occur on the upper leg and the calf whenever the lower leg bends. At 400% the bulge might be a little extreme, but you can always go back and adjust it to a lower percentage.

Option 2 : Making it Smooth with MetaMation

Making the Object

1. Run the Modeler 5.0.
   
2. Select the Objects -> Import Pop-Up and choose Leg.lwo. This brings the object in from Layout.
   
3. Hit the a key to autofit the object in all views.
   
4. From Tools -> Custom, select MetaFormPlus. Make sure that you turn on Metaform Triangles as Triangles. Enter 2 under the number of subdivision levels. Hit OK or Enter on the keyboard. This will perform a metaform to smooth it out.

   Note: The original leg was tripled to fight the problems of non-planar polygons. These polygons can cause rendering errors in Layout where a lot of pulling and stretching with bones will cause non-planar polgons to appear if the object is not tripled.

5. Select the Objects -> Export Pop-Up and choose <>. From the requester enter a the name LegMeta2.lwo. If it already exists, chose a different name.
   
6. Swap back to LightWave Layout. On a PC use ALT+TAB on the keyboard. The metaformed leg object should be sitting in the middle of Layout.

Setting up MetaMation