4D Paths
As explained above, a 4D path is a walkway that our new 4D walking actors can use. Each actor must be individually placed in it and is meant to be used to showcase actors that will appear in mid-short range shots.
Create 4D Paths
There are 2 ways to start a new 4D path, from the 4D Path tool or by simply dropping a 4D walking actor directly from the library to the 3D viewport.
As the 4D walking actors must be always placed individually, this drop method becomes very handy to quickly start the process. If you want to have a bit more control over the creation process, you can use the 4D Path tool whenever you want either to create the paths directly or to adjust one that has been already created.
Add Actors to a 4D Path
Adding 4D walking actors to paths is extremely easy. You can do it with a single drag-and-drop gesture, from the library to any 4D Path that has been already created.
Depending on where the actors are dropped, they will be automatically oriented towards the part of the path that has its end at a longer distance. However, you can easily change the direction of the actor by rotating it.
Slopes and Steps Limitations
One of the limitations of the 4D models is that they cannot be adapted dynamically to their environment (which, on the other hand, is not a problem for the Rigged actors). Therefore, you might see that a segment of the walkway turns red at some point when creating a 4D path.
When this happens, it means that in that segment Anima has detected a significant height in the collision background that happens in a relatively short space (a step or a pronounced slope). You can leave it there if you want but we don’t recommend it because you will probably see a strange glitch in the simulation where the 4D model moves vertically in a visible, quick and unnatural way.
To avoid that problem, we would recommend finding an alternative path with a lower slope or modifying your collision background (in your original 3D app) to create a new one, and then synch back the new background with Alive Synchronization.
Run/Walk “In Place” (Treadmill)
One of the options available on the new 4D walking models is the ability to make them move “in place,” without applying any translation. That has been a feature much requested by users who often populate gyms with treadmills.
Now you can do that by dropping a 4D walking model outside its path and then activating the Move in Place option.
