This page provides information about the Anima Crowd tool.
Overview
The Anima Crowd tool gives you access to a wide variety of human character assets for crowd simulations, spanning from ambient to posing to walking. The crowd simulation consists of three components: an anima crowd object, an anima crowd path object, and anima character assets (actors). The components can be found in the Objects left-hand side panel tab, while their parameters are accessible from the Details right-hand side panel tab.
It is recommended to keep the usage of 4D assets to a minimum in your scene as they affect Chaos Envision's performance
||Create menu|| > Anima crowd
||Toolbar|| > Anima Crowd 
Anima Crowd Settings
| A field showing the name of the selected object, allowing you also to rename it. The new name is automatically displayed in the All filter tab. |
| Lock – Disables the position and transformations of the selected crowd simulation object. Click |
| Hide – Toggles the visibility of the element on and off. Invisible objects are indicated by |
| Make instance unique – Excludes the selection from the rest of its instances and makes it unique. The action is disabled if the selection has no instances. |
| Select all instances – Selects all instances the selected object(s) has in the scene. |
| Pick Path – Selects an exiting path (a spline object) onto which actors (human characters) can be added. |
Generate – Generates a crowd of people. The character placement on the spline is random. By default only downloaded rigged models are used, unless specified otherwise.
Crowd Path
Create Path – Initiates a spline object creation. Click in the viewport and drag to create the first segment of your spline. Repeat as many time as needed, and click Done. The created spline is located in the Objects tab > Splines filter tab and is named AnimaCrowdPath by default.
Select Path – Opens the spline object's parameters in the Details tab.
Models
Drop actors for the crowd – A field where you can drop actors (human characters) from the Cosmos Library available in the Cosmos Browser and the Cosmos tab. The characters are used to populate the path when generating crowds. If no actors are dropped here, only downloaded rigged models are used by default.
– Remove - Removes all models from the Models list.
Base Properties
Actor count – Sets a limit for the human characters when the Generate option is used.
Socialization random – Used when square areas and walkways intersect. This value determines the likelihood that an actor will leave the walkway and socialize with other characters in the square area. At 100% nearly all the characters move the square area, at 0% none of them do.
Spacing random – Determines the distance that characters socializing in square areas will stand to one another. Larger values create a sparse distribution, low values create a dense distribution.
Advanced
Direction mode – Determines the direction in which actors move along the path.
Forward – Actors follow the path from the first point to the last (as the spline was originally drawn).
Backward – Actors move along the path from its end point towards its first.
Both – Actors use one of the directions at random. Note that direction will not change during playback - it is fixed for each character during its animation.
Side path tendency – When Direction mode is set to Both, this parameter controls how many walks are on the sides. When set to 0%, characters walking in both directions use the full width of the walkway. If set to 100%, forward and backward walking characters use half the walkway each. When set to 200%, characters walk only along opposing outer edges of the walkway. Using negative values reverses the sides.
Body radius – Specifies the minimum distance the actors are from each other during the simulation.
Collision response – Specifies how quickly an actor is pushed when they enter another actor’s body radius.
Yield factor – Specifies how much the actors slows down when colliding with other actors.
Time for restart – Specifies the time between when an actor reaches the end of path and when it reappears at the start. This is not valid for closed paths.
A dropdown menu appears when you right-click on a model in the Models section.
Select all meshes – Selects the character in the viewport and displays the character's parameters in the Details tab.
Delete all meshes – Deletes the character from the viewport but not from the Models section.
Remove all crowd models – Removes all characters from the Models section but keeps them in the viewport.
Anima Crowd Path Settings
The settings of the AnimaCrowdPath are accessible from the Details tab when the path is selected. You can select the AnimaCrowdPath either from the Select Path option (Details tab) or from the Objects tab > Splines filter tab. More information is available at the Spline Details page.
Anima Characters Settings
Visible – Toggles the visibility of the actor on and off. Invisible actors are not rendered.
Position – Moves the actor along the X, Y and Z axes.
Rotation – Rotates the actor along the X, Y and Z axes.
Scale – Scales the actor along the X, Y, and Z axes.
Actor Properties – Shows properties of the selected actor, such as name. The properties cannot be modified.
Color Variation – Specifies a color variant for the actor from predefined presets.
Motion phase (%) –
Speed (m/s) – Specifies the movement speed of the actor. Lower values make the actor appear more static, while higher values make the actor run.
Forward/backward offset (%) – Adjusts the actor's position along the path, moving it forward or backward. Positive values move the actor forward, negative values move the actor backward.
Slide offset (%) – Adjusts the actor's position along the path, moving it left or right.
Invert direction – Shifts the direction of movement of the actor.
See also: