Deploying Actors (New for v. 8.4)

There are several ways to deploy several characters at once to quickly build a crowd scene. Different motions and iMDs can also be assigned to produce automatic motion that works with Motion Director.

ClosedStep 1: Setting the Deployment Region
  1. Create a new project.
  2. Launch the Crowd Generator distribution panel.
  3. Choose an object to create a deployment range for the candidates in the actor pool. The placement markers will be automatically generated within the chosen range.

    You can also pick a NavMesh or Walkway to designate a range.
ClosedStep 2: Adjust the Distribution Options
  1. Determine the Generation Type (in this case, Random).
  2. Adjusting the settings in the Options section.

    Refer to the following sections for more information:
ClosedStep 3: Modify the Actor Pool
  1. Add desired the actors into the pool. Crowd Generation will source from this pool for deployment.
  2. Manually type in the numbers into the Ratio cells for each actor. This number determines the comparative likelihood of selecting each actor.
  3. You can activate Deploy with variant materials to generate actors with different materials.
ClosedStep 4: Adding Motion or iMD to Actors

Add the desired Motions or iMDs into the motion pool. Crowd Generation will source from this pool for deployment.

  • Motion mode:
    1. Mode Switch: Switches between Motion and iMD mode.
    2. Add iMD / Motion: There are two methods to import motion into the candidate pool:
      • Click this button to load motions into the pool.
      • Directly drag desired motions and drop into the pool.
    3. Delete Selected Item: Remove one or more selected motions from the pool.
    4. Clear List: Clear all Motions from the pool.
    5. Tag: Add tags to the motions.
    6. Repeat and Loop: Determine if the motion is to be applied in specific repeating times or loop to the end of the project.
    7. Combination and Blend Frames: Combine specific number of motions with assigned number of blend frames.
    8. Random Start Frame: Apply the motion from random frame as the initial frame.
  • iMD mode:
    1. Mode Switch: Switches between Motion and iMD mode.
    2. Using iMD from Walkway Settings: Replaces the iMD, tags, and MD action settings from the ones added on the picked walkway.
    3. MD Action Settings: Manually set the global MD action settings for the iMDs in the pool.
    4. Add iMD / Motion: There are two methods to import iMD into the candidate pool:
      • Click this button to load iMDs into the pool.
      • Directly drag and drop the desired iMDs into the pool.
    5. Delete Selected Item: Remove one or more selected iMDs from the pool.
    6. Clear List: Clear all iMDs from the pool.
    7. Tag: Add tags to the motions.

ClosedStep 5: Preview Displacements and Deploy Actors
  1. Click the Generate Placement button repeatedly for the desired outcome.

    The placement markers will change with each click of the button.
  2. Click the Deploy Actors button to place the candidate actors.

    As you can see the actors will be placed on the tokens.
  3. You can keep clicking the Generate Placement to change the placement of the tokens and the actors.
  4. Close the Crowd Generation panel to accept the positions of the actors.
  5. Play back or start the MD mode to view the result.
    • Motion:
    • MD: