Adjusting Physique envelopes in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ) - Tutorial / Lesson

Physique works by binding the vertices surrounding a bone in the Biped ( or any skeletal system ) by means of envelopes. By tuning the envelope size and other parameters, you can control how the Physique performs the binding in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ). What you see in the snapshot is the envelope in the left thigh region. Well lets see how you can display it. Select your female mesh, go to the Modify Panel, and in the Modifier Stack, click on the '+' symbol next to the Physique listed. Select Envelope and click somewhere on the mesh over the Left thigh region. It will activate the envelope associated with the bone, to which that region is bound.

The Radial scale is the overall size of the envelope. The larger the envelope is, the broader will be it's area of binding. Parent Overlap decides how much this bone will influence the vertices controlled by it's parent bone. For example here, for the Thigh, the Parent bone is the hip bone. Similarly Child Overlap decides how much the bone will influence the vertices controlled by it's child bone. In our current case, the child bone is the 'Shin bone'.

We have reduced the Outer Radial Scale to 1.0 since the envelope was extending way too much than that is required. You can adjust the value based on your case in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ).

We have reduced the Child Overlap to 0.2 so that bones will have distinct areas of strong influence, and hence a bend at the knee joint will give sharper results instead of a curved pipe like bend in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ). We didn't reduce the Parent Overlap since, a bend at the hip region needs to be more fluid and blended. Got it?

Note: The distinct Inner, Outer and Both buttons give individual control of the parameters for the respective envelopes. Check which button is selected before making the envelope changes.

Tip: If ever you feel that the strength of an envelope's binding is not sufficient, you can change the Strength by entering it in the Strength parameter, after selecting the envelope in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ).

Everything seems perfect until we put it into a test. Here what happened is, I moved the left leg a little and then only the imperfection in the envelope popped out. The envelope is not covering some of the vertices and hence they stay where ever they are, without moving with the bone. You need to put your biped in Figure Mode and move and rotate all the joints to see if your model / character's Physique enveloping also has similar abnormalities around any of the bones in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ).

This is how I corrected the problem in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ). With the mesh selected, go to the Modify panel and choose Envelope sub item. Now click on bone in the shin region. The envelope will turn visible. Click on the Outer button to switch to the Outer envelope parameters. You can see that if you increase the parent overlapping of the shin envelope in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ), it will extend to cover those orphan vertices also. I changed the Parent Overlap to 0.4 and the envelope extended to cover those vertices also. You might need to either extend the parent or child overlapping or adjust the radius to cover any unenveloped vertices. It would be better if you try rotating all the major joints in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ) and see if there is any envelope that needs extra attention.

It is always better to test the coverage of the envelopes using a posture where all joints are slightly stretched. The figure shows a suitable posture. Move the joints of your biped to a similar posture and see if there lies any enveloping problems unattended in 3D Studio MAX ( 3ds max ). Tip: If ever any envelope problems exists, there is no need to adjust it on both sides. For example, if the leg's envelope has an abnormality, adjust it for the left leg alone. We will learn how to mirror it to the other leg later in this tutorial.