Getting Started in 3D with 3ds Max

Character Animation Tools (CAT) is a system of bone skeletons used to animate characters in 3ds Max. The bones are hierarchically linked using a technique called Forward Kinematics (FK)-driven Inverse Kinematics (IK) that allows you to position your character initially using FK and then using IK to animate the character.

The process begins by creating a CAT skeleton; both two-legged and multilegged skeletons are available, such as humans and spiders, for example. In this chapter, you will use a human type skeleton to animate a simple character.

The CAT skeleton must be aligned with the character using FK to position the bones within the character. ...