Are there good ways of doing crowds with custom characters on a budget? I'm aware of many great crowd tools for ArchViz, but my work is mostly archaeology-related, and all the characters need to have accurate, period-appropriate clothing, with below-the-knee robes and skirts, so those tools won't work for me.
I would love it if I could just use Biped's Footsteps, or CAT's Motion Layer stuff, but both of those need gobs of editing to resemble anything that looks remotely natural. And I've downloaded and played with a lot of BIP files only to find that, on the rare occasion I find a walk cycle that doesn't seem to require much tweaking, the feet are sliding all over the place (in the free ones at least).
If only Max had character motion tools like what is in the newest versions of Unreal Engine...
Maybe I just need to hire a character guy, because I'm losing my mind. Does anyone out there have gobs of experience in making custom crowds?
