3ds max 8 -> MB, model no longer aligned with bones

#1

Hi,

I just recieved my copy of motionbuilder 6 Pro for the project I’m working on in here. So I rigged my character with character studio in max. did the physics on it and everything worked just fine. renamed the bones, aligned the pivots etc etc. everything ok. I export it to FBX works just fine aswell well almost I get this message :

The node “Bip01” does not have a valid InitTM

What do you want to do?
-yes : Use the current transform and silence the dialog
-No : use the current transform
-Cancel : abort the export of bind poses in all the hierachy this node belongs to.

I tried all three options nothing really changed

when I go into motionbuilder and open the .fbx file everything works just fine. I can characterize everything all is nice deforms well etc.

but the problem I have is that the model it self is underneath the rig. Like the knees of the rig are at the place of its head. I tried to remove the model up no succes. when I use the bones it does the right deformation etc etc. so I think there is a problem when I export from max or something

it would be bothering if I stayed in MB but the rendering is being done in max and when I export the max file back in the model is completly deformed because the skinning is way above the model

dont know if it is really clear what I’m saying but to sum up. I export from characterstudio to fbx get that weird message open the .fbx file and my model is underneath the rig they are no longer aligned

is there something I’m forgetting?

thanks for any help

greets

#2

Ok I got the alignement problem fixed stupid me but now there is another problem :s

I do a simple animation, plot everything save the fbx file import it back into .max and have the inverse problem :s the model is floating above the rig and even worse the animation I did works for the rig but completly deformes the model making it twist in the most weird ways possible :s

I could really use some help :slight_smile:

greets

#3

hi Wicked,

were you able to solve this problem?

and if I may ask, were you using the biped or did you create the skeleton from scratch?

I am trying to get my characters into motionbuilder - but I use the Biped.

#4

When you save out your fbx file, click the fbx root, and export just the animation/joints. Open you max file with your rigged character, and merge/import in the animation. I think that’s how it works anyway! I dont have it next to me to actually go through it, but it might be worth a shot?!?!

#5

We also had a lot of problems getting mocap animation back and forth between 3ds and MB. We had a similar problem where some of the bones created with max were thrown out into space oddly or misaligned once they were in MB. That has to do with the transforms on the bones and rig, but, like you said, the model deformed properly. And, like you said, once imported back into max, the model exploded. My solution was rather simple in theory but a little more complicated in practice. BTW, our rig was all bones, not biped, so this may or may not work for you.

First, I created a version of the character with no rig (it just had a bare bones skeleton). We then took this bare skeleton into motion builder and applied whatever animation (in our case, mocap data). Next, I created a special max scene file just for merging the MB data. It consisted of two copies of our original rig…one was the standard, fully rigged character. The other was the same set-up with the same bones and controls and whatnot, but the rigging was deleted and the controls were attacthed to the skeleton, instead of the other way around (ex. the foot IK was deleted and the foot control object was linked to the foot). Then, the mb animation file was merged into this scene (so now there are 3 skeletons in our scene - the original, the reverse rig, and the mb data). I then created a script that would align the bones of the special reverse rig to the bones of the mb skeleton on each keyframe. Then, another script that aligned the control objects of the original rig to the control objects of the reverse rig. Get it? Lastly, the animation on the original rig needs to be merged into a clean scene with just one version of the character (either by merge file or merge animation…merge animation is probably the better choice)

This process is more than likely way too complicated for a casual user, but we were deep into production, weeks from our deadline, and we needed to get approx. 600 mocap anims onto our rig in max so they could be exported into a game engine. The interface between max and mb is still far too unstable and buggy for us to have imported our complicated max rig into mb and then back into max.

#6

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