3DS Max biped -> UDK?

[billysson]

Ok, I am a complete noob. I am trying to figure out how to work with custom characters in udk and 3ds max. I have downloaded the UT3_Female.max file for use of the skeleton. I am able to skin and animate a single mesh to the biped/skeleton in 3ds max. i can import the psk into udk alright, but the skeleton tree has names with the prefix Bip. when i try to import the psa, udk says that it cannot find the b_Root. so, i cannot use any of the stock animations. on the UDN page it says
"NOTE: A Biped rig is included with some of the skeletons. The Biped rig is just an additional skeleton that's easier to animate. When an animation is done, we bake the animation onto the original skeleton, delete the biped, and export the animation."
I'm guessing that this is my problem, but for the life of me, i cannot find any info on how to do this...

i've lost count on how many tutorials i have watched and read trying to figure this out. nothing says how to prepare the naming convention of the biped in 3ds max to work with udk.

please, any help is appreciated. extra points for step by step instructions!

[geodav]

if your using the UT3 rig then skin your mesh to the b_ bones and not the bip bones, if you can't see the b_ bones then right click and unhide all.
don't delete any bones or biped just follow my tutorials making sure you have the correct setting in the actorx plug-in

[billysson]

Thanks for the reply.

so now i've gone back through and skinned the mesh to the b_Bones. now when i export and import to udk, i receive an error:

"skeletal mesh has no vertex influences"

then a crash...

[billysson]

ok, deleted the biped, and now i get the mesh into udk and it will use the stock anims... good enough for now. thanks for the help.

one more question... my character's hands and wrists are quite deformed. when i was skinning, there were envelopes for bones with titles like b_IK_something_or_other. how are the envelopes for these bones supposed to be set?

[geodav]

don't use envelopes use vertex weighting, i show it in a few of my video's, as mentioned you shouldn't have to delete the biped as this can cause problems later.
don't add any of the IK bones to your skin bones list, these are used by the masterskeleton in UT3

[thelaw]

How do I use vertex weighting instead of envelopes, I have a character rigged to the bones (not biped) and I've used the skin modifier on it. I've tried wigth painting but I still get the error "Warning skeletal mesh has no vertex influences" on import.

PS: I'm using 3ds Max 9.

[JohNLA]

Did you check "cull unused dummies" in the actorX exporter.
I also use the "use selected" check box to only export my my mesh.

[geodav]

watch some of my video tutorials UT3/UDK they show me using the skin modifer,
in the modifer tick vertices and then the small spanner button near the bottom of the modifer

[zipstick]

hm..I have primarily used envelopes when skinning.. So far no problems..
And I have scaled and modified the UT3 male rig extensively without any difficulties..

After my mesh is finished I scale the ut3 biped and rig it to the (unmodified) b_Boned skeleton. Then export the mesh as .psk. For animation I use a clean scene and open the ut3 rig, delete everything except b_bone, bip and ik stuff. Import animation through the Motion tab. Export via ActorX.

I'm also on Max 9 ;)

[thelaw]

Thanks for all your input, I tried it again with envelopes and this time it worked fine. The thing I did different tha last time is put the biped in figure mode before I skinned it. I still dont see how I can access vertices to assign weights without going into edit envelope mode.

[oXYnary]

billysson

What was the final process you used to bake the animation from the Biped to the custom skeleton? I'm doing some testing with a inbuilt UT3 characters and Max meshes from the UT3 section, and this one part is whats stopping me. They are already correctly skinned.

Geo, I know your trying to help with your videos, but at least for me, just a quick written point in the direction of what tool I need to use. Assuming something with a bvh export and import or so.

[geodav]

if you want to export anims watch my weapon videos its the same process using actorx.
create your anims(keyframes) then select the mesh, in actorx give the anim a name and then add the frame range, click digest, open the actorx anim manager window, move the anims across and save the package as a psa file, this you then import into Ued

[oXYnary]

I think you misunderstand. I know how to export, I was having issues with the Ut3 Max Character samples biped interfering with its linked custom skeleton on import into the udk. I just didn't know how to bake the Bipeds animation unto the custom skeleton so I could delete the biped before exporting out of actor x. Got a response from Jeremy at Epic for any others in future that come across the ut3 skeletons.


Select every joint in your custom skeleton, go into the trajectories tab, set your range and your samples(if range was 1-20, your samples would be 19) and then hit, I think it's "collapse".
after that, you can select your bip root and delete it.

[geodav]

to be honest all i ever did was to move/rotate (auto keyframes) the biped bones then select the mesh an digest the anim. i admit i only did seat positions but should work for normal anims

[shuriken88]

Im getting into rigging custom characters with max, (got some pre-rigged characters too, but I wanna do my own) so I'll definitely be checking back here later when I can make heads or tail out of things lol! I have some BIP motion capture animations too from a free site, but when I try to import them into my character, I just keep getting an error.

I'll check out your tutorials on the subject when I get that far!

peace

[gigamaxjur]

Hello guys, i am working on a custom character, its a fat one so it was rather hard to rigg and skin it and i could not use the UT riggs, i basicly did my own with biped...
I converted the biped bones to editpoly at start of skinning, i skinned my char and all works great, then i imported the character to UDK and when i tryed importing animations i get errors, my rigg is missing a lot of bones like:
b_root
b_hand_root
b_foot_root
etc
I went on to check the Male.max rigg from epic, and i see lots of extra meshes in there with applyed position constraint and targeting the biped bones, i tryed to imitate that but so far i still get nothing, i dont exeactly get it why\how i need to add those extra meshes(bones) !
So then i though simply that all those extra b_... meshes with constraints are targeting the biped bones and the b_.. meshes were used for skinning, but hey theres a problem - the biped fingers are not there (at least i cant find them), all thou the b_fingers constraints are targeting it, so i dont get it now... :(
Does anyone have any idea about this and\or where i could learn more about this rigging system!??
I need to learn to make custom riggs for UDK!
And why i didnt have that problem with weapons ,vehicles and simpler skeletal meshes?
Why is this extra constraint rigg even necesary? Is that how UDK translates the animations or what?

[gigamaxjur]

Ok i did some research and i see this extra rigg is necesary if I use Biped , it worked with weapons and vehicles couse there i used 3dmax bones, not biped bones!
Ok now i also see the bones used to skin the characters have to be named like "b_xxxx" (b_root,b_Neck,b_Head,etc)!
b_root bone has to be placed on the 0.0.0 coordinates and has to parent all other bones!
I am now wondering why do i need those "IK" bones, like the one that connects from 0.0.0 point to right hand and then left hand!??????????????
(like : b_IK_Hand_Root , Bip_IK_Foot_Root ,etc)

posted a thread about it here:
http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=27319646#post27319646

[KolaKid]

Hey, i am also trying to get my biped from max into UDK however when i come to skin it i dont have any B_bones, i only have the Bip bones ive tried unhgiding them but there not there, i am using 3ds max 2010

cheers

[geodav]

to get the b_bones you need to download the UT3_Male.max file, use google to find it

[miatthas]

I'm using UDK 3 and I don't want to use that gun person that it starts out with. How can I get it change the character?

[miatthas]

I'm using UDK 3 and I don't want to use that gun person that it starts out with. How can I get it change the character? Please link to a step by step. Also am I going to have to buy any software? I'm hoping I can do it all with UDK. *fingers crossed*

[Hyper_Shado]

I'm using UDK 3 and I don't want to use that gun person that it starts out with. How can I get it change the character? Please link to a step by step. Also am I going to have to buy any software? I'm hoping I can do it all with UDK. *fingers crossed*

Open the UTFamilyInfo_Liandri_Male.uc file and change this line:

CharacterMesh=SkeletalMesh'CH_LIAM_Cathode.Mesh.SK _CH_LIAM_Cathode'

So that it refers to the package, group, and name of the desired character instead.

You can change between Cathode and the IronGuard male, another rather bland-looking "gun person". But UDK is not a modeling tool, so if you want to actually make a custom character it's going to be a lot more work than just a step-by-step list of things. Here's the basic workflow though:

1. Make a model using any 3D program of your choice.
2. Make a skeleton you can use to animate it, and create animations for the character.
3. Export the model and animations to UDK's import format(s).
4. Set up an Animation Tree for your character.
5. Change files so they point to your character instead of robot guy.

[gigamaxjur]

Well i made a lot of tests, and one of them was simply renaming the biped skeleton into b_bones(as in UTMale.max epics example), i made a box named "b_root" for the parent bone, centered the pivot and placed it on x,y,z-0,0,0 coordinates !
Then i made the biped main bone Bip_01 child of the b_root and renamed all the rest of the biped bones to match names of UTMale.max bone names!
This way i got it working with the premade animations from UDK!
(be aware of the scale of your character, in this example the character in game was waaaay too huge, i made it like 10 meters big,oops,then i went to check the UTMale.max character size and its about 0.1 meters if im not mistaken, woot)

But this naming system is only necesary if you want to use UDK premade animSets!
If you dont ,you can name your bones to whatever and import animations into new AnimSet, and creating your own Animtree like Hyper_Shado said!

Im learning about AnimTree and Face FX now, so i understand it well before i go and rigg my character again, one version for gameplay and other for cinematics(added facerigg)!
And for that i also have to add the mouth and a tongue to my character, lol!
Cya ;)

[miatthas]

What 3d modeling program would you suggest?
Is there a tutorial that shows how to animate your character?
What format(s) does UDK use?
How do you export it?
What's an animation tree?
How do you change the files so they point to your character instead of the robot guy?

[gigamaxjur]

I would suggest 3D Studio Max, I use it, Maya is also a good choise!
There are several tutorials about how to animate , I would say Animating is more about understanding the motion of things arround you, and to learn the tools to animate in your 3d application, but before you start animating you gotta learn how to rig as well!

For exporting skeletal meshes and animations to UDK you need to install ActorX in your favorite application! You can find the plugin ActorX in the UDK install directory!
Example--> c:\UDK\Binaries\ActorX

Animation Tree is a file you create inside UDK, first you need a skeletal mesh and your animations imported into new AnimSet, which is a file that holds all your animations for a character etc... In Animation Tree you then Set up a network that controls how the animations will be played on your character, for example, you would start with making a blend between Idle animation and walk animations, etc! Animation tree can be quite complex if your character has a lot of differend animations to do in game, it is better to start with a simple character with just the base animations and then work it up from there!

If you want to place you character in UDK game through code , there are a few ways,
First would be to replace the mesh for the main character, next would be to replace the Bot mesh, but in Idea you would expand your newcharacter.uc class from GamePawn.uc class or the UTBot.uc if you would want to replace the mesh for your bots!
Anyway, then you simply create a defaultproperties block of code to override the class you expand from! Offcourse you also have to create a game type class that expands from UTDeathmatch.uc class where you would tell the engine to use your newcharacter class or newbot class, for example:

class SphereGame extends UTDeathmatch
config(SphereGame);

defaultproperties
{
DefaultPawnClass=class'Sphere_Character.SpherePawn '
}

Well since there are plenty of tutorials explaining how to start with scripting i will end this post here. I hope this helps, cya!

[shuriken88]

Can anybody explain how you "unrig" a bone, so you can move it without sending the mesh to hell and saving it by accident so you've messed up 3 days of work?

[Nebukadnezar]

If you're in Max
Select the Skin Modifier and scroll down to the Advanced Parameters Rollout and uncheck the Tickbox Always Deform.

Then Move the Bone to the Position you want, afterwards turn Always Deform back on, and adjust the envelopes if they're off.

[cedrico]

Hello guys, very interesting thread, i'm trying to get my workflow with UTmale.max, I want to change the biped size and the b_bones accordingly (to match my models anatomy), I noticed the grey bones in the original file, the twist bones,how do you guys manage those, can we get rid of them ?
About the b_foot and hand control, how does it really work, why do we have three root nodes ?
THX a lot I'm trying to figure this out

[Nebukadnezar]

To change the biped size, you have to activate Figure Mode. To do this select any part of the Biped, switch to the Motion Panel and click on the Figure Mode-button in the Biped Rollout.

http://asp1rat1on.as.funpic.de/otherdata/figure_mode.jpg

To scale the whole biped and rig just double click the Center of Mass (COM) named Bip01 and scale the biped to the size you want. (Bip01 is located inside the pelvis_bone)
All the b_bones should follow because of their position constraints.

You don't have to scale the b_bones because their size only determines the size of the envelopes (those can be adjusted easily). The important thing is the position of the Pivot which will be the same as the position of the pivot of the biped bone due to the Position Constraint every b_bone has.

But if you want to resize them, you'll have to do it manually via the Bone Tools Edit Mode

To open the Bone Tools Menu goto Animation -> Bone Tools...
http://asp1rat1on.as.funpic.de/otherdata/bone_tools.jpghttp://asp1rat1on.as.funpic.de/otherdata/bone_edit.jpg

The twist bones are important to get believable deformation in the arms and legs of the model, so we want to keep them.

For example, if you're rotating your hand/wrist, part of your forearm twists, because the muscles attached to the wrist follow it's movement.
The twist_bones are set up to rotate like the hand_bone but not as far.
(if the hand is rotated 90° twist_bone will be rotated about 40°-50°).

So you want to skin the vertices of the forearm which are close to the wrist, to the twist_bone, and those near the elbow to the forearm_bone.
With a soft Falloff you'll get a nice deformation which will prevent the forearm-Mesh becoming a pretzel when the hand is rotated.

I don't know much about the foot and hand controls, but i believe they are used in the AnimTree later to switch between InverseKinematics and ForwardKinematics

hope this helps,
i'm german and i'm not sure if everything i've written is understandable. :)

[Whitenorthstar]

Nebuknadnezar, thank you so much for this.

Thank heaven, it is possible to rescale UT3_male. Very very useful, appreciated :-D

[Ga2Z]

Hello, I've read somethings on this tutorial and I wanted to ask: What if I want to use a custom rig I made with CAT, all my bones are named b_ but I'm having a lot of problems importing it to UDK even tought the PSK writting process doesn't present any error, I even named the bones according to the bones that UDK uses and tried using the animset but another problem came up :s here is my thread about this: http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=755560

I hope you can help me with this, or tell me please if is an obligation to use the rig form the UDK male??

Thanks =)