3DsMax Animation to UDK

[L4zyL30]

Hi! I've created my own bone rig for my character and animated as needed. Everything exports fine and the animation works but the mesh doesn't deform with the skeleton. The mesh is stuck in its reference pose while the skeleton animates.

Is there something specific I should be doing before/after exporting/importing?

[Mohamed Elmazen]

See This Video
http://download.udk.com/tutorials/skeletal-mesh/Training_MirrorTables.zip

[L4zyL30]

I've looked through the Video, and it doesn't seem to actually help very much. But thank you.

The problem is that when I import the PSA file, the mesh doesn't deform to what the skeleton is.

In every video I've seen, the PSK was imported, then the PSA is imported. Once the PSA is imported, the mesh forms into what the sequence is. This leads me to believe that there is something I have to do with the hierarchy or the naming of the bones?

[Denny]

It's most likely that you used the wrong way to skinweight the character in 3dsmax before export. I think I've seen a thread or two about the same problem but can't remember which.

[L4zyL30]

That's what I was thinking too. I saw a tutorial that used the Physique Modifier, but I used a Skin Modifier.

I looked at the sample generic male UT3 character, and he was using the Skin Modifier, so I would assume that it would work.

Now, I'm semi-convinced that I need to export with the "All-Skin" radio button checked. But every time I do that, it crashes in the UDK on import... So I can't really figure out if I'm right or wrong...

[geodav]

try my tutorials, they where made for UT3 but the workflow is the same for UDK

[L4zyL30]

I remember looking through the threads and I've seen your posts. Don't your tutorials require the use of the UT3 Skeletons? Because I'm using my own custom skeletons.

[SidV]

This has something to do with your rig. make sure the custom rig, that get exported, is based on FK only. You can use anything you want for your animation rig as long your skinned bones working in one single FK hierachy.

i wouldnt recommend the physique modifier as it is quite old and hasnt been updated since max 5(or 4?). Skin modifier works just fine.

[L4zyL30]

Thanks for the replies guys, but it was actually a problem that I failed to mention before. I had the MeshSmooth Modifier on.. I guess the exporter doesn't like that very much. Sooo... I have to re-skin everything. -_-...

[SidV]

No, u dont. depending on ur modifier stack, if skin is sitting on top of mesh smooth, just collapse everything beneath skin to a editable mesh. if mesh smooth is the first modifier in the stack, just delete em. there is no need for skinning everything again.

[L4zyL30]

Well true. But the MeshSmooth Modifier is there for a reason. :Pzorz. MeshSmooth was on top of the stack, and if I move it down, it messes up the Vertex Weights. So either way, I'm going to have to re-skin if I want to have the Smooth Mesh.

Thanks a lot though!

[hoek]

Hi, you can use Skin Utilities (max) to have the original skin weights of your model, and then apply the skin on top of the mesh and Import Skin Weights....