$100USD for a work flow from max character studio

Posted By: lofwyr

$100USD for a work flow from max character studio - 02/14/06 12:04

Hi

I would like to see if there is a work flow to import a model from 3dsMax+chracter studio biped into Game Studio MDL *** Keeping the bones *** I know A6 has some huge restrictions on quality here limiting one bone per vert influence, but still I would like to see this solved.

I will be happy to pay $100 USD (via PayPal or other web gateway) for someone who can clearly explain the steps involved (including third party software). The end result should be an MDL with bones animating the same as in Max (if biped is set to rigid).

I will be happy to publish the results back to the community of course.

Any questions post here or PM me.

(If I get no takers here I might make it a competition).

Posted By: FoxHound

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/14/06 13:49

As of this point there is no exporter that can export a 3ds file with bones to 3dgs mdl format.

Posted By: lofwyr

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/14/06 13:54

Understood. I think there was a long winded method of exporting from max as a .x and then that into fragmotion, from there to milkshape and from there to MDL7. I tried this and got mixed results, looked like the vert-bone asignment would need to be redone, but the skeleton worked.

Looking for any solution here.

Posted By: Tozzy

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/14/06 14:26

Quote:

I will be happy to pay $100 USD (via PayPal or other web gateway) for someone who can clearly explain the steps involved (including third party software). The end result should be an MDL with bones animating the same as in Max (if biped is set to rigid).
Quote:

I think there was a long winded method of exporting from max as a .x and then that into fragmotion, from there to milkshape and from there to MDL7.

$100 for you then sir

Posted By: Guardian

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/14/06 19:01

fragMotion exports directly to mdl5 mdl6 and mdl7. No need to use milkshape.

Posted By: Blattsalat

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/15/06 01:37

fragmotion works, pandasoft works (though this will first export to x files), the milkshape method works and as far as i have heared the ultimate unwrap method works.

rather invest the 100$ into fragmotion

cheers

Posted By: Matt_Aufderheide

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/15/06 12:04

All this is well and good, but until you can import directly form Max with Character studio bone intact, there is a lot to be desired.. A6 bones are basicaly useless in my view without this.

Posted By: Blattsalat

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/15/06 16:38

right now they are "useless" because you cant weight your bones. and since characters need to be able to bend and stretch the crotch and shoulder areas will deform horrible without weighting.

though with care some stuff works nice:

Posted By: Matt_Aufderheide

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/15/06 18:32

But how do you import from max? you have some crap like frogmotion .. who ever heard of that? I just want to export from max and have everything set up like it is supposed to be.

Why Conitec hasn't made thier own quality max exporter is beyond me, while we are stuck with this 3rd party out-of-date exporter that doesnt even export 32 bit skins (it converts them all to 16 bit, so you have to reload all the skins in MED) ... They should worry about things like this, instead people are always complaining that *MED* should have more features.. MED is not a serious modelling/animation program and will never be.

Posted By: Guardian

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/15/06 22:18

Hi Matt. I don't know much beyond the fact that fragMotion can import .x files and export to mdl7 directly. Some people claim fragMotion is an offshoot of CharacterFX animator. I guess some have used this as their "Max pipeline".

So far for me fragMotion has been far better to use then Milkshape or any of the low end modelers.

I�ve used Med allot and basically have to agree with you it really doesn�t need anymore features they just need a stable release of it, with decent import export capabilities.

Guardian

Posted By: lofwyr

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/16/06 10:54

Well thank you for comments so far, I guess it's confirming what I have seen so far that a model can be produced in max but bone animation is moe of a manual tweaking process done outside of Max.

I'm now wondering whats the next steps here. I need to move animations from Max to MED with bones, anyone feel up to the job of rigging in fragmotion or med?

Cheers

Posted By: Tozzy

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/16/06 17:11

Quote:

MED is not a serious modelling/animation program and will never be.

Well in my opinion, it's just basically a gateway for the models to be exported to WED. No work of mine is ever done in MED. It's basically used so I can see final result and correct 'normal flipping of polies'. MAX can be a pain when it comes to exporting models which have been duplicated and mirrored because you have to mirror them and have the normals inverted for it to look correct in MED. Anyway, they should seriously produce a new workflow. All this import into here and export to there drives me crackers sometimes.

Posted By: Guardian

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/16/06 18:00

I don't know if its been made clear here or not lofwyr but from what I understand the Max6 plugin works with Max7 and exports bones but skins are only 16bit. The plugins on the download page it might be worth a try. Can you export to .x from Max7?

I don't use Max so what I say may just be wrong, its just what I remember hearing.

Guardian

Posted By: Gamesaint762

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/16/06 22:43

Yes you can export to .x from Max 7. I use the Panada exporter... Sometimes the skins can be off a little....GS out.

Posted By: bupaje

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/16/06 23:28

I am not sure if this is useful but maybe you should talk to this guy as well http://www.coniserver.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/621241/an/0/page/0#621241 as he says he goes from Max to Fragmotion

Posted By: Guardian

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/17/06 00:09

Hi lofwyr, I own a copy of fragMotion if you want you can send me a .x test file to see if it will work as a converter to .mdl7 for you.

Posted By: sinnlos

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/17/06 09:13

hi there...
i just wondered what is the advantage of exporting from max character studio to mdl including the bones?
since u can do the animations perfectly well in cs and export the animated mesh.

is it possible to do actions on the bones ingame? like when a model falls down a stair and u could apply physic behaviour to the bones?

sorry if im going a bit off-topic...

cheers

sinnlos

Posted By: TheGameMaker

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/17/06 13:21

yes, u can use rotate/move/scale bones during runtime via script....

Posted By: lofwyr

Re: $100USD for a work flow from max character stu - 02/23/06 22:47

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have someone to help with fragmotion. from max using panda .x and then a complete re-rigging in fragmotion picking the highest weight bone to be the only bone and then swapping some verts of the shoulders and over to the clavicles and spine to assist with animation stretching, etc.

It's far from perfect and not very good if you have alot of models, but it will do for the time being.

Thanks again

Matthew