Hello,

I have several models that are animated with bones, skinning and Character Studio within 3D Studio MAX. I need to export these, with animations, to another software package. However, I don't need to preserve the bones, etc. I only need the geometry animated. While other programs have a method to bake the animation into the geometry, I cannot seem to find this in 3D Studio MAX. Can anyone tell me a way to bake the animation into the geometry so that I can export it for use in another 3D application?

As a side note: I tried FBX, but the software I need to get these models into is not opening the file properly. The geometry is there and the animation is there, but the geometry is not animated. So FBX is not good by itself. However, if I can bake the animation to the geometry, then FBX should work properly.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

using fbx (11.2006 version, check your export settings). Then while importing it from med dont import the bones and check convert to points animation.

or export/import with bones and then go edit->convert to points animation in med.

@quad: that's not what he asked.

@dan: it would be helpful if we knew which formats your 3d application accepted. it is probably not useful if i say "collada 1.4|dae" if your program cannot open it.

Thanks for trying to help. It is not about file formats, though, as the question is about baking the animation to the geometry. Once I can do this, then I can export for use in the other app.

In any case, I can import (in the other app) OBJ, LWO and FBX. However, because the app only allows for bones or any sort of character animation (skin modifiers, etc) I have to have the animation baked to the geometry in order to import via LWO or FBX.

What is the other software package and why do you need the vertex animations there? We don´t know what exactly you want to do and why but how about Point Oven? It often gets used for tasks like this.

I will look into Point Oven.



The other package is modo.



There are several reasons. One reason is because I would like to deliver these fully animated models to someone in a format that modo can work with. Another reason is there are some experiments I want to conduct in modo with some already animated models.



Yes, you do. It is stated in the first post. I want to bake the animations to the geometry level so that I can export from MAX in order to bring the fully animated model into another application that does not currently support rigged models.

This sort of thing used to be done (via export formats) all the time for games and the like. The character model would be animated via bones or Character Studio and then exported. The exported model would not have any bones any longer, but would contain information that would displace the vertices of the model, thus animating it. All I want to do is BAKE the animation to the GEOMETRY level in order to get an animated model into another package that supports animation, but currently does not have any bones, IK or the like. As stated, this is very much like what we used to do for older game engines that also did not support bones and the like, but used animated models.

I am rather surprised that this is not so easy to do in MAX (or so it seems) as other packages (like XSI) accomplish this quite easily. One of the main reasons for this type of thing is to get animated models to another package that may not utilize the same methodology to accomplish animation. Baking down the animation to the geometry level is also used to simplify what is going on in a scene. For example, if someone is creating a crowd scene animation, then having each model move with bones (etc) can really slow down the system. However, baking the animation to the geometry can free up a lot of resources and speed things up.

In any case, WHY I need this is not important. HOW to do it is. Most packages allow for it. How can it be done in MAX?

I find the WHY important because modo is quite useless for character animation. You will be able to render an animation but you won´t be able to work with it in any useful way or export it to any useful format.

Amy, if you cannot help me to bake the animation to the geometry level in MAX, then please exit this thread as you are not being a help. This thread is not about whether modo is "useless" for character animation or not. In fact, I am NOT doing any character animation at all. I happen to have models that are ALREADY animated and they are in the MAX format. I need to get them into modo, already animated, for another purpose. So, the only thing you (or anyone else here) needs to deal with is HOW to bake the animation to the geometry or vertex level in MAX. That is all. If you don't know how, then say nothing. Go your way. Have fun.



Shows you want you know. Sheesh.

There are two methods you could use.

1.) "bake" maxscript ... i am not sure if there are new versions of the script available though

youtube tutorial

2.) use the point cache modifier to bake the animations to the mesh. add it from the modifier dropdown, record the time frame needed. now you can delete anything but the point cache modifier from your stack

hope this helps
cheers

Thanks Blattsalat. I will look into that one.