3d Max - bones or Biped?

Animation
1

I am a beginer in 3D Max, so I have a question.
Is any diference using bones or Biped in 3d Max, when you want to animate a model? Which one is more suitable for exporting to Unity?

Thanks,
Denis

2

I don’t think it matters. What does matter is that the FBX exporter for 3dsMax doesn’t seem to export Physique so you will need to use Skin to do the rigging. I’m using Biped and Skin, and it seems to work ok.

3

Yeah it doesn’t matter either will work. I have even used CAT for rigging. Just make sure on export to FBX you select “geometry to bones” (I think it’s called) basically if you don’t it will export the bones as geometry.

4

You can even use a geometry as a bone, as long as you set it as “Bone On” on the Bone Tools panel.

5

The primary difference between bones and biped is the workflow and tools inside 3d studio max.

Bones are a system in max that were introduced before biped came about and is a robust system for creating custom skeletons for your characters/creatures/whatever :slight_smile: They can take a little more time to setup, but are a very robust system.

Biped/Character Studio is a set of tools that was introduced after bones, it is a full set of tools specifically for rigging/animating characters. There are plenty of options and lots of flexibility…

Its hard to say which system to go for, but I would recommend Biped if you are planning on doing a relatively “normal” bipedal character.

6

Once exportes to an FBX there is no differece between a simple Maxbone, Biped, CAT rig or whatever you use.

The only thing tiking me is: In the Editor the Bones are invisible and not directly selectable :frowning:

7

I’m trying to use CAT instead of biped for rigging, but it seems that I have to check the `bake animations’ when export to fbx, or it will report errors on every bone.

8

Holey Moley. Now this is quite the resurrection. I bet this required some digging. Biped as I know it stands for bipedal character rig. As in those who stand on two legs. Some chimps in fact stand on two legs. Not often, but sometimes they will. I know Max use to have a different name for rigs that utilized bone, and FBIK rig set ups. Holy batman, batmania, this post is damned near ancient…; Oont I vas ze one to comment on it.

2009/dead.

2013/resurrected.

Not by yours truly. I love you, Bacardi, and Samuel Adams. I love you Americans.\

You Imperialists and your extremely cheap 40 proof, and FireFox (with auto correct) (Thanking you.)!. Oh you. You and also your 4 Coca-Cola 2 Liters for 3 USD. Lol, alcoholics.

Hey, perhaps I might provide an answer, regardless how old this post is. A biped, or a bipedal rig is a bipedal/humanoid rig. A character, or npc that walks upright as humans do. A bipedal rig has no difference in terminology to bones as bones are child components to a parent component in a rig, or a set of bones. This is not exclusive to any one program. This is usually refereed to as a hierarchy. As it stands now, nearly four years later, Unity has support for multiple formats.

3DS Max, nowadays anyways, as does Maya (since Autodesk got involved in both) has a very similar process to creating rigs. Rigs can be skinned and weighted similarly. A bipedal rig should not be confused with a human rig. A bipedal character is a humanoid character through and through.; A quadrupedal character/npc is an object/character that, unlike a bipedal character has four (4) limbs in which movement is associated, and should be accounted for during rigging/animation.

Bipedal is a character that walks either upright or mostly upright. This can apply to any fantasy bipedal characters. A quadrupedal character is a character, or model that will walk on four limbs, and associates it’s movement with other quadrupedal creatures such as dogs, cats, or deer.

1 Like
9

You can use a cat tool