importing animations from 3DS Max 9

Unity Engine
1

hi i dont know much about unity, i animate for my brother and having trouble getting the animations into unity i read all the docs and i cant figure it out,

when i export the file into the fbx format it gives me 3 warnings`in 3DS, and in unity the animations dont work

Warning: Geometry conversion (25)

The plug-in does not support the geometry type of the following objects. They will be converted to a Triangle mesh. Morph and skin deformations may be lost:
-placementCTRL
-groundCTRL
-footLCTRL
-kneeLCTRL
-footRCTRL
-kneeRCTRL
-hipCTRL
-spineTopCTRL
-spineBotCTRL
-eyesCTRL
-eyeRCTRL
-eyeLCTRL
-elbowLCTRL
-shoulderLCTRL
-shoulderRCTRL

Warning: Modifier stack (6)

WDM modifiers from the following object(s) Modifier Stack have been disabled for the export process:
-eyeBallL
-pupilL
-eyeLidL
-eyeLidR
-eyeBallR
-pupilR

Warning: Geometry conversion (1)

Skipping smoothing group and edge visibility export on skins and morph targets.
-MeshBody

im using a model i found on a tutorial with a simple animation to test the exporting

i triangulated the model and after i added the skin modifier the polygons become squares again

and in the docs it says to check bake IK checkbox, but its faded in the import settings for unity

can someone tell me why its not working

2

There can be all types of reasons this is causing you trouble. Since it’s based on a tutorial you found (and not a proprietary model) maybe you could post a link to your max file (zipped with textures included). I’d be happy to have a look.

3

arg!! tip of my tounge but i can’t remember of the term! i don’t have max but i’ve heard of similar probs with other engines. it might be something along the lines of “baking” your skin in max. don’t think max calls it that though. maybe binding? it’s a check box in some dialog. i think it’s related to assigning verts to bones. crap - i’m probably leading you down a dead end. if i can remember i’ll let you know. but if you find anything like that maybe it’ll do it… anyone know what i’m talking about?

4

click the character animation supplimentary files to dowload

it has alot of other files but the one im using is in the skin_flex folder and its named tut_skinalien_finished

thanks, i appreciate you taking the time to look at it

5

Well after a quick glance through, this is definitely not a game-engine friendly model. All the textures should be power of 2, there’s custom Max Scripting which I doubt will translate in an FBX export, as well as Max controllers. The scripts and controllers seem to be pretty enmeshed into the whole animated character, so your best bet would be to strip the skin modifier off the alien and export just the alien and its bones to a new, fresh Max file, then reconnect it to its bones and animate it more traditionally. And change the textures to power of 2.

6

And change the textures to power of 2.

don’t need to worry about it anymore with Unity. as of 1.6 i believe.

7

Technically you don’t have to but still a good idea I believe.

8

i’m guessing it doesn’t matter anymore. i’d bet it’s only a hit on import or build if there is one at all. don’t know exactly how it’s handled. otee? at the least, non ^2 is a bad habit if you also use other engines. anyway, i’ve gone ot again…

9

By default it’s a hit on load time (and a bit of memory at runtime). It’s documented here: http://unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/Textures.html (Texture Sizes section). Internally two textures are created at runtime for each non-power-of-two texture, one that is scaled up and another one that is padded up.

You can set the scaling up/down to be done at import time in the Import Settings.

10

cool. i stand corrected. ty.