Biped Example for 3DS Max? (Motion Mapper)

[SidewinderX]

Hey guys,

I'm helping one of the modelers for my mod get his character model ready to import in-game, and we were going to use Motion Mapper, for the time being, to get some of the basic animations in...

To use motion mapper, we need to have the same number of bones in the exact same hierarchal structure, which leads me to my question:

Is there a 3D Studio Max version of the valve biped (the one used in hl2dm) so that we can see the heirarchal/location of the bones?

Thanks!

 

[Retrocide]

Yes there is infact, called Biped lol, you have you get it through the character studio 4.2 and register it. Although I really dont recomend it since it adds so many more polygons than needed. I make my own skeletal structures.

 

[SidewinderX]

Nonononononono, we don't need the character studio biped... we already have a custom rig for the model. What we need is the Valve biped, so we can see the # of bones and heirarcy of thier rig, so we can match our rig to that, and then use motion mapper to tansfer the basic animations over.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Have you tried using Cannonfodder's decompilers, and then importing the SMD over the top of your model? I'm sure there are tools for 3DS Max that allow that. Failing that, do the same in Milkshape 3D.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[SidewinderX]

Have you tried using Cannonfodder's decompilers, and then importing the SMD over the top of your model? I'm sure there are tools for 3DS Max that allow that. Failing that, do the same in Milkshape 3D.

-Angry Lawyer

I did that with one the the male animation sample files, and I got it imported.... but I need to make sure that this is the right thing... I've had good luck with his tools, but we want to make sure we get it right.

 

[SidewinderX]

Anyone have any idea?

 

[Jeremy]

If you import the valve skeleton into 3ds max, you'll be able to rig your characters to it and export, and yes, it'll work with valve's animations.

But if you're asking if there's a featureful valve skeleton that you'd actually be able to animate with in 3ds max, the answer is no. This is why Insurgency, for example, is going to be doing our own animation set using our own custom biped rig in 3ds Max.

 

[CannonFodder]

Nonononononono, we don't need the character studio biped... we already have a custom rig for the model. What we need is the Valve biped, so we can see the # of bones and heirarcy of thier rig, so we can match our rig to that, and then use motion mapper to tansfer the basic animations over.

There is no 'standard' biped in HL2. There is a CS biped, a male human biped, a female human biped and a combine biped. They are all different and all have different sets of animations. You have to pick the closest to what you want.

 

[SidewinderX]

Yeah, we're going with the male biped.

Jeremy: We're going along with the "why re-invent the wheel" philosophy. Why make our artist make a walk animation when we can just use motionmapper to adapt the one that Valve made? We use motionmapper, and then our artist, whose time is limited as it is, can spend his time making animations that Valve didn't, such as lying and moving prone and whatnot.

 

[mindless_moder]

whats motionmapper ? is that the thing that allows u to transfer the animations of the hl2 chars to ur model ? or something?

 

[SidewinderX]

http://www.valve-erc.com/srcsdk/models/motion_mapper.html

 

[thereisaspoon]

There is no 'standard' biped in HL2. There is a CS biped, a male human biped, a female human biped and a combine biped. They are all different and all have different sets of animations. You have to pick the closest to what you want.

there is a standard, valvebiped, but only xsi has the valvebiped tool. The combine, rebels and css models might have some differences in scale or have extra attachments (cs, combine) but they are same in hirearchy, so i can merge all the animation files (css, hl2, hl2dm) with the model and it will work (i already tried this and it does work, i have a model compiled with css, hl2, hl2dm animation sets)

and as for what hirearchy valvebiped follows, its pretty much the exact same as 3dsmax biped. It starts from the pelvis and goes up to fingers, and down to feet. Just check the mdl viewer for all the bones.