Changing the hierarchy of the bones in 3ds Max? - Developers

Hey guys! I'm a total noob in 3ds Max, but my cruel fate has brought me to it anyway. The story is that I got a motion capture kit, record animations with it, import them to 3ds Max, apply them to existing TF2 rigs made by MaxOfS2D, export them to SFM and get this result. [url]http://i.imgur.com/HUn0PcY.png[/url] I contacted Max via e-mail and he told me that the hierarchy of the bones in the fbx needs to match 1:1 with the skeleton I'm importing onto. Apparently it's different on his bones/rigs. To quote him "this means you have to relink every bone together according to their original hierarchy and use position/rotation constraints to get the rig to drive them (as opposed to linking, which is what i had done)". He also has a video that shows the result of this. [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUJzfuxL208[/url] The problem is that I have no idea how to do it, and I feel like a total asshole bugging him via e-mails every time something goes wrong. If some of you guys could point me to a guide, or explain how it's done I'd really appreciate that. If you need screenshots or my 3ds max files, let me know I'll provide everything. Thanks!

I used to fuck around with hierarchies all the time when I used to do GTA mods. What you want to do is open this "graph" tab and hit "new schematic view". [t]http://i.imgur.com/og8mrsA.png[/t] Now you see this thing that shows what everything's linked to. In this case of a vehicle, the door models are attached to a door dummy that tells at what angle they open at, for example. And ultimately all the models and their whatnots are attached to the top one, like a tree if you will. [t]http://i.imgur.com/lDxJ0OQ.png[/t] I don't know what the character hierarchy is like for TF2 rigs or anything like that, but if he tells you to match the hierarchy 1:1 with the skeleton you're importing them to, it's just that - you have to open up the sniper's hierarchy, look at how they're set up, and then compare what you made to that one. Hope that helps out. On a semi related note, have you used IPI Recorder for animations? I've been training with that for my motion capture and I dunno if that's any easier than 3dsmax or not.

Thanks a bunch for this! I'm going to try this out later today! And no, sorry, I didn't use IPI Recorder. I bought Perception Neuron motion capture kit, and it comes with their own software.

Okay so I've been messing around, tried using a same model he's using on the video, and I've figured out how hierarchy works in the schematic view. The problem now is that whenever I unlink anything in the schematic view (to rearrange the hierarchy) - it messes up the positioning of every bone and mushes the model together [URL="http://i.imgur.com/D8X0dSF.png"]like this[/URL]. Basically [URL="http://i.imgur.com/utkOCrY.jpg"]this (warning! big image)[/URL] is the way hierarchy should look. And [URL="http://i.imgur.com/wgM35eh.jpg"]this (warning! even bigger image)[/URL] is how it looks on Max's rigged model. From what I've figured out, the greyed out nodes are bones, which are the ones I need to rearrange, and they're linked to the rig. So if I remove them to rearrange - they will detach from the rig, which I need to apply animations to. What I've also [URL="http://i.imgur.com/ca6ETEn.png"]noticed from the video[/URL] is that apparently he has two trees in schematic view - one looks like rearranged bones that I need to achieve, and another is a CATRig. So that later I can apply the animation to CATRig, which applies to the bones, and I export animation from the bones to SFM. I can't see if they're linked, but even if they are how do I rearrange them without messing up the model? Also how do I link stuff using rotation controllers/constraints?

Ahh alright, reason I asked about what program you used was that IPI Recorder/Studio didn't have to make you monkey with 3dsmax so I didn't know if that would be of any interest to you or not. I don't know how much else I can help you with that, I don't know nothing about controllers/constraints either, so you should probably ask around and ask folks who actually used it because they could give you a much better answer than I can, but I notice that in the picture that shows what the hierarchy should look like, it says something like "bip_pelvis" , while yours says "Bip01_pelvis". I don't know how finicky the program is or if you need to get it exactly to the letter, but I'd try renaming them to what they need to be renamed to and see if that does anything. You can do that by selecting whatever bit you need in the viewport and changing it's name in here: [t]http://i.imgur.com/ZRslYII.png[/t] Hopefully that's a help or an idea. Again, if you need any more help it's probably best to either ask some other animators here or someone who's used the program before[I] (don't think you're bugging anyone, the squeaky wheel gets the grease)[/I] or you could ask [URL="https://facepunch.com/forumdisplay.php?f=412"]here [/URL]in our SFM section that nobody seems to know about.

Sadly renaming doesn't help, because right before importing animation in SFM it shows which bone it applies to which. And it all seems to be in order. But because the hierarchy is different - SFM shits the bed and turns characters into a pancake mess. As for the SFM section, it seemed to be hidden and ominously empty... I felt like I'd get banned if I posted something there. lol Thanks for your help! Hopefully someone chimes in with a tip soon. :smile: I guess I'll keep messing with it in the meantime. Edit: I've figured it out guys, help no longer required. Thank you!