Sending 3ds Max Scenes to MotionBuilder

This tutorial guides you through the procedures necessary to create a biped in 3ds Max, send a 3ds Max skeleton, biped, and character to MotionBuilder and prepare them for animation, animate a 3ds Max character in MotionBuilder and send the animated 3ds Max character back to 3ds Max as a fully-editable animated character.

The tutorial covers the following three kinds of animatable skeletons that originate from 3ds Max:

• Conventional 3ds Max bone system skeleton
• Biped system skeleton
• Skinned character with skeleton

The tutorial shows you how to:

• Send two kinds of 3ds Max skeletons and a 3ds Max character to MotionBuilder
• Characterize and add a Control rig to the 3ds Max skeletons and character in MotionBuilder
• Animate the 3ds Max character in MotionBuilder and send it back to 3ds Max

The tutorial was written using the 3ds Max software version 2014 and the MotionBuilder software version 2014.

Note Although the procedures in this tutorial use the MotionBuilder keyboard shortcuts, you can use the 3ds Max keyboard shortcuts in MotionBuilder if you select Settings Keyboard Configuration 3ds Max from the MotionBuilder menu bar. See the MotionBuilder 3ds Max keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard Shortcuts chapter of the MotionBuilder Help.

 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License