The initial portion of this tutorial involves opening the scene containing the character mesh to skin, opening a rig to serve as the character skeleton, connecting the two with the Skin modifier, and finally animating the character using an included file.

Set up the lesson:

1. Reset 3ds Max.
2. On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Open File), navigate to the \character_animation\skinning\ folder, and open the file applying_skin.max.
   NoteIf a dialog asks whether you want to use the scene's Gamma And LUT settings, accept the scene Gamma settings, and click OK. If a dialog asks whether to use the scene's units, accept the scene units, and click OK.

   The character model in the scene appears at the world origin (0, 0, 0).

   

   Meet Emma, a medium-resolution character mesh of about 7,500 polygons. Emma is great with kids and works well in TV, games, movies, and other applications that don’t require extreme closeups. In addition to the main character mesh, which is what you’ll be working with, the scene contains separate objects for the hat, hair, and eyeballs.

   Next you’ll load the character rig to which you’ll skin Emma.

Load the Emma rig:

1. On the Create panel, click (Helpers) and then choose CAT Objects from the drop-down list.

   You might be familiar with character studio; CAT is a newer, separate character-animation system included with 3ds Max that offers a different albeit overlapping set of capabilities. This tutorial deals minimally with CAT features, instead spending most the time with the Skin modifier.

   TipFor detailed info about CAT, see the CAT section in the main help.
2. On the Object Type rollout, click CATParent.

   The CATRig Load Save rollout that results provides a list of preset character rigs, but you’ll be using a different rig created especially for this tutorial. The easiest way to do this is to load it onto an existing CATParent.

3. On the CATRig Load Save rollout, make sure (None) is highlighted, and then in the Perspective viewport, next to Emma, drag out a CATParent object.

   

   CATParent on right

4. Go to the Modify panel, and on the CATRig Load Save rollout, click (Open Preset Rig). Navigate to the \sceneassets\animations\ folder , and open emmarig.rg3.

   The rig appears at the CATParent location.

   NoteThis rig has been specially modified, or “posed,” to fit the shape of the Emma model. Usually you need to do this yourself before skinning a model, so the initial application of the Skin modifier doesn’t require too much adjustment, but that’s not within the scope of this tutorial. At any rate, the process is fairly straightforward, especially as bones in CAT rigs are, in effect, standard polygon geometry. They’re compatible with all of the modeling tools in 3ds Max, and can even be replaced by other objects.

   While skinning a character it’s usually desirable to hide the rig, but for times when you might want to toggle its visibility, it’s best to give the entire rig a name so it’s easy to select.

5. Navigate the viewport so the character mesh and rig don’t overlap, then with (Select Object) on, drag a region around the rig to select all of its bones. In the Named Selection Sets field on the main toolbar (currently reads “Create Selection Set”), type the name EmmaRig and press Enter to make sure the software registers the name. This is the same name as the CATParent, but as it’s a selection set, not an object, there’s no conflict.

   Ideally, when skinning a character, the rig should be centered on the skin mesh. Because Emma is already positioned at the world center, this is easy to do.

6. Make sure the CATParent (named EmmaRig) is selected, and then activate (Select And Move) on the main toolbar.
7. Right-click the X and Y spinners on the status bar (the small up/down arrows next to the numeric fields) to set them to 0. Z should already be at 0.

   The skeleton jumps to the world center and is perfectly aligned with the Emma character mesh.

   

   Emma and rig, both at world center

   Next you’ll apply the bones to the mesh using the Skin modifier.

Set up for skinning:

1. With (Select Object) on, select the Emma object and from the Modify panel Modifier List Object-Space Modifiers category, choose Skin.

   This applies the Skin modifier to the mesh. The next step is to tell the Skin modifier which bones are to affect the mesh shape. In this case, it’s all of them.

2. On the Parameters rollout, click the Add button next to Bones.

   This opens the Select Bones dialog, which is the same as the familiar Select From Scene dialog.

3. Set the Display filters to Display Geometry only and highlight all list entries except the first four. One easy way to do this, because all the desired bones start with “Emma,” is simply to type e in the Find field. Click Select to finish.

   

   The bones appear in the list on the Parameters rollout and the basic skinning is done. You can demonstrate this by moving the leg via the foot platform.

4. Select EmmaRigLPlatform, the wireframe rectangle under the left foot, and move it around.

   

   You can probably see some problems already, such as the loss of volume at the knee. You’ll deal with these in the following sections of the tutorial.

5. Before continuing, save your scene with the name MyEmma1.max.

Animate the rig:

When skinning a character, to work efficiently it’s best to first create a basic animation containing the various poses that the character is likely to assume. This lets you adjust skinning anomalies in the different poses without having to consume time posing and reposing the character manually.

We’ve included an animation file you can load onto the rig using CAT’s Clip Manager feature. It’s instructive to go through this process, and it doesn’t take long, but if you prefer to start skinning now, skip to the next section.

1. Continue working from the previous section or load the file you saved at the end of it.
2. Select the CATParent: the triangular object at the base of the rig.
3. Go to the Motion panel and scroll down to the Clip Manager rollout. Make sure the Clip button is active.

   This is where you load and save animation for CAT rigs.

4. At the bottom of the rollout, click (Browse), and then use the Open dialog to open the file \sceneassets\animations\emma_stretching.clp. When the Clip Options dialog opens, click Load to accept the default settings.

   CAT has two modes: Setup, for modifying the rig, and Animation, for animating it. Setup is the default mode; to play animation it’s necessary to switch to Animation mode.

5. At the top of the Layer Manager rollout you can see the Setup/Animation Mode Toggle button, indicating the rig is currently in Setup mode. Click this button.

   The button image changes to , signifying that Animation mode is active.

6. Also, click in the animation controls section of the 3ds Max window to open the Time Configuration dialog. Set Length to 500 and click OK to close the dialog.
7. Activate the EmmaRig selection set, right-click in the viewport, and choose Hide Selection.
8. Scrub the time slider or play the animation. It “exercises” all parts of the body that are likely to need skinning adjustments, starting with the feet and ending with the fingers.

   However, the cap, hair, and eyeballs, or “accessories,” don’t move with the rest of the mesh.

9. Return to frame 0, then, on the main toolbar, activate (Select And Link), and drag from each accessory to the EmmaRigHead object to link them as children (four drags in all). Play the animation again to ensure that everything moves together.
   TipAlternatively, select the four accessories first, then activate Select And Link and drag from any of the selected accessories to the EmmaRigHead object. This links them all at once.
10. Exit Select And Link mode by clicking (Select Object) and then right-click in the viewport and choose Unhide All.
11. Save your scene with the name MyEmma2.max.