You can take the animated biped skeleton and use it to generate a 3ds Max bone structure that follows the same animation, by using the File Export and Import capabilities. In just a few steps, you will be able to take your biped animation and use it without the biped attached.

Set up the lesson:

• On the Quick Access toolbar, click (Open File), navigate to the \character_animation\freeform_animation folder, and open createbones_start.max.

  

  Biped takes a bow.

Create animated bones from bipeds:

1. Play the animation.

   Observe the biped and its movement.

2. From the Application menu, choose Export.
3. Name the file mycreatebones.fbx. From the Save As Type list, choose Autodesk (*.FBX), and then click Save.

   3ds Max opens the Export FBX dialog.

4. Accept all the default values. and click OK.

   Wait while the exporter calculates the TRS animation.

5. From the Application menu, choose Reset.

   The biped disappears and the viewports reset.

6. From the Application menu, choose Import, then import the FBX file you just exported.

   The import dialog appears.

7. In the Import Configuration group, click the More button next to Bones.

   Use the Advanced Bone Options dialog that opens to set the Bone Objects Width and Length both to 3.

8. Click OK to close the dialog. Click OK again to import the FBX file and create the bones.

   A bone skeleton appears in the viewport.

   

9. Play the animation.

   The skeleton has the identical animation as the original biped.

   

10. Save your file as mycreatebones.max.

    You can open createbones_final.max for comparison.

See MotionBuilder Interoperability for more information about working with bone animation, FBX files, and the MotionBuilder application.