Max help

[dean]

Hi all.

I have just finished a rigged and skinned model. This model was intended for another scene, so my question is....................how do I get it into my other scene and still keep the rigging and skinning values?

I have tried exporting it to a 3ds format and then importing it to my other scene but it comes through as two parts ie. the base model, and then the bones at 90 degrees to the mesh.

Is this a stupid question and I should know the answer or can't this be done? Or am I just being a plonker and making some sort of mistake?

Any help would be great.
Yours truly Frustrated

[kuman]

if you're using max there's a merge option in the file menu

open the other scene and then merge in this one with the character

good luck
-k

[dean]

Cheers Kuman, I'll give that a try.
I remember trying that, going through all the re-naming of objects etc. but I couldn't see the new objects within the scene.
I'll try again hopefully with more luck.

Congrats again on the competition win! Really enjoyed watching your progress on magma.

[kuman]

hey dean
you know that you don't need to rename the objects right. max likes it if you do but it's not necessary to rename them in order to get them to merge and you can also automate it with just adding numbers to what it renames. as for not seeing it once you merge it in. try checking thing like unhiding everythign and make sure that you didn't have in the merge to scene something like hide all objects of bones or what not. also maybe you're scale is really off, like the object may be really really mall in the world space of the scene you're merging into.

good luck

-k

[Ben]

Yeah, I often find that. After merging stuff from different scenes I'll spend ages wondering why I can't see my new objects, even though I've been clicking the zoom-extents button, furiously, for 3 hours!

Now, when this happens there's a simple check list I do:

1- Click Zoom-Extents All

2- Un-hide All (if you've merged something that was hidden in its original scene it will merge ready-hidden)

and if I still can't see it-

3- Press 'H', find it in the list and select it. If you have it but still can't see it then, as Kuman said, it's probably just scaled much smaller than the rest of the scene- so just do a 'Hide Un-selected' and another zoom extents to see it.

Ben

[dean]

Kuman, need your brain again!
Thanks for the reply Ben,

New problem.....................I eventually got my character and bones etc into my scene using both your suggestions, but I now have a new headache............when I try and re-scale my character and bones they scale at different rates so I end up with a tiny body and huge bones. I tried grouping the selections but that just gives the same results.

I know there is a simple solution, but I have tried all my snippets of knowledge and can't solve the problem (not to mention being extremely busy on other projects), so please can I steal some of your advanced knowledge and ask for help.

[Ben]

Have you tried scaling just the bones first and then the model afterwards? Doing it in two stages can make it a bit more easy to see what rate each thing is scaling at..

[dean]

Thanks for quick reply

Won't that stuff up my skin weights etc?

[Incitatus]

Try applying an Xform and then scaling that.

[dean]

Yahoo! solved my plight.
My whole rig was attached to a helper at it's base. Therefore it was the helper I needed to scale down. This solved my problem!

Thanks for everyones suggestions, they didn't solve my problems but I now know how all those buttons work and what they are for

Cheers

[kuman]

yeah this is a common problem with characters and what not is the scaling issue of a mesh bound to a skeleton.

the scaling of the root bone does work, however that could get to be a problem if there isn't just a single root.

what i've done in the past is either to be careful how i model a scene, like model the character and then use that mesh as a reference in another scene where i build an environment, kinda like planning ahead.

another thing that can be done is just to scale the environment. chances are that has less odd things in it like bones and what not and rigging so that should take to scaling fairly well.

good luck
-k

[blesson2k]

I think a less painless way was to use the scaling option in the utilities panel?:)