3DS MAX RIGGING

SUMMARY:
The following is a tutorial to explain the entire process of
skinning a character mesh using a Biped rig. It
assumes knowledge of animating a 3ds max Biped.
Please see links to the right to view other pages of this
tutorial.

STEP 1: PREPARING THE

a) Geometry #1: Character Pose
b) Geometry #2: Model Structure

c) Organizing: Names and Layers

d) Scale Before Rigging

e) Position in Scene

f) Transparent/Freeze

MESH

INTRODUCTION TO 3DS MAX

RIGGING
1. Prepare the Mesh
2. Create and Set the Biped
3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier
5. Adjust Skin Envelopes
6. Morpher for Face Animation

A) GEOMETRY #1: CHARACTER POSE:

Mesh should stand upright with all parts spread to prevent skinning envelopes from grabbing the wrong parts:
Arms out in T-pose with palms down, fingers somewhat spread, feet planted outward (so they are below the
shoulders). Elements like tails, ponytail hair, or wings that will get their own rigging should stick straight out the
back (wings can be at 45 degree angles).

B) GEOMETRY #2: MODEL STRUCTURE

Make sure all joints and the face have good Edge Loops, Quads, and Evenly Distributed Tessellation. If you
intend Morpher facial animation, detach the head from the body: choose a natural place to hide the seam, like a
collar, and extrude the head part (usually the neck) down to overlap the body geometry (usually the shirt collar)
so any uneven skinning later will be less likely to show a gap.

C) ORGANIZING:
Name the model parts, so that each part starts with a character name for clarity. For example, if the character
has a separate head and body, as well as eye-spheres, and was named Brutus, use something like these
names: brutus_body, brutus_head, brutus_eyeL, brutus_eyeR.
Open the Layer Manager and create a new layer. Name it "mesh," put the character into it, and move the
checkmark back up to "0 Default" so the next things you create will appear in the original layer.

D) SCALING BEFORE RIGGING:

Size the mesh. If a scene or biped animation is already prepared, scale to fit that setting. Otherwise, treat the
perspective grid as if it were a approximately a 20'x20' floor and size the character accordingly. Rotate the
character to face the front view.
Apply Reset XForm and Right-click/Convert to Editable Poly to bake in
these settings.
NOTE: Finished/rigged characters are painfully difficult to resize. Get the size correct before rigging!

E) POSITION IN SCENE:
Move the character so that:
1. The feet are on the "ground" plane (0,0).
2. The center line is on the front view Z-line.
3. The side view Z-line matches up with the center of the torso side, the center of the shoulder, and the feet
ankles.

If feet are too forward or back, the model is "unbalanced" and harder to rig.

F) MAKE TRANSPARENT AND FREEZE:

Hit [Alt]+[x] with the character selected to set it transparent. Set the "mesh" layer to frozen. This will make it
easier to manage the biped skeleton setup inside the mesh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduction to 3ds max Rigging and Skinning with Biped:

1. Prepare the Mesh | 2. Create and Set the Biped | 3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier | 5. Adjust Skin Envelopes | 6. Morpher for Face Animation

3DS MAX RIGGING

STEP 2: CREATE & SET

a) Create Biped
b) Organize in Layer Manager

c) Set and Scale all Bones:

1. Structure

2. Pelvis

3. Legs

4. Spine

5. Arms

6. Neck/Head

7. Other

A BIPED

INTRODUCTION TO 3DS MAX

RIGGING
1. Prepare the Mesh
2. Create and Set the Biped
3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier
5. Adjust Skin Envelopes
6. Morpher for Face Animation

A) CREATE BIPED:
In the Create/Systems panel, choose Biped. In the front view, position the mouse pointer to (0,0) at your mesh's
feet, click and drag up to create a model about the height of your character mesh.

B) ORGANIZE:
Select the entire biped, open the Layer Manager, and create a new layer. The selected biped bones will
automatically get placed into this new layer. Name the layer "biped." Look under the "0 Default" layer to find the
hidden biped bits, select them and move them to the "biped" layer. Move the checkmark back up to "0 Default."

C) SET UP RIG:
In the Motion panel, with a bone selected, turn on Figure Mode in order to set the structure, binding pose,
position, and bone size to match your mesh:

1. Structure: Under the Structure rolldown:

Set the number of toes and toelinks for your character (NOTE: adjustments done to leg may be lost if toe
number is reset AFTER scaling bones, so do it before). If the foot mesh has no visible toes (wearing
shoes), then set the toe and toelinks numbers = 1.
Typically set spine links=3 (creates two spine controls and one chest control).
Set the number of fingers and fingerlinks (usually 5 and 3).
If the character has a tail or pony tails, set the appropriate number of links.
If the character has wings, create new boxes that are rotated and parameter-sized into position (do NOT
use non-uniform scale on object-level of boxes!), link to each other and to the chest bone. A dress can
similarly use a few thin boxes linked to the pelvis. Place wings into their own layer called "bipedWings"
(move checkmark back to "0 Default").

2. Pelvis: Use the COM Track Controls (horizontal vertical, and circular arrows) to position the pelvis
accurately. Choose the Scale tool and set the pivot control to Local. Non-uniform scale the pelvis until the biped
legs' hip joints are centered in the mesh legs.

3. Legs: Non-uniform scale a leg so the knee is the correct height in the mesh and slightly bent, the foot
bottom is a fraction lower than the bottom of the foot mesh, and the upper and lower leg bones are wide
enough to just fit inside the mesh. If the foot mesh has toes, position and scale each toe bone to fit. If the foot
mesh has shoes, scale the foot and single toe bone to equally share the length and width of the foot, for good
foot bend.
In the motion panel, under "Copy/Paste," hit the "Create Collection" star-button in the upper left to enable
copying limbs. Double click the upper leg to select the entire leg hierarchy (all the bones below it), hit the
"Copy" button and then hit "Paste Opposite." If your character mesh is symmetrical both legs will now be done.

4. Spine: Non-uniform scale the spine links up so the shoulder bones sit in the center of the arm mesh.
Non-uniform scale the spine links out in Front and Side views so they fit inside the mesh.

5. Arms: Non-uniform scale a shoulder bone to fit the height and depth of the mesh and so the arm joint
stays deeper inside the shoulder mesh than you think it should be (for a good armpit crease when it is
animated). Move the hand and scale the arm bones to fit the length of the arm-mesh: the elbow bone should be
correctly positioned and slightly bent and the bone-width should fit inside the mesh (not poke out much).

Position and scale the hand and each finger bone inside the mesh.
NOTE: selecting the first finger bone allows it to be moved, not just rotated (This is also true of the shoulder
bone). Double clicking the first finger bone will select the whole finger, and the rotate tool will then rotate all
finger links at once.
Double click the shoulder bone to select the entire arm hierarchy, hit "Copy" and then hit "Paste Opposite." Both
arms should now be posed correctly.

6. Neck/Head: Scale the neck bone up to raise the head into position and out to fit the mesh. Scale the
head to poke slightly outside of the character head mesh in all directions.

7. Other: Position, rotate and scale any tail or ponytail bones to fit the mesh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduction to 3ds max Rigging and Skinning with Biped:

1. Prepare the Mesh | 2. Create and Set the Biped | 3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier | 5. Adjust Skin Envelopes | 6. Morpher for Face Animation

3DS MAX RIGGING

STEP

3: BIPED ANIMATION:

Create a walk cycle to test the skinning when it is

eventually applied.
INTRODUCTION TO 3DS MAX
RIGGING
1. Prepare the Mesh
2. Create and Set the Biped
3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier
5. Adjust Skin Envelopes
6. Morpher for Face Animation

Set Keyframes for ALL bones and all three COM tracks:

* Binding pose at frame 0.

* Walk cycle frames 10-40.

I suggest a simple 7-frame cycle:
Extended poses at 10, 25, and 40.
Passing poses at 17 and 32.
Foot heel poses (for good flop) at frames 23 and
38.
It is important to set the bind pose at frame zero, and to
always start your film at a frame after that (I
recommend 5 or 10) because the Figure Mode bind
pose is unrealiable and can be lost, while keyframes at
0 on every bone and COM track will reliably remain
available in case the mesh needs to be re-skinned.

NOTE: This tutorial currently assumes knowledge of

animating Bipeds in 3ds max, aside form the following
terms:
"Bookending" is when two keyframes of equal value
are placed at two different times. Any new keyframe on
the same parameter between those keyframe
bookends will not affect the timeline outside of them,
and any new keyframe outside of the bookends will not
affect the time between them.
Beacuse of how curves are managed in Biped, Double
Bookends are usually needed to get a full pause on a
COM. To get Double Bookends simple duplicate the
first bookend Keyframe a frame earlier and the second
bookend a frame later, for a total of four Keyframes of
identical value.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduction to 3ds max Rigging and Skinning with Biped:

1. Prepare the Mesh | 2. Create and Set the Biped | 3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier | 5. Adjust Skin Envelopes | 6. Morpher for Face Animation

3DS MAX RIGGING

STEP

4: APPLY SKIN MODIFIER

1). Open the Layer Manager and Unfreeze the mesh.

Select it in the Viewport. Un-transparent the mesh by
hitting [Alt]+[x].

INTRODUCTION TO 3DS MAX

RIGGING
1. Prepare the Mesh
2. Create and Set the Biped
3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier
5. Adjust Skin Envelopes
6. Morpher for Face Animation

2) In the Modify Panel open the Modifier List rolldown

to apply the Skin Modifier If your head and body are
separate meshes, apply Skin to each.
3) In the Skin parameters choose the Add Bones
button and load all bones. Be careful to not add nonbones, like separate head/body meshes, eyes, etc. In
the Layer Manager set the "biped" layer to "hide" so
the bones are no longer visible.
Scrub the time slider to see the animated mesh, and
initial skinning!
If the location of any joint is off (elbows or knees are too
low or high, the shoulders bend too far out, etc), scrub
back to frame 0, select the mesh(es), delete the Skin
modifier, hit "unlink" in the toolbar, and redo relevant
parts from Steps [1],
[2], and [4]: re-transparent and
freeze the mesh, unhide and adjust the bones in Figure
Mode, unfreeze and un-transparent the mesh, re-apply
Skin, turn off Figure Mode and hide the bones to test
the animation.
The better you get at the initial bone rig set up (the width
of each bone), the better this initial skinning will appear
to grab the correct area of the mesh for each bone, but
always expect that every skinning will need to have all
capsule envelopes adjusted at least a little.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduction to 3ds max Rigging and Skinning with Biped:

1. Prepare the Mesh | 2. Create and Set the Biped | 3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier | 5. Adjust Skin Envelopes | 6. Morpher for Face Animation

3DS MAX RIGGING

STEP 5: ADJUST ENVELOPES:

How Do Skin Envelopes Work?

a) Elbows and Knees

b) Spine Links

c) Pelvis
d) Hands and Feet

e) Head

f) Other Bones

INTRODUCTION TO 3DS MAX

RIGGING
1. Prepare the Mesh
2. Create and Set the Biped
3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier
5. Adjust Skin Envelopes
6. Morpher for Face Animation

Back at time=0, turn on "Envelopes."

Note the proxy bone lines that appear for each hidden biped bone.
Select one of these proxy bone lines to see the envelopes, which are shaped as two capsules: a bright red
inside and dark red one outside. Hit [F4] to view the vertices effected by the selected bone. The proxy bone
lines can be moved, rotated, and scaled by selecting and moving the pink end-points. the capsules can be
scaled by selecting and moving any of the four points around the capsule ends.
These proxy lines and envelope capsules represent the bone SKINNING. While the proxy lines are initially set
based on the positioning of the real biped bone and the capsules on their sizing, adjusting them will not affect
the original bones: just what part of the mesh is affected by each bone.

HOW DO THE ENVELOPES WORK?

Any mesh inside of the red capsule is not supposed to be shared with any other bone (good for the middle of
limbs). Mesh that sits only in the dark red capsule is shared, with is good for joints such as elbows and knees.
After adjusting each envelope, test the result by scrubbing the timeslider, but set time back to 0 for further
adjustment to envelopes in the keyframed bind pose.
Vertex Colors: red means the mesh is fully bound to the selected bone. Blue means that part of the mesh has
almost no affect from that bone. Yellow and orange are in the middle.
NOTE: initially, neighboring envelopes will generally be too big and will interfere with each other. The whole
body will need to have its envelopes reduced in quick draft before refining each envelope to perfection in further
passes.

A) ELBOWS AND KNEES:

Move the pink end-points of the arm and leg proxy-lines away from the elbows and knees so only the dark
capsules surround the mesh joints (imagine two ovals intersecting at the knee). This should result in a nice
crease in these joints when testing the animation.

B) SPINE LINKS:
Adjust the 3 spine links. Typically this means scaling down so that the spine envelopes do not interfere with the
arms, head, pelvis, and each other. Depending on the shape of the torso, sometimes it is advantageous to
change the orientation of the spine bones for horizontal capsules rather than vertical ones.

C) PELVIS:
Adjust the Pelvis envelope, so that the dark red capsule overlaps with the upper leg capsules at the hip joints.
The COM's perpendicular line can be used to maintain butt and front.

D) HANDS AND FEET:

Adjust the envelopes for the hands, fingers, feet, and toes. Typically this means scaling the envelopes down so
that each part does not interfere with its neighbors. End nub capsules can be scaled small enough to affect no
vertices at all.

E) HEAD:
Adjust the head bone proxy and envelopes so it does not interfere with the shoulders, and vice versa, and so all
evryices in the entire face are fully connected ot the head bone (appear fully red wehen the head bone is
selected).

OTHER BONES:
Adjust other bone envelopes: tail, wings, etc. to not interfere with other body parts.
NOTE ON VERTEX WEIGHTING: It is possible to assign specific vertices to specific bones, and decide the
weighting for precisely how much that bone effects that vertex. This can be useful to assign all the head and
face vertices 100% to the head bone. Note that many game engines do not support vertex weighting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduction to 3ds max Rigging and Skinning with Biped:

1. Prepare the Mesh | 2. Create and Set the Biped | 3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier | 5. Adjust Skin Envelopes | 6. Morpher for Face Animation

3DS MAX RIGGING

STEP 6: FACE MORPHS:

a) Duplicate Head
b) Adjust Meshes

c) Name Targets

d) Apply Morpher Modifier

e) Load Targets

INTRODUCTION TO 3DS MAX

RIGGING
1. Prepare the Mesh
2. Create and Set the Biped
3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier
5. Adjust Skin Envelopes
6. Morpher for Face Animation

A) DUPLICATE THE HEAD

In the Front view select the separate head mesh, hit [Ctrl] + [v] to duplicate ("copy" clone, NOT "instance") and
delete the skin modifier. Move the duplicate over and make as many copies as you want face morphs. These
are called the Morph "Targets" because each represents an end-result for a morph (Maya calls them "Blend
Shapes").
IMPORTANT NOTE: Using [Shift] + Left-click-and-drag to create duplicates of the Skinned head will result in a
failed morph, with geometry flying across the screen. The reason is that the skin modifier "holds" the pivot of
the duplicate in the original position, and so when the morph targets are eventually applied they shift position
horrifically. Use [Ctrl]+[v] and remove the skin modifier from the duplicates BEFORE moving them away!

B) ADJUST TARGET MESHES

Adjust the Target meshes without ever removing or adding a vertex (no Target Weld, Collapse, Cut, etc--just
moving, rotating, and scaling vertices). This is critical to not lose the connection between the Morph Targets
and the original.
For a basic performance animation of about 10-15 seconds in length, consider:
Three main emotional facial expressions (adjusting mouth, jaw, cheeks, eyes and brow, ideally with nonsymmetry).
An eyeblink.
An open mouth for lip syncing.
For more detailed lip syncing, create aa, oo, and ee morphs that adjust the mouth, jaw, and cheeks.

C) NAME YOUR TARGETS

Concisely name each of the intended target meshes for their purpose, whether they are full emotional face
adjustments (such as targ_curious, targ_alarmed) or partial face adjustments (targ_aa, targ_blink, etc.).

D) APPLY MORPHER MODIFIER

Select the original head, choose the Editable Poly level in the Stack (make sure no sub-object level is
activated), and apply the Morpher Modifier from the Modifier List so it sits in-between the Editable Poly and
Skin levels in the stack. It is important that the Morpher sit BELOW the Skin modifier!

E) LOAD MORPH TARGETS

Load each Morph Target copy of the head by Right-clicking on a channel in the Morpher modifier and choosing
Add. Experiment with each by moving the dial up and down.
NOTES ON USING MORPHER FOR ANIMATION:
Target meshes can be further adjusted and their channel "reloaded" to update, as long as the vertex number
of the target and the original are never changed (*).
Multiple targets can be animated simultaneously, and the effects will add to each other, so that a vertex at the
corner of the mouth that is moved out by an "aa" pose and up by a smile will move both out and up if both
targets are animated at the same time.
The same targets can be loaded into multiple channels to get a multiplied effect.

Animate throughout the percentage of each target: sometimes 30%, sometimes 50%, sometimes 80%, etc.,
for greater variety of expressions.
Be very careful to bookend: set good initial keyframes for each target as they are animated, to control when a
facial motion starts and stops.
Note the green vertical line beside each Morph Target Channel. Green indicates a healthy relationship
between the original model and the morph taregt loaded into that channel. If the target mesh is broken (*) or
deleted, the line will turn blue.
*ADDITIONAL NOTE: The vertex number is not just an absolute value: it is not OK to weld a vertex in one area
and cut one somewhere else. Each vertex is assigned a number in the mesh, corrseponding to the morph
target. ANY non-transform changes to the vertices (any welding or cutting) changes the vertex order and
makes the two meshes incompatible for Morpher.
More elaborate morphs can create a much more versatile facial rig, but for a full feature film rig I suggest
consulting the techniques in the book "Stop Staring" by Jason Ossipa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Introduction to 3ds max Rigging and Skinning with Biped:

1. Prepare the Mesh | 2. Create and Set the Biped | 3. Biped Animation
4. Apply Skin Modifier | 5. Adjust Skin Envelopes | 6. Morpher for Face Animation