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Mirror Bone animations in Max 2014?

TorQue[MoD]
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TorQue[MoD] polycounter lvl 19
I was wondering if anyone knows how to mirror bone (not biped) animations in 3ds max 2014? 
I've got a run right animation and rather than having to make it all again but for the run left, I thought it might be easier to mirror the animation and yet it turns out that's harder than I thought. Also it's for use in UE4 so I can't parent the rig to a dummy and mirror that because it won't export properly. I need the skeleton to remain the same but the anim itself to be mirrored. 

Also tried the Mirror Animation plugin from script spot but it doesn't work.

Thanks!
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  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter
    mirror the animation by parenting to a dummy and position constrain new bones to the mirrored ones. 

    or you can do it properly using complicated maths
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  • TorQue[MoD]
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    TorQue[MoD] polycounter lvl 19
    poopipe said:
    mirror the animation by parenting to a dummy and position constrain new bones to the mirrored ones. 

    or you can do it properly using complicated maths
    Thanks for the help but you missed the part where I said I can't do that. Firstly, I need the animation mirrored, not the bones. Secondly, it's for use in UE4 so that process won't work.
    I guess there's no easy way to do it?
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  • thomasp
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    i recall using this or a similar script to mirror poses, perhaps that's applicable for your case? might have to work frame-by-frame though. ;)http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/copypaste-transforms

    never understood why there's no simple out of the box-way to do it.
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  • TorQue[MoD]
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    TorQue[MoD] polycounter lvl 19
    thomasp said:
    i recall using this or a similar script to mirror poses, perhaps that's applicable for your case? might have to work frame-by-frame though. ;)http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/copypaste-transforms

    never understood why there's no simple out of the box-way to do it.
    You don't still have the script downloaded do you? The download site has gone offline... what a tease!
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  • TorQue[MoD]
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    TorQue[MoD] polycounter lvl 19
    ooh, I found another similar one. Site is down too but they attached the file to script spot and it has a nice GUI
    http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/copy-paste-transforms
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  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter

    TorQue[MoD] said:
    poopipe said:
    mirror the animation by parenting to a dummy and position constrain new bones to the mirrored ones. 

    or you can do it properly using complicated maths
    Thanks for the help but you missed the part where I said I can't do that. Firstly, I need the animation mirrored, not the bones. Secondly, it's for use in UE4 so that process won't work.
    I guess there's no easy way to do it?

    I didn't miss it,  you would need to work off a mirrored duplicate and constrain your actual export rig/bones to it 

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  • TorQue[MoD]
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    TorQue[MoD] polycounter lvl 19
    poopipe said:
    I didn't miss it,  you would need to work off a mirrored duplicate and constrain your actual export rig/bones to it 

    Oh. So you mean have two copies of the rig and then align the bones of the regular one to the positions of the mirrored? I wonder if that would work... seems like it should in my head but not sure about the reality as things can get messy with bones. Thanks for the idea though, I'll try it if the script doesn't work the way I want.
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  • thomasp
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    TorQue[MoD] said:
    You don't still have the script downloaded do you? The download site has gone offline... what a tease!
      :s should have really checked the link beforehand!
    sorry!
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  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter
    TorQue[MoD] said:
    poopipe said:
    I didn't miss it,  you would need to work off a mirrored duplicate and constrain your actual export rig/bones to it 

    Oh. So you mean have two copies of the rig and then align the bones of the regular one to the positions of the mirrored? I wonder if that would work... seems like it should in my head but not sure about the reality as things can get messy with bones. Thanks for the idea though, I'll try it if the script doesn't work the way I want.
    Yes, that's right. 

    Use position /rotation constraints rather than aligning. You'll need to sample the animation at export or collapse the controller to get keys on the constrained bones




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