3dsMaX: How to resize bones and mesh+skin modifier w/out problems

Z3NZY

I'm creating characters in 3dsmax, and I didn't realise that I wouldn't be able to re-size the characters once they have been skinned. I need them to be proportional to each other but simply increasing the size on the bones causes the characters to look like a larger Jack Skelington.

A Bro Fist for whoever can help me.

Eric Chadwick

Mark Dygert probably has a post about this somewhere. Did you try a search? But IIRC it's something like this... 1. Put the character into the bind pose. 2. Turn off the Skin modifier. 3. Scale the root bone. 4. Re-enable the Skin modifier.

Z3NZY

Hey Eric

I'm trying it. It kinda works, the rig moves out of place from the characters geometry, but it seems the verts weighting was retained.
I'll keep trying it out. Will also do a search for Dygert's thread.

Eric Chadwick

Oops, in step 3, select both the root bone and the character mesh, and scale them together. Should work.

What kind of bone skeleton are you using? Biped? Cat? Standard bones? Each has different scale methods.

Z3NZY

I'm scaling them together. It's weird, it's the Biped moves slightly forwards the larger it gets. On the current character it's a female biped. Though the other 2 are male, and then skeleton.

I think the biped must be off centre maybe, not sure.

poopipe

export skin weights from mesh and ditch the skin modifier
set biped height to what you need
scale mesh and exported skin weight mesh up to right size
reset xform on mesh and collapse ( don't touch exported weight mesh)
new skin modifier, add bones etc
import skin weights to mesh

done - and no nasty transforms lying around to spoil your life later on

Bruno Afonseca

You can also use the Skin Wrap modifier, to transfer the weight from one mesh to another. I use it extensively whenever I need to mess around in already skinned meshes

monster

A couple of tricks I've used...

1. Do like Poopipe suggested but use Rescale World Units in the Utility panel to scale the mesh and biped at the same time.

2. Export an FBX. Change the System Units. Import the FBX. Change the System Units back to the original number. You probably want #1, but this method work with MaxScripts.

Z3NZY

K

Eric: I think your method worked but the scaling was still an issue.

Poopipe: I used your method, thankfully I read something similar a few days ago to know what you meant lol.

Fonta: I'll defo check out the skin wrap modifier. Being able to mess with the mesh more is good news on any front.

Monster: I tried it, and it still had the same issue for me. I'm not sure what it's problem is. I ended up having to just scale it and fit the biped to the body.

Hopefully there won't be any more complications, at least in this area.

As promised, a brofist. I've already imbued it with my thanks 4 times.
1 per person.

damsminours

in Command pannel >> utilities >> More >> Rescale world Unit

Mark Dygert

I'm totally late to this party but I'll toss in my 2 cents.

I've run into this a few times and what I do (which you probably haven't done and probably want to do in the future) is to place the pivot point for all of the meshes at the point that the biped scales from (the frozen footstep node between the bipeds feet). That way each mesh scales from the exact same point that the biped does. You want to use the same idea for CAT and regular bone based rigs also.

CAT had a nice rig resizer that at one point actually scaled meshes and the CAT rig at the same time but its been badly broken for a while and only works on CAT pieces. But at least CAT has a scale component that can be matched to the mesh scale, unlike biped and it's "Height" component. But CAT has a lot of other bugs and non-desirable features to stay away from...


Getting the height and mesh scale to match is kind of tricky but at least all of the mesh pieces retain their relationships and scale together from a shared point. This along with resetting the scale and transform (hirearchy tab) are something I do before I ever apply skin.

If you haven't done this stuff, you can get around it by copying your meshes, resetting the pivot point to the correct location, resetting transform and scale and then skinwrap the new mesh to the old, convert to skin and delete the old mesh. Now all of your meshes scale from the same spot and you've transferred your skin weights.

To get the mesh scale to match the new biped height...
Before you scale take a point helper and under the motion tab > assign controllers, pick the position track and click the "assign controller" button and pick "Attachment". Set the "Attach to" object to be your mesh and click set position and click drag around your mesh to assign it to a spot. Pick a place there the biped clips though the mesh.

Now you can rescale the biped or the mesh and all you need to do is to make sure that point lines up again.