3ds max Rig and skin for posing

tigerheart

Hi, I am having trouble with a 3ds max feature. Whenever I build some rig of any sort,  I always break it by moving it in some pose to test the skinning. I know I am supposed to freeze transform, but i am not an animator or rigger, i just want to pose my model. Except at some point I can never recover, the T pose if I want to adjust the skinning or start the pose again. Is there any way to recover the Tpose?

welbot

Perhaps try this:

1. set the character in the desired pose (t-pose)

2. select the mesh (with Skin modifier)

3. in the main menu bar : Tools > Snapshot (options Single and Mesh) This will create a copy of the mesh in Max, set to the t-pose with no Skin modifier.

 4. select the mesh with Skin modifier

5. Set Skin to Off (eye icon on modifier in the stack) The mesh should be in its default Skin pose, the A-pose

 6. add a Morpher modifier 

7. slide it below Skin modifier do you have Skin on top of Morpher

8. set the Snapshot mesh as a Target

9. set the target to 100%

the mesh is now in the t-pose

10- right-click on Morpher modifier > Collapse to... now the mesh is collapse to the T-pose with only the Skin modifier on top of it, still turned off.

11- in Skin modifier > Advanced Parameters > Always deform

12 - set Always deform to Off

13- enable Skin modifier back (eye icon)

14- set Always deform to On

Always Deform option Off and back On resets the Skin binding.

Now you should have the mesh in T-pose.

tigerheart

Maybe I wasn't clear. My issue is not to find a Tpose or a Apose. The Apose I model my character in is just fine. Let me try again. I make my character, i put a rig, and i try to make a dynamic cool looking sweet posing for presentation. But most of the time I forget to click the autokey mode. So even if I put some key to save my initial pose (A or T or whatever) I can't reset to it. For exemple : 
On frame 25 is my pose, And below 0 use to be the T pose. There is still an animation inbetween, but i would love to get my initial pose back when i get back to frame 0

monster

If you did a Freeze Transform on all your bone objects.

1. Turn on Autokey
2. Go to the frame you want to have the bind pose
3. Do a Transform To Zero operation. (In the Alt + Right Click menu.)

If you did not freeze transforms. (This only works on the bones if they are not rigged.)

1. Turn on Autokey
2. Go to the frame you want to have the bind pose
3. Select the skinned object. (Make sure this is the first in the selection.)
4. Add the bones you want to reset to the selection.
5. Run the attached script. (Remove the ".txt" extension from the attachment.)

tigerheart

Straight to point number two then. "This only works on the bones if they are not rigged" you mean before adding then to the skin modifier? or if they are not parented?

monster

Animation terminology is as follows...
Geometry is skinned for deformation to bones.
Bones are rigged to control objects for animation.

Using skinning and rigging interchangeably can get confusing. So just stick to the above.
I'll rephrase this..."This only works on the bones if they are not rigged"

The Skin modifier keeps a record of the initial position/rotation/scale of each bone added to the bone list. This script will reset bones to that transform, if they are not following IK, constraints, or other scripts.

Looking closer at your screenshot I can see that it has IK and look at constraints at least. So in this case I would...

1. Copy the max file, and open the copy.
2. Select all the bones and go to Motion Panel > Motion Paths > Conversion Tools > Check Position/Rotation/Scale > Click Collapse.
3. Delete all the IK nodes and look at helpers. We've effectively unrigged all the bones. The skin is intact, but it might look funny.
4. Alt + Right Click and select Delete Selected Animation.
5. Follow the steps above to reset the bones.
6. You can either re-rig from here OR keep going to fix the original file.
7. Delete the skinned mesh.
8. Save this copy.
9. Merge the skeleton into your rigged file.
10. With Autokey on, use the align tool to match your rig to the reset skeleton.

Sorry it's a lot of steps. But this has happened to me countless times, so I've got it down pretty good. I wish the Skin modifier just had a Reset to Bind Pose button.

tigerheart

Thanks a lot. It's a bit crazy that there is no easier solution

coven

It's a good idea to freeze transforms on anything you plan on moving around on a character so it's easy to get back to a default pose. Of course if you have moved things before freezing the transforms, you won't be able to get back. 

Another option is to use the skin pose functions. You can find them here, but basically you would select the things that are driving your movement. Could be bones, control objects (helpers, shapes, etc..) and set as skin pose. Then you can assume skin pose. 
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2019/ENU/3DSMax-Manage-Scenes/files/GUID-9F79F01E-6A81-4103-B415-B5E88BD279A3-htm.html

monster

@coven
Add my script above as a button the the skin modifier. And if you do let me know, because I have more scripts that should be integrated.

I recommend doing both. Freeze Transforms will help prevent gimbal lock. And in the Curve Editor it's nice that all the curves emanate from a value of 0.

Set Skin Pose saves the transform relative to the parent. So if your character does a cartwheel, Transform To Zero will un-cartwheel back to zero, but Assume Skin Pose will transform to the closest matching rotation of 360.

DavidCruz

Just tossing in my way i guess, I usually start at 1 and not 0 (for poses) so 0 is my default (how i started my rig, i.e. the T pose or pose that works for me.)