convert biped to bones?

Hito

Is there a way to convert biped to max objects so they'll behave like bones? ie access to curve editor and be able to use set-key as well as auto-key? All without reskinning the mesh?

Mark Dygert

Why not use biped how it was meant to be used? With pose to pose animation using the copy/paste poses to set your major keys? There is so much you can do with biped it would be a shame to give all that up just so you can use the standard max curve editor. Especially when Biped has its own curve editor called workbench found in the biped menu > Biped Apps rollout. Its almost identical to the normal max curve editor however it also deals with all the advanced features biped has access too. You can right click a key and adjust its curve info, adjusting its to and from weights and even adjusting the tension to flatten them out.

Biped also has a "set key" option in the key info rollout. One thing I like to do is turn on the angle snap and if I need a key set but I don't actually want the biped piece to move on that key, I rotate that piece 5degrees one way and 5 degrees back, so its Zero, but sets a key anyway.

It boggles my mind why people want to use biped but don't want to "use it".

but I digress... Tools > SnapShot will allow you to copy the biped pieces which they will retain their shape and pivot but all IK will be lost along with any skinning info, they won't be "bones objects" but there is nothing special about bones other then they are called bones and have fin parameters. Technically you can use any object as a bone including the newly copied biped pieces.

Eric Chadwick

You can also export to FBX, which converts everything to bones and keeps the skin weights. But it's all FK. Probably better to use workbench.

robioto

I forget what version they started this in, but if you're using a current version of max 9 - 2008 you can change the rotation solvers on the biped from quaternion to euler, that is if you're talking about using tangent weights in the curve editor.

That seems to be most people's beef with using biped, not having weighted tangents because of the quaternion rotation solvers, you won't get gimble lock with quaternions if that's an issue for you, so there is that benefit to staying with the default biped setup among the other cool things that vig mentioned.

Hito

thanks. a simple "no" would have sufficed.