3ds Max: Bipeds and multipart characters

Nash

Hi, I have a character that is made up of more than 1 object (for example; hair, eyeballs, tongue, teeth, armour, shield, shoulder pads, etc).

I know how to rig a biped to a simple, single-mesh character no problem but I'm not quite sure about the above situation.

I figured at least for the shield, I can add it as a prop to the biped (not entirely done reading about this yet; just skimmed through the help files really quick and figured I can make use of this feature) but what about the others?

Or am I forced to attach all of the little parts into a single mesh before I begin rigging?

Eric Chadwick

Depends on if you're exporting to a game or not. Some exporters require all the meshes to be in a single mesh, others require the meshes to each use a Skin modifier to attach them to the bones, others might allow you to simply link a mesh directly to a single bone.

If you're not exporting, and you just want a certain mesh to follow a single bone exactly (like teeth model to follow the jaw bone), then just link it directly.