Is ther a rig and animation kit for 3ds max? and if not do you prefer to use maya with the rig and animation toolkit provided by Epic? Tryign to figure out the easiest and best way to do it
You don’t need to buy anything extra. 3ds Max already has some similar tools to the plugin that Epic has for Maya, so whatever program you choose it can rig and animate just fine. Including Blender, which is free, though from what I understand it’s not particularly simple to export from Blender to UE4 but it’s very easy using Maya and 3ds Max.
Hate to ask but you knwo of any tutorials showing me hwo to rig in 3ds max? I built a model finally cant figure out the rigging at all tried to use mixamo auto rigger but it doesnt work right for my character lol
Rigging is actually not that difficult, there’s default rigs available in 3ds Max like Biped and CAT (Character Animation Toolset)
Weighting, is more difficult, at least for me I’m not very good at weighting the mesh. I used Mixamo and it gave me better results than what I’ve been able to do. Ultimately it comes down to using the Skin modifier and learning how best to setup the weights so that things deform properly.
On my character when I upload to mixamo it has a bulge in the groin area wierdly. and the mixamo agent said its because the model has genetals but I erased the genitals and it is still doing the weird bulge thing lol Dont know what the heck is causing it now.
Rig in 3ds Max animate in Motion Builder = life is good.
We’ve switched from Blender to Maya LT.
There are many reasons, including that Maya has always been in production studios (a heck of a lot more than Blender anyways,) Maya has a lot of professional training solutions which you can adapt from the full version to the newer LT version.
We chose Maya LT over 3DS simply because of price, and while 3DS does have more of a toolset comparable to Maya (full) the LT version provides us with the modeling tools, the UV tools, texture tools, rigging tools and more that we need specifically for creating models for UE4.
I personally was using the Blender to UE4 plugin found elsewhere on this forum before I made the switch and I found it to be useful in setting the stage size, exporting and other features - in case you want to stick with Blender.
Odd question if anyone knows…
When I skin a mesh, it offsets the mesh a few feet in the air. The bones stay in place though. I thought it was a pivot issue, but that isnt it.
Any ideas?
When I get home, I’ll see if resetting the xform does anything. If not, its possible that export/import may fix it.
Did you just recently switch? If so how is the new Maya LT 2016? I am seriously considering the new Maya LT, but worried about the Poly restrictions for export. Over all it looks like it will do everything I need and make exporting to UE4 much smoother. Thoughts?
Maya LT has pretty good tools to rig and skin models already. If your model is a humanoid, humanIK is a good tool to use. Personally, I don’t use the unreal ART plugin because I can do everything without it. I think it might be more efficient to adapt to it, but I’m so used to my current animation workflow.
I would like to try Maya LT, but I’m dreading relearning a whole new controls system. I’ve grown quite comfortable with Blender and can model very quickly in it.
As soon as I learn Maya LT they’ll fix the importing problems with Blender LOL.
The Poly restrictions only apply to content that you export via the File>Export menu option. There is a File>Send to Unreal menu option that has no poly limit (as well as “Send to Unity” and “Send to Mudbox” menus in case you were curious).
Can’t give you many thoughts on LT 2016 as I’m still on 2015. The send to Mudbox option has to have an equivalent version of Mudbox (2016 Maya can only send to 2016 Mudbox, and Mudbox 2016 isn’t released yet).
We did recently switch to Maya and in fact started out using Maya LT 2016 when we subscribed! It’s a great program once you can get used to the Convoluted Maya Workflow, I have no problems using the models that we’ve created in Maya in UE4 now that I have a little more comfort using Maya LT.
I learned using some videos from InfiniteSkills based on Maya 2015 (not Maya LT, just Maya) and Videos on YouTube, although the InfiniteSkills videos helped the best. Maya 2015 and Maya LT 2016 are very similar in Modelling features.
If you can afford the training tutorials or have the patience to learn Maya 2015+ on YouTube, Maya LT is very similar to Maya 2015/Maya LT 2015.
We found it very difficult to find Maya LT 2016 tutorials online however adapted the Maya 2015 tutorials very well to Maya LT 2016!!
Oh my.
First thing I ever tried was 3DS, and although it was a good tool the interface seemed very inefficient to me. So then I went to Blender and have been using that since. But last night, I took advantage of the student license and got Maya LT…good lord it’s set up nicely. I should have looked into it sooner…sigh. And of course the first thing I import into Unreal goes in like a charm…
And the hotbox/right mouse button menu system is very slick. My primary concern was speed, but I think that won’t be an issue. I love how they have cleanly separated the Modeling/Rigging/Animation/Sculpting tabs and interface.
I think between that and the import working flawlessly, I’m convinced. BF has spent too much time sitting on their hands with export problems. Maybe if they make significant improvements I’ll reconsider but for now I’m going Maya since they’re generous enough to offer a student license.
BTW…I got the 2016 versions since…why not, I’m completely new to Maya. It’s crashed a couple times when I’ve imported my Blender file into it to see how hard it was going to be to port it over…but no surprise really. I love Blender but it’s got its shortcomings.
Plus they have sculpting tools in Maya 2016 LT
the new version of maya has some of the good stuff i miss from max (since i have to use maya for my job) like the in viewport slider options when extruding or bevelling etc