Tutorial 1: Exporting a 3ds Max Biped to Motionbuilder

Disclaimer: This guide was created by Reuben Fleming, a free-lance Animator and 3d Artist. Kinecthacks.com does not own this guide. Rather, by us sharing this in this in our website, we would like to share Reuben Fleming’s work to aid the Kinect community in better understanding the Motion Capture feature of the Kinect. Also, this move to feature his guide on our site is to give due recognition to creator of this guide. For more information about Reuben Fleming’s work, visit his website at http://www.reubenfleming.co.uk/

1: Before you begin make sure you set your Max units to centimetres. This helps to avoid any scaling issues between Max and Motionbuilder later on. (Customize – Units Setup…)

2: Create a Biped. (500cm high and positioned at 0.0 on the X and Y grid)

3: Enter figure mode and un-tick Triangle Pelvis. Remove fingers and finger links. These are not needed as there is no motion capture data for the hands or fingers. You can also set spine links to 3.

4: Pose your Biped in a T-Pose by rotating the arms up. (See below)

5: Exit Figure mode.

6: Rename your biped bones. (See below)

Important: Make sure you rename Bip01 to Hips. (Ignore the pelvis)

Important: Naming is case sensitive so pay attention to capital letters when typing

7: Export your scene as an FBX file

8: Save your Max scene (you will need this later) and then open your FBX file in Motionbuilder.