I’ve been trying to figure out how to make the shin guard so when the leg bends, it moves with it, but doesn’t bend with it.  Like metal normally would.  The top of the shin guard is supposed to stick up a little above the shin, so I can’t just attach it.  I’m also going to have to do it to the armor on his thigh.  Anyone have any basic idea on how to do this, I have absolutely no idea anymore, so any idea helps…

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So my one problem just turned into four… I tried to rig the armor pieces together with a biped and a physique modifier to see if they bent less and it seemed to work.  Unfortunately, they still bend a little.  In the first spot, the armor thing is bending a little and I don’t know why.  In area two, they one of the spikes seems to be affected by the upper joint.  And in spot three, there’s a random black spot.  I also need to figure out how to to make it so the armor does the same movement as the character when I rig him separately.  Is there any way to attach the two bipeds together and have them do the same movements, but affect different objects?

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Cant you just simply link the armor to the bones? Physique and skinning is mainly for what it sounds, its for skin so that it bends and stretches. Im building a robot and plan on simply linking the metal parts to bones, this will not bend them at all.

"If I see that damn teapot one more time....”

3ds Max 6.5 - Max 2012
Windows 7 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.13 GHZ
64-Bit, 8 GB RAM

Video Card: Galaxy GeForce 210 (Nvidia)

My Website: http://drmoore3d.com

Well… that was easier than I thought… Thanks for the fast reply.  Is there also any easy way that I can have the bones match the biped movement?  Or should I animate the model using bones I made or something else?

If your going to make him walk, stay with biped, if your just going to pose him for stills, then use bones.

Its been awhile since I messed with a biped. I would look up in max tutorials with a keyword search of bones and/or biped and the answer should be in there somewhere.

"If I see that damn teapot one more time....”

3ds Max 6.5 - Max 2012
Windows 7 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.13 GHZ
64-Bit, 8 GB RAM

Video Card: Galaxy GeForce 210 (Nvidia)

My Website: http://drmoore3d.com

I’m going to have to animate him for a short film I’m doing, so I guess I’ll use the biped.  And again, thanks for all the help.

It is not hard to get bones follow biped. Use position and orientation constraints. Setup can be guite big job with out script.

Would I have to connect each bone to the biped piece one by one or is there a faster way?

Forget completely about a separate bone system for the armor; delete it if you have it.  Just Link each piece of armor to the corresponding Biped bone.  The armor will remain rigid but will move with the Biped bone.

Bruce Hammond
e-nimation.com
Peterborough, NH USA

Max8-32 SP3, Max9-32 SP2, WinXP

AWESOME!  Thanks bhnh, everything works perfect now.  Though it looks like I’m going to have to remodel the leg so it doesn’t cut into the armor and whatnot.

Khriis 18 March 2008 08:43 PM

it looks like I’m going to have to remodel the leg so it doesn’t cut into the armor and whatnot.

You may be able to avoid that by adjusting the position of the armor on the leg.
- create a small animation of the leg flexing
- turn off animation mode (i.e., uncheck Auto Key or Set Key, whichever you’re using)
- scrub the timeline slider to the frame where the leg is breaching the armor
- select the armor piece, then go to Command Panel > Hierarchy > Adjust Pivot > Affect Object Only
- tweak the position of the armor until the breach no longer exists
- scrub again to make sure you haven’t created a new breach
- uncheck Affect Object Only (easy step to forget, but very important)

Depending on how much distortion the leg goes through during animation and how roomy the armor is, this could well solve the problem.

Bruce Hammond
e-nimation.com
Peterborough, NH USA

Max8-32 SP3, Max9-32 SP2, WinXP