So, I’ve rigged a CAT character in 3dsMax2013 and used the send to MoBu feature to send the fella to MotionBuilder.  About 95% of the time, when I apply that test “punch” animation to the character, he winds up with his arms all crossed.  As though he wasn’t in a T-Pose to begin with.  But the thing is.  He IS in a T-Pose.  Or at least it really looks like a T-Pose to me.

There is SO little documentation or help for dealing with CAT within MoBu, particularly in 2013 where we have these almost great interoperability features. 

Basically, I’m just wondering if there’s some sort of trick involved.  Because I’ve made it work ONCE so far.

Do animation layers play a role here?  Here’s why I ask.

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I modeled, rigged, and skinned my character in an M-Pose or A-pose, or whatever people want to call the arms down, a little away from the sides pose.  My understanding is that skinning in this pose is far superior to trying to skin in a T-pose where everything is all scrunched and crazy.

Next, I created a CAT animation layer, and on that layer, maneuvered my guy into a T-Pose.  From there, I “Send to MotionBuilder” and see my model and skeleton, looking all nice and T-Posey.  But when I apply that Punch.fbx sample file, boy does it act like an M-pose. 

So to troubleshoot my own question, I just put the guy into T-pose in Setup Mode as opposed to on an animation layer, and did the whole “Send To MotionBuilder” thing and it worked fine. 

I guess at this point, my question is… is there any work around to putting my Rig into T-Pose in setup mode?  Is there any way to get the animation layer pose into MoBu, or is that just not supported?