How to Build 3ds Max CAT Rig With Root Bone For Unreal And Other Game Engines

Download this wolf 3D model at: www.miloscerny...
What is root bone and why to use it? Learn how to properly set up a CAT rig with a root bone for various game engines. After watching this tutorial you will be able to create any 3ds max rig for unreal or any other game engine.
3ds Max CAT (Character Animation Toolkit) is an animation system inside Max that offers a lot of useful features.
If you are interested in CAT and why is it (in my opinion) better then biped or regular max bones, be sure to subscribe to the channel or watch other videos and tutorials I have already posted.
****
Subscribe here: goo.gl/XCeaKd
****
****
Patreon: / miloscernyanimation
****
****
Download stuff for free on my website: www.miloscerny...
****
Join my discord channel to be part of our community or to contact me personally, about anything (it has over 100 people already):
Discord: / discord
Facebook: / miloscernyanimation
Twitter: / miloscernyanim
PayPal: www.paypal.com...

[@StevenatorPC]

Please never delete this off of KZbin, it helps me every week haha

[@conatcha]

For those whose model gets broken when linking the pelvis to the root, try this: First put Cat in Setup Mode. Select the pelvis and in Hierarchy -> Bone Hierarchy -> Inheritance, unselect the "Animation Mode" checkboxes and also the "Setup Mode" checkboxes. Create the new bone, unlink it from the pelvis, set its location and also its rotation to (0,0,0) and then re-link the pelvis to the root.

[@cicko10]

Should these options be turned on again? When the root bone is connected and zero out.

[@conatcha]

@@cicko10 Nope. I never turned them on again in my animations. That makes possible that the root bone and the pelvis can move independently.

[@cicko10]

@@conatcha Thanks a lot .😀😀😀😀😀

[@cassidyphan8027]

Just for anyone having problems. There is a built in Root motion call Motion Extract Node. All you have to do is select the cat base (The triangle that starts the whole rig thats on the floor) open the modify tab and click the button that says "Motion Extraction Node" Just keep in mind that if you have cat motion open the window will close when you hit play. I animate my walks with the motion extract node off and when I'm ready to export I turn it back on through the modify tab.

[@conatcha]

When "Motion Extraction Node" is on, it breaks the animation and it can't be exported like this.

[@cassidyphan8027]

@@conatcha It depends on how the pelvis is set up before you start animating. I've run into the issue a few times myself.

[@AlanAC22]

This the only video showing this in the whole internet, and only has 534 views xD. Was pretty hard to find. Thanks for the tutorial.

Well, what can you do :D. Maybe someday it will be viewed/spread more hehe.

[@MerryMac1000]

I've followed this step-by-step, put it in 0.25 speed and made sure I press and do exactly as you do, but when I load my animations back to my CAT Rig with the added root bone, my pelvis helper jumps to the floor and wrecks my mesh. What can I do?

[@chcady3018]

Very useful information Sir. I thoroughly appreciate the time you take to create these tutorials.

[@JoshPurple]

Absolutely fantastic! Thank You :) ! HUGE amount of respect to you for the amount of troubleshooting and problem-solving you have done on your own, -outstanding!

[@mannychop]

this is great info...I didn't think people were still using the CAT system. I'm going to watch the rest of your CAT videos :D thanks!

[@silentboof]

Hi Milo. Why not linking the pelvis to a non-cat- object? let's say a dummy or a point helper! I did it and the walk cycle of motion layer did not break without collapsing it to an Abs layer! I haven't tested it out in Unreal, but the root bone is there as the top parent when I import it back to max! could you please verify this out?

[@igorrashkuev4119]

Great video, exactly the information I need now. Thanks!

[@theblacktiger59]

Same ! I found other way to get a root bone with cat, but I got issues with those. Thanks Milos !

[@OMG3Dmax]

thanks a lot, it gives me more productivity

[@maximevigneron560]

You're saving animators lives !

[@drausch2173]

Thank you for doing CAT videos! This has been lacking. Much appreciated!

[@juanmoremedia7247]

I really dislike 3ds Max, but I really, really liked this tutorial. Good job and thanks for sharing!

[@jpt7331]

u make the best CAT videos thanks a lot man

Thank You. Glad you like them.

[@Congressapproved]

These tutorials are great man. Keep it up!

[@monteestowes1245]

This was insanely easy to understand the process. Thank you!

[@jorisvanlaar]

Your CAT tutorials are the best, I use them as a cheat sheet every now and then when I'm in production. One question though, is there a reason why you've chosen to create a custom bone to be the root, and not to use the built-in Motion Extraction Node?

[@chunld]

Big Thanks !! This really help me a lot~!!

[@RoninMarionette]

Hi Milo, I cant get this to work?! Noticed your wolf is facing right when viewed from left, have you rotated the cat parent before doing this procedure? Thanks

[@Jiggy...]

PLEASE READ IF YOU'RE HAVING PROBLEMS: If your mesh is twisting and breaking when you link it to the root bone, do the following: 1. Don't create any kind of root bone, keep your CAT rig as it is normally. 2. Simply link the pelvis to the CAT Rig platform! It will still count as the ref bone in Unreal! Please spread the word!

[@leonsaladinkenaz7592]

is it also work in unity? when the wolf have forward animation, should i also animate CAT Rig platform forward along with the rig?

[@Jiggy...]

@@leonsaladinkenaz7592 I have never used Unity before so I cannot answer your question. Try it out and see what happens. I believe you may have to animate the platform, however I have not tried it myself.

[@viper-two-headed]

but this CAT Rig platform doesn't work as RootMotion in ue4. Ue4 makes simple bone. Do you know how to explain to ue4 that this platform is RootMotion? :) My animation always plays in place, even if the checkbox of RM is checked...

[@Jiggy...]

@@viper-two-headed I'm not sure if this method will work with root motion. However, I believe the initial problem (twisting pelvis when connecting to a newly created root bone) can be fixed by making sure you never rotate your pelvis when first creating your CAT rig. For all CAT bones, just don't rotate/twist them from their default position otherwise you'll have a huge headache later on when animating/mirroring/retargeting animations.

[@viper-two-headed]

@@Jiggy... Now I am taught by experience! Now I have a severe headache, I have been fighting with the animations in ue4 and CAT for several days haha Thanks for your reply!

[@wonderboy75]

Wouldn't you also link the IK targets to the Root bone? That way if you move the Root the whole rig will follow? This is how you would do it in a Blender controlling for example. That way you can transform everything from the root.

[@ambocc]

I'm a little new to this, but for sequencer, can I animate the character walk across the screen instead of in place? Then start a new animation clip at the last position of the last animation?

[@billywobbler1857]

THIS IS GREAT! THANK YOU!

[@soyleo_san]

i like your acent :3 i want you whispering to my ear every night before i sleep :T xD

[@j_may]

04:36...you can change the root bone for a different mesh...how do you do this? also what happens when the root bone is set to 0,0,0 but its angle is skewed (seeing as it was made from the copy of a rotated pelvis bone) is that still fine?

Yes. You can change shape of any CAT bone however you like, with Edit Poly modifier. I explain it more in detail here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5rVnWdjgtiBo5Y Editing the shape of the bone this way, doesn't affect any transformation values of that CAT bone. The pivot stays in exactly the same place as before with the same transformations.

[@leonsaladinkenaz7592]

Hi Milos, thanks for a great video. I have a question, should i also animate the root bone even if the rigs move forward a bit? for example the wolf have attack animation that it's body move forward a step and then back to original position. Thank you

[@magnusrexus]

can you a video where you have the same rig for different characters , a face rig, or a rig that has traditional spline controls

[@chitaetpavel]

Hi can you make a tutorial about how to make a mix with the CAT animation and Physics. Also how to make a wizzard holding the staff which is placed on the ground.

[@3dmaxers]

Hi, while i try to save retarget animation in CAT my 3dmax crash every time. Tried in 2015 and 2019. Can you suggest me something ?

[@jamiew4814]

When linking the pelvis to the new root bone my character completely deforms, character body twists 3 times on the Z axis and 90 degrees on the Y axis. When I tried fixing the issue by rotating the root bone my animations break as expected. Any reason to why this would be happening? thankyou

You should do this before you start animating, but if you didn't: Try unlinking the new root bone before linking pelvis to it. If that doesn't help, make sure you do it in Setup Mode, not Animation Mode. If that doesn't help and you already have an animation layer with some animation done, save this animation as a clip first. Then delete it and add the root bone. When you are done with root bone, load back the animation from the clip. It should work.

[@jamiew4814]

Fixed now, did all of these steps and it was still wasn't working. I had 5 different animations on local adjustment layers and I had to collapse them first as absolute layers before the root bone would work. Also on this video it would have been really helpful to see the hierarchy of the bones as you were linking and unlinking the root bone at start :)

[@theblacktiger59]

Same issue, and I have no animation yet. When I check pelvis absolute rotation (world) before doing anything, I see that CAT created the pelvis with rotation: x -180, y -90. After linking pelvis to root bone, big mess too and pelvis end up on the side, on the floor with it's rotation zero-out. No CTRL+Z would cancel that move. (gotta reload the file at every try) Is it to be expected that CAT create the pelvis with those rotation ?!

[@PlayingKarrde]

@@theblacktiger59 I'm having the same issue as you. Did you manage to figure this out?

[@theblacktiger59]

I couldnt get the pelvis rotation 0out. But the root bone yes, if I remember correctly I had to unlink the root bone, rotate it's pivot point, (maybe resetXform on it) then link the pelvis to it again.

[@theblacktiger59]

Awesome tip ! But, when I Zero-out the root bone after linking it, the pelvis end up laying on its side on the ground. Am I missing a detail ?

It should not move when you link it. Are you doing it in Setup Mode?

[@theblacktiger59]

When I link, the root bone rotate (as it does in your video as well), it is when I zero-out the rotation the second time, after linking, that the pelvis "follow" the root orientation and end up on the side and on the ground. In Setup mode yes. Will keep looking into it until I find something working. :)

[@conatcha]

@@theblacktiger59 I had the same problem. I solved it by zeroing the location and also the rotation of the root bone and unchecking the "Animation Mode" checkboxes and also "Setup Mode" checkboxes (Hierarchy section) before linking the bone to the pelvis.

[@gameswithhistory]

Thank you so much!!

[@borisstajic3965]

Hi Miloš, when I export a CAT rig to Unity the bones are visible. This didn't happen back in 3DS Max 2015 but it happens in all later versions. I've tried to use bone tools to set CAT bones to "Bone On" but didn't help. Do you know maybe how to export a CAT rigged character to Unity without the visible bones in the engine? Thanks. Great video by the way!

[@francoisneko]

Thank you for this clear tutorial ! Btw. Do someone know a place to buy game animations packs? Preferably cartoon casual style and even better easy ro transfer to cat ?

[@kittx3392]

Hey, i've just recently started learning bone animations for games, is it possible to have root bone that is higher in ierarchy than all other bones (so you move the root bone, and all other bones and entire skinned object move along with it), but all other bones can still move freely around the scene, so the root bone won't limit their movements? I'm asking that because I need to export animation file with root bone to be stationary at 0.0.0, and then i can distribute objects around the scene. If the root bone moves, and it's offset from 0.0.0 in the scene, the animation is broken in game.

Hey KittX. Yes you can do this. You have to do the same thing that is in the video (the whole process) just don't uncheck Inheriting of Parameters for the Pelvis. However, the setup you are trying to make is not very useful. Because if Root bone is above everything else in hierarchy, you will have problems when you will need to do animation moving in space. Like I showed with the Start Run animation in the video.

[@kittx3392]

Exactly this problem, actually. I need objects moving in space (say, flock of birds taking off from ground, do some flying and landing at the same place) and distribute this over the multiple places in the scene. In order to save some memory the animations are being exported separately from rigged mesh on the engine I'm working with. So the animation should be done at 0.0.0 for objects to distribute them properly. But if they are moving in space, it screws up. Thats why I am looking for a way for root bone to stay at 0.0.0, as it seems the engine is looking at root bone's offset from 0.0.0 and placing other bones accordingly to that.

Well, I am not quite sure I understand. Because it seems the thing you are saying you need is exactly in the video. The setup that is in the video enables you to move everything separately (Root bone can stay at 0,0,0 and animation of bones wherever you want). And Root bone is still the top bone in hierarchy.

[@c3d_ultra499]

Hey KittX, I recently encountered this problem too, but found a different fix that probably would have saved you a bunch of time. You have to change the pivot point and Align the axis of the root to be facing the same way as the bone you want the root bone to control. Otherwise the weird 90 degree twist will happen because when you unlink the bone, 3DS max resets the pivot point to align with the world space axis rather than the local object space axis, this cause the rig to twist due to the pivot point alignment axis not being the same for the two bones.

[@kittx3392]

this! Thank you, will check it asap.

[@evokelabs]

It's been two years since you've made this video. Do you still use this pipeline or have you found a better way?

[@evokelabs]

Nevermind, just saw your second latest uploaded video

[@StephaneCharre]

I've renamed the pelvis to root and UE4 goes with it. Don't know if it's okay though :-)

[@MultiBRETTER]

Great Video! I think I ran into this when I wanted to spin a Motion layer animated CAT by 360 °. Couldn't figure out how to twist the whole thing without messing up everything. Tried to build a box (root bone) to twist. Didn't really work. I'll try your solution and hope it does the trick 😊

You don't need a root bone to rotate a Motion layer. You have to collapse it into the Absolute layer and then you can rotate it with transform gizmo. Motion layers are basically just for procedural animation. When you want to do something with the layer itself, you should collapse it into the Absolute one.

[@MultiBRETTER]

Wow man! Thx 4 the quick reply. :D you're awesome! That's driving me more to try it out right now in the middle of the night 😊 but: that didnt work 4 me: I have 1 CAT layer and 3 adjustment layers. collapsing is still keeping all layers but having one extra ABS layer with a messed CAT (Head is sitting on legs etc.) which can't be spinned or turned as a whole (every bone and IK target is twisting independantly) either its too late at night, or I'm missing sth. btw : Love the motion graphics in your presentations.

Collapsing always keeps all the previous layers. Collapsing takes everything you have in the layer stack and puts it into one Absolute layer with keys on every frame (or the Nth frame, however you set it up). When manipulating with the whole layer you can use "Layer Transform Gizmo", like I did here for example: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eJOXea1_eJ57mtkm5s

[@MultiBRETTER]

wow "Layer Transform Gizmo" seems good. havent tried that feature before. but again, my character can't twist for some reason with that. I love way you are trying the make people understand. Is there a way I can pay you for looking up my file and check what I did wrong? I checked the whole internet and now I am willing to pay like 20 bucks or sth to see how I can get through this...

Join my discord server if you want (discord.gg/kUQxSaJ). There you can contact me personally and join the community around this channel.

[@huoshige2]

Thanks for share , 能不能做一期关于蝴蝶的绑定教学 ，绑定翅膀，翅膀动画，sorry for my bad english!

[@musashidanmcgrath]

Interesting. I bring character rigged with CAT into UE4 all the time and I don't do any of this. UE4 recognises the pelvis as the root. As long as there aren't multiple hierarchies all should be good.

[@PlayingKarrde]

I realise this is an old comment but just for anyone coming across it, yes UE4 will read the pelvis as the root bone, but that's exactly what you don't want. You want your root to be at the character's origin (0,0,0). The pelvis is not that position. If you are driving your character via physics and allowing collision to dictate it not falling through the floor then you won't need to worry about this, but that is rarely the case. For most, a root bone is essential.

[@djinghiskhan9199]

Thanks for this. And it's a shame Autodesk is so useless and unsupportive (did I mention cheap)

[@OptimisticMonkey]

Thank you for your videos - they are awesome! BTW - For root motion with CAT, you can enable the Motion Extraction Node. This will enable a root node in hierarchy and automatically extract. If using CATMotion, in Globals make sure to use "Walk On Line". See example at kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqmpaHSBabqdg6s (I have successfully exported and used in UE, works great)

[@misterttr8821]

could u make a video about face that have root to anchor where are eyes, mouth ? that following this hierarchy: asset |__root | |__NOSE_TIP | |__FOREHEAD_RIGHT | |__FOREHEAD_LEFT |__facemesh

[@aladik2010]

1. Export CAT to fbx 2. Import fbx- !!! TADAM !!! CAT bones convert to regular bones. 3. Add helper- link Pelvis to helper, export to fbx (make shore to check "Bone On" for all bones & helper in Bone Tools menu). 4. DONE.

[@jay_tkb]

Milos solution wasn't working for me, still got the multiple roots error in UE4.27 This was a good solution and I didn't even have to create root helper. Unreal eats it no problem and animation is perfectly fine.