Rigging a game character using Biped and Skin in 3ds max

topics:
preparing the mesh
creating the biped structure
posing and creating a test animation
setting up the skin modifier
adjusting envelopes
adjusting vertex weights
symmetrical rigs

[@Borgscan]

This is the best skinning tutorial I've seen. Even the paid ones I've seen from the likes of Digital Tutors and several others tend skip the advanced techniques of skinning. They just show the assigning of weights etc and move on. Thanks for this!

[@alnunezii9101]

Mike, you did a great job explaining all the concepts, tools, and tips to get started with rigging. I have searched for a while and I'm very happy I came across your video. Thanks for the help.

[@libo2000]

I listened to a friend and applied the physique modifier, then listened to another friend and added the skin modifier. After about 2-3 hours of head scratching your video finally showed me your not supposed to have both switched on, I totally thought 'physique' was for setting up the body with the skeleton and 'skin' was to do the whole colour thing. Cheers dude. Ive been such a muppet but least i solved it finally.

[@bluemosquedesign]

The best tutorial on this. The first one that has taught me how to rig a character. Thank You! I've tried dozens of times unsuccessfully, but your method worked for me.

[@PrometheusV]

Dude that tutorial was the bomb! I was getting through endless 3 hrs tutorials of every single step, and you summed it up real nice and for dummies like me.

[@SandersKevideo]

Amazing tutorial, thank you so much. I'm still quite a newbie to all of this, but it was real easy to follow and understand. I'll sure check out more of your videos.

[@chap1400]

Thank you very much! I think it's great that you tell us that you're not incredibly experienced and at the beginning of the tutorial you state which modifier you'll be using (Only person I've seen to do this!) and the whole tutorial was clear and explained well. Thanks again =)

[@badbiffa2]

Mike...brillaint tutorial....animating the biped like you have show has made it 100 times easier to do....cant believe I hadnt thought of doing that...also didnt know you could resize the evelopes size slightly if needed...very very helpful. Thanks for uploading.

[@AbbyGoldsmith]

This is an excellent tutorial. Thanks very much! To other viewers: Skinning starts at 14:36.

[@W0ND3RB0Y1]

You saved me some hours mate.. Much appreciated.! :) A little note.. You should probably know this now anyway, given the date of the upload.. But if you click Ctrl + Alt and use left/right mouse button you can scroll on the timeline instead of going into the Time Configuration settings.. Left mouse button adjusts the left side of the timeline and right mouse button the right respectively.. Just remember to hold Ctrl + Alt at the same time as the left/right mouse button.. :)

[@lull4h4rsh]

Wow!!! I did not need to edit envelope or something useless. I only needed to add a skin modifier. Thanks!

[@sleepvertigo]

Best rigging video I have seen on youtube. Well done Mike. I have subscribed.

[@Toe3de]

One of the best tutorials I've seen, perfect!

[@AngelOf1000]

Thanks for this video really helped me out, as an environment artist (I needed to rig a character for a game jam) this was really helpful, and you've earned my subscription.

[@nacs]

Perfect tutorial! It made rigging my character so much easier! Thank you for making it

[@kurotatsu11]

Excellent. I enjoyed this, and it helped me get started in max 2013. Thanks for taking the time.

[@karleclaire]

Thanks so much for this tutorial! I finally understood how envelopes work.

[@Larrythebassman]

Visually easy to, follow along. tools selection explained in depth good one

[@NyaruTheMaid]

Big thanks. It really useful. I'm always try to escape work with the rigging, cause I always think that is too hard. But now I realize that it easy enough. Once again thank you.

[@dimacondratiy3827]

у меня на столько юзэфул, что персонаж превращается в кентавра после движения ногой

[@CraftyReaper]

Thanks for this, I have watched several videos on the subject and read a few books too. None of which covered the subject quite this well. I don't think many mentioned figure mode, or used a quick animation to help locate problems. What would be nice to see is the next few steps it would take to get a character like this up and running in say UDK or Unity.

[@ANaz92]

What an excellent tutorial. Just amazing! Very helpful, well explained and well done. Thank you very much for this tutorial, it work perfectly

[@Dephesmo18]

Thanks for the demonstration and explanation - can partially apply this in gmax!

[@Khether0001]

I always have trouble skinning the shoulders, specially when the arms go up as in diving into the water or reaching to the sky... Excellent tutorial. Thank you!

[@SuperCollegeBROS]

Where you said the scaling thing goes wonky. if you change the view with the drop down menu on the top bar to "Local" it scales the shape by how it looks :) Awesome tutorial though thanks alot! :D

[@JordanThomasRichards]

Good video! Made a useful recap on what I was supposed to do 4 weeks ago at uni. :D

[@abainbridge89]

you are an absolute legend, use a lot of video's as does my uni tutor after I mentioned how good they are!

[@Lindy_Enalya]

19:00 "So that's a little confusing to get your head around" - I see what you did there :> Thanks for this, it really helped me.

[@PlayvilleStudios]

Really helpful tutorial! Thanks Mike for sharing this with us!

[@Tiviat]

Also, stack selection would also make it crash in a heartbeat. Like if you accidentally go too far down the stack and sometimes 3DSMax doesn't care, and sometimes it will crash. So,, maybe it's just the way Max uses memory..

[@michaelzh3959]

This is f**ing f**ing useful, especially after 15 mins. Thanks, dude~~!!!!!!

[@AndresWalsh]

The reason why the biped objects are scaling "wonkey" is because he should be scaling in Local mode, not View mode.

[@judywardify]

Thank you so much. You have helped so much showing us this. I know our class thanks you too.

[@lynnlek]

Great video. Wonderful model. Thank you for the good work.

[@Rainec777]

Thank you so much, I forgot to take notes for some of this in class.

[@marvluebke]

Keep coming back to this video, really helpfull! Thanks :D

[@soronefabrik1]

very useful, lots of tips and to the point. thx!

[@DeepDroid0]

Awesome tutorial! Thank you

[@sepnax]

For what you used that weight table, I think it is easier to use the weight tool which is the wrench icon next to the weigh table icon.

[@pnshr38]

Thanks for watching ? Thanks for watching ? Seriously man !! I should thank you for saving my life !!..Thank you ..!!

[@mieuxmoonen]

Very cool model!

[@mogtabii]

oh man the memories

[@aminochoas]

Thank you! This is was concise and quite helpful!

[@LeaningSycamore]

You the man! thanks! My Black Mask model from Batman Arkham Origins for GTA4 will be fantastic thanks to you! 10/10*

[@NightOwl79a]

thanks for this man, Helped me with understanding skinning so much.

[@dagored100]

wow thaths a great video and very clear.. many thanks

[@neptune8645]

Thanks mate!! Really appreciate how you explained this, I’m glad I found your video (:

[@JustinShaedo]

Brilliant video! massive respect

[@moonyeah4560]

Don't work for me... when i put my biped into my character model and when im going to add bones with skin modifier i don't have anything showing...

[@reeceyfezza]

Very informative. You should do a character modelling tutorial.

[@craigharkins5341]

Great!! Helped me with my College course. Thanks Man!!

[@SanctuaryOfTheHeart]

EXCELLENT tutorial ! Thanks for this!

[@Tiviat]

3DS Max is a VERY strange application, and mostly when things crash in Max, it has to do with being in use for quite a while. Firstly, you should hope that you saved your work first. Secondly, if Max starts to act strangely, save your work, and restarting Max completely seems to considerably cut down on frequent crashes but not cut them out completely. 32-bit versions of Max are just as strange...not just the 64-bit versions.

[@DaRkPlUm]

Once again, you prove yourself to be my life saver. Thanks :)

[@shamsmehdi3725]

i cant appreciate this enough. THANK U MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@thibaultcarabasse9608]

thank you for the help !great tutorial !and one new subscriber !

[@artyomukhov346]

Thank you very much, bless you!

[@Baas-je]

Great tut, thanks :)

[@tonne8029]

How do i rigg on point, when the skin has multiple layers, lets say it has trousers,a vest and a coat. How can i pin point my rigging without mixing everything else in it?. Is it possible to isolate and seperate whilst i rigg? them seperately?

[@moonhud]

Superb!

[@Alternus]

Setting the scale mode to "Local" will fix the problem of the scale axis being wonky

[@Macedosti]

i know that's from 2011 but, i can turn the skeleton for dummys or delete them?

[@mrsaprem]

Hey, Thanks Mike!...really awesome tutorial :)

[@mayura9875]

is the cloth and other accesories part of the body as one object or its separated?

[@tunaroll3957]

thanks a lot Mike, great tutorial!

[@HikikomoriDev]

Man... Been editing a biped for hours on a custom character :( time intensive.

[@jimbojim3137]

Great tutorial, thank you.

[@bringerofhavok]

Little gem thing... It's called a cube...

[@jozseflaszlo7445]

I select my envelope but my blendweights aren't showing up on the faces, just some colored vertices, and I toggle the "Show colored faces" in vain. Also when I have my envelope selected I try to paint the weights but they only work on specific vertices :( why is all this happening?

[@HugoFilipeNogueiraFerro]

Thanks a lot. This is perfect.

[@vonderstroy]

Thanks a million. Very useful.

[@RebusMoebius]

You've made my day, thanks!

[@CommanderCraft]

hey just a quick question if you would know why when i am trying to change the weights why it only shows the color on the vertices and not the faces?

[@klinkof]

I got an unusual shape of envelope capsule using skin modifier, you know, it pretty flat and tall, not radial shape. Can you give me advise why it happened and how to fix it? Thank you in advance.

[@grandiozny]

Thank you.

[@stascrash]

Thanks a lot Mike, very useful!

[@angryjungles]

Very helpful thanks

[@jamesandydouce8386]

nice tutes... thank you

[@peterbill2526]

hey, I wanna rig my warmachine model, and it have attached objects like its guns and armor, can I still rig it using this way ususally? Or this will not work with attached and group objects?

[@endrewsumampouw1173]

+william phieter cie willi niat

[@SuchetB]

Ive rigged my character perfectly but I just realised I gave it a male skeleton instead of the female skeleton it was supposed to have - can I change the sex of the rig skeleton after its rigged?

[@chriscastaneda4991]

the gem thing" is called Center Of Mass

[@AxelThree]

This video helped me a lot, Thank you! :)

[@hannaeek]

Excellent tutorial! It really helped me a lot :) I was wondering if you would be willing to share that test animation? Thanks in advance!

[@valdurtan]

thanks for this amigo, exellent tutorial !!!!

[@paulh2656]

hey mike. quick question. when i adjust the biped for animation using autokey everything works perfect except for the legs and head, they dont act in the same way as arms, hands etc. can you tell me what im doing wrong? for example if i move a foot into the air at say frame 60 it starts to move slowly all the way from frame 0 not from the frame 60. many thanks if you can help me out.

[@leodaza3]

I am encountering one problem while animating my model. When I rotate the forearm, it rotates the upper arm as well, which results in some unrealistic rotations, and makes it impossible for me to rotate my arm in the way i desire. Is there a way to make the upper arm stop rotating based on the forearm? I have tried googling it but just can't seem to find the answer. BTW, excellent tutorial! :P

[@luizfelipeduarte8752]

How can I make the Gizmo follow the Object Xyz and not the World Xyz?

[@pecavallo]

It was a very useful and practical tutorial but you should whisper and mumble a little less, sometimes it is infuriating. Thanks nonetheless! I enjoyed it overall.

[@xXProjectSupernovaXx]

Great video! Thanks a lot mate :)

[@mimilovesfish6277]

Thank you for a wonderful lesson

[@sr212787]

I go to add bones and only some show up, not all. I don't know what to do and searching google isn't helping. Great video tho :)

[@prashanthbhogaraju2944]

Do you have this model to be used for practicing rigging or animating?

[@mpickton37]

I've never tried rigging it as several objects before but I expect it would work using a skin modifier which is shared among several objects. give it a go i suppose?

[@glitch2424]

thanks for the helpful tutorial man

[@ANG4AlbNextGen]

Ok, Total polys in the left-top 3dsMax i know what it is, but what is the "Final 9k" beside and where can i find it?

[@alecmartelle]

Thanks! This video helped a lot!

[@mm-hl7gh]

great video! thanks !!

[@DennisSabino]

How do I get the (set the skin pose 3d max) and use the normal mode?

[@Jamestee92]

Thank you

[@7universes]

when I skin and click edit envelops the whole selection is solid red, there is no yellow or blue even if I resize the outter envelop, always only red. what am I doing wrong?

[@Historique12]

Thanks