Dealing with character rigged for MAX CAT

akmerlow

So, i have a model, and it's initially made for 3ds Max and it's CAT rigging system, but vendor also provided OBJ version which i can import into DAZ. So when importing, i notice that skeleton parts are there, for body movement and facial (those small cubes) mimics. So, is there a way i can use that skeleton for DAZ rigging? I never rigged anything yet, so it's serious question. But i suppose it would be less difficult using those bones instead of, let's say, if model didnt have any. Also, i don't have max (last time i used it at university on lessons), so idk if there are converters or not of rigging.

FSMCDesigns

Are the bones connected to the mesh and can you pose any parts? Sometimes rigging comes in but it's not connected to the mesh.

usually no other rigging works in DS, even FBX, so unless this is a miracle, i would plan on having to rerig it in DS format.

akmerlow

When i import FBX (which also there as provided alternative), i don't get any bones at all. At least with obj version there are those bones, but i see them only in materials and not in scene (i need somehow ungroup obj when importing?), so i can't pose anything.

So it's possible to rerig while referring to those bones ? And how's difficult is process usually (i guess that you are attaching such bones to number of polyfaces of model for control)?

Thanks

Richard Haseltine

akmerlow said:

When i import FBX (which also there as provided alternative), i don't get any bones at all. At least with obj version there are those bones, but i see them only in materials and not in scene (i need somehow ungroup obj when importing?), so i can't pose anything.

So it's possible to rerig while referring to those bones ? And how's difficult is process usually (i guess that you are attaching such bones to number of polyfaces of model for control)?

Thanks

Those are not bones, theya re surface groups. You probably also have face groups, but they don't usually show in the UI (they will be listed in the Tool Settings pane with the Geometry Editor active). Bones are nodes parented to a figure which show in the Scene pane - the bones with a bone icon, the figure with a stack of boxes icon. An OBJ will not import with bones.

akmerlow

Ah, that explains why i only saw them in surfaces. So i will have to be creating actual bones in same sizes and places as those things?

edit:

Also, if i import fbx i get following error

And while i begin seeing "bones" in scene tab, they (as expected) don't move anything of mesh, and even appear in wrong coordinates (or it looks like that), and don't have surfaces at all.

WendyLuvsCatz

You could possibly use those groups in legacy rigging 

I even have done that with named bodyparts dragged it into the figure setup and arranged them into a hierarchy