Help please :) - Character Animation

Hi All,

In my love for 3D and Warcraft 3 I've decided to make a character for it.

So far I've got a character with a texture and a stand animation. I've exported him and his in warcraft and working alright..

My problem is..

I'm using bones in him and skinning the mesh to the bones. (weights of the verts not anything to do with a texture). When I get him to warcraft I can see his bones animating but his mesh isn't moving with the bones.

So my question is.. Is it posable to use a skinned mesh? I looked at the rifle dude model and his cape looks like it would work with such a thing.. but I have no idea how to get it working..

Please help me

I'm using 3DStudioMax 4 and the Blizzard art tools for exporting.

"how can you see bones animating in Warcraft"
when I first exported my character I couldn't see the bones because I flagged them with the "User Property Editor" (Which comes with the blizzard art tools.) As Bones. (you might think duh) When I got the model into warcraft 3 I couldn't see any animation at all. So I changed the bones to "Mesh" In the user property Editor and Re-Exported. Then in game I could see the bones animating but the body wasn't.

I have a stand animation with a start and end frame with Track notes as it says to do.

I read that you can use boxes as bones as well so my rig at the moment is a mix of bones and boxes.

The way I'm rigging my character is using the "Skin" Modifier in Max 4. Works all good in the view port.. just nothing in warcraft 3. (or the preview that comes with the art tools).

I hope thats enough information.

help please

i am not totally new at animating, yet no pro, did you set the right control types?

like tcb turning and linear position?

yeah, like I said the animation on the bones work in warcraft 3. Just the mesh rig won't follow the bones.

warcraft 3 does not support skin or physique modifier. You have to split the mesh into body part chunks (upper arm, arm, hand, upper leg, etc.) and link them to the bones. The engine will automatically fill the holes and looks like it's skinned.

Thanks for that TDR, I took a better look though some tuts and worked that out a few hours ago. I'll have to post some pictures soon.. have the stand animation done. walk animation next..

Thanks again :)