I am attempting to convert my Max rigged birds into iClone rigged birds.

The birds use a non-standard bone rig (that is, rigs I have created not BiPed) and of course it has no hands but has feet with 4 toes each... and they rely heavily on using morphs for phonemes and wing folding etc

I find that I can export from max (via the iClone plugin) or I can export via FBX and bring into 3DXchange - But once turned into an avitar, the bones work to deform the mesh (no IK though), but I have no morphs, because I cannot “Characterize” my model.

All the bones and morphs are apparent in 3DXchange, I just need to get them into the final Avatar.

Are you familiar with a method (or can you direct me to web tutorials) that can clarify this process form me.

I appreciate any guidance you can provide.

Here are two tutorials that deal with skeletons that are "non-standard", and so take a bit more than a single click to convert.

Basically, if you want HumanIK then you must convert to non-standard. You need 15 bones to accomplish that.

Thank you for the video tutorials, I will attempt them.

I have attached 2 images detailing my rig.

On the upper body there is a "shoulder", "Upperarm" and "forearm" bone (no "hand")

For the feet, there is a "foot" (bone) and the assorted toe (bones).

Would you suggest:
that I add an unused bone for the 'hand' on the upper body...
and for the lower body...
Just choose the 'foot' and ignore the toes (so far as characterizing is concerned)?

r189

You have plenty of bones already in the proper hierarchy. Remember you only need the 15 that make up the basic humanoid.

Assign the root bone of your skeleton as the hips. It is alright to skip over bones in a chain as well. This effectively makes the skipped bone an extension of the previous bone. Makehuman skeleton has extra bones in the arm, so I do that a lot.

make the last bone of the arm that has mesh weighted to it your "hand". Don't bother with fingers for this.

Only bother with the toes if they match "Human" toes. In the human iClone avatars, all the toes are weighted to a single bone (It's the little gray diamond in front of the foot in the characterization panel).

Extra bones can be assigned as "extra" and can be animated, or they can be assigned as spring so that they will bounce with the avatar's motion. Note that springs "spring", but are not affected by gravity. The spring is often used to make the female avatar's breasts bounce.

Thanks

Your information is extremely helpful, I will give it a go tomorrow.

many thanks

Here is an example of using 'xtra bones over and above the rig requirements...

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Thanks for the vid on extra bones...

However, I am still having issues with the basic set up.

I have tried the above set up based on the 2 vids ‘Tutor’ provided links to. and there are two issues I need to overcome.
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1) I have a bird model, the "characterization" bends the knees in the wrong direction for a bird (right for a humanoid)

So, can this be overcome?
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2) The morph targets: I have morphs that are in no way related to the finite set that iClone allows you to set up.

I have wing folding and tail opening and feather spreading... etc Is there no way to add in and name your own custom Morph targets?
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3) Finally, if I cannot solve issue #1 (for a bird Model) I can at least bring it in with the bones active (but no IK)...

If I do this, then How can I also import a list of Morph targets for a user to apply?

Here's a tutorial on full body morphing that Warlord did. You might get some ideas from it. Just because the morphs are applied in the expression editor, doesn't mean they have to be facial only! You'll notice that there are some custom morph options that you set to mouse motions.

Bird knees are an issue. Can you rig it such that the "knee" is rigged as the ankle, and the foot as the toes?

The knee/ankle thing is an intriguing idea, let me give it a shot.

thanks

OK, the Knww/Ankle swap during mapping does what I need it to do... Thanks
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However, There is now an issue with the morph maps.

I mapped them as outlined in the Warlord video. But when I import the Characterized model and preview the morph/mouse movements, the morphs do not move to 100%.

During facial puppet set up I map the mouse motion to 100% of the morph I desire (ie Wing folding).

Back in iClone6 I get into face pupet mode, select custom and (in this case) Jaw and then preview.

When I drag the mouse the wings fold to about 80% and will go no further.

Is it possible in set up to tell the morph to go beyond 100% (I could not find such a thing)?
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I do wish that iClone would allow for a list of morphs to be picked from... it would be less elegant, perhaps, than the mouse animation, but would allow for a great deal more flexibilty in morph animations.