Topic: [Blender] import 3DS Max Biped (*.bip)

[kat]

Problem
The Biped, or *.bip, object often used to animate characters in 3DS Max is proprietary to 3DS Max and not currently available to any other application outside one or two other offerings from Discreet. This can be an issue when there's a need to import Biped animated characters into other applications because there is no equivalent - they just don't support the data format or object type.

Solution
To import Bipeds into Blender they need to be converted into a format Blender understands. Basic mesh, material, texture and UVW map data can be brought into Blender using the *.obj, *.dfx format where models are not animated, or alternatively using *.dae,  *.fbx or *.md5 when animation import is required.

Caveats
Due to the nature of Biped objects as well as for skeletons or other 'rig' structures in particular, export from Max to a third-party format like MD5 may result in loosing some of the more complex relationship between bones or control surfaces - the loss of IK or FK control points for example, or that skeletal structures may be converted to meshes, essentially wiping out any meaning as to what the objects were originally in Max, or that bones and their respective relationship may be orientated incorrectly and/or rotate around a different set of axis points. Generally speaking this would all require the skeleton to be rebuilt for compatibility or to at least resemble the functionality of the original Biped.

With this said however, depending on the version of Blender used it is possible to export a Biped to several different formats and then reconstruct the rig in Blender; exporting the Biped as an *.obj to acquire the mesh structure, then *.dae to acquire the skeletal and bone relationship data, both of which can then be linked to form a functional representation of the Biped (when doing this be aware of potential issues with Copyright, using propitiatory data in other applications).