Adding Motion Capture Files in 3DS Max PDF Print E-mail

Motion Capture (Mocap) allows you to animate 3D characters by using the motions of real actors. An actor is recorded performing some action (e.g. dancing, walking) by a motion tracker (e.g. those developed by Vicon). The 3D position of the joints is recorded between 100 and 500 times a second and each of these recordings, for each limb or joint can be saved to a file. To animate a character in 3DS you must first rig it with a biped system. This tutorial shows you how to assign a mocap file to a biped in order to animate it.

This tutorial shows you how to assign a mocap sequence to a biped. These bipeds are usually placed within a 3D character in order to make it move. To see how to rig a character go to our rigging tutorial. Here we dispense with the character itself and concentrate on the biped.

3DS loads 3 types of mocap file: BIP, BVH and CSM. Bip is the native 3DS format for storing limb rotations. BVH format is a proprietary format for BioVision data. CSM stores the raw position of markers used in motion capture.


Create a Biped
  • If your character has already been rigged with a biped select the character mesh and hide it, otherwise
    Click on the Create tab, and go to the Systems button. Click on the Biped button.
  • In the front viewport, click and drag to create a Biped next to your character.
  • Click on the Motion tab on the top right close to the Create tab.


Assign a Motion Capture File
  • Select Bip01 (or any other bone) from the biped
  • Make sure Figure Mode is Off (stick figure is not shown in blue) in the Parameters panel, Biped Section
  • Scroll down to the Motion Capture Section and click Load File and navigate to the location of your mocap file.


  • The conversion parameters popup can be used to configure the mocap data to your biped.
  • Click OK to accept the defaults
  • The file data will be assigned to the respective limbs and you will select keyframes for these on the timeline.
  • Run the animation.


Saving BIP Files
  • If you make changes to the animation and want to save these in a BIP file go to the Biped Section of the parameters panel and select Save.