import fbx file with multiple animations to 3ds Max?

[jernaben]

Hello. Another question. How do I import an fbx file that has multiple animations in it. When I try to import, I can see the animations but I can only choose to import one of the animations with the model. Only thing I've found is an old script named "ActorX importer", but I dont think it imports fbx models.

[jon.bell]

Hellow,

Please note that you can only import a single .FBX animation file at a time when you do an .FBX import into 3ds max. However, here's a trick:

1. Go to File > Import > Import, and import your first Box01 file and "Up_Animation" tracks into 3ds max.
2. Next, go to File > Import > Merge, select "All Files" at the bottom of the menu, and select your Box.fbx object. When the FBX Import menu appears, select the "Side_Animation" track and click on OK.
3. A second copy of the Box01 object appears in your scene, with the side-to-side movement. You can then re-save this 3ds max scene with both merged objects (and rename them as necessary.)

Please let me know if these suggestions work for you, and if you have any other technical support questions, I'll be happy to assist you.

Best regards,

Jon A. Bell

Autodesk Technical Support 

[jon.bell]

Hello,

I wanted to update this publicly so this information gets shared with the larger Max community.

Although 3ds Max's FBX import/export feature only allows you to import (and export) one animation track at a time per object, you can use Max's Animation Layers feature to combine multiple animation tracks onto the same object within your 3ds max scene. The article at the included link gives instructions on how you can do this for your imported .FBX objects.

In addition, some of the online discussions I've looked over for Unity3D and other game engines suggest creating multiple animations for your object on the same timeline -- for example, an object jumping from frames 0-50, moving sideways from 51-100, and so forth. You'd then edit/slice up those animation tracks within Unity after importing your object.

Best regards,

Jon A. Bell

Autodesk Technical Support

[Anonymous]

Hi Jon, where on that page does it explain how to combine imported multiple onto one rig? Reading it, it does not seem this is possible...

I have an animation files with multiple takes. If I import multiple versions of the same rig, I can get the different animations in the same file. But this is no good, as the article states I cannot copy and paste Animation Layers from one object to another.

Another approach is to reload/ update the rig's animation by importing animation from a different Take (selecting "update animation" instead of "add" when importing). Yet, even if I create an animation layer, and lock it, when I load in the 2nd animation Take, it erases the first Take, destroying the original keys when the new animation is imported.

If it is possible to use Animation Layers to combine multiple Takes to one rig / one timeline, please can you explain the procedure?

[DanielWichterich]

i know this discussion is old...

but an answer to that question is still interesting to hear!

[Anonymous]

You can still use Save/Load Animation and Motionmixer for combining multiple animations onto one rig