Small Tut: From 3D Max to FBX To Milkskape to Blender to Unity Steps!!

First off I found an easy way to get 3D Max animated FBX files into blender using a set of steps..

1.First Save your finished and animated model to FBX format out of 3DMax
2. Using Ultimate Unwrap3D open the FBX if you are not able to open the FBX file download the FBX plugin from the Ultimate Unwrap3D download page here http://www.unwrap3d.com/u3d/downloads.aspx and while one is downloading the FBX plugin also download the Milkshape3D "MS3D" plugin.

"I tried using the Ultimate Unwrap3D Half Life SMD plugin but there is a problem with the animation exporting and importing to blender"

3. In milkshape load the MS3D file you saved out of Ultimate Unwrap3D and check to make sure all animations play correctly. then go to export to Half Life SMD. when you select it will ask if you want to save a reference or sequence first select reference and save file, then go and export again and select sequnce to export animations for mesh.

Now the final step, go to this link https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Blender_SMD_Tools and download the SMD blender tools.

once installed make sure the plugin is activated then go to import options. first import the reference model and then while mesh is selected go and say import the sequence mesh now all the animations will be imported and applied. and in blender when you hit the play button all animations should work correctly. Your model is now ready to be saved to a .blend format for saving to unity3D.

Hope this helps

 

why not download the max exporter for this format? There is both and import and export plugin, no need to software shuffle.

 

because blender cannot directly import FBX files, well it did use to be able to but the old FBX plugin for importing FBX files into blender no longer works and there was a big problem getting animated and rigged models into blender.. so this step shows how one can get an animated mesh with animations correctly into blender using SMD format.. also my tut was for people that have the animated FBX file someone did for them but do not have 3D max to directly export to SMD format so this allows one to still be able to get the FBX into a usable format for use in unity.

 

Let them know what you're doing and I'm sure they can fix any Blender SMD problem.