This tutorial assumes that you have a basic knowledge of 3dmax and that you have the correct resources;

3d Studio Max 5.1 service pack 1 with CS 4.1

Remedy plugins are installed correctly

SETTING UP

1. Open either the MaxPayne_ExportPose.max or the ManoSax_B_ExportPose.max depending on the gender of your model. You can also use the _modellingPose.max files also.

2. Delete either the Max Payne/Mona model by selecting it and pressing delete. If you cannot select it, it is frozen. To unfreeze it, right-click anywhere in the active viewpoint and select unfreeze all. You should be able to select and delete it. See Pic1.

3. Once the model has been deleted, its time to import your model into the scene. You do this by File->Merge and select your character. Click open and your model will appear in the scene.

4. Depending on your model, you may need to scale and resize the model to fit the skeleton. Note: - Be sure to line up your model as close to the skeleton as possible, especially around the moving joints to ensure the model deforms correctly with the skeleton.

5. Once you’re happy with the alignment with the model, its time for some texturing. As your probably aware, MP and MP2 uses KFMaterials and KFTextures.

TEXTURING

As described in the official Remedy skinning tutorial, you can use the Multi/sub-object material type to keep all your textures in one place.
1. To access the material editor press M. You will see a multi/sub-object material type has already been set up, if you at its parameters, you’ll see the textures contained within it. What you need to do is delete these textures and replace them with your own. You do this by simply clicking delete until your left with 1 sub material. Once you’ve done that rename the material to something that describes the texture i.e. Face.

2. Click on the material button (next to the Name box) and click on the standard button if it doesn’t say KFMaterial. Select KFMaterial from the list and click ok. It will now turn into a KFMaterial. Click on the diffuse button (box where it says none) and select KF Texture from the list and click OK. Click on the Bitmap box and select your texture. Click open and your texture will be loaded. Make sure the “Show map in Viewpoint” has been pressed (square covered cube) and click the “Go to parent” button twice (arrow facing upwards). See Pic2.

3. Click and hold the left mouse button on the new sub-material and drag it to the desired place on your model. You may need to apply UVW mapping for correct texture placement. Once you’re happy with that texture, add more textures by going back to the material editor and clicking Add under the Multi/Sub-Object and using the method as described above.

PHYSIQUE AND WIEGHTING VERTICES

1. Once all your KF textures are applied to the model, you will need to ensure that the model is one mesh. You do this by attaching. Click on one of the editable meshes and click on Attach List. Select the parts of the model and click Attach. Your model will now be one mesh.

2. Next step is to apply the physique modifier. Select your model and from the modifier list, select Physique from the Modify drop down box. A new rollout will appear (under the moodier box). Click the “attach to node” (Looks like a stick man with a red dot) and select BIP01 from the skeleton. A new window will appear once you click on a bone called physique initialization and select the following settings;

Blending Between Links: Change to 4 links
Radial Falloff Envelopes: Un-tick the Create Envelopes

3. Then click Initialize. Click on the physique modifier and tick the “Hide Attached Nodes” (bottom right hand corner of the screen) this will make the skeleton disappear. Select you model and press Alt and X. You model will now appear to be see through.

4. Now here comes the fun/hard part. Click on the + of the physique modifier to expand it and select Link. Links are the orange lines that make up the skeleton. You can deactivate any links you do not wish to use. For example if you don’t want your character to have facial expressions, you can deactivate the links controlling the jaw bones, cheek bones. You do this by click on the desired link and under link settings un-tick the Active box. The link should now appear grey. You also deactivate links because more than one link can represent the same bone...you only need one link for each bone(there may be 2 or 3 links in the arm that represents the forearm bone...you only need one). See Pic3.

5. Once you’ve deactivated unwanted links your ready to assign the vertices of your model to the skeleton. Select the vertex option in physique and you will see the vertices appear on the model. If you highlight all the verts you will notice that they are all blue (root). This means that they haven’t been assigned to a bone yet.
Note: - This may make your computer run slowly!!

6. Ok, now what you do is select the verts you wish to be assigned to each link/bone. Once you’ve selected the verts, under vertex type select green (Rigid) and “Blending Between Links” is set to N Links. Click “Assign to Link” and select the link you wish to assign them to. You will notice that the verts now turn green to say they have been assigned. Now repeat the process until all verts have been assigned a bone.

Note: - As described in the official skinning tutorial a good idea is to "Lock assignments" after you have assigned verts, so you accidentally don’t reassign to different bones.

7. Once you’re done assigning, the next step is to test the skin with movement. If you turn off figure mode and click play, a simple animation will run where you can see how your model deforms. It’s also handy to use the Remedy weighting tool to see if you’ve missed any vertices. If it doesn’t deform properly, turn figure mode back on and select the rouge verts and click “remove from link”, then click on the link the verts are assigned. Then simply reassign them.

EXPORTING & TESTING

1. Once you’re happy with the assigned vertices, you’re ready to export. First thing to do before anything else is to hide the remaining parts of the skeleton, namely BIP01 and the footsteps. Right click anywhere in the active viewpoint and click on Display->Freeze->unfreeze all. Select the footsteps (small grey oval at the feet) and right click and hide. Select the BIP01 and all its bones and hide that too.

2. Once that is done you are ready to export your character. Select File-> export. Name the file something descriptive and select the KF exporter from the drop down box. Click on save. Now the KF Export window appears, select the following options as seen in the pic. You don't need Lights/Helpers/Environment selected.

Then click ok. Now you have exported your character and created two files, kf2 and skd and also a texture directory.