Sounds like a simple enough task: Export my model and animation that's in 3d Stuio Max as a .FBX file for it to be used in XNA. The problem with this is that after exporting it, and it being brought into XNA, certain errors occur. The biggest problem is XNA states :Error    1    Vertex is bound to bone "F Thigh R", but this bone is not present in the skeleton.

After rechecking my model and skeletal structure, I re-exported, and the same messages pop up. Since that persisited, I imported the .FBX file into 3d Studio Max, and the skin was horribly warped.

So my question is: Is there some step I missed when exporting? I used the defaults for the .FBX plugin, so there may be something there. I've also used KW Xport, and Panda Direct X, with similar-ish results. In KW Xport, the mesh wouldn't show, but the animation would play, while in Panda Direct X, it would all show, but the animation would either chop off, or the Mesh wouldn't deform properly, and when it did work, XNA said: Error 5 Node has more than one BoneContent child. Unable to determine which one is the skeleton root. So yeah, there you have it.

I thank you for any help.

Hey
I had a similar problem when i had to import a mesh the reason was because during the skeleton creation controllers were used and these are not exported into the fbx file. Also do you get a warning which says multiple skeletons found if so then somewhere in your skeleton's hierarchy you havent connected bones. All bones must be connected to the root bone otherwise xna finds multiple skeletons and ignores them and so when trying to bind a vert to that bone it says it is not part of the skeleton. So check that all your bones are definitely connected and if this does not help do you have any export errors when you actually export from 3ds Max.

Also once you get your animation exported correctly i do not think there is a way to split up the animations using the fbx exporter so this has to be done manually.

MyNameIsEarl:

All bones must be connected to the root bone otherwise xna finds multiple skeletons and ignores them and so when trying to bind a vert to that bone it says it is not part of the skeleton.

I'm having a similar problem, but I'm not a 3DS MAX person...  could you provide some help as to how I insure that all my bones are connected to the root skeleton's hierarchy?  And how do I fix this in 3DS MAX?

When exporting more complex models like skeleton there are some options.

in our game we had that problem and i use panda expoter for 3ds max.

And for exporting skeletion you need to select option.

 then it works for skeleton's hierarchy.