Using .SMD and 3ds Max to retain animations

[phoenix_phaerie]

I am working on a bed and I'm trying to use 3d Studio Max to do the animations using .SMD format.

But I'm really confused about how to do it. I read some of the threads here, but I don't understand anything about assigning bone weights to vertices and such. Is there anyone who uses this technique for animations that could help shed some light on this? Thanks in advance :)

[Jasana_BugBreeder]

I wouldn't suggest to start learning how to retain animations from bedding - it's probably one of craziest animated objects, since it has 3 subsets with the same name, joints (and 3 bone per vertex weights), and morphs (and, by the way, it has 6 morphs, not 1 or 2 - thus they couldn't be exported in smd format, or at least I never heard that they could be). Try something simpler first, for example, a dresser.
With assigning weights, all you need is to check help about Skin modifier :) or my tutorial about body meshing (http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=1141347#post1141347), beginning of part 3.5 and part 4.

[phoenix_phaerie]

Thanks you sooo much Jasana! I downloaded your tutorial and it worked like a charm! Thank you thank you! I'm still a little confused, but I managed to get my dresser to work.

I still want to make changes to my bed though. I only want to change the pillow meshes. I think they only have 3 morphs. Could you give me some tips?

[ToRnado]

i'd also like to know how to add the joints to a new mesh. i know how to delete a mesh and retain the joints but not actually replace it