Hi everyone.

I have a created a simple bones based vertex animation in 3dsMax; it is the foundation for a similar animation on a more complex object, so I decided to experiment with a plane first. Basically, what I am animating is a surgical incision.

Here's what I have thus far: - a plane, converted to an editable mesh - a skin modifier on the plane - several bones on the plane, applied to the aforementioned skin modifier. - i have broken several of the vertices along one of the lines of the plane's mesh - these vertices are then pulled apart by their corresponding surrounding bones.
- the remainder of the vertices on the plane (that stays intact) are weighted by stationary bones.
When I export from Max, I have: - activated backface culling - collapsed the trajectories of the bones. - left the rest of the fbx default export settings. The result when imported into Unity3d: - when I try to select the plane itself, only the wireframe gizmo box responds/moves/etc.
- the geometry of the mesh is severely broken up and deformed; much less though if I don't collapse the trajectories before exporting from Max.
- when I select the plane and press play in animation mode, the geometry looks great and perfect and is perfectly aligned, and the animation also plays back well. however, when not in playback mode, the mesh is pulled tight in different places and the triangulation is all off.

How do I:

1. get my editable mesh object to import as such with the vertex based bone animations?
2. get the geometry and triangulation of the mesh to import correctly?

Thanks so much, let me know if you need any files or screenshots.

Meena