Splatoon 3 bones export weird

[Hedwig7s]

I don't know if this is something with Splatoon 3 itself, but for some reason the bones on the model are extremely small and trying to apply an extracted animation does this

(reference with FBX on models-resource (ignore the rendering issues idk what's causing them with this model))

[Bellzine]

Couple things here,

• You're importing them into Blender without selecting the find chains and auto-connect bones options which is what normally connects the tail to the head of the next bone in the chain, that's why they're so small. The m-r files were imported with those settings on.
• If you want the animations to work in Blender, you can't do any editing of the bones (including the settings I just mentioned) because the way Blender handles bones is limited compared to 3DSMax and Maya. Basically with the other two programs the bone axis can be something other than the Y axis, and all of the animations and bones are configured to not be Y axis. Blender also can't do mirroring bones correctly because of this, it's kind of complicated to explain but this is fully a Blender issue and not Toolbox. I spent hours looking into a solution and there is none other than using RTB's 3DSMax scripts but that program is a huge pain in the ass to find and install so I wouldn't bother.
• You can get the correct animation in Blender though if you just want it for rendering purposes (again, can't change the animation or model). For correct animation, you need to convert the .dae to .fbx using this converter (or just use the models-resource files) and the orientation should be -Z forward and Y Up. The .smd animation file needs to be imported with the Up Axis as Y. Those two options will make it work.

ps. the render is messed up because fbx materials import as Blend Mode: Alpha Blend which can go funky, changing them to Opaque or Alpha Clip fixes that

[Hedwig7s]

without selecting the find chains and auto-connect bones options

Where on earth are these options

you can't do any editing of the bones

I didn't

[Bellzine]

Where on earth are these options

[SiyaX]

Where on earth are these options

Thank you so much! Have no idea how it worked but it worked anyway. Feeling that I can still modify the model and animation, but it gonna take some effort to make it looks nice.