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Animated OBJ sequences from A:M?


John Bigboote

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SO- the new version of 'Element 3D', which is Video Copilot's After Effects plug-in that renders 3D in AE via GPU now supports the importing of animated OBJ sequences, which brings me to wonder- how would I export an .obj sequence out of A:M?

 

Do you mean a OBJ for each frame or do you think of MDD?

 

See you

*Fuchur*

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Currently, you could advance through it frame-by-frame and RMB>Plugins>Export>OBJ on each frame, remembering to name the OBJs sequentially.

 

 

Yeah? That would work? I have no problem with the old frame-by-frame, used to be the way we did EVERYTHING. I'll give it a whirl! Thanks Rob!

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I know you can export animated sequences of meshes to PLY and AV2.

 

Edit: Just tested and got a sequence of OBJs output from an Action as well.

(Unfortunately, I had it pointed to save the models on my desktop... NOT a good idea. Luckily it was only a 1 second animation)

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It seems the the OBJ exporter has an option to "export all frames" but all the OBJs are the same as the first. I'd say that is a but BUG that should be reported.

 

Perhaps there is more than one OBJ exporter in A:M but I get the various frames all as they should be via the Wizards Export.

The easy way to test:

 

Open Model from Library

Open Action from Library (this should apply the Action to the Model)

Export OBJ files via Wizards/Export/OBJ plugin

Watch as it export that Action's lengthful of models.

 

Now to test:

Create new Model

Right Click and Wizards/Import/Object

Control Select a few of those OBJ Files that were exported and Import them (Don't pick them all or it'll take days to import and convert)

(There is an 'OK' dialogue that pops up after each OBJ import. Perhaps we could persuade Steffen to opt out on that dialogue)

Now you will have those 'poses' imported into that one model.

 

Variously at times (i.e. in earlier versions of A:M) the importer would error out and it was determined that 'same named bones' was the culprit. A:M now attempts to rename any bones that are named the same upon import.

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It seems the the OBJ exporter has an option to "export all frames" but all the OBJs are the same as the first. I'd say that is a but BUG that should be reported.

 

Perhaps there is more than one OBJ exporter in A:M but I get the various frames all as they should be via the Wizards Export.

The easy way to test:

 

Open Model from Library

Open Action from Library (this should apply the Action to the Model)

 

Perhaps it is the fact that you are using an Action. If I animate directly in the chor, the exported OBJs will all be identical to the first frame.

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I know that I have done it via the Chor before because I assigned a character to a path and then exported the frames out to a path.

Now granted... I've generally used .AV2 format when doing this (I don't have much need for .OBJ files) so I likely DID NOT use .OBJ as the export format.

 

It should be noted that we can export displacement via this methodology as well but again... I've used this with the .AV2 format.

 

The whole reason I use the exporter is to bring what is exported back into A:M again (i.e combining a whole sequence of animated models into one model/file).

Someone that uses the files in other programs will have to test on that side.

 

Edit: Attached I've added a screenshot of an export from a Chor.

I dropped the Knight onto a path and then applied the resolute walk action.

On export I check the box that says "Export All Frames" ('cause I figure that might be important)

Then I created a new model and Control selected four 'frames' to import from the .OBJ files exported.

(I selected frames/files 000, 013, 022 and 032 at random)

 

Note: For some reason the mid section of the Knight is missing. Not sure why.

I did delete what I thought was the ground plane and I might have grabbed part of the knight by accident.

 

The behavior of the exporter seems to be pretty much the same via the Chor as it is in the Action.

I'm not sure why Robert is seeing something different.

 

Interestingly... I did tell the exporter to export all frames into one OBJ file. The exporter seems to have ignored that.

 

As you can see though each of the four frames/poses were exported.

Just in case it matters make sure you pad your export filename with trailing zeros (example: filename000.obj).

fourframes.jpg

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Here is a test of Exported Poses (Export to sequential OBJ files that is).

The primary goal here was to make sure the poses created by Pose Sliders were getting exported as sequential .OBJ files via the Chor.

Results: In this case at least they were.

 

Setup

- Opened Keekat and dropped him into the Chor

- Moved Keekat from left of screen (Frame 0) to right (Frame 30)

- Adjusted Keekat's Dynamic Pose from 0% (Frame 0) to 100% (Frame 30)

- Exported 30 Frames of .OBJ format via Wizard/Export/OBJ (I made sure Textures were exported and a different dialogue box appeared to confirm this for each frame exported... quite a pain... but at least it works)

- Created New Model

- Imported four OBJ Files from previous export using Control select (Frames 0, 10, 20 and 30)

 

Note: The reimport took a very long time (longer for the third and considerably longer for the fourth import... perhaps due to memory but also perhaps due to renaming Groups and Bones. For the forth frame I browsed the internet while waiting for the import to finish. I reckon it took 5 to 10 minutes but not sure)

 

As you can see in the attached screen grab, all four frames/poses were successfully exported as .OBJ files from the Chor and then reimported into a new Model.

Each frame of Keekat is spaced and posed according to the distance it had moved for the given frame in the Chor and the pose assigned to that frame.

No specific keyframes were manually created inbetween frames 0 and 30.

 

I again forgot to delete the ground plane first from the Chor... so note to self... remove the ground plane before exporting to .OBJ format.

The less the exporter has to mess with the better.

SeqOBJPoses.jpg

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While I don't think I would use .OBJ as the file format to pursue the following it should be noted that this process is basically what plugins such as Sweeper use to perform their magic.

 

Using methods like this we can create morphed objects in like fashion to Sweeper, Duplicator Wizard, etc. without using those plugins.

 

Example:

A basic cylinder animated over 30 frames... exported as on .OBJ sequence and then reimported into one model:

SweeperlessModelmaking.jpg

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- Exported 30 Frames of .OBJ format via Wizard/Export/OBJ (I made sure Textures were exported and a different dialogue box appeared to confirm this for each frame exported... quite a pain... but at least it worked.

 

Going over this now... as far as exporting textures for each frame, couldn't you answer 'yes'(export the textures) to frame 1 and then 'no' to the rest... the exporter will make texture files for frame 1 and the ensuing frames would simply use frame 1's image maps...?

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Going over this now... as far as exporting textures for each frame, couldn't you answer 'yes'(export the textures) to frame 1 and then 'no' to the rest... the exporter will make texture files for frame 1 and the ensuing frames would simply use frame 1's image maps...?

 

It is my understanding that if you say 'no' to any texture map that 'frame' will not get a texture.

Better to say yes and then change the texture.

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I just watched your video Robert and am now going back in to try to replicate what you are doing to see what is what.

The only thing I see different at this point is your setting to have all models in one OBJ.

Not that I think it matters but I've been using the first option which is "all in one".

Before I was using the same setting as you are now.

 

Off to test...

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  • 2 weeks later...

i rendered this with element 3d.. i exported an obj-sequence out of a:m, from a choreography with a:m v16 on a mac... works perfectly, you just have to activate "export all frames"... it´s just that the obj-export takes longer than the rendering if you have a somewhat complex model... ;) (in this case the export took about 1,5 hours, the rendering 5 minutes)... you can even export multi-objects by activating "single models in one obj". https://vimeo.com/58455412 [vimeo]58455412[/vimeo]

 

xhttps://vimeo.com/58455412"]https://vimeo.com/58455412

amaefx.gif

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Sebastian,

I'm not sure why your posts were not appearing... I'm investigating now.

 

Edit: The only thing odd seemed to be a permission setting related to the Film Group (which could effect those who were working on TWO and/or Scarecrow of Oz) Most people are not exclusively members of that group so I'm still not sure if that was the problem.

 

In looking closer it appears that somehow the entire A:M Rigging and Relationships forum got switched to 'Moderate all topics and posts' which forces an approval from a moderator before it will appear in the forum. To make matters worse, the notifications were then sent to someone who no longer frequents the forum. Odd... but corrected now. My apologies for any trouble and confusion this has caused.

 

Nice effect!!!

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i rendered this with element 3d.. i exported an obj-sequence out of a:m, from a choreography with a:m v16 on a mac... works perfectly....

Mr. FRESHEST Sir-

I really liked this... trying to emulate it... I know I am in the wrong forum to ask this, but- HOW did you get the reflective floor? (Element does not ray-trace reflections- only cheep environment map stuff)

 

 

EDIT---OH--- think I know your trick... the old 'duplicate layer/flipHorizontalflipVertical/Blur and fade' trick!

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  • 3 weeks later...
i rendered this with element 3d.. i exported an obj-sequence out of a:m, from a choreography with a:m v16 on a mac... works perfectly....

Mr. FRESHEST Sir-

I really liked this... trying to emulate it... I know I am in the wrong forum to ask this, but- HOW did you get the reflective floor? (Element does not ray-trace reflections- only cheep environment map stuff)

 

 

EDIT---OH--- think I know your trick... the old 'duplicate layer/flipHorizontalflipVertical/Blur and fade' trick!

 

you got it ;)

 

rodney, thanks for fixing this.

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  • 2 years later...
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BUMP (as it relates to a current topic on OBJ export)

 

(Note to resolve the need to hit the enter key multiple times during export I'd create a small utility that automates pressing the enter key twice then waits then cycles through the process for as many times as the length of the sequence might be. Haven't tested this but should work well to remove the pain of manual acknowledgement of the application of textures.) Of course if it's just the map name that is causing the problem then renaming the target output with less than 8 characters... allowing for the numbers that will be added to any sequence... should prevent the dialogue box from appearing in the first place.

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