So it'd be REALLY useful to have Alembic (.abc) file support in the next version of 3DX. The reason is this.

Alembic supports point cached versions of all animations including cameras and everything, no matter what.

Heck, it can even easily export the complex MoGraph animations from C4D and those were REALLY hard to export before.

It'd be very useful to be able to export that OUT of 3DXChange because then you could just go into the other program simply to render it out. No need for any rigging issues or other crazy errors, because it's simply running through a point cache basically.

(Kind of like exporting an audio file and just doing simple editing)

The reason for IMPORTING is that now you can use programs like C4D or I think Element 3D (within After Effects) to do those really crazy animations and just use iClone to do some simple realtime rendering. (This would be more for motion graphics, but it'd still be really useful).

Thoughts?

RL, you should seriously consider this or something like it. (.MDD or something at least)

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HI dream,


Just curious, what are your thoughts on mdd ? it seems to be the next popular format under fbx. C4D doesn't import / fbx well ?

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C4D exports FBX just fine for me. But as you probably know formats like mdd and abc (Alembic) are straight up point caches. They're like the closest to an object sequence.

C4D does fine unless you start using thigns like Mograph and all that stuff. Then it gets REALLY tricky to bake out animations because they're not using bones or anything. They're using... whatever C4D has controlling them. That goes for most of the physics stuff too I think.

So MDD would be good too, but I THINK abc files are slightly smaller and they support a few more features if I'm not mistaken. Sadly they don't support textures, just shader groups, so you'ld have to retexture everything (meaning just add the images back) as I'm sure the UV maps and stuff come over.

If iClone uses mdd soon, that'd be just as well.

Another great thing about using this format (point cache weather it be through mdd or abc) is that you don't have to worry about bones being turned wrong or morph targets not coming over. Full dynamics are kept within what they were.

Like I said, it's like dropping a straight audio file in Or even a flat video file. What you get is what you get. The only thing that might be off a bit is the scale, rotation, and maybe textures. Those should be easily fixable though. If you're bringing something out of iClone, it'd be great to just drop it in the new thing and start working on shading, lighting, and rendering. No need to fiddle around with the bones and stuff to make sure they're right.

Also, it'd be great to bring complex animations from other thigns like C4D to render in a quick DX engine like iClone.

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the one thing that makes me wonder about those formats, is once they are sent to the other program, you can't modify the animation from the lack of bones ...am I correct on this ?

like if iclone were to accept mdd - and I wanted to change a move on the fly ...i'd have to do it from the software that's exporting mdd ?

if that's the case, wouldn't that sort of pipeline be counter intuitive ?

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planet, it depends what you want to do with it. One application is simulations, like things exploding, water splashing, etc. I can do that in Houdini, for example, and it would be great to be able to import that in iClone.

I have the free Houdine and can only export as OBJ sequences, which is sort of a poor man's version of the two other formats. So it would be great if iClone supported OBJ sequences as well.

---

ahh, that makes more sense ...It would be great to import explosions and such, especially of the particle kind! :w00t: - but for character rigs, it seems to be limiting vs importing fbx.

thanks for the input - makes more sense from that perspective. ;)

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For characters, I'd use it the other way around. I'd do the animation in iClone and export a sequence or .mdd or .abc (Alembic)

The reason for that is that other programs do dumb things like get the bones flipped or mess up the weights or some other stupid thing that breaks the animation. So there'd be no need to redo the bones or anything, 'cause what you see is what you get.

Bringing things into iClone would be things like MoGraph animations from Cinema 4D or some other crazy animation that could either very easily break in iClone if even import at all.

OBJ sequences would be good too though.

I've done a bit of research and it seems that Alembic doesn't support materials even though it says it does. That's REALLY REALLY dumb and kind of a shame. I've asked on both the C4D forum and the Octane Render forum about this and have yet to get responces other than "Nope, doesn't work" but I saw a video of it working... at least from Modo. I suppose the next step would be to find someone with a copy of Modo, give them an obj and have them export it as an .abc file to see if the materials come out. I don't know if I can do it in the demo version.

OBJ sequences would be cool too as I said.

I'd LOVE to use a GPU renderer like Octane or Cycles, but in order to do that, I'll need to import .abc files for Octane (No materials so that fails) and for Cycles (.mdd from C4D can only export one .mdd per .obj file) and as you know, the characters have multiple ones.

Now I'm sure there is a way to merge the seperate objects into one but that in itself takes a lot of work since there are UV maps and all that stuff... or just have a TON of obj and mdd files.

I'll have to just export the obj file from 3DX and see what happens.

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I was just revisiting blender, and saw it has the alembic option. You just need to enable the plugin.. maybe you could test it there ?

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Which version did you see that in? Is it both for import and export? I downloaded the latest version a few days ago and don't see it even in the AddOns. Is it in the Import/Export section?

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ahh, sorry, - I've been researching a few softwares and got it confused - I think I saw alembic on Daz - http://www.digisprawl.com/blog/software-2/daz-studio-gets-alembic/
or carrara -

this is what I found on blender - https://developer.blender.org/T37578

but to confirm your hunch, I just saw someone say that alembic doesn't transfer textures -

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/35895/

still on my quest to find one affordable software that can do a simple task without making it a soap opera in one way or another lol!! -smh-

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