AM to Lightwave pipeline

#1

Hi,

I’d like to know if some people use animation:master as an animation software and Lightwave as a renderer/3D FX software.

(the goal beeing to use the power of AM for character animation and complete some of its lacks).

Thanks a lot

Alain :slight_smile:

#2

Hmmm I’m no expert but as far as I understand it, there no easy way to do this. I can’t see how you would get your character animation into Lightwave renderer. Maybe export the cho frame by frame as a Lightwave compatible model once animated, but I think it may become a nightmare. You can also try to render only your animated stuff on one layer with alpha and do the rest in Lightwave, but you’ll have to somehow found a way to export cam data, and match both renderer in composition might not be the easiest thing to do.

Interesting… hope other suggestions will pop up.

#3

I know the Anzovins worked on this. They did it mostly for sasquatch hair. The Eggington crew still model in AM sometimes. It looks like animation export from AM is a pretty tough thing to achieve though.

#4

I thought there was a thread regarding exporting .bvh files to Lightwave. I thought someone had done it but had to tweak the files to get them to work right in Lightwave. I could be mixing it up with another program. There’s a thread I found regarding Max but it’s not the thread I was thinking was here. Maybe it was deleted or I didn’t search deep enough.

Kevin

#5

I was talking to wegg about this months ago and the problem with the bvh files is that lw does not normally use quiterian rotation so in LW you will get popping in some poses.

There is a quinterian rotation plugin in LW so it may be possible to make it work.

I was able to bring the bvh into modeler as skelegons. then from there I was able to make them bones in the layout portion of LW from there you would apply the .bvh but there were so many bones in my rig that I couldn’t find the ones I needed. I used one of Anzovins rigs which have a monsterous amount of bones in them. anyway you will need to try it and see how much needs to be fixed.

#6

Is there a way to easily export only the bones that effect control points in the model? So many of the bones in Anzovins rig (and most normal rigs) contain a lot of bones that help control other bones or have special constraints but do not effect the actual mesh. So it would seem that baking the motion and removing those control bones would make it much easier for Lightwave to handle.

Or perhaps a way to olnly export the mesh data a la messiah could work. Or even better, something like Point Oven Pro.

#7

Point oven comaptibility for Animation Master would be a god send. The Hash dudes don’t really see how powerful that could be. . . they are thinking that they would have to support the import/rendering/texturing of all standard geometry types which would be a monumental task. But if they were to just support BASIC mesh import (which they already do) and export into the superblender/mdd format. . . they would captivate a whole new audience of hard core animators looking for a better solution than the ones built into their antiquated apps.

#8

During the chat this past week that Martin participated in (which was great BTW) someone asked “Is Hash considering incorporating polygon based animation in any future versions of AM?”. Martin said “We have to stay focused. But…” so it seems like he is at least open to the idea of polygons. He also talked about how they would be very supportive of any plug-in writers. Maybe we can convince one of the more adpet plug in guys to write an interface to Point Oven Pro. I know I would toss some money in the pot…

#9

Point oven comaptibility for Animation Master would be a god send

Yes, indeed.
In the few next week, things will change.
I’m currently working on converting the .cho file to the one(s) LW can read. Cameras, Lights motions and features would be directly imported into LW. Current tests are actually convincing :thumbsup: but this is not the most difficult part to do.

Mark says he’s writing on my demand a plug that could take into account the Mesh side of this project.

Very exciting ! :bounce:

Best regards

Alain

#10

Wow, that is some very exciting news Alain!

#11

[QUOTE=DrRIEGER]In the few next week, things will change.
I’m currently working on converting the .cho file to the one(s) LW can read.

Very exciting indeed, can’t wait. I’ve dreamed for a long time that A.M could be more compatible with one of the BIG GUNS. This days it’s almost impossible to use just ONE package. A.M is really GREAT for animation so if it could work with Lightwave (or others, don’t really care) A.M will be a must.

Best regards.

#12

Looks (sounds) like a dream…can’t wait to have it. My dream for years.
Looking for any beta-testers? :-)))

Martin
cybersign

#13

I’ve always been suprised how the A:M guys have never jumped on Polygons, just as an add on, or a “TRACER” program that imports Polygons but gives you that reduced size and turns them to splines or something.

That would open a giant market. Oh well some folks are cool but stubborn

#14

Hi everyone,

I have written a standalone mdd file compiler. This takes an LWO sequence and compiles it into one mdd file. What does this mean? Well, if you were to own my Point Oven product you could load this mesh animation into LW, Messiah, Maya, Max, and very soon XSI.

I’ll be releasing the standalone compiler for free in the next few days or so, and you’ll be able to use it with LW without PO, as LW can load in mdd files using its mdd_plug. Although I would say that PO’s solution is a little better. :wink:

Mark
www.ef9.com

#15

Hi Mark,

I’m an owner of PO and happy with that product, but I’m an artist and can’t see
on the first look what PO should help me with A:M…or will PO be able to read
.cho files from A:M to bring it to the other products.

I would be happy if this is so (but can’t believe it).

regards

Martin

#16

Okay I think I made an mistake…now I understand.

.cho files exported as .lws files (by the application from Dr.Rieger)
Then PO to get these lws files (okay mdd.files) to Maya, MAX or XSI.

Cool

Martin

#17

Thanks a lot Mark Wilson (www.ef9.com) for your efforts. :bounce:

This is a great step forward for this AM2LW pipeline.

Yes ATAHUALPA, we all know that a lwo sequence can be read in LW but not seen in realtime when scrubing the frameSlider. Using Mark’s utility, it is now possible. But it gives us far more : just 1 single lwo (instead of several), and the mdd file containing the variations.
Obviously, we are only talking about mesh variations. Using the Lightwave MDD Edit plugin of Mark within LW Modeler, ultimate touching up can be made in LW !

To test it, you can already export an AM .cho file as lwo sequence, convert it into one final lwo and then load it into LW’s Layout ! wonderfull .

Thanks again Mark :applause:

Alain :slight_smile:

#18

…to test it…

Where?:bounce:

Martin
cybersign

#19

I’ll upload a command line version when I get home tonight, a few hours yet :frowning: I’ll build an interface for it to make life easier in a while.

Mark

#20

…huuu it’s getting better and better. Always thought Christmas is on December, but seems to fall in October :thumbsup:

Martin