Missing animation in Alembic export?

#1

Hey Folks, So I have a ladybug that files and lands on a flower. The flower has a joints and a wind force applied so it moves. So to have it land and stick I applied a constraint tag to the ladybug and selected the clamp option. In the joints for the flower I added a null to the exact spot I wanted it to land. I use the Strength slider from 0-100 percent to do the transform movement and that pulls the ladybug towards the flower. Perfect, until I export it as an amebic file. The export file only has some rotation movement I added, but the strength that pulls the ladybug towards the flower is not animated?

Do I need to select something in the alembic export or how do I fix this?

Thank you

#2

First question: where is the Alembic file not working? i.e. is it when you try to Merge back into Cinema 4D or is it another program that is having issues? Have you tried the simple method of highlighting all objects in the Objects Manager panel and right-clicking and choosing Baking as Alembic?

One suggestion that comes to mind would be to bake keyframes for the things that aren’t working (assuming the Constraint tags in your case). To do this, go to the Timeline Manager, then highlight the (constraints) objects on the left that are likely needing to have baked keyframes, then go to menu Functions>Bake Objects…, tick All Parameters and then try exporting as Alembic.

Another suggestion, if applicable to your circumstances, would be to try exporting as FBX instead if Alembic doesn’t work for you.

#3

Hi Drew, thanks for that quick reply. It is both, when I bring the alembic back in to C4D to test it and also in Clarisse IFX. I have been trying to solve this for a couple of days trying different things. Everything works as expected, except for that animation using the strength slider in the Clamp option on the constraint. The normal way I export Alembics is almost exactly as you described, but selecting what I want and right clicking and picking back as alembic + delete. I always undo that option which I assume is the same thing.

That being said, I have not tried the last option you recommended. I will try that now. Thank you. I will let you know how it turns out.

#4

I think my problem is the NULL that I have as the root object in the photo. I did what you suggested and when I re imported the alembic file the null object followed the constraint, converted to keyframes to the flower. But the Ladybug object that is the first child of the null was at the bottom with axis 0,0,0. When I dragged it up and made it a child of the null again, it followed and worked. I am wondering if I put the whole ladybug in the a Connect object and export that. Also I disabled the original constrain when I saw it created the second one. But it looks like there are 2 constraints on it.

Also, Clarisse IFX won’Annotation%202020-03-02%20210248![Annotation%202020-03-02%20210248|561x430t import FBX files, or I would try that.

#5

Your experience of baking to Alembic mirrors my own. I don’t think you can rely upon it, sometimes it works other times it produces garbage. I thought the bake and import feature would revolutionise our C4D workflow but instead it just added more uncertainty. I expected to be able to bounce mograph setups to an Alembic cache for better viewport playback and renderfarm rendering. My enthusiasm didn’t last long.

I got further using the Alembic Export function. I got best results with Merge Generated option was checked.

Maybe my expectations were too high but there was nothing in the manual to suggest what things worked and what didn’t. It’s a very hit and miss feature.

I use Alembic all the time between Houdini and Blender without any issue.

#6

Thanks for you input. It has cased many wasted nights trying to narrow down the issue. I am going to have to try and animated this the hard way.

Thanks.