Hi,
Maybe this has been asked before, but is there a way to export bone information to other apps?
I'm looking to animating in moho and exporting animation to blender for final rencer. I could use several formats to transfer motion. (bvh, fbx ...)
Is that something that can be coded or scripted easily.
Any hints or tips would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
e1
bones export
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
Bvh has a stander naming for each bone: hip, arm, hand etc. In AS you could have the same but it actually be very limiting. Bones control movement what would be morph in 3D. In AS one might add extra bones just to show body movement like breathing. So their is no stander rig in AS.
Pulse the fact that AS is a 2D program with no z axis.
To Export AS to Blender, I would render to sequence png and import on a alpha plane.
Dale
Pulse the fact that AS is a 2D program with no z axis.
To Export AS to Blender, I would render to sequence png and import on a alpha plane.
Dale
Hi e1!
If you have a look to the scripting documentation you can see all the information about bones that is documented. The rest of hints comes from studying the scripts that work with bones.
Hope it helps.
-G
If you have a look to the scripting documentation you can see all the information about bones that is documented. The rest of hints comes from studying the scripts that work with bones.
Hope it helps.
-G
What would you be rendering in blender? If you only export the bone motion what will the be the objects rendered? I don't know much about blender. I know it is a 3D application. Does it have 2D capabilities?
Since the bone motion from Anime Studio would only have X and Y translation information and rotation only on one axis the render from blender would have to be "flat".
AS has some 3D capabilities with layers and also importing obj files, but the bones are 2D only.
-vern
Since the bone motion from Anime Studio would only have X and Y translation information and rotation only on one axis the render from blender would have to be "flat".
AS has some 3D capabilities with layers and also importing obj files, but the bones are 2D only.
-vern
thanks for the answers so far.
I have no scripting skills whatsoever, but I could ask somebody at work.
We are looking to do a 2D cutout style animation project and want to use moho to animate the characters (because of it's ease of use and general fun factor), but for rendering we want to take the animation into blender.
We only need the bones to move into axes, that's ok.
Is there a script out there that exports to an animation format already?
thanks again for your help !
e1
I have no scripting skills whatsoever, but I could ask somebody at work.
We are looking to do a 2D cutout style animation project and want to use moho to animate the characters (because of it's ease of use and general fun factor), but for rendering we want to take the animation into blender.
We only need the bones to move into axes, that's ok.
Is there a script out there that exports to an animation format already?
thanks again for your help !
e1
Why?but for rendering we want to take the animation into blender
The usual way to work would be to create artwork either in Moho, or in some other application to be imported as PNGs. Then animate it, and render it as video or PNG sequence with alpha, if you need more FX than you can do in Moho. Compositing and FX can be done in any software.
I think you will find that the best way to have the mix of 2d and 3d when using AS is to render the elements in the 3D program and import them into AS. Unless you have to have the shadows that 3D program will give you, you will find that it faster to render a picture then animate over top of it. Or behind it as a PNG for fore ground objects. Also I have tried to use alpha planes in blender and you get shadow lines (lack of a better name) around the edge Alpha plane.
You can render 3D objects that move, like a bird in Blender, export to sequence PNG's then import them into AS.
The other thing is you can combine 3D programs. Look at:
viewtopic.php?t=9792
The sky is Bryce, The ground is Carrara. The hut is Poser.
and I know I can't draw
Dale
You can render 3D objects that move, like a bird in Blender, export to sequence PNG's then import them into AS.
The other thing is you can combine 3D programs. Look at:
viewtopic.php?t=9792
The sky is Bryce, The ground is Carrara. The hut is Poser.
and I know I can't draw
Dale
I suppose the effort to accomplish this might be worth it if there was a really fantastic compelling feature in blender that can't be achieved in AS. The bone export is not that difficult. The most difficult part will be dissecting the bvh format and converting the AS bone properties and keys to bvh.
Exporting the bone motion would only be one step in the process. You would still have to duplicate the same bones exactly in blender and recreate the shapes to be animated. You would be doing twice the work... actually more like 3 times the work because of all the extra set up involved.
Just so all of the possible options are covered could you tell us what aspect of blender is needed for the final render? It could be that the same effect can be achieved in AS but without the experience with the application you just don't know how to do it yet.
-vern
Exporting the bone motion would only be one step in the process. You would still have to duplicate the same bones exactly in blender and recreate the shapes to be animated. You would be doing twice the work... actually more like 3 times the work because of all the extra set up involved.
Just so all of the possible options are covered could you tell us what aspect of blender is needed for the final render? It could be that the same effect can be achieved in AS but without the experience with the application you just don't know how to do it yet.
-vern
Hi,
Good feedback but not getting any closer.
I probably need to be clearer about what we are trying to do.
1. We want to scan in hand drawings and animate them in moho
the usual way.
2. The next step is to export the animation from moho as bones
into blender.
3. We make the final models in 3D, actually 2D with a Z value and
import the bvh, which brings in the bones AND the animation.
4. The last step is rig, light and render
The main reason to do the extra step is to be able to light properly.
If moho had good lighting and richer rendering tools this would
probably not be necessary.
There's a few bone formats. The best one is asf/amc as it splits the
process into two tasks, a skeleton and a motion file.
The other one is bvh bundles both into the same file.
Either one could do the job, with a slight edge to asf/amc.
Here's a few links with more info :
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Courses ... F-AMC.html
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Courses ... f/BVH.html
thanks,
e1
Good feedback but not getting any closer.
I probably need to be clearer about what we are trying to do.
1. We want to scan in hand drawings and animate them in moho
the usual way.
2. The next step is to export the animation from moho as bones
into blender.
3. We make the final models in 3D, actually 2D with a Z value and
import the bvh, which brings in the bones AND the animation.
4. The last step is rig, light and render
The main reason to do the extra step is to be able to light properly.
If moho had good lighting and richer rendering tools this would
probably not be necessary.
There's a few bone formats. The best one is asf/amc as it splits the
process into two tasks, a skeleton and a motion file.
The other one is bvh bundles both into the same file.
Either one could do the job, with a slight edge to asf/amc.
Here's a few links with more info :
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Courses ... F-AMC.html
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/graphics/Courses ... f/BVH.html
thanks,
e1
You lost me at point 1. "Hand drawings" or "Hand drawings"?
Drawings of hands - but then you don''t need bones to animate them, different hand poses belong in a swich layer. Or drawings by hand of something else - in this case you still need to create some vector art in Moho to animate this with bones.
Have you thought about that? You can't control your animation in Moho if there isn't anything connected to the bones - vector artwork or imported images. The bones will not show in the rendered output.
I don't get point 4 either. You want to create the animation first, and do the rigging later? How do you control your animation then?
I think you have way too much overhead in your process right now. If it is cutout animation you want to do, do it in 2D - where else? The minor issue of not being able to animate depth sorting of layers can easily be dealt with. Lighting effects in 2D sould be done in a 2D program as well - a compositing program should do.
Do you have some sketches at hand which could show us your idea of how the final output should look like? Maybe you forgot to mention one crucial detail which absolutely demands the use of 3D.
Drawings of hands - but then you don''t need bones to animate them, different hand poses belong in a swich layer. Or drawings by hand of something else - in this case you still need to create some vector art in Moho to animate this with bones.
Have you thought about that? You can't control your animation in Moho if there isn't anything connected to the bones - vector artwork or imported images. The bones will not show in the rendered output.
I don't get point 4 either. You want to create the animation first, and do the rigging later? How do you control your animation then?
I think you have way too much overhead in your process right now. If it is cutout animation you want to do, do it in 2D - where else? The minor issue of not being able to animate depth sorting of layers can easily be dealt with. Lighting effects in 2D sould be done in a 2D program as well - a compositing program should do.
Do you have some sketches at hand which could show us your idea of how the final output should look like? Maybe you forgot to mention one crucial detail which absolutely demands the use of 3D.
Have you look at Life Forms Studio?
http://www.charactermotion.com/products ... index.html
I think that you could make your own rig in the Life Forms that is 2D. Then export to Blender. This should work if you are only after an application that is only going to be used for the animation of the bones.
Dale
http://www.charactermotion.com/products ... index.html
I think that you could make your own rig in the Life Forms that is 2D. Then export to Blender. This should work if you are only after an application that is only going to be used for the animation of the bones.
Dale
I have to say that you are really really jumping through a lot of hoops just to have "better lighting".
If you want to use AS and can't achieve the "lighting" style directly it may be possible to apply those effects to the rendered output in post. If you could show a sample of the lighting effect from blender maybe we can show you how you might be able to achieve this in AS without going through what will be an unneeded set of complicated steps.
Why go through all of this? Why not just animate in blender? Any time saved because of Anime Studio's improved bone animation would be lost by all the other steps in the process. I think you have no idea the kind of limitations this workflow is going to give you. It's going to be a nightmare keeping track of everything. You would 3 sets of different files for each piece of animation, AS files, BVH motion files, blender files.
How will you do previews of scenes for approval? Will they be done in the AS files or blender? How will changes be handled? In AS or blender?
What happens if you need to make extensive changes AFTER importing the bone motion into blender? You would have to go back to AS and export the entire animation sequence and bring it back into blender. What if you have to make small changes in blender? Move a bone, adjust rotation. You wouldn't be able to use AS anymore since it would eliminate any adjustments in the blender file if you reimport the bone motion.
There are "tricks" in AS that might give you the results you need.
I have been working on and off on a bone animation export script from AS but specifically to bring that motion back into AS as actions. Like I said, in theory it should be "fairly" simple. but it still involves some effort, and a lot of testing. Your whole project workflow will rely on this so it needs to be solid and "bug free". My script isn't even close yet.
Any other solutions to avoid the need for this would be something to seriously look into.
-vern
If you want to use AS and can't achieve the "lighting" style directly it may be possible to apply those effects to the rendered output in post. If you could show a sample of the lighting effect from blender maybe we can show you how you might be able to achieve this in AS without going through what will be an unneeded set of complicated steps.
Why go through all of this? Why not just animate in blender? Any time saved because of Anime Studio's improved bone animation would be lost by all the other steps in the process. I think you have no idea the kind of limitations this workflow is going to give you. It's going to be a nightmare keeping track of everything. You would 3 sets of different files for each piece of animation, AS files, BVH motion files, blender files.
How will you do previews of scenes for approval? Will they be done in the AS files or blender? How will changes be handled? In AS or blender?
What happens if you need to make extensive changes AFTER importing the bone motion into blender? You would have to go back to AS and export the entire animation sequence and bring it back into blender. What if you have to make small changes in blender? Move a bone, adjust rotation. You wouldn't be able to use AS anymore since it would eliminate any adjustments in the blender file if you reimport the bone motion.
There are "tricks" in AS that might give you the results you need.
I have been working on and off on a bone animation export script from AS but specifically to bring that motion back into AS as actions. Like I said, in theory it should be "fairly" simple. but it still involves some effort, and a lot of testing. Your whole project workflow will rely on this so it needs to be solid and "bug free". My script isn't even close yet.
Any other solutions to avoid the need for this would be something to seriously look into.
-vern