how to export animation from XSI?
Community Forums/Developer Stations/how to export animation from XSI?
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| Hi, since there seem to be some XSI Gurus around I was wondering if somebody could tell me how to export bone animated meshes from XSI to be used in B3D. Thanx! |
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| I'm not a guru, there must be there someone else... export as x. *.x can carry the weights (strenght of a bone over vertices) , bones, animation, etc. use Ultimate Unwrap to import the x. make some adjustments (if needed) , export as b3d. That simple. I tested it works before buying, as bought xsi for animate only. I hope u have Ultimate Unwrap (www.unwrap3d.com) as I don't know other way. |
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| oops , sorry... you don't have the x export embeded natively (you do with OBJ in xsi) The x exporter/importer (yup!it also imports x animations..!) is here : http://uploads.savefile.com/redir/123112.zip Left click, don't right click. Till u see a "downloaded hosted file" link.(left click also) I have uploaded very temporarily for you, as it's quite a dig in softimage site till u find the exporter, or was last time I checked. i have put there some other 2 pluggins (*.addon) into this zip: import-obj-sequence , and a 3ds import. I have only tested(and worked great) the directx exporter one. oh, another way would be to export with other plugin each mesh frame, and use and external utility to compile to md2 or md3 for Blitz3d, but that's a too poor/long way. |
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| oh, probably the Ultimate Unwrap demo works importing the x file as demo, so u can check everything is smooth before purchasing Ultimate Unwrap + xsi, in case u don't have Ultimate Unwrap already. Hope it helped. |
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| Thanx a lot Bob3d! It took me a moment to figure out how to download your file but I managed fine. I'll try it all out tomorrow, it's getting late here... By the way I've got Ultimate Unwrap and use it extensively, a great tool! The last few days I’ve been playing around with XSI. It’s quite a handful to get used to, but slowly I’m getting the hang of it. I can’t stop marvelling at the power packed into this application and the best is they use VB for scripting which I’m quite familiar with… Anyway, thanx again for posting those exporter plugins! |
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| Good :) Is nice to know when it helps :) I'm surprised the download worked for you. As I tried it just inmediately after uploading and it didn't work...was close to mail the file to you to the free email you've set in the forum, but finally I didn't, as thought it could have been just it was temporarily down, these free servers often work this way. Oh, remember to uncheck "compress" in the x exporter...there was something else, but you'll quicly notice things with a bit of trial and error, as is quite simple export dialog. |
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| bob, could you email me that file, i can't seem to be able to download it :) |
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| it's quite a dig in softimage site till u find the exporter :) Yup! But hey, they are French-Canadien, so no wonder ;P... Maybe these links will help: http://www.softimage.com/xsinet/L04_body/content/convertors/general/dximport/dximport.xsiaddon http://www.softimage.com/xsinet/L04_body/content/convertors/general/dxexport/dxexport.xsiaddon More convertors: http://www.softimage.com/xsinet/L02_main/L02_main_conv.htm parent link: http://www.softimage.com/xsinet/ |
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| Thanx Mustang for those links. Can anybody give me any tips on how to get the exporting of animations from XSI to .X to work? Ultimate Unwrap can't open the .x files I create and the animations seems to be missing from the files... |
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| some kind fellow should write a xsi to b3d pipeline. XSI is only 299 quid these days, well worth the money for any indie developer |
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| Yup, that would be great! Or one could export from XSI to dotXSI file which is a .x like binary file. Softimage offers a free file convertion SDK kit which should make it easyer to write a converter from dotXSI format to B3D. Unfortunately my programming skills and time frame are to limited to takle this kind of job... |
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| OK Yep, it has issues. Now tested with my old arena model. Way to overcome them : In export dialog settings in xsi:  The proof....(dx file playing) (left click!) http://uploads.savefile.com/redir/127605.zip Only thing: The exporter as 2 small errors...or it looks likes it to me.. First, here it's flipping VERTICALLY UV coords.That's never a problem with Ultimate Unwrap. U flip the UVs in Ultimate. U'll also need probably to do a "weld model" in UU, as often Ultimate Unwrap breakes per face when make an x import. That's common issue with x files and UU, anyway. SO, do a weld model ONLY with vertices (not degenerate "faces") marked/checked in the "weld model" dialog box. ...Those are usual in any model conversion, and never are a problem, in engines I worked, flip the uv coords was easy, even, for the coder. But there was not a need. The worse is that...well..it seems to produce an small uv coords position (all at a time) offset...neither is a big problem: I just move the uv coords (select all previous!) with splitted window in UU, so I see seams are hidden. And in few seconds all matches perfect (otherwise, some seams are seen in texture limits) I have done so, and output a correct file(b3d and x again), but also...well, some may not be using xsi for b3d, but for x based engines...hey, then do the old trick for these issues (I also tested to work perfect) : Just YET in XSI select all verts and flip the UVs in "texture editor" (quite a powerful uv editor, xsi has...as the 99% of the software, havent dedicate time to learn myself..) ...move em to compensate the export tiny offset(of course, no visual check, just calculate mentally what'll be needed). I happened to do perfect first time, as more or less had seen in UU in which direction the xsi exporter was producing it and visually how much... I guess with some clever way u can even guess how much exactly, even numerically is offsetting in u, v or both... And apply numerically before export... as a general rule... U know what I mean. Once done that(it's rather quick here), it's displaying ok in all my x viewers. -do reproduce exactly those settings (exporting hidden objects may cause problems in some cases) .U see there's text format, matrix instead of usual rotate scale rotation...compress set to NO!. Triangulate unmarked (triangulate ur self previously , better) . Plotting in XSI seems to be like baking in other tools... that is, u want all baked. All as standard stuff, and the fewer "special" stuff from xsi, the better. U have a full menu for plotting stuff somewhere in xsi, anyway, in xsi menus...btw, here I only needed just the exporter settings. Here motion, curves... is being translated THE SAME, just like weights and all. :) -Also, I made with "2d chain"s. I prefer NOT to use a 3d chains, nor a premade rig, but make my own with plain bones(2D chain! I don't like the others), weights, and use auto keyframing (well, I set a keyframed all bones initial pose) , and ...of course, I have a key asigned to toggle PIN OBJECT, at a joint(to plant foot, etc). One of the main things I like more in XSI. Remember: I'm a noob. An xsi noob, I mean. I haven't read the manual (neither did in Blender and got the grips..I think ;) ) I just do quick guess to achieve what I need, as is my usual way. Someone wiser with xsi(so, anyone) may see all this as absolutely dumb... But is my way. XD And actually, it shows it can do the stuff for b3d, x, etc. The export once fixed as mentioned in UU, would be as trivial as usual is exporting an animated b3d file from UU. I hope I have not forgot a thing. |
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| oh, remember to set two keyframes...I key all bones at start in frame zero... Also, I set weights painting and asinginng a number, and definitely, I don't leave a vertex without weight, or with not a sum of 1.0 among all the influences... That is, if us suspect some area is not fully weighted, paint it with "add" or something... in any package, this is a must... |
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