Does Touch's FBX import support animations?

Hi,

I’m testing importing an FBX file - a cube with two keyframes.

I can see that the data is in the FBX file, but when I drop it into Touch the Main take only has a file in which is the value of the first frame - is that because it would need to actually use an animation component (since I believe the FBX expresses keyframes) and not a file in? And therefore Touch does not import FBX animations?

attaching the fbx file just in case.

thanks,
dani
export_v1_8.fbx (15.2 KB)

animations in FBX files are supported. You don’t need the animation comp, you can just drop the FBX file onto touch. My advice is to try a different FBX file? you can find free animated FBX example models online.

well that file is a simple cube in houdini with tx and ry with two keyframes each. It really doesn’t get much simplier than that, and I need to export from Houdini, not some sample files.

but thanks for the suggestion. Maybe derivative can test the file and tell me why the animations are not coming through?

tx
dani

Hey Dani,

I’m also having trouble with that file and other FBX files that I’m trying to load into Touch. I’ve yet to import one that works. It looks like the channels are coming in, but they’re all static…

I’m also having trouble with the Animation COMP in general, which won’t seem to run in Sequential mode. I’m not sure if these issues are related at all, since there doesn’t seem to be any Animation COMP created when FBX files are imported.

-Carlos

edit

As soon as I posted this, I tried a sixth FBX file – a simple box that moves – and it worked! I’ve attached the file so you can see if it works for you too. Now I’m off to figure out what I might be doing wrong with the others…
boxtest.fbx (15.8 KB)

thanks. I hope Derivative can take a look into your working and my non-working file because it’s obviously important to make sure animations are sent through properly.

tx
d

After some closer examination, I think my problems with some of the FBX files I was trying to import was that they did not have all of the frames baked into the geometry. My collaborator had given me some FBX files produced in Cinema 4D where certain animations were utilizing script-driven instances. We’ve been working through some different workflows for properly exporting these from Cinema 4D and into Touch so that all the animation frames are included. I’ll update if we come up with any processes that may be useful to others!

edit

My suspicions were correct! We were able to bake all of the animations in Cinema 4D using the following process (and now all of those FBX files are working correctly):
jag4d.com/bake_mograph_objec … rames.html

what I did notice was that frames in my fbx file were expressed in keyframes, not frame by frame values. Touch seemed to ignore that.

I’ve also noticed (exporting from Houdini) that Touch substitutes bone objects with nulls (recognizing them as bones because it adds an end_affector extra object at the end of a chain).
just as an aside. I am just about to declare too unreliable the fbx exporting from houdini to touch.

We parse the .fbx file as is when it comes to bones. Houdini writes out Joints instead of Bones since most other packages use joint based.

Hi Guys thought I would chime in here with some very recent experience in this area with Cinema4D, FBX, Unity + TouchDesigner…

SO yeah, as you well know, you cannot export Mograph or Deformer animation with FBX

A workflow for the Mograph is as posted above (The vimeo link) - this workflow seems a little/lot easier than the workflow i have found for deformer animation:

So the task was to use the explosionFX deformer in cinema4d to blow some stuff up into floating polygons, import into touch and be able to control the animation timeline with chops etc etc.

What has worked for me seems hacky and painful but it works:

  1. Select all of your objects heirachy with deformers included

  2. Export as Alembic (R14+ im afraid)

  3. Import Alembic, easier to import into new project

  4. Select Alembic and using the Nitrobake plugin (nitro4d.com/blog/donationware/nitrobake/):
    4.1. Frame By Frame
    4.2. Point Animation
    4.3. NOT single object
    This will bake the Alembic cache into a hierarchy of PLA baked objects

  5. Delete Alembic cache, Select all objects in hierarchy

  6. Export .FBX

There you go - baked deformers.

Why is this process better than using the point cache tags and baking PLA in the timeline window?

Reference an Alembic point cache to an editable object can be problematic, especially when the object breaks up into lots of tiny polygon pieces. When you reference the cache (via Xpresso or point cache deformer), the mesh object referencing the cache patches polygons and distorts the mesh in the space between each broken polygon.

However, if your mesh deformation requires not exploding or particle like effects, this tutorial should suffice: vimeo.com/78684377

For more accurate fbx exporting, this plugin is really really really good: cactus3d.com/CDFBX.html

:smiley:

Thanks for the info, Oliver. We’ve been using Nitrobake as well, and these tips are very helpful.

Have you by any chance been able to successfully export textured FBX’s from Cinema 4D into TouchDesigner?

I have managed to export textured .FBX from C4d to TD.

The trick is to bake the texture so you get an accurate texture map in an external image file, then in touch designer color map the image to a phong or constant. You may need to add a texture SOP to your model before your material SOP to make sure you have correct mapping.

O.

I can successfully import an FBX here,texture mapped with UV mapping and with animation. Export as FBX 6.1(2010) from C4d.
Note there is a bug where the first attempt at importing an FBX 6.1 into Touch will incorrectly try to read it into a TOP. Hit cancel and the second attempt will give you the import dialog where you can checkmark ‘animation’ and ‘textures’. At least that is how it works over here.

further tests:

FBX 2013-2011 imports model and animation but no texture.
so, yeah. It works with FBX 6.1 best.

ps_ further testing reveals above bug only happens the first time you open a 6.1 FBX in a fresh instance of Touch. After that it seems to go to normal import dialog. Fun Stuff!

Thanks for the replies, y’all!

Oliver and cod, your suggestions have helped us as we start to piece together some scenes from Cinema 4D. The textures themselves don’t seem to bake into the FBX, but for the most part, the texture maps seem to transfer correctly. I think this may be due to some issues with normals on the models though. We’ve been able to fix most of these remaining problems with the Texture SOP and an occasional manipulation of the mesh’s normals.

Is there a preferred method of bringing in texture files from Cinema 4D? Since the actual texture images don’t seem to get baked into the FBX (even with v6.1), I’ve been bringing them in as MovieIn TOPs and manually adding them, though for some scenes this can get tedious. Am I going about this the right way, or is there a better method?

Cod, I’ve noticed that import bug too! I’m experiencing the exact same behavior you described, including the workaround.

Are you explicitly creating an UV map in C4d ? You should be seeing an UV tag in C4d on your model.If not, I think it’s right click on model in list and ‘create UV map’. it could be that is why it works for me. Just a hunch.
You also might try the ‘paint wizard’ to create an UV/texture map. it might be that TD is looking for this type of mapping.

Hi guys,

I wanted to add a note to the procedure Oliver laid out earlier in the post to get proper c4D deformer animations out of c4d and into touch.

  1. Select all of your objects heirachy with deformers included

  2. Export as Alembic (R14+ im afraid)

  3. Import Alembic, easier to import into new project

((((Convert to editable object))))

  1. Select Alembic and using the Nitrobake plugin (nitro4d.com/blog/donationware/nitrobake/):
    4.1. Frame By Frame
    4.2. Point Animation
    4.3. NOT single object
    This will bake the Alembic cache into a hierarchy of PLA baked objects

  2. Delete Alembic cache, Select all objects in hierarchy

  3. Export .FBX