Topic: First animation tests (animated within 3ds max with reactor)

[mischa]

Hi,

I did this animation in 3ds Max (with reactor) and imported it into Lumion...

[Aaron]

Nice one Mischa!
Did it port over exactly like the original?

[RAD]

That is really cool!

[mischa]

Hi Aron,

I did several tests the last two days and in the most cases it was exactly the same. I don t know at the moment at which stage (by optimising the keys, by exporting or importing the file) the animation changed a bit (in one case the spheres were rolling 1m above the ground), but I will give it some more tests and will report. This sample was one of my succesfull tests, where the animation is the same as in 3ds max...

[SEVERINO]

Mischa Thanks,  I think an important advance in the field of animation within lumion. I am very interested in this topic (animation imported from max) and I like that I provide, if you a short summary of the steps, from max to Lumion.
Congratulations on your contribution, a cordial greeting.

[Morten]

Please bear in mind that the animation import is not that robust yet. Only Collada animations can currently be imported in Lumion Ultimate, but due to limitations in the Collada exporters (both AutoDesk's and OpenCollada) the animations are unfortunately not always 100% identical to the original animations in 3DS Max / Maya.

When using our internal importer which isn't yet part of Lumion, FBX animations work much better than Collada animations and there's no difference between the imported animations and the original ones. Hopefully this can be rolled out soon, although I think the animation import option will only be available to Ultimate users and to those of you who invest in the upcoming Animation Pack.

(Please correct me if I'm wrong, Remko)

[mischa]

ok, important to know. OpenCollada is at the moment the file format whick works best with my projects, well maybe I should then split the objects which should be animated (exported in fbx format) and the none animated objects (exported as in the old days as OpenCollada files.

What means the work flow.. nothing special to do. I exported objects animated along a path (no problems so far) and I objects animated by frame animation using reactor in 3ds max (sometimes this worked good, sometimes the animation was not exact the same as it was in 3ds max). When you have prepared an rector animation in 3ds max, you have to let reactor calculate the keyframe animation. Now check the animation in 3ds max (not the reactor preview window) and if you did everything right you should see the animation calculated by reactor (there are many tutorials explaining rector). Now you can export your scene using OpenCollada or the fbx exporter. Activate that you want to export the animations with the objects. When importing the file into Lumion Ultimate you have to activate that you want to import the animations alog with the file. That is all...

[Ecuadorian]

I don't have max, only Messiah... And it only exports animations via fbx. (Don't even know how to use it yet)
I'll be waiting for fbx animation import. Unless you can recommend another affordable animation solution.

[mischa]

fbx animation import works in lumion ultimate, you misunderstood me. I only prefer collodae because it works better for importing much geometry and many materials, but animations should work better with fbx.

[gabrielefx]

Does Lumion SP2 import collada animations without any plugin?

[mischa]

no only lumion ultimate can do that

[Aaron]

fbx animation import works in lumion ultimate, you misunderstood me. I only prefer collodae because it works better for importing much geometry and many materials, but animations should work better with fbx.

Have you tested this Mischa? Just wondering since from what I have tried, FBX import currently doesnt work with animations

[mischa]

No I only tested dae. Mr. Fog told me that FBX works better, but currently only an internal Lumion version, so we have to wait before we can test animations exported with FBX.

[Aaron]

Mr. Fog 
Thanks Mischa, just making sure 

[Morten]

Yup, that's correct, Mischa.

So just to clarify:

Those of you who have upgraded to Lumion Ultimate can currently only import animations in Collada format. Collada animations do not always look 100% like the original animations in 3DS Max and Maya.

Once the importer is updated and the Animation Pack is "official", we will most likely recommend that you use FBX animations as they look 100% identical to the original animations.

Unless Artur finds out why the Collada exporters are misbehaving