Topic: Lost the overview (animations again)

[Michael Betke]

Sorry to open up a thread again but I still don't get it...

In one thread I were told that I can't animate stuff in lumion. Now I see people talking about importing animations with .fbx into lumion. I also have a "Import animations" thingie in my Pro version.

So I can export any animation I get exported with .fbx to Lumion Pro??

I'm lost, help an old man!

[Artur Brzegowy]

Hi,

In Import section you have "Import animation" checkbox. If you select it, then scene is imported with animation. See screeshot.

BTW: You can import animation from all formats, not only FBX.

[Michael Betke]

My model just stands there in its pose. I tried with .fbx and .dae (opencollada).
What do I export exactly? Or is it a movie-effect?

[Frank]

My model just stands there in its pose. I tried with .fbx and .dae (opencollada).
What do I export exactly? Or is it a movie-effect?

No subobject- or vertex-animation is supported, imo.
Only move, scale or rotate.

[Michael Betke]

So this setup (a pretty common one) is not supported?
I dont know what I can archieve with just move,scale...

[Aaron]

Hi Michael,

Bipeds and skinned stuff is not supported indeed.
The most advanced thing it is currently capable of handling is a keyframe exported rig.
So for your example you are pretty much dead in the water I'm sorry to say.
There is a tut floating about by Byzantium1200 on how to cut things up into seperate parts
and thus have it faked a bit but it goes without saying this looks bad unless from far away.

[Michael Betke]

I think I remember the tut and a small video. Doesnt look very good compared to a common animation. Plus the amount of work which is neccesary to do it.

So maybe Lumion3 will have it some day...

[Michael Betke]

I really wonder why not even a point-chache system is supported after all this time. Its so basic to export this from any animation tool plus its pretty fast to vertex bake the animation.

I played around with it now for some hours to bake my rig into a point-cache and then to a vertex animation and it works great but not in Lumion...

Really hoping it will come in Lum3 but some days ago there was a post that its not even planned...

[Morten]

Hi Michael, unfortunately I can't answer your questions as these are decisions that the developers (Ferry/Remko/Arthur) are responsible for. All I can do is to re-iterate that Ferry informed me that there are currently no plans to implement vertex animation import in Lumion.

[Michael Betke]

I really dont understand the company philosophy behind this thing. Its one of the most reqested features for Lumion since its release and people get new snow shaders instead of such a useable thing like custom animations which would be a real "Pro" feature. Does Act-3D think people dont upgrade each year anymore if finally animations, reflections and GI are in?

Every basic user can deal with the great and big library Lumion offers and use it for a mayority of work but just imagine a project if a client approaches me and tells "hey I need a nice movie with people doing sports, doing jogging in my brand new park area and so on".

As a "Pro" user I think this is a feature that should be inside a tool which claims to be the best on its field. It's a bit frustrating if I have to consider Lumion as a useable pipeline or not for every new project. In my mentioned example I would have to tell my client that I can deliver but to higher costs because the technology I use just don't support it like lots of other tools do.

[Morten]

I understand your frustration, Michael.

"hey I need a nice movie with people doing sports, doing jogging in my brand new park area and so on".

I know this is just an example to prove your point, but I should add that people who are jogging and exercising are already on our subcontractor's To Do list. The same goes for business people and people in Arab clothing. I know we can't ever include all types of 3D people, but from a content point of view, I guarantee that we do take your feedback to heart.

I can't help you with vertex animation import though...