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3D models: animation support

Suggestions for new features for Magic.
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blackdot
Posts: 528
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2014 10:18 pm

3D models: animation support

Post by blackdot »

Magic supports already a ton of 3d model formats. Some of those also incapsulate animations. It would be cool if magic was able to support this. Afaik .x and collada already support animations and/or even armatures/ bones. There may be more formats of the ones magic supports. It could be handeled similarly like in the video module: set begin and end second/keyframe, goto start, speed/fps and so on.

another way to do this would be to support mesh cache files like mdd or pc2 that come with an obj for example and show the change of vertices over time in comparison that has the info just for one point in time. That way we could pre"bake" animations and use them like that.

I realize i may have already posted sth like this, im hoping to make a more specific request with this and also see what the community vibe would be specifically for this.
Magic
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:28 pm

Re: 3D models: animation support

Post by Magic »

Yeah there's a bit of earlier discussion about it here: http://magicmusicvisuals.com/forums/vie ... p=148#p146

It would definitely be easier to start with only supporting "pre-baked" animations, as you noted. The animation paths could be read from the file and the meshes would move appropriately over time. They wouldn't respond to audio or MIDI input directly, but parameters from the Video module like start/end time and speed would probably be possible. It could allow for things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHUTof9S8mM. Is this something people would be interested in?

More difficult than that would be getting the individual joints or bones or vertices to respond to audio/MIDI in real-time. As we discussed in this post (http://magicmusicvisuals.com/forums/vie ... ?f=4&t=307), the main issue is how to select the various sub-components of the model. A new interface would be needed. Much harder :). I don't know if it's possible in Magic's current design, but I'll certainly think about it.

For now, if you bring in pieces of a model separately, you can do what I did in my Dancing Robot tutorial: http://magicmusicvisuals.com/forums/vie ... ?f=3&t=174. You might be able to get some interesting results if you use models that are more complicated than the simple cube I used in that one. And you could use oscillator modifiers to "pre-bake" some movement with rotations or translations.
Agostino
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Jul 18, 2019 2:23 am

Re: 3D models: animation support

Post by Agostino »

Hi!
6 years later!

Yes, having more formats that allow pre baked animation would be a good improvement.
In this regard, when I try to import a Blender file Magic crashes. Afaik Blender is a supported format.
Am I missing something?

Thanks.
Magic
Site Admin
Posts: 3440
Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:28 pm

Re: 3D models: animation support

Post by Magic »

Not sure. If you post a link so I can download your Blender file, I can test it.
Valis
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:37 am

Re: 3D models: animation support

Post by Valis »

What about Alembic / glTF?

While there might be some issues with changing the duration of playback (since the point transformation data etc are often stored in frame format and tweening is more intensive than just per-frame playback), it might also make for some unique effects...especially with more pythagorean/euclidean geometry types (meaning models that have a very recognizable shape so that any glitching or jumping will be more sensible to the eye).
Valis
Posts: 21
Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:37 am

Re: 3D models: animation support

Post by Valis »

Checking the docs for the Open Asset Import Library shows the following file formats are currently supported:
  • collada
  • x
  • stp
  • obj
  • objnomtl
  • stl
  • stlb
  • ply
  • plyb
  • 3ds
  • gltf2
  • glb2
  • gltf
  • glb
  • assbin
  • assxml
  • x3d
  • fbx
  • fbxa
  • m3d
  • m3da
  • 3mf
  • pbrt
  • assjson

In there I see model formats glb/glb2 which is the binary 3d model format used in glTF/glTF2, as well as other full scene with animation formats FBX (Autodesk's interchange format), X3D, PBRT (physically based render file format, which can also a full scene format), there are possibly more (m3d can also technically contain quite a bit of scene data) but these are the ones I recognize and am familiar with. Note: by 'full scene format' I mean the inclusion of not just geometry, but camera(s), light(s), animation data and so on...

Alembic (which is not present in this library right now) & glTF seem the most sensible formats to bring in animation, they're very common when working with something like Unity or other game engines. FBX might work as well, but it's much more inclusive and would need some trial & error to figure out how to bake the FBX file so that the scene & model/texture/animation/etc attributes wanted come in to MMV. The .pbrt format...off the top of my head I would wonder how well that translates to MMV as it's intended for physically based rendering engine. Might be interesting to try.

In any case, this thread has my interest, it it's probably worth documenting things well enough that a few workflows can be catered to. If animation/scene based files are added to MMV, I'd be willing to help make some tests. Blender users will have to help alongside, for while I know the program somewhat my experience with it goes back to long before their UI overhaul and I'm not fully up to date (efficient) with its current menu system and workflow(s).
lekepistol
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:47 am

Re: 3D models: animation support

Post by lekepistol »

I've exported 3D models from Blender as .obj (Wavefront) and loaded them into Magic without any problems.

I also think it would be great to import the animation of 3D objects. It opens up a world of possibilities.

Does anyone have tips on how to use 3D objects to "fake" a morphing shape, btw? Or other ways to create stuff like "FractilianSpongeOfDoom" (that's an ISF shader)?
Owlbert
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2021 6:59 am

Re: 3D models: animation support

Post by Owlbert »

Some sort of noise deformer
Vuo vuo.org has these and can export as ffgl for use in magic
Can use geometric primitives in vuo or bring in blender etc models
Or isf distortion filters
Or a sequence of individual blender files exports of morphing shape
Sorry just a quick early morning answerfrom my own limited experiments
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