#Motion Tracking Data?
11 messages in this thread
I'm with Mechadeus, a CD-ROM producer in SF. (We did the Critical Path CD-ROM
which is shipping now.) We're in production on another interactive movie which
will use live action actors matted into 3D animations. We are going to use a
motion tracking camera head, probably the one from Ultimatte, which will give
us a data stream of camera postion information. We want to be able to move the
camera and still matte into animations accurately. We'll wind up with an ASCII
file of time / postion data.
My question is… Does anyone know of IPAS or other utilities which we can buy
which can translate ASCII camera postion data into 3D Studio keyframes. We
could have one of our programmers write a custom IPAS routine to do this but it
would be nice if a good one existed already. We don't want any more smoke to
come out of our programmer's heads.
Thanks in advance…
Bill Niemeyer
Bill,
3ds can already accept ascii data for keyframe positions, I believe. Read up on
the .vue file format in your manuals to see if it will do the trick for you.
Bill,
I'm looking for the same thing, except for any pre-existing object in 3ds. the
.vue file can be used but it does not get the data into the keyframer. it stays
outside in the .vue file and positions things for the rendering. I need the
paths to end up inside the keyframer.
Let me know if you have any success.
Steve Burdick
1520 Land O'Lakes Blvd.
Lutz, FL 33549
(813) 948-0018
I looked at the .vue format but like you I want to import it into the keyframer
directly. Also the .vue files get really messy on the size of models that we
use. Looks like the solution is a KXP process but I haven't found it availible.
Called Shreiber but they don't have it. Looks like a custom job, either from
one of the IPAS developers or one we write ourselves. If I find any good news I
will let you and the other people interested know.
I'm still looking also. Sounds like we are covering a lot of the same ground.
Will let you know of any break throughs. The most likely people to have
solved this problem would probably be those doing forensic animations for
vehicular collisions.
thanks, steve
I am also looking for something similar.
I have been using Vista Pro. And just recently the guys from VRLI wrote a
SCR2VUE converter which converts the paths you make in Vistapro and turns them
into .vue files. But I just can't get the path back into 3DS. I had asked
them to write this a couple of months ago, thinking you could import vue files
and turn them into a path, or keyframes. This path would also be excellent for
cars, or motorcycles or airplanes, going through the mountains.
Does anyone have any suggestions.
Thanx,
Fred Nilsson
Fredrik,
<< Vistapro to 3ds converter? >>
John Foust of Syndesis writes translators. He may be able
to help you. He frequents this forum almost daily(76004,1763).
jonas[adesk]
We are working on an IPAS routine that loads VistaPro binary DEMs, but it would
also make sense to have it load VUE files in the Keyframer, too. I'll add that
to the requested features list. If you have any other ideas about what this
IPAS should do, be sure to send me a message in private e-mail.
One idea I had for bringing in the VUE file, is being able to use this path as
not only a path for the camera but for a path of an object as well.
That way we could have a car driving over a landscape or a jet flying through
the landscape using VP3's makepath utility.
This utility really makes nice path's.
Let me know what you come up with.
thanx,
Fred Nilsson
Fredrik Nilsson,
Could you tell me more about the make path utility you spoke of. I am
interested.
Thanks,
Greg Kammer
Well, the MakePath utility, that comes on the new Vista Pro 3.1 CD, is a
utility that easily lets you make paths that either fly, through a canyon or
any mountain structures. You have control over most things, ie… bank,
pitch, roll, speed, etc…also which type of aircraft, whether it be a glider
or a jet. Also you could have the camera drive over the landscape in a car or a
motorcycle.
It's real simple to make a path, All you do is draw a spline path through the
mountains then you can see a real time preview of your animation.
It's really cool.
Fred Nilsson