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Exporting Animations from C4D to Irrlicht

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 2:55 am
by jaxxa
Hi I am trying to exporting animations from Cinema 4D to Irrlicht
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/

I have got static objects to import into CopperCube(The Irrlicht world editor) but have only been able to get static meshes in so far.
It will import DirectX(.x) , Blitx3D(.b3d) and Milkshape(.ms3d)

When I Export as Direct3d(.x) from Cinema 4D it will only show (in CopperCube) the frame the time line (in C4D) was set to.

I have access to Cinema 4D 11 and 11.5

Any help on what file formats, plug-ins or intermediate programs would be appreciated.

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:52 am
by hybrid
You can download the Irrlicht SDK and start up the meshviewer example. There you can load all supported mesh formats and see if animations are playing. For .x files, you can also cross-check with the MView application from Microsoft to see if the .x file has animations at all.

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 6:11 am
by jaxxa
No animations playing in there, just static meshes.
Guessing that means that it is a problem with Exporting from Cinema 4D, not importing in Irrlicht.

Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 5:21 pm
by freetimecoder
C4D has very crappy inbuild exporting tools, you won't get animation exported. However there is a b3d exporter plugin for C4D which can export animation. Not sure which C4D version it works with, though. Google should help you there.

Other alternatives are Milkshape3D or Blender for example. But you would have to learn a whole new program then.

greetings

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 10:27 am
by jaxxa
Thanks for that b3d exporter plug in worked like a charm.
Here is all the steps i took to help anyone else in a similar situation


Converting Animations from Cinima4D into Irilict

It took me quite a while to figure out how to do this,
So I figured I would post how I finaly did it and save some other people the trouble.

1.Make your mesh how you want to, normally using Cinema 4D

2.Convert it into a polygon based object

3.Using the "character/bones/bone" option to create the bones how you would normally

4.Fix the bones (Fix with children?)

5.Using Point mode select The points you want A bone to effect/affect (one of the two)

6.Use the "Selection/Set selection" option to create a selection and Name it

7.Add a restriction tag to the Bone "Right Click/CINEMA 4D TAGS/Restriction"

8.Under the restriction "Tag properties" set NAME to the mane of the selection you want that bone to be.

9.Repeat steps 5-8 for each bone

10.Animate the bones how you wish to

11.Using "B3D Exporter for Cinema4D V1.4" http://mein-murks.de/

12.Export as a .B3D File (Plugins/Blitz3D/Export B3D-File)

13.The created file can now be imported into "Irrlicht Example 09 Mesh Viewer" or
CopperCube3D (File->Import->Animated 3D Mesh)

Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 3:26 pm
by Bate
Thanks for sharing.

I'm having a little issue, though.
I always get this warning from the plugin:

"W:Parent mesh isn't in null position. It might be shown corrupt or displaced."

And therefore, indeed, the separate parts of my models are displaced. The documentation says that it happens unless each vertex is assigned to a bone. However, I did assign all vertices to bones. Hence, I'm not sure how to fix that.

Since it seems that you've figured it all out: how do you make it work "like a charm"? Perhaps, you could upload a small C4D test project so I can see the difference (if that's not too much to ask for).

thanks in advance