after effects nulls to softimage
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christian
Feb 20, 2012, 12:34:28 PM2/20/12
to XSILIST
ok,
i wasted over an hour now on this and am feeling ranty and pissed off (and stupid of course), since something that should only take like 2 clicks is having me search google for user-written scripts from 2005 as well as trying to read some polish forum via google translate etc.
i've done this all before (though with different versions of soft and after effects) so i dont know why it is not working now. i basically have a laptop flat on a table, thats spinning around while the screen is opening (static camera, spinning laptop). the compositor would like to have position and rotation of the screen, so he can put in whatever he wants, and yet i am just failing.
i've made a fresh null (because the scripts dont seem to like parenting and only take local and not global values), constrained it to the corner of the laptop screen, then plot the transformation, rotation, etc... and yet.. in after effects.. everything is just totally off. for starters the camera angle (easy to fix, since static) is plain wrong, and the null pretty much does whatever it wants, spinning and flipping like crazy.. i remember having to invert the Y values or something when i did it last time, but even that wont fix the mess i have.
so.. err.. without having to supply video or the scene or whatever, is there somewhere an updated plugin, a working one, or some other way to do this ?
i wasted over an hour now on this and am feeling ranty and pissed off (and stupid of course), since something that should only take like 2 clicks is having me search google for user-written scripts from 2005 as well as trying to read some polish forum via google translate etc.
i've done this all before (though with different versions of soft and after effects) so i dont know why it is not working now. i basically have a laptop flat on a table, thats spinning around while the screen is opening (static camera, spinning laptop). the compositor would like to have position and rotation of the screen, so he can put in whatever he wants, and yet i am just failing.
i've made a fresh null (because the scripts dont seem to like parenting and only take local and not global values), constrained it to the corner of the laptop screen, then plot the transformation, rotation, etc... and yet.. in after effects.. everything is just totally off. for starters the camera angle (easy to fix, since static) is plain wrong, and the null pretty much does whatever it wants, spinning and flipping like crazy.. i remember having to invert the Y values or something when i did it last time, but even that wont fix the mess i have.
so.. err.. without having to supply video or the scene or whatever, is there somewhere an updated plugin, a working one, or some other way to do this ?
Stephen Davidson
Feb 20, 2012, 3:11:03 PM2/20/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
does this help?
Best Regards,
Stephen P. Davidson
(954) 552-7956
sdav...@3Danimationmagic.com
Check My BLOG
My Website is GREEN, Is yours?
christian
Feb 20, 2012, 3:23:07 PM2/20/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
ugh sorry, i messed up the subject line. was supposed to be XSI nulls to after effects.
what i dont get is.. the nulls transfers fine, the curves are identical (after flipping Y), yet the AFX null behaves completely different. at this point i think the error lies more with after effects, probably order of rotation, or something, but i just cant fix it.
i tried spinning the camera instead of the null, so the null stays static, still the same thing. i tried recreating the XYZ rotation order of the softimage null with 3 parented nulls in after effects. but still no go.
what i dont get is.. the nulls transfers fine, the curves are identical (after flipping Y), yet the AFX null behaves completely different. at this point i think the error lies more with after effects, probably order of rotation, or something, but i just cant fix it.
i tried spinning the camera instead of the null, so the null stays static, still the same thing. i tried recreating the XYZ rotation order of the softimage null with 3 parented nulls in after effects. but still no go.
Byron Nash
Feb 20, 2012, 5:30:25 PM2/20/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Christian, did you get my email off-list?
Thomas Volkmann
Feb 21, 2012, 2:08:28 AM2/21/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
Is this still needed? I have a script I can send you when I got to
work.
christian
Feb 21, 2012, 6:06:54 AM2/21/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
thanks everyone, but i gave up for now.
problem seems to lie within after effects somewhere.. the curves import and translate fine and all, but in the end the rotation is just messed up, and i cant figure out how to correct it.
http://i.imgur.com/ODbbH.png
like i said i tried rebuilding everything in after effects with 3 parented nulls for proper X Y Z rotation order like in softimage (also tried realigning the null with Y up in softimage etc), but still its just all wonky.
c.
problem seems to lie within after effects somewhere.. the curves import and translate fine and all, but in the end the rotation is just messed up, and i cant figure out how to correct it.
http://i.imgur.com/ODbbH.png
like i said i tried rebuilding everything in after effects with 3 parented nulls for proper X Y Z rotation order like in softimage (also tried realigning the null with Y up in softimage etc), but still its just all wonky.
c.
christian
Feb 21, 2012, 7:27:33 AM2/21/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
working now, thanks to byron nash. setting the rotation order to ZYX in softimage did the trick.
Thomas Volkmann
Feb 21, 2012, 7:30:59 AM2/21/12
to soft...@listproc.autodesk.com
You can give the attached script a try. Worked for me most of the time...
# Put the scene-Camera and the nulls that you want to export into a group.
# Select the group and run the script.
# A .jsx script is created that you can run inside AfterFX. It creates a new Comp with Camera and Nulls.
# Loosely based on an old Script from Helge Mathee's Mindthink-tools
cheers,
Thomas
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