Blender 2.78 new Alembic Cache export tested with KeyShot 6.2.105

Started by TpwUK, October 06, 2016, 02:45:40 PM

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TpwUK

Not rendered nor modelled for any particular accuracy, just purely for testing purposes.
Camera and Geometry imported with no issues.
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/185869504[/vimeo]


Martin

Chad Holton

This is great, Martin. Very mesmerizing.  :D
Thanks for sharing!

Will Gibbons


guest87266

Hi,
Nice animation.  :)

How did you export a Blender softbody sim to KeyShot?
Is there a plugin?

TpwUK

Quote from: 3dcal on November 26, 2016, 02:06:33 AM
Hi,
Nice animation.  :)

How did you export a Blender softbody sim to KeyShot?
Is there a plugin?
Blender 2.78a has Alembic support so you can now select that as an export option from with Blender

Martin

guest87266

Thanks.....I will study Alembic export.
I have ZBrush and am considering getting KeyShot Pro + ZBrush bridge,
but if I could also use it with Blender animations, that would be awesome.  ;)

Later.....
I searched for info on exporting a Blender animation as Alembic (.abc) but didn't find anything helpful
The Blender Wiki doesn't offer a tutorial, either.

I hoped it was as simple as exporting the blend as an .abc, but it's only 39k.

Can you please explain how to export the Blender animation to KeyShot as an Alembic file?
Does it involve creating a cache or baking?
Thanks! 



TpwUK

Just there together another quick test file and exported it as ABC, no baking was required before the export.
I hope the export settings have been preserved in the blend file provided - If not then set the export options as:

       
  • Use Subdivision Schema
  • Set Start and End Frames to suit your animation - In this case it was 1-250
Martin

guest87266

Thanks Martin! That's very straight forward.

I have the demo for KS6, have requested a
demo of KS6Pro, and will try importing my own abc asap.  ;)

james pp

Hi Does this mean keyshot pro can now import alembic with deforming geometry - (i thought this was only part of ks7 and up)
that's the impression  i get from this thread- if so is there anything special that has to be done to import other than selecting alembic ?

TpwUK

Quote from: james pp on January 02, 2017, 12:08:40 PM
Hi Does this mean keyshot pro can now import alembic with deforming geometry - (i thought this was only part of ks7 and up)
that's the impression  i get from this thread- if so is there anything special that has to be done to import other than selecting alembic ?
KS6 does handle .abc files but needs scripting to render the frames, so there are limitations such as no motion blur and no scrubbing through the frames.

Martin

Hawks89

Wondering if someone can show me what I'm doing wrong. I exported a fluid simulation with a ball going  up and through a body of liquid. I export the alembic file from blender with "use subdivisions schema on" in keyshot I select file import and I get the body of water and the ball but none of the body of water when its moving thru the animation. I attached the blender file and keyshot file. thanks in advance

TpwUK

Quote from: Hawks515 on January 13, 2017, 08:19:17 AM
Wondering if someone can show me what I'm doing wrong. I exported a fluid simulation with a ball going  up and through a body of liquid. I export the alembic file from blender with "use subdivisions schema on" in keyshot I select file import and I get the body of water and the ball but none of the body of water when its moving thru the animation. I attached the blender file and keyshot file. thanks in advance

I have looked at your blend file and I can't see what effect you are trying to achieve. I can tell you that you have the domain as required, but then you have no fluid emitter/object - I would recommend you watch the rather excellent tutorials by Moby Motion on you tube.

Martin

Hawks89

TpwUK - that file must have gotten corrupt or something. I attached an updated one. I have the fluid in blender. So I import the .abc file to keyshot with the script "Add deformable mesh frames to queue.py" which runs thru the animation in keyshot but the disappears and leaves keyshot in the last frame of the animation. but after that i'm not sure what to do.

UPDATE: For whatever reason when I attach the blender file it turns everything into just an egg shape. My main goal is to add fluid simulations to a keyshot animation render. I followed this example for my blender creation.


I understand the export to alembic file and pretty sure I understand the running of the script in keyshot made by dries, but after running the script it renders the queue. what do I do after that?

riddickuliss

Quote from: TpwUK on November 26, 2016, 05:50:06 PM
Just there together another quick test file and exported it as ABC, no baking was required before the export.
I hope the export settings have been preserved in the blend file provided - If not then set the export options as:

       
  • Use Subdivision Schema
  • Set Start and End Frames to suit your animation - In this case it was 1-250
Martin

I downloaded the "ABC" file you attached and have exported it as Alembic (abc) file.
- I have specified the Start Frame and End Frame
- I have selected  Use Subdivision Schema
- I have tried various settings for Geometry Samples and Transform Samples

I have tried importing it into Keyshot using both "Specific Frame" and "Keyframed Transforms."
- both give me the same result, a single frame with the two objects in the scene (the cube is more low-poly than I would like, and Geometry Samples don't seem to have much effect that I can tell (tried leaving at 1, 25, 50 on export))

When I use "Specific Frame" and use the Script for Rendering Deformable Meshes.
The script runs succesfully and renders the number of frames specified, but they are simply duplicates of the single frame that was imported.
So I see no animation.

I may be missing a very simple step in Blender as I just started using it last week to attempt to do some of these renderings in Keyshot, but that
is why I attempted to use the file posted. Any help / guidance would be appreciated, I'm thankful for all those that have shared thus far.

r*

riddickuliss

Not sure if it was the file, but after following a simple tutorial on creating a wave with a torus I was able to get this to work.


I'm still baffled as to what/why one worked and one did not. I have a lot to learn...