[Soc-2012-dev] AssimpFBX Final Report

[Alexander Gessler]

Hi,

yes the problem is not that the current fbx export would not work well
(it does, I recently used it with XNA!) but rather that a full roundtrip
with armature and complex animation and everything is easier to achieve
and maintain with a single codebase.

The FBX code in assimp is currently very much like a really, really slim
version of the FBX SDK, I think this is a good point to start with.

Of course it makes no sense to drop existing code for no reason - but
Tom is right in that assimp will need fbx export anyhow (by "will need"
I mean that this will be the first feature request we'll receive as soon
as we release the first assimp version with fbx import support), and
adding assimp export support to blender is already profitable on its own
because it adds other exporters to Blender.

Armature import comes first, no doubt. Btw I just got a rigged fish
imported and it did not have its armature _totally_ broken, progress :-)

> As of yet, I have not successfully imported
>>> a skinned mesh using the FBX importer from Bratwurst. I keep getting
>>> errors that tell me to check the console, but the console is empty. I
>>> do get some data in the Info space (probably from BKE_reports)

Hehe, ok, this is a wording problem, the importer currently relies on
BKE_reports and this is where the logging goes to, not the console. I'll
fix that.

(or is it the wrong approach - should import errors also be printed to
stdout?)


> I am
>>> trying to establish a Blender <-> MotionBuilder pipeline with FBX, and
>>> I can provide some example files if you think they'd be useful.

Absolutely - I got several animated test files from various sources, but
unless I'm mistaken I have none from MoBuilder.


Bye, Alex



On 8/21/2012 2:54 AM, Tom M wrote:
> ASSIMP itself will presumably need fbx export, and by integrating it
> into blender we get all the formats that ASSIMP exports as well.  So I'd
> go ahead and do it (but be sure to have it work as well as cambos
> script).  Essentially we should be able to outsource a lot of scene and
> image format I/oand garuntee broad compaitiblty since it is likely lots
> of folks will and are using ASSIMP, and with round trip fbx support the
> usage will skyrocket.
> 
> On Monday, August 20, 2012, Mitchell Stokes <mogurijin at gmail.com
> <mailto:mogurijin at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> I'm going to continue working on this, there are so many spots in the
>>> FBX importer that I would like to improve on. In the next weeks I'll
>>> tackle the armature issues, I also might start writing the exporter and
>>> integrate assimp on the export side as well (provided Campbell does not
>>> mind me working on replacing the Python export script).
>>
>> My experience with the current FBX exporter is that it works rather
>> well (I can't remember it failing on me), and I don't know if it's a
>> good use of time to be re-writing a working exporter. I would think
>> that it would be a better use of time getting your importer working
>> well with skinned meshes. As of yet, I have not successfully imported
>> a skinned mesh using the FBX importer from Bratwurst. I keep getting
>> errors that tell me to check the console, but the console is empty. I
>> do get some data in the Info space (probably from BKE_reports). I am
>> trying to establish a Blender <-> MotionBuilder pipeline with FBX, and
>> I can provide some example files if you think they'd be useful.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Mitchell Stokes
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> 
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