Using 3DC for HollywoodFX 4.6

Richard,

Yes I have discussed this with Wayne. He relayed that 3DC Pro only works with UV coordinates so LWO texturing with no UV coordinates can not be generated from that source.

He could add the file settings for textures for LWO files to AccuTrans but displaying the textures in AccuTrans is another problem. Code would have to be added that would take planar, cylindrical or spherical mapping and calculate UV coordinates that could be displayed in AccuTrans and emulate the display in LightWave. How difficult and how long to add this code he doesn’t know.

He suggested that Pinnaclesys needs to upgrade their products to LW6 files so that models using UV coordinates from many different file formats could be converted to LW6 files.

I’ve posted a similar set of posts in the Pinnacle Studio 8/HFX webboard and relayed the same there. andnbsp;The drag is that Pinnacle is very unresponsive and may never add this functionality. andnbsp;So the only course of action, if you really really want this feature is to lay down the $$$’s for Lightwave.

Thanks,

Ken

One of the initial reasons I looked into modeling was to create objects to be used with Pinnacle Studio 7 and Hollywood FX for transitions in home videos – my quest led me to 3DC. andnbsp;For instance, I could create Santa’s sled and have it andquot;pullandquot; the next clip onto the video. andnbsp;I’ve been moderately sucessful doing just that. andnbsp;Recently HFX was updated to 4.6 and provided new tools for importing objects. andnbsp;Specifically it now allows lightwave 5.x objects to incorporate one of the supplied Targa TGA images to be mapped to it so that a video source will be associated with the object – now I could have a little video clip playing on the side of Santa’s sled. andnbsp;I have been attempting to create an object in 3DC, map the provided TGA, export it in LWO format, and then import it into HFX. andnbsp;The object comes through fine but the mapped TGA does not appear to work. andnbsp;I’ve included the instructions from HFX below – DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO MAKE THIS WORK USING 3DC TO DESIGN THE OBJECTS?

Many thanks for your thoughts on this,

Ken

HFX instructions state:

The Import 3D tool lets you import Lightwave 5.x 3D objects. Import 3D supports importing simple objects, as well as importing multiple objects to become morph targets.

Within the Hollywood FX installation folder, you will find the Lightwave Content folder that contains sample objects and images to use.

Within the Images folder, you will find the MAPxxx targa images. These are important because they can be used as proxy images when created your own 3D objects. Wherever you use these images, the Importer will replace them with Host Track video references. So, if you want an object to display Host Track 1 (the first video source in a transition), simply map MAP001.tga onto the surface, and when you import the object, it will be replaced with Host Track 1.

When creating objects that you will import into Hollywood FX, you should follow these rules:

andnbsp; andnbsp;Objects should consist of 3-point and 4-point polygons only. It is recommended that you only use 3-point (triangles) polygons to make sure that all polygons are convex.

andnbsp; andnbsp;If you want to use the object in Pro-ONE for realtime, you should use as few polygons as possible. As a general rule, the entire effect should have less than 1,500 polygons to ensure that it will playback in realtime.

andnbsp; andnbsp;Hollywood FX uses only a subset of the features of Lightwave surfaces. Generally you can adjust base color, transparency and luminosity.

andnbsp; andnbsp;For textures you can use any of the normal projection mapping modes (Flat, Sphere, Cylinder) from Lightwave 5.x.

Richard,

If I provided you with LWO files and associated Targa files used with the LWO to map video sources onto the objects, would it help diagnose if there is anything that can be done to improve 3DC’s LWO Export file format? andnbsp;I seem to recall that it uses the Accutrans3D DLL which explicitly states that it does not support textures. andnbsp;Appropriately including the textures in the export process would be a big help.

Please let me know,

Thanks,

Ken

Hi Ken, it sure would be great to be able to attach the Map001.tga texture and have it ‘stick’ when saving to a lightwave object…the accutrans exporter does not seem to correctly save the texture. But its not alone, a number of other 3D convertor programs seem unable to deal with lightwave objects and textures…

I recall Eddy Bal (who also uses 3DC for his 3D modeling) looking around for a used copy of Lightwave 5 to purchase…

Ken,

I believe you discussed this with Wayne Hogue. Is that right?

Richard