Import camera data from other 3D programs

Sixus1 Media

As the title says, I would LOVE LOVE to be able to accurately import camera data into DS from other programs. Here's why...

With iRay (espcially using the render passes/canvases), we now have a truly world class render engine that goes toe to toe with many of the "high end" solutions. With the hdr capability, we can very effectively integrate real world light capturing into photoreal scene rendering. The next piece of the equation I would love to see added is the ability to bring camera data from a movematch into DS. I am currently working on a short film where we're using our Blind Demon composited into live footage with an actor via quite a bit of movematching. Currently, this is being done via Boujou and Maya, however I am confident that should a means be available somewhere for translating Maya (or other 3D app) camera data into DS cameras, we could then migrate this whole project out of Maya, into Daz Studio. It also would mean that we could use movematching/photogrammetry to capture both camera data and extrapolate geometric data from a shoot and have all of that translate over into DS, at which point the whole world of DS assets would immediately become available to low cost, indy filmmakers bringin an unheard of level of power to a market whose options are currently very limited. 

If any intrepid code slingers out there would be interested in working on such a project, I would absolutely be the first in line to help and provide any kind of testing, input, specs, etc. as this is something our studio would use exhaustively. 

 

Thanks!- Les

wolf359

Hi sounds cool !!!
how have you been getting your Blind Demon figure into Maya with animation???

I only ask because I am an animated filmmaker.
It is my view that the whole world of DS assets are already available
to indy filmmakers.  While Iray is a great addition to DS I personally  prefer to send my Daz content out to a "high end" program that is already built with compositing export options for both animated and Live footage
in our case it is the Maxon Cinema4D/ Adobe After Effects CS combination.
We use the animate 2 MDD exporter to get DS/Iclone animated Genesis meshes over to C4D for rendering.

here is the WIP thread to our current project

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/94651/the-official-galactus-rising-wip-thread#latest

Sixus1 Media

The thing with DS is that iRay, especially when using the canvases to render in passes, is actually quite comparable to many "high end" render solutions. The things that are missing now, aren't so much in rendering as they are in a lot of the utility type applications we use in integrating CG with live footage. Most of my work in that area has been done in Maya through the years, but with iRay being as insanely powerful as it is (trust me on that...it is WAY more of a heavyweight than one might think), it just seems to me that if ever there were a time to start seeing some of these kinds of tools brought into this market, it's now.There's this idea I've always had where I really, really love things that break down the barriers to how accessible the tools of an art form are to people. I mean, sure, I use tools that I pay  LOT of money for, but at the same time, now, there's DS and Blender, and a lot of other solutions at low to zero cost which can do absolutely amazing things. One area, though, where that doesn't seem to be the case is in movematching, and I think that DS would be a PERFECT host application for something like that.

BTW: currently, the Blind Demon short film I'm working on is being done out of Maya. I have a ton of experience rigging in Maya, so I just did a rig for this charcter in there that would work well for our needs, but frankly, I would just LOVE to be able to render my CG elements ot of DS just to show off how well i think that could be done. The only thing missing is the ability to bring in that camera data... 

wolf359

Hi
This is probably not the complete solotion that you are looking but there is a script to import camera tracking Data to DS from "VooDoo"  and  "VooCat"
http://direct.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/17108/mcjvoodoodaz-matchmoving-camera-tracking-in-daz-studio-update

Here  is an actual in studio Example

Sixus1 Media

Holy crap this looks exactly like what I'm after!!!! I need to see what data formats it might support becuase I use Boujou and it can output to just about anything... I'll post an update here eventually...

Sixus1 Media

Been doing some experimenting from this... it's close... painfully, painfully close to what I"m looking for. If I can find a way to get text data out of Boujou and into DS through this, that would be perfect. At the moment, it only works with data exported from Voodoo, and while Voodoo is very capable, it's toolkit is nowhere near as robust as Boujou or as intuitive in a pipeline like what I would like to build here. Still, this is promising. I've messaged the author on this, too, to see if they would have any interest in working with me on taking what they have so far and using it to build cross application camera sharing pipeline. The potential for something like that would be enormous. 

wolf359

I hope you get something worked out for your pipeline.