Creating a stop motion animation from .obj files

Unity Engine
1

Hello,

I have a bunch (around 100) .obj files where each represents one frame of the animation. Currently I am importing them into individual object, and using a script to enable only the one corresponding to the time. Is there a practical way and less performance intensive way to do this?

Preferably the import process should also be automated (e.g. the .obj files are named frame01.obj, frame02.obj etc., I should be able to import all of them in several clicks).

I am targeting for Gear VR

Thanks.

2

In other software packages this is called point cashe files. I looked in the documentation and couldn’t find any reference to point cashe - however long ago I’ve read that Unity does support this to some degree.
One solution hinted at in older threads regarding point cashe is to use one of the Mega-Fier tools in the asset store.

Sorry can’t provide a more straight forward suggestion.

3

Thank you for the answer. Would you suggest any software packages that can generate a animation file from the .obj files that can be played in Unity?

4

Sorry kh - I’m not too familiar with the process, only enough to suggest looking in a specific direction.
All 3D packages (I know Max does) has older technology that handles point cashe stuff. It was something I researched while in college back in 2000 and kind of dismissed because it wasn’t relevant, as far as I knew, to modern day render/animation processes. I think some GIS type things that map weather and erosion and stuff like that use that type of information, but I have no input on it really.

I think if this is an important part of your game/creation your best bet is to look into Megafiers tools in the asset store - and maybe talk to Chris West @SpookyCat who is the publisher of those products. Purchasing a tool set that works directly in the engine could save you a lot of headache and time without the need to purchase or learn a complete stand alone animation package.

5

Thanks @theANMATOR2b for the mention, and @khman95 if you need to play back a sequence of OBJ files then our MegaCache asset will do that for you, or if your animation does not change the mesh vertex count etc then the point cache modifier in our MegaFiers asset is probably your best option. Below are a couple of videos showing OBJ sequence playback and Point Cache.

1 Like
6

Would MegaCache or MegaFiers work for character animations? I have a character made of voxels which I’d like to animate (very simply) using stop-motion style frames.

7

MegaCache would work fine for that indeed. If you have a test set of OBJ files you can email me and can test them out if you like.