I have some trouble importing files from C4D where I use PLA(Point Level Animation) or Animated Bones.
Point Level Animation:
Animated PLA will not show up. Is it even possible to use PLA in Unity?
Animated Bones
When I import files with these into unity through an FBX(6.0) file they change. It is difficult to explain, but it seems that I only get the first half of the animation. The animation still loops though. So instead of a walking animation I get a very lame kick, which repeats over and over.
After doing some testing I figured out how to fix this, what I still don’t get is why my first animation did not work.
I am making a walking animation.
My first test animation was made something like this.
This one did not work in Unity, but It worked perfectly in cinema 4D.
This is the version that works.
As far as I can tell the only difference is that the bones start in a neutral position in the last one. Meaning I did not move the bones before I made the first frame. Does this mean that Unity does not handle animations that start with bones who have been moved to deform an object?
The first animation have the right edge right after the last frame. It is a mistake I did when recreating the animation in a hurry, but certainly not what is creating the trouble I experience.
I should have posted more of the Timeline…
I think there was something wrong with the FBX exporter from C4D which caused the behavior. It should be fixed in version 9.6.
I never got around to ask about the PL(point level) animation though. I guess FBX does not support PLA animation.
Will the new direct import from C4D include PLA?
As far as character animation in C4D goes, I have good experiences, with the exception of the problem I ran into. Everything else looked just like what I made in C4D. You should be aware that i did not do the most advanced character animation, so there might be issues I am not aware of.
Are you able to import meshes deformed by bones successfully?
I read somewhere on the boards that there’s a four-bones-per-vertex limit somewhere. Is this true and (a) will it be fixed and (b) how gracefully does it deal with bones in excess of this? (E.g. does it take the four strongest weights and normalise them?)
Bone based animations has been tested thoroughly for importing from Cinema 4D and works.
Best thing is that with the upcoming 1.5 release there will be a native .c4d file importer which means no more temporary files and conversion processes. Just like in Maya now.
The 4 bone limit is handled gracefully, the strongest weights are used and then normalized. Apart from that games usually only use 2 bone weights and it works pretty well.
I realise that using lots of bones per vertex is generally unnecessary, but I’ve seen 3d artists do some pretty strange things* and it’s always easier if something “just works”.
Is there a workaround for exporting PLA into Unity? I have an object (non-bones) that I want to use the “Shatter” effect in C4D on.
The only animation I can get to work when exporting to Unity is just the basic object position (I can do that in unity). How do I get particles, explosions, and other animation that C4D creates into Unity???
