Hi
The ability to export camera information, primarily movement but also things like focal length, would be incredibly useful to previz expensive cg sequences rendered in raytracing software like Maya, MODO, 3dMax, Vray, etc.
Does anyone know if this is possible, perhaps thru a 3rd party asset or script?
I don’t know if that’s possible. Usually it’s the other way round - import animations from your 3D app.
Also you probably run into the problem of sync’ing up your lens angles etc.
Wouldn’t you be better off to just use the preview/textured renderer in your 3D app to render out a flythrough to present to your customers or to check timing etc.?
That’s the way it’s usually done. If you use Unity just for this you’d have to set up your scene twice. Sounds like a lot of work for previz to me.
just for reference, there is also this way:
Using the ‘preview/textured renderer in your 3D app to render’ of course is the traditional way, but because of render times, even in preview, very cumbersome and time consuming for fine tuning of things like camera moves etc. This is where the realtime pbr of Unity really shines and I think could be used to real advantage. In terms of setting up your scene twice, well, niot really since you’d be just importing a single fbx file and you are only focusing on camera moves.
I don’t want to tell you what to do - so if you feel like that’s the easier part for you then go for it.
Yet I don’t think that you will have a lot of gain from the Unity way, really. With “preview render” I don’t mean low quality renderings - I mean rendering out like in the viewport of your 3D app. This usually takes no time at all and you still retain all the editing features for the animation (where Unity is only basic) while on top of that being sure to have the correct camera FOV that you see being represented in the final product.
Buty hey - whatever works for you. 