I've been playing around with importing chan files created in Maya (with a mel script). Most things seem to be working.
The exported values are correct when when I check the chan file in a text editor. But when it's brought into Terragen via Camera > Import > Import File the Z position, and Y and Z rotation values are all multiplied by -1. So in the curves editor they are the inverse of what they should be.
Funny thing is, everything works just fine when I split the chan file into two files – one for translation (first three columns) and one for rotation (columns four through six) – and import them separately with the Position and Rotation animation buttons.
I've searched the forums and it sounds like others have had similar issues, but I couldn't find a reference to this one in particular. Is this normal behavior?
Also tried importing fbx, but that's giving me strange rotation values.
Have a look here at this thread. Maybe it could help not sure:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,1409.msg14025.html#msg14025
Have a look here too:
http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,6907.msg73744.html#msg73744
Thanks much for those links. I had seen the first but didn't recognize the description of this issue in Matt's pseudocode - it's there all right. The second link confirms it. Good to know about the rotate order. I was really wondering about that.
I can split the file or do the conversions in Excel. I'll see which one's simpler; may depend on how many frames there are.
Just tried importing a Maya .mov file, by the way, but kept getting an "FBX: Unable to initialise import file" fatal error. Strange.
Thanks again.
SB
For the record, I was able to get everything to work but it took an extra twist. It may be this specific file or I'm missing a step on export/import, but here's what worked for me. The motion path exported from Maya is a circular orbit around a target. It was exported with the camera's rotate order set to ZXY per Matt's recommendation. The exported .chan file was opened in Excel and linked to a new table with the following relationships:
Translate:
X' = X
Y' = Y
Z' = –Z
Rotate:
X' = X
Y' = –(Y + 180)
Z' = –Z
So for example these lines from the original table:
234 -364.934 150 -6.91641 -10 -91.0867 0 53.131
235 -364.99 150 -2.72002 -10 -90.4275 0 53.131
236 -364.997 150 1.48592 -10 -89.7664 0 53.131
237 -364.955 150 5.70098 -10 -89.1042 0 53.131
Become:
234 -364.934 150 6.91641 -10 -88.9133 0 53.131
235 -364.99 150 2.72002 -10 -89.5725 0 53.131
236 -364.997 150 -1.48592 -10 -90.2336 0 53.131
237 -364.955 150 -5.70098 -10 -90.8958 0 53.131
And when pulled into Terragen via Camera > Import > Import File these are converted to:
234 -364.934 150 -6.91641 -10 88.9133 0 53.131
235 -364.99 150 -2.72002 -10 89.5725 0 53.131
236 -364.997 150 1.48592 -10 90.2336 0 53.131
237 -364.955 150 5.70098 -10 90.8958 0 53.131
Can't vouch for rotate Z since this file doesn't use it, but based on Matt's post those values also would be negated again by Terragen.
Filing this away to (someday) test with more complex paths . . .
SB