CAMERA XML TO ENSCAPE FROM 3DSMAX OR VICE VERSA

anam-ate · Jan 21st 2021

Urgh ok, so xml read by 3ds max did not work out great the position data was correct that was coming in but the visual output was not right even with switching XY or YZ or XZ around and making sure the scene scale was correct, so i tried it the other way with camera data and target (look at ) data from 3ds max, I guess this(file: "cameraposXML")

is too much keyframe data. I created a file exactly as you are supposed to with the xml file i saved out from enscape to use as a guide.

Why can't enscape just give an fbx output of the camera path this is so frustrating. I am going to try it with less data points, because clearly enscape can't cope.It played something at one point then just froze on this screen. Nothing previews now it is just stuck on this

i can't seem to post xmls so i guess save it to your computers and change the end file type from txt to xml.

the "camerapostoxml" you can change as well to .py . it takes the positions from 3ds max the camerapos and target files i created using maxscript.

cameraposXML.txt target.txt

camerapostoxml.txt camerapos.txt target.txt

Edited 3 times, last by anam-ate (12 minutes ago). — This post has previous versions that are saved.

anam-ate · Jan 21st 2021

i think i need to get the timestamp data in there as well

anam-ate · Jan 21st 2021

no that didn't do it even though this looks completely correct

Any help from the developers would be much appreciated?

anam-ate · Jan 22nd 2021

well it is moving now made some errors in the python script

but it isn't moving in the right place or orientation, so i think i need to work out the units better

anam-ate · Jan 24th 2021

solved it, Enscape "lookAt" is relative to the camera position where as in 3ds Max it is the absolute position. Really Enscape should just write an fbx exporter

A

Emilio · Apr 6th 2023

Quote from anam-ate

solved it, Enscape "lookAt" is relative to the camera position where as in 3ds Max it is the absolute position. Really Enscape should just write an fbx exporter

A

Hi Anam, I can export camera track from After Effects to 3D Max using AE3D export https://aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?t=991. Do you know if there is a way to convert to XML to import in Enscape as camera path ? I want to mix drone footage with a model. Thanks

anam-ate · Apr 11th 2023

Hey Emilio,

I don't use Enscape much because i don't really like it , but our office uses it all the time, so I made this tool that converts camera paths from 3DS Max and generates an XML file for Enscape to read.

see attached:

the dropbox link in this doesn't work anymore so i've attached the scripts and below is a walk through what i did in MAX and enscape

https://anam-ation.com/3dsmax-camera-path-to-enscape-tool/

hope this helps

A

anam-ate · Apr 11th 2023

here is the pdf guide i wrote:forum.enscape3d.com/wcf/index.php?attachment/42991/

Emilio · Apr 11th 2023

Quote from anam-ate

Hey Emilio,

I don't use Enscape much because i don't really like it , but our office uses it all the time, so I made this tool that converts camera paths from 3DS Max and generates an XML file for Enscape to read.

Hi Anam,

Thanks so much. I will try it.

Emilio

Macker · Sep 22nd 2023

Hi - I'm going to give this a try, as I hope it does what I need it to do. The only issue is that my camera doesn't have a target (it is a free camera) - will this be a problem?

Thanks,

Chris

snowyweston · Sep 23rd 2023

Quote from anam-ate

solved it, Enscape "lookAt" is relative to the camera position where as in 3ds Max it is the absolute position. Really Enscape should just write an fbx exporter

A

could you not reverse engineer the (normalised radian vector) of the LookAt values (with their YZ swap) from the Poisition values to "project" to 3DS' required absolute position?

+ whilst doing so you could also set the vector length (to target) to define the DOF (if so desired)

snowyweston · Sep 23rd 2023

Quote from anam-ate

here is the pdf guide i wrote:forum.enscape3d.com/wcf/index.php?attachment/42991/

link is dead. #sadface

Macker · Sep 25th 2023

Quote from snowyweston

link is dead. #sadface

https://anam-ation.com/3dsmax-camera-path-to-enscape-tool/

Macker · Sep 25th 2023

Quote from Macker

Hi - I'm going to give this a try, as I hope it does what I need it to do. The only issue is that my camera doesn't have a target (it is a free camera) - will this be a problem?

Thanks,

Chris

So, I gave it a go and have noticed a couple of things.

1) The scale seems off? I can't even find my model in Enscape once I've imported the camera path. I'm not sure whether the path is too small, or too big.

2) Because it's exported from a free camera the "look at" in the .xml that is generated is zero for x,y,z on every frame. I wonder if the author anam-ate would consider updating the script so that you could specify a look-at node, such as a dummy in 3DS max?

That way I could link a dummy to the free camera and set it a few meters in front of it - and it should follow the orientation of the camera, without it being a target camera.

Really interested to hear thoughts on both of these points.

[Edit] I just realised that it won't include camera roll, will it? Enscape locks the camera along the Z axis. *Sigh*

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