use external data to animate models

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On 05/06/2005 at 04:30, xxxxxxxx wrote:

i want to grab positions and rotations from a textfile and use it to change position and rotation of many model in cinema4D.

what the plugIn i am thinking about should do is:

- open a textfile
- read lists of transforms of about 100 models
- set the animations lenght to a length that is stored in the text file
- change the transforms of the 100 models by name as stored in the file on every frame

example:
i create a scene in cinema4D, export it into a different 3D file format that i can use for realtime animations. i do my realtime animations with these models, and store the positions and rotations in a textfile for every model.

in the end i want to import this file to the original c4d scene and get the transforms back on the original models.

i never used coffee till now, but i have some expirience with lingo(programming language of Direcor) and think i could build a coffee plugIn with some help.

maybe someone can give me some advises wich comands i should use or if it is generally impossible to do something like that.

thanks for help!

THE POST BELOW IS MORE THAN 5 YEARS OLD. RELATED SUPPORT INFORMATION MIGHT BE OUTDATED OR DEPRECATED

On 23/06/2005 at 02:07, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi,
With the upcoming Version1.0 of the CameraGriptools plugin, you can animate in realtime within C4D, so you don't have to export anymore.
http://www.frieslandav.com/camgriptools.php

THE POST BELOW IS MORE THAN 5 YEARS OLD. RELATED SUPPORT INFORMATION MIGHT BE OUTDATED OR DEPRECATED

On 30/06/2005 at 09:17, xxxxxxxx wrote:

thats not what i am talking about, i want to move about 100 models and bring the motion back to cinema. not only the camera.

THE POST BELOW IS MORE THAN 5 YEARS OLD. RELATED SUPPORT INFORMATION MIGHT BE OUTDATED OR DEPRECATED

On 17/02/2006 at 07:45, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hello hondo4000,
yes  think you can do that with C.O.F.F.E.E.
First I would ask you to get familiar with the C.O.F.F.E.E.-SDK you can download, cause your plugin will need several commands.
Commands opening and reading the textfile.Easy.
Commands setting rotation and translation (and scale if wanted) for the imported objects (I will assume you already have the objects in a C4D-Scene from your posting). Easy too.
After counting your frames you can set the maxtime of your scene in cinema via plugin. Easy too.
If you want to use PLA or morphing you will need to grab the Point-arrays, tracks and sequences of any object and add the new keys. A little more sophisticated ;).
If you have a description of your inputformat, I could specifiy your needs more exact, sorry.
But in general it is no problem writing such importers with C.O.F.F.E.E.
But be aware: Processing large textfiles in C.O.F.F.E.E. can be quite slow as it is an script-interpreter-language and not realy fast on iterations or string-operations.
Perhaps you should look out for the usage of additional formats for animations like bvh you could use (only if your realtime-application offers to export this of course)
Then everything will be much easier for you cause bvh allows the import of many bone-animations in only 1 bvh-file (more then one hierarchy possible).
In case you can use this format, you will not need to make a plugin for this yourself.
Hope this helps ,
Cheers,
COFFEJUNKIE
PS: Here are some commands you should have a closer look at when reading the SDK-doc:
Checkout "BaseDocument" (properties and Methods)
Checkout "BaseObject" (properties and Methods)
Checkout "BaseTrack" (properties and Methods)
Checkout "BaseSequence" (properties and Methods)
Checkout "BaseKey" (properties and Methods)
Checkout the "GE.."-functions and their descriptions, very useful.
And last but not least have a look at the Filter-plugin-description (you may find tutorials in the web about making importfilters with cinema) cause then you may open your file as a normal c4d-file and import it without the need to make a menuplugin with layout. The creation of layouts without using ResEdit can be a littel difficult and you do not have the need for this in you case.