Proxy of a proxy.

[super gnu]

im using animated proxies to simplify creation of an animated assembly of parts. i animate a mesh, export it as a proxy, use the proxy as "full mesh" allowing me to continue editing it, deforming it along with other duplicates, as part of a larger grouping. this is to avoid issues with circular references and other wierdness in my animation setup.

once ive got this larger grouping animated, i wish to export the whole thing as a single larger proxy.

i cant see any technical reason why this should not work.. a mesh is a mesh.

however if i try to export a group of proxies ( edited, with modifiers on top, and "show full mesh" enabled)

i get an error "no exportable objects selected".

i can see why this would be undesirable if you are using a reduced preview mesh, but thats not the case here.

any workarounds? i kinda need this to work asap.

[joconnell]

Xmesh or import the source meshes. One annoying thing is importing a mesh into a scene places it at 0,0,0 instead of where it currently sits within your scene.

[super gnu]

does importing the mesh bring it in animated? might be a way to solve my issues. ive now got the issue that animated proxies dont update during render, if they have modifiers on top. which is a right ballache.

to be honest i think proxy should let you re-proxy. you could edit, group, etc. the proxies then re export.

[squintnic]

sounds like a job for xmesh
very friendly to use in a situation like this

[super gnu]

ill have a look at xmesh, 2 recommendations after all.. However id note that buying another plugin to cover 2 issues with proxy that could both be considered bugs (particularly the animated proxy playback one) seems a bit.. annoying.

[vlado]

We could easily remove the export check for a proxy object when creating a new proxy object and get you a build for that; the animation issue shouldn't be too hard to fix either. Depending on how urgently you need these, we can probably get you a build in a couple of days.

Best regards,
Vlado

[super gnu]

well its -quite- urgent, particularly the animation playback problem. as if i cannot fix it ill have to find an alternative, then redo about 2 days animation work.

the proxy export thing i can work around if absolutely necessary.. although if it is easy, it would make my final scene management much easier. i have nightly access so if something could be done for either/both issues id be extremely grateful.

[vlado]

Ok, I'll try to patch these for the next nightly build tomorrow.

Best regards,
Vlado

[super gnu]

ok ive actually reconsidered.. the playback one is less important, its the export limitation thats the killer.

because if i can "collapse" a collection of animated proxies with animated modifiers on top down into a single simple animated proxy, i wont need to render them with modifiers over them!

it will also mean i can render them at my clients renderfarm without requiring them to install a nightly build on all their machines (not gonna happen)

[vlado]

ok ive actually reconsidered.. the playback one is less important, its the export limitation thats the killer.

I was going to do both anyways...

Best regards,
Vlado

[super gnu]

as usual.. top man!

[super gnu]

i usually wait longer to start pestering, but ive just found out ive got 3 days to produce a preview of this scene, and several others, so it would be a massive help if i could get at least the "proxy of proxy" thing working in the next day or two?

any chance?

[vlado]

It's already working in the nightly/stable builds from today. If you don't have access to these builds, please drop me a line at vlado@chaosgroup.com

Best regards,
Vlado

[super gnu]

ok that works GREAT! i can simplify my scenes no end with this method. particularly for sending to client.


next question: should i want to use my animated proxy geometry in houdini, as a collision object for a sim, is there a workflow for this? i guess i need to convert vrayproxy-alembic or something?

of course fbx export wont export an animated proxy, even if its set to "show all faces"



i do have a plugin which will create a vdb volume from any mesh (including a proxy with "show all faces" enabled.. ) so maybe thats an option.. complete overkill though.

[vlado]

Hm, maybe you can use V-Ray for Houdini... I have to check if it's possible to use the proxy Houdini in this way.

Best regards,
Vlado