Softimage Camera -> FBX -> UE4 not working well

[sant0s]

Hey everyone,

just playing around with Houdini and UE4, of course some parts like camera are still done in Softimage.
Workflow atm is:
Cameratracking a greenscreen shot -> exporting the camera as FBX -> importing to Softimage do to some refinements -> exporting again -> importing the camera into UE4.

Problem is, that the camera is flipped in all kinda ways and even the position is wrong.

I folowed a tutorial, where the camera gets rotated 90 degrees, constrain a new camera to it, plot the new camera and export.
But thats actually only giving more strange wrong orientations and positions.

Did anyone had that problem and can lead me into the right direction?

Thx alot,
sant0s

[sant0s]

The orientation is right now.
But still stuck on the translation.
The camera will be positioned completly wrong.
Attached an image to show what I mean.

[rray]

Hmmm no idea really so just some guesses (which you probably alredy tried)..

- "Normalize" the rotation values in xsi
- Alembic might be worth a try.
- Also just to get some hints to help track down the issue: does direct import tracking->fbx->ue4 work?

[sant0s]

hey rray,
thx

what do you mean with "Normalize" the rotation? Have not tried that yet.

I tried alembic and I think, cameras are not working, only geometry. At least the "normal" way I tried imports nothing.

When I import the camera after tracking, I have the same problem and also same position.

A cheap workaround at the moment is, that I partent a sphere to the camera (in UE4) and position the sphere.
I somehow think, that the center + rotation is messed up.

When I create a new camera in XSI and animate it on a circle around the building, the only thin I have to do is rotating the circle -90 degrees and in UE4 its the exact position.

I tried to put the tracker camera in a Model or Null (both on 0,0,0), rotated that around 90 degrees, etc.

Kinda strange

[Draise]

I just export an object baked to the camera transform, export with same settings as props and set, then in unreal parent the UE camera to that fbx object with animation.. there are too many factors to get right.

[sant0s]

hey Draise, thx for replying

One question - where do you import the sphere? Into level sequencer or Maintee?

But that sounds like a perfect solution!

[Draise]

Level sequencer. I never touch the matinee these days.

Once I get to a computer I'll make a breakdown of my work flow. I tried so hard to make it work both from SI and Blender but failed so hard I just do the object proxy parenting now.

[sant0s]

That would be great!

I was also trying into level sequencer - and it looks already better. But still have some problems with the position.

I made a test with a simple cube with no animation. When I import the cube into UE4 and put position at 0,0,0, is perfectly on the right positon.
But as soon as I import the baked animation sphere, it is outside the geometry again.

I add the camera and a proxy of the geometry, maybe I just do something super wrong...

studio_with_cam.zip

(41.23 KiB) Downloaded 90 times

[myara]

Are you using the default camera with aim and root? the default root has translation values by default which would mess up the cam translation in most engines.
Try a plotted single camera with frozen coordinates

[sant0s]

hey myara,
no - its only the camera without interest and root.
Also exporting is without any model/null or something.
just the pure camera.

[rray]

>> what do you mean with "Normalize" the rotation? Have not tried that yet.

I was thinking UE might not like them outside the 0-360 range. So with normalize I meant putting them back into that range for which you'd probably need a script

Actually I think it's rather unlikely that this will help but you never know

[sant0s]

hey
just wanna say, the way Draise explained works very well - BUT I still have problems with the Level Sequencer.
At the moment my workflow is like that:

I import the camera from Nuke to Softimage, constrain a sphere to transformation and orientation and export the sphere as .fbx.
In unreal I create a new level sequencer with a new unreal camera.
Than I import the sphere.fbx into that sequencer.
Than I align a box to the position where the sphere.fbx is, parent the camera into the sphere.fbx and than parent both to the box.
So than I can just move the box around and have the camera where I want with the right tracking data.
But the problem in the sequencer is, that I sometimes are able to capture from my camera, but mostly not.
Actually I get completly confused, what Actor I have to assign to what object/camera/etc.

I had it working this morning - so everything was on the right position and I was able to capture from that camera.
Than somehow, I dont know what happend, the bound to the camera was lost and I had to setup everything again... with the difference, that I dont get it to run anymore.
Thats so frustrating

Because finaly the light and everything else is getting super cool and now I have these problem with the camera.
Is that really that complicated in UE4 to just do super simple things?

AHHHHH :D

[sant0s]

omg
got it...

Export the geometry from UE4 as .fbx and import into Softimage to see, where to have the right position of the camera.
Import the tracked camera and put it under a NULL/Model and move the cam to the right position.
Than scale the Null/Model by 100.

Create a new cam and delete root/interest.
Constrain Position and Orientation to the tracked, scaled camera.
Plot the new camera - export as .fbx (I did selection only) and import.

Works perfect. So, it was all the time the scaling that made these problems... crazy?
And tomorrow I guess, nothing will work like that again. :D

Cheers and I hope, it helps someone else.

[rray]

Puzzled.. nice. Thanks for the update

[Draise]

Yes, something like that.

You have to get your world scale right to start in both. I generally like to make an axis 1m model for scale. In the FBX import of UE4 you can define how you import those scales (scale scene to object: define world measure to object scale, or multiply scale object to scene measure on import). For some reason I find most software work in Meters and UE4 in CM.... so things will need to be scaled by 100 from UE4, or you can define the measure in both on export/import (cm, decimeters, meters, etc in SI). UE4 exports in CM. Si is strange, .. I haven't figured it officially out since I migrated to BFA.. I just now I get best results if I put the root and child software into 1=100cm, or 1m to go back and forth.

My workflow for camera interpobility with UE:

1. In SI create a mesh or null.
2. Plot/Constrain to camera animation
3. Export mesh or null as FBX with it's baked animation at correct scale
4. Import mesh or null as skelaton actor with animation at correct scale
5. Import mesh or null actor to sequencer
6. Parent UE camera to null or actor
7. In sequencer rotate camera to right axis if not consistent / fix up sensor size and FOV for consistency to SI settings (usual rotation fix I do is -90,-90,0)
8. Render in UE.

If you want the camera proxy from UE to SI, I would do the same but in reverse. OR, re-export to the same FBX and the animation updates on Reimport in Unreal.

[sant0s]

Thx Draise for the explanation.
I guess, if I have a camera directly from Softimage, I have to do it that way.
The tracked camera so far seems to have everything right beside the scaleing.

Here is a little test.
The hall still looks very poor and empty - thats what I am working on right now, adding details and better shading, light etc.
But I love UE4 already alot - such a fine app.