COLLADA bones import as nulls.

[bryitis]

so i have a COLLADA file, i'd like to get it imported into XSI for further rigging.

the file contains:
-one mesh
-bone skeleton
-vertex weights for said skeleton.
-other miscellaneous things like lights, camera, action.

but when i import this into XSI via crosswalk (3.3).. the bones get imported as nulls. and the mesh is not enveloped to the bones at all.

i tried the same thing by converting it to FBX using the autodesk Converter tool. i can get bones in that way, along with a weight map... but then everything is rotated out of wack and the envelope is completely wrong.

what im asking is, if i can get bones in as nulls.. is there supposed to be some quick process i should be able to do in XSI to synthesize a bone rig out of those nulls? one that is (ideally) matched to the one i wanted in the first place? or is this just not a fully functional feature yet?

if you wish to see what im talking about, its quite simple really... make any mesh+bonechain+envelope... export it via COLLADA format, and re-import. the bones will be nulls.

the only way i see this being useful in its current state might be as a guide for building a similar skeleton to the original (probably with some issues). or as a kind of motion capture data source (animated nulls tagged to MOTOR, then applied to a comparable skeleton rig elsewhere). please forgive me if i'm missing something obvious.

[Rork]

You're not telling from what app you're exporting, but there's nothing wrong with what you're describing.

First of all, every app has it's own way of working with bones/rigs and skinning/weighting/linking the model to the bones. It's almost impossible to convert a working rig from app A into app B without breaking something on the way. It's the differences in workflow and solutions that aren't 100% compatible between apps. Don't look at CW as a tool to -completely- move a scene over exactly at is it. It's just not possible. Have a look at the CW help page that comes with the install, the options that will or won't be moved over are clearly stated.

So CW reads in the information that was exported, and after import will show bones as nulls. This is how CW works.
If you you now work on the scene in XSI and export it back again, the bones will be there again. I don't know what you mean by 'the mesh is not enveloped to the bones'. Is the mesh disconnected and is it now static when you play the animation? Or do you mean something else?

There was a video on this on the old Softimage website when XSI7 came out. it was an example of getting in a soldier model from Max, tweak it in Softimage, and export it back into Max. Don't know if it still exists on the Area website, or if people know where to find it.

I think you have to make it clear for yourself what you want to do. If you want to animate in XSI, just import the whole scene into Softimage after creating it in MAX or Maya. Then set up the rig etc, animate and render.
You cannot do a part of the animation in -say- MAX, CW it to XSI, continue animating and render it. Like I said before, rigging tools are just way to different to be translated between apps.
And to answer you last question, even if you could synthesis a new rig from the nulls in XSI, you will have to go through the weighting part again, as the original solution will never match the one from the original app in which it was created. And in the process you will loose the original animation.

CW is a great tool to move assets over between apps, and be able to tweak certain things in the process. Or use it as a tool to move an -animated- scene over to app B for rendering, so it's more of a 'Pointoven' kind of solution.
For me it feels like you're looking at it the wrong way now.

Hope this helps,

rob

[bryitis]

perhaps i was not being specific enough... i need bone/mesh/weight data for video game pipeline purposes... so point oven really isn't an option for me. and i'm not actually trying to import a 'rig' per se, i just need the bones/mesh/weight info... then i'll re-rig it in XSI for further animation. My game pipeline doesn't care about what kind of rig setup i have, and i never expected CW to either.

As for my COLLADA source, well, its being converted from a variety of places i've tried. Maya, Messiah3d... but most importantly XSI itself. Even the Collada file i export from XSI with a simple bone/mesh/weights data set under a 'Model' doesn't make it back into XSI with the bone data intact, they turn into nulls.

I was merely curious about whether there was a quick and dirty way to make those nulls a proper skeleton.

I'll see if i can find that video you mentioned, but i'm getting the feeling that this functionality is simply not supported. The XSI to COLLADA to XSI = Fail... was kinda heartbreaking. I might also explore making a custom script to handle this process properly if i have to.

Thank you for your time and response.

[farhaad_yousefi]

how abot shape deformation..and shape keys,, from maya.!! does collada support that too.?!