Cineversity

Hi C4D community,

I have a very simple scene here (please see attached). I have a sphere that I use PolyfX to reveal/un-reveal. I wanted to bake the animation and turn it to FBX. I tried the trick that everyone was saying online by making the object editable, disconnect, and using a point cache tag. But the result turns out to be very messed up and I have no idea how to bake and export this animation as FBX. I also tried not to use PolyfX and use push apart instead but the result after bake is pretty similar, all of the points are in the mess. Any suggestion on how to bake this kind of animation that I can export to FBX? Thank you very much for any comments in advance!

Studiosoftware

Hi studiossoftware,

My suggestion, use Alembic.

If FBX is a must-have, do this:
Set the Explosion FX to 0.01%, just to get the Polygons separated.
Other Explosion FX parameter: The End-size to 1, and the Speed and the Rotation to 0.
Use the Current State to Object, and set the (now old) Object with the Explosion FX to in-active, not visible.

Set up the PolyFX as you like.
Call up Cappucino (Shift-C, and type cappuccino). Or: Main Menu> Animate> Cappucino
Set the time slider to frame zero
Set Cappucino to PLA, press the Start Real-time Button.
Click and Hold on the object Axis until the time-slider is on end.
Set a PLA for the first frame.
Switch off PolyFX and check if the Object is animated as you like to have it.

If yes, call up Export FBX.
Inside of FBX chose PLA to Vertex Cache.
Check the Selected only option to on.
Export.

Please note that you get a file and a folder from this export. Both need to stay together!

While importing, e.g., to Cinema 4D, to test the result, use the Vertex Cache to PLA option, which reads the folder’s content into the animation.

Here is the scene file and a screen-capture
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/UcxEeTxHyGlIgHioKRZWUVdDh72tINmbdjfGBln4PYA

I hope that works for you; let me know if there is anything else.

Have a great weekend

Dear Dr. Sassi,

You are truly a genius! I’m still not quite get the idea of how you came up with this, and I never used Cappucino, but what you gave me works perfectly! I’m trying the way you describe here. I still don’t get the result, but I’ll keep trying until I get fully understand the whole concept of it.

Thank you very much!
Studiosoftware

Thanks a lot, studiossoftware; very nice of you.

Cappucino is normally used to allow for a dynamic gesturally input tracking (Mouse/Pen). But if one just clicks and holds the axis, any information given to the mesh is turned into a PLA. (Point Level Animation)

PLA is something FBX understands and writes into a specific file (the one in the folder).

When other applications recreate the FBX content, they can (if implemented correctly) read this information back.

If there is anything else, I’m happy to take a look at it. If it needs to stay private, an upload link is the best way to do so. Let me know, and I provide an upload link via PM (Private Messages/ Cineversity).

My best wishes for the project.