MatchMover generates
an Ascii file of the type XSI that can be imported into SOFTIMAGE
|3D using the following procedure.
NoteMatchMover has separate
exporters to Sotfimage |3D 3.8 (.xsi version 1.3) and Softimage
|3D 3.9 (.xsi version 3.0). The latter is more complete and can
perform camera animation using constraints, which is easier to manipulate
than the motion paths used in the former.
- Select Tools > Import >
Objects > Ascii Import. A window opens.
- Select the XSI file exported by MatchMover.
When the process is complete, the camera and the 3D points have
been imported into Softimage.
- To verify the import, choose a Perspective
viewport and move the time line.
Compositing in Softimage (Rotoscoping)
The images must be of
the Softimage (PIC) format. To convert an AVI sequence or images
into another format. See
Conversion of AVI and other formats to Softimage PIC format.
- In the Perspective viewport, go to SHADE
> Rotoscope (wire). The Rotoscopy window
opens.
- Click the Select button
and choose the image sequence.
- Choose Play Sequence in
the Playback options.
- Adjust the Use Frames fields
and if necessary the Sync Frame field when there is a
difference between the number of the first frame exported by MatchMover
(generally 0) and the number of the first image.
Conversion of AVI and other
formats to Softimage PIC format
The Softimage image format
defines the image Pixel Ratio and this is taken into account for
the image display in the viewports. It is crucial that you export
the image with the correct pixel ratio, which by default is always 1.
Amongst the executable files supplied by Softimage, tga2soft allows
you to specify the Pixel Ratio with the option -p. One solution
is to convert the AVI into PIC, then the PIC into TGA then the TGA
into PIC.
To convert file formats:
- From the MS DOS prompt window, move to
the directory containing the Softimage binaries.
- Use the following commands provided by
Softimage.
- Avi2soft
- Soft2tga
- Tga2soft
For example, to convert
an avi file composed of 25 images with PAL pixel aspect ratio (1.0666)
into the Softimage PIC format, enter: avi2soft sequence.avi sequence
-s 1 25 1, soft2tga sequence sequence -s 1 25 1, tga2soft sequence
sequence -s 1 25 1 -p 1.0666.
