FBX Import Limitations

The Composite 3D workflow lets you import scenes into Composite. The following tables show which node attributes are brought over to Composite (indicated by an “S” for supported) and whether the attributes can be edited (indicated by a “E”) in Composite or whether it's recalculated into some other attributes or Composite paradigms.

Transformation Attributes

Group	Attributes	S	E	Comments
Transform	Translate	X	X
	Rotate	X	X
	Scale	X	X
	Shear
	Rotate Order	X		Recalculated in Composite transform. Expressions set on those will interfere with the recalculation process.
	Rotate Axis	X
	Inherits Transform
Pivots	Rotate Pivot	X		Recalculated in Composite transform. Expressions set on those will interfere with the recalculation process.
	Scale Pivot	X
	Display Rotate Pivot
	Display Scale Pivot
Object Display	Visibility	X	X	In Composite, it affects only Axis visibility (not whole hierarchy).

Locator Attributes

Group	Attributes	S	E
Local Transform	Position	X	X
	Scale	X	X
Object Display	Visibility	X	X

Camera Attributes

Group	Attributes	S	E	Comments
Camera Attributes	Controls (Aim, Aim-Up)	X		Only free cameras in Composite.
	Focal Length (Horizontal Angle of View)	X	X
	Camera Scale
	Auto Clip Planes
	Near Clip Plane	X	X
	Far Clip Plane	X	X

Film Back	Film Gate Presets	X	X
	Camera Aperture	X	X
	Film Aspect Ratio	X	X
	Lens Squeeze Ratio	X	X
Film Fit On Resolution Gate	Film Fit Mode	X	X
	Film Fit Offset	X	X
	Film Offset	X	X
Film Back 2D Transform	Pre Scale
	Film Translate
	Film Roll Pivot
	Film Roll Value
	Film Roll Order
	Post Scale
Output Settings	Renderable	X		Camera is imported if renderable.
	Mask	X		Mask of the “render” (current) camera translates to Alpha channel in Reaction output format. Affects all cameras.
	Depth			Image Z channel not supported in Composite.
Environment	Background Color
Display Options	Display Film Gate
	Display Resolution Gate		X	Player setting.
	Display Field Chart
	Display Safe Action
	Display Safe Title		X	Player setting.
	Display Film Pivot		X
	Display Film Origin
	Overscan
OrthographicView	Orthographic Mode	X	X
	Orthographic Width			Can not be set in Composite. Orthographic height is always 100 and width is set according to output pixel aspect ratio.
Object Display	Visibility	X	X

Camera Image Plane Attributes

Once imported into Composite, an FBX image plane loses part of its relationship with its camera. It is imported as a normal plane layer parented to the camera transformation, but it does not rescale itself automatically when its depth or the camera view frustum changes.

Group	Attributes	S	E	Comments
Image Plane Attributes	Display Mode (RGB, RGBA, A, Luminance, etc.)
	Color Gain
	Color Offset
	Alpha Gain
	Attached to Camera vs. Fixed			Always attached to camera.
	Type			Always Image File (Texture not supported).
	Image Name	X	X	In Image Import node feeding the Reaction source.
	Use Image Sequence	X		Can be controlled through Image Import node mark in/out.
	Frame Offset	X	X	In Image Import node feeding the Reaction source.
Placement	Fit Mode			Always “To Size”.
	Size	X		Recalculated into plane layer transformation according to Depth and camera Focal Length.
	Offset
	Depth	X		Recalculated into plane layer transformation.
	Rotate	X
	Squeeze Correction	X		Recalculated into plane layer transformation (inverse of camera Lens Squeeze Ratio).
Placement Extras	Coverage Width			Could be translated into a chain of Composite Crop and Resize nodes at the Reaction source.
	Coverage Height
	Coverage Origin
	Center			Irrelevant since Fixed camera image plane is not supported.
	Width
	Height

Current Limitations

The following list outlines the current limitations for FBX import:

Password protected FBX files cannot be imported in Composite.
You cannot selectively import assets from the FBX file; Composite imports everything it recognizes.
By default, the geometry import tool imports all meshes of the scene into a single layer. However, you can select which geometry to import.
The geometry tool imports the global transformation of the geometry in Composite; its bakes the transformation of its parent hierarchy into the mesh.
Composite doesn't support multiple UV coordinate on a vertex,; it only imports the first (index 0) diffuse set of coordinates.
FBX animation curves are recalculated into a Composite animation with one keyframe at each frame.
If the FBX scene contains more than one camera, the format of the resulting composition (and the Reaction node) is based on the render settings of the default camera.
The camera image plane distance, its size on aperture, the camera focal length and the horizontal scale are all animatable values in FBX, but the transformation of the imported plane layer in Composite is not animated.
The image plane offset values which controls how much the center of the image plane is offset from the centre of the viewing frustum of the camera are not supported by the FBX import.
The camera image plane layer cannot be created correctly if Composite doesn't have access or cannot import the asociated image files, because it needs to know the image resolution to scale the plane layer in Reaction. Also, the Image Import tool cannot store the path of an image sequence that doesn't exist.
Parameters that control the amount of the source image that is used in the camera image plane are not supported.
Target cameras are not supported.
Once the Maya camera image plane is imported in Composite, it is no longer a “camera” image plane (one that automatically rescales itself to fit the cam¬era view), just a simple image plane parented by the camera and properly scaled for the current depth of the plane.

Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License