User Guide > Importing and exporting  > 
SOFTIMAGE|3D export
 
 
 

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.
  1. Select Tools > Import > Objects > Ascii Import. A window opens.
  2. Select the XSI file exported by MatchMover. When the process is complete, the camera and the 3D points have been imported into Softimage.
  3. 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.

  1. In the Perspective viewport, go to SHADE > Rotoscope (wire). The Rotoscopy window opens.

  2. Click the Select button and choose the image sequence.
  3. Choose Play Sequence in the Playback options.
  4. 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:

  1. From the MS DOS prompt window, move to the directory containing the Softimage binaries.
  2. 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.

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