Re: saving animation from animation layers

[André Adam <a_adam(at)49games.de>]

Wow, whenever I try to script animation layers, it's stunning how 
absolutely useless the SDK hooks provided are. Basically it is 
impossible to reinstantiate animation layers. They behave like a closed 
blackbox. So we have to so things the ugly way around:

1.: Export the AL Source you want to transfer as a Preset.
2.: Reimport the AL Source to the target scene. The AL Source is a 
normal Action Source now.
3.: For all objects driven by the original AL, make sure to have an 
Animation Layer set up with some dummy FCurves (single Key will do) on 
each parameter.
4.: To copy the original AL animation onto the target AL, try this:

var oSourceSource = Selection(0); //Imorted Action
var oTargetSource = Selection(1); //AL created in target scene with 
dummy fcurves on each parameterwe want to paste fcurves to

var eSourceSourceItems = new Enumerator(oSourceSource.SourceItems);
var eTargetSourceItems = new Enumerator(oTargetSource.SourceItems);
while(!eSourceSourceItems.atEnd()){
 eTargetSourceItems.moveFirst();
 while(!eTargetSourceItems.atEnd()){
   if(eSourceSourceItems.item().Target == 
eTargetSourceItems.item().Target){
     eTargetSourceItems.item().Source = eSourceSourceItems.item().Source;
   }
   eTargetSourceItems.moveNext();
 }
 eSourceSourceItems.moveNext();
}


If it is supposed to become a tool, you can try to package up steps 1 to 
4 nicely.

Does this work for you?

   -André


André Adam wrote:
> First idea would be to copy the exported/reimported Layer Action 
> Source's FCurves onto a Layer Action Source created in the new scene. 
> A problem might be that the corresponding Action Clip would have to be 
> re-instantiated to make XSI connect the new FCurves and I have no idea 
> how the Layer System likes this idea. On the other hand, if the new 
> Layer Action Source already includes the parameters in question, 
> copying the FCurves might work without the need to re-instantiate the 
> Clip. All this low-level scripted, of course. I'm pretty sure there is 
> no such functionality available from the user interface.
>
>    -André
>
>
> Steven Caron wrote:
> > thing is i tried this with an action source, not fraw2, and the 
> > animation didn't go into the new layer, but rather onto the base 
> > layer despite my "layer1" being the active layer.
> >
> > this doesn't have to be an interactive solution, it is intended to be 
> > a tool. but i am afraid i am going to have to evaluate the stored 
> > curve at each key and write a function to reproduce those keys using 
> > the saveKey() function so that the current layer is aware of it. then 
> > i am going to need to set tangent, interpolation, and extrapolation 
> > values. now that is yuck!
> >
> > of course i could be missing something obvious. hence me posting ;)
> >
> > steven
> >
> > On 8/21/07, *Adam Sale* <adamsale(at)shaw.ca <mailto:adamsale(at)shaw.ca>> 
> > wrote:
> >
> >     heres a waay long way around it, if its last resortish
> >          Save out each F-Curve in the layer source to fraw2 files, 
> >     Load curves from source back onto source objects in their new layer.
> >     you'll have to set a key on previous animated parameters in order
> >     to load fcurves..
> >          yuck
> >
> >     Adam
> >
> >
> >     ----- Original Message -----
> >     From: Raffael Dickreuter <raffael3d(at)gmail.com
> >     <mailto:raffael3d(at)gmail.com>>
> >     Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 6:21 pm
> >     Subject: Re: saving animation from animation layers
> >     To: XSI(at)Softimage.COM <mailto:XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
> >
> >     > I tried the same thing, havent found a solution yet, or didnt
> >     > try hard
> >     > enough...
> >     >
> >     > On 8/21/07, Steven Caron <carons(at)gmail.com
> >     <mailto:carons(at)gmail.com>> wrote:
> >     > >
> >     > > realized after posting... i can save the "layersource#" to
> >     > disk, and load
> >     > > it back into the mixer as a regular animation track. i was
> >     > hoping i could
> >     > > somehow put this actionsource back into a layer, in an attempt
> >     > to rebuild
> >     > > the layers.
> >     > >
> >     > > i have animation on the base layer.
> >     > > made a layer, set some keys.
> >     > > saved the "layersource" to disk. deleted the layer.
> >     > > re imported the "layersource"
> >     > > made a new layer and tried to apply the "layersource" with the
> >     > new layer
> >     > > active. no keys show in the layer. they look like they went to
> >     > the base
> >     > > layer, destroying the existing animation.
> >     > >
> >     > > looks like i need to hit up the feedback form
> >     > >
> >     > > steven
> >     > >
> >     > > On 8/21/07, Steven Caron < carons(at)gmail.com
> >     <mailto:carons(at)gmail.com> > wrote:
> >     > > >
> >     > > > has anyone come up with a way to save animation from a
> >     > specific layer,
> >     > > > given it's ID or Name? saving it to an actionsource that
> >     > could be later
> >     > > > exported to disk?
> >     > > >
> >     > > > thanks
> >     > > > steven
> >     > > >
> >     > >
> >     > >
> >     > 

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