camera export and file formats

Hi,

I would like to export the cameras registration, as 3d cameras into 3dsmax.

this will allow using these cameras + photogrammetry to do camera matches really easily. ie, final output will use original photo, plus new 3d, with the photogrammetry model to help placements, but will be hidden in final image.

my guess is, that this may need to new format to export to.

so my vote is for

or even vrmesh (for model only).

i don’t mind if i have to export separate files for cameras and model+texture. but ideally I’d get camera’s, model, and textures all working together nicely.

I second the ability to export the registration cameras to .fbx or .abc. These are great for reprojecting detail in Mudbox and Mari, we are using a similar methodology with Photoscan.

we use universal exporter so if you know file format they use it should be quite easy o make the script. check calibration.xml file

Please check Camera+images file list export
for more detail on this.

We will extend the export formats for sure. If you are blocked for post-processing, you can follow the above topic and create own export format.

This is list of supported tokens
Each token is substituted by a proper value during export

Per camera
image index - index
image sizes - width, height scale (if image was resampled during export)
image file - originalFile
reference image file (can differ from originalFile, if undistortion is applied) - imagePath, imageName, imageExt
camera position - x, y, z, at, lon, alt
camera position in camera coordinate system - tx, ty, tz (last column of a 3x4 camera matrix in standard form [R t])
camera rotation tokens
yaw, pitch, roll, omega, phi, kappa
invYaw, invPitch, invRoll
3x3 rotation matrix - R00, R01, R02, R10, R11, R12, R20, R21, R22
camera calibration - f, px, py, aspect
camera distortion - k1, k2, k3, k4, t1, t2

Per 3D point
point index - index
track length - trackLength
position - x, y, z
color - r, g, b

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.

Hi Chris

what file format do you need to export?

If I may chime in,

in regards to VFX, the most common cross platform formats would be FBX (Filmbox) and ABC (Alembic).

Software specific cameras could be quite nice, too. Certainly for Maya, 3DsMax and Nuke.

Cheers

Hi Chris,

Thanks for posting. We will be adding these formats for sure.

Currently you should be able to export cameras to Maya too.

sounds great.

I agree with patrick.

I use 3dsmax, so i can’t test with maya.

but having camera export options to varies programs will be very helpful.

Sorry been away for a bit. Looking for an FBX or Alembic Export. Just something we can bring back into Maya or Mari.

Chris MacLean wrote:

Sorry been away for a bit. Looking for an FBX or Alembic Export. Just something we can bring back into Maya or Mari.

I second Chris and the above posters. Most big VFX vendors will ask for this for sure as it allows them to re-project textures after having run them through their internal colour space pipeline.

Please please please can you make this one of your top priority feature requests.

Has anyone found a solution to this? using scripts or otherwise? I would really like to import my camera positions to 3dsmax if possible. Even it it requires a workaround such as importing to Photoscan first.
Cheers

Hi julesmalcomson

As for the exports out of RC, what you need the cameras for? Just to retexture or anything else?
The Maya exporter can export it very properly but the camera names/filenames cannot be exported. But you get even images in the Maya exporter…

Hi Milos, at the moment I just want the camera positions so that I can align the scan with a single image in 3dsmax.
I will have many uses for this, mostly for artistic purposes.
I don’t have Maya, only 3dsmax so maybe I will have to see if someone else can convert it for me.
Thanks

Jules

We will use Mental Ray renderer and Daylight System in the scene.

Step 1

By default 3d max uses Scanline renderer. Change the renderer to the Mental Ray. Go to Rendering-> Render Setup->Common Tab -> Assign Renderer -> Production.

Step 2

We will have create a geometry. Create a Plane. Go to Create Panel -> Geometry -> Standard Primitive -> Plane.

Set Length to 500 and width to 500.

Step 3

Create a Target Camera just above the Plane. Go to Create panel -> cameras -> Target.Activate the Perspective view and press C in the keyboard to activate the Camera view.

Step 4

Open the material editor and crate an ocean material.

Click on get material and select Arch and Design

Select Ocean plane and assign material to it.

Select Water, Reflective Surface template.

Step 5

Now we will illuminate the ocean with the daylight system. Daylight system is a simulation of real world sun. Go to Create Panel -> Systems -> Daylight in the top viewport.

Daylight Parameters

Sunlight: we will use mr Sun
Skylight: mr Physical Sky
Position: We will set it manually.
Step 6 First Render of the 3D Ocean

We have the ocean and the daylight system so it’s a good idea to check how the rendered image looks like. Your image should look similar to picture below. In the background you see the mr Physical Sky environment map which was added automatically in the previous step. The brown line represents the ground in the background map. Thanks to Metal Ray’s lume shader the plane looks like and 3d ocean already. However, there are some things I’d like to change:

Horizon should be lowered to hide the ground
Smaller Waves
More blue and saturated colors to both ocean and the sky
Little brighter image
Step 7

Color, saturation, and brightness of the image can be adjusted in the parameters of the Daylight:

mr Sky Parameters
Multiplier: 1,1 ( increases the intensity of the sun )
mr Sky Advanced Parameters
Red/Blue Tint: -0,1 ( changes the hue of the light and sky )
Saturation: 1,3 ( changes the saturation of the light and sky )

any news about having alembic format ? 
FBX is not very trusty depending the software

thanks