Overview
Before you start your animation project, you need to prepare your 3D architectural models for using them comfortably in Anima. The imported 3D models will only be used as a reference for the design of the animation paths and areas, they won’t be visible during the rendering phase. Therefore, if your background model is very high-poly you may only want to bring the geometry essential for planning your animation into Anima.
A very dense geometry (like trees or other highly detailed objects) will have a huge impact in the performance of the 3D viewport of Anima, so we encourage you to only bring them if they are essential and, even then, you should consider make a low-poly version of them and bring that into Anima instead.
So, the most important question you need to ask yourself before importing a model into Anima is:
What do I need really need to populate the scene?
Every project is different, but to help you decide what you need to bring into Anima, it is helpful to think about the elements of your scene as fitting into two different categories.
Walking Surfaces
These are all the surfaces on which characters will walk, climb, stand, or run, such as floors, stairs, terrains, and ramps. These surfaces are crucial to aid you in the design and placement of Paths and Areas.
Blocking Surfaces
These are all the surfaces that can potentially block the actors on a path. They could be walls, facades, furniture, or any other similar type of obstacles in your scene. Importing these will help you to design the Paths, place Areas, and create Avoiding Areas so that characters interact with the architecture of your scene convincingly.
Anything that doesn’t fit into these categories does not need to be imported.
Each scene can contain ONE collision background.
Workflows
Creating a Background Model Using Alive Synchronization
The best way to bring your collision backgrounds to Anima is using the Alive connection to send a list of 3D objects directly from your 3D application, using the Anima plugins. That is the easiest, quickest, and more efficient way to get your 3D geometries and start creating your simulations.
So, before continuing with this article and learning the manual way of doing it, make sure to take a look at the workflow with Alive in the following article Anima Alive.
In some situations, it is not possible to use Alive. For example, if your 3D application is not supported by our plugins yet (like it happens with Blender, Houdini, or Unity). In those cases, using an external file is how you can bring your 3D environment into Anima.
Creating a Background Model Using a Standard 3d File
To import a background model you can either click Library: Backgrounds > Import Background Model (+), or right-click in the viewport or Project Panel and select Import Background Model. However you choose to do it, the remainder of the procedure remains the same:
- Use the Open 3D Model file picker and select a background model.
Anima supports a wide range of file formats including the following:
.3ds
The .3ds file format has grown to become an industry standard for transferring models between 3D modeling packages.
.obj
The Wavefront .obj file format is a standard 3D object file format that offer full compatibility with almost all 3D modeling packages.
.lwo
The LightWave Object file format is a proprietary binary file format and is the standard export format used with LightWave 3D and Modo.
.fbx
The FBX files format is a proprietary interchange format most commonly used to transfer objects between Autodesk products, but is also finding widespread use in other products.
2. Select a model and click Open.
3. The Import Model menu will open with the following options:
Units – The unit of measurement of your reference 3D model.
Up Axis – The up axis used by the 3d application the model was created in. If your model is rotated incorrectly, you may need to change this property when you reimport.
Normals from file – Imports the normal directions from the file. If you turn this off then Anima will attempt to generate its own normals.
4. You will now have a background model in your scene that can be used to place your actors.
From here you can choose different units of measurement and click Rescale to continue. You can also see helpful statistics about the size of the model when you change the unit types to help you set them correctly.
If Anima detects that you have set your scene units up incorrectly you may get an import warning.
Hiding and Deleting Background Models
To prevent you from accidentally moving them, background models can not be selected by clicking them in the viewports. Instead you have to select them in the ProjectPanel
From here you can hide the background model by clicking on the visibility toggle:
If you want to remove the background model from the scene completely, right-click it in the Project Panel and select Delete.
Once a background model is selected in the Project Panel it is also possible to move it using the transform gizmo in the 3d viewport. However you should do this with caution, if you create actors on a moved building you may have alignment issues when you import your Anima project back into your rendering program.
Clip the Background Model
Use the Clipping tool to slice the top from the background model. The bar on the right-hand side of the viewport represents altitude, the lower you drag the bar the more of your model is removed.
This tool is designed to allow you to quickly place actors in multi-level scenes giving you access to parts of a building that would otherwise be inaccessible.
To quickly access preset heights, you can create markers on the clipping bar. This features is particularly useful for architectural visualization as it allows you to split your building according to its different floors. To add a marker for the current clipping height, do one of the following.
- Click on the + sign at the top of the Clipping Bar.
- Double-click on the Clipping Bar.
- Right-click on the Clipping Bar and select Add Point at Current Height.
Once a clipping marker has been created it can be renamed. Just right-click on the point and select Rename. Enter a new name for the clipping height and click OK.
When you hover the mouse over this point the name will displayed. Click the point to set the clipping height at this level.
Finally, to remove a point right-click on it and select Delete.
