Graphics and Blender

[baron159]

Can I make an animation in Blender and use it in Fusion 2.5?

If so, how do I go about doing it?
What are the file types I should have it as?


Thanks,
-baron159

[BossRighteous]

There are some special objects for handling basic 3D object operations but the Fusion engine itself is optimized for 2D applications. A common approach is to choose a forced camera perspective (isometric or side for instance) and pre-render all of your animation sequences into sprite sheets. A way to do this is to render your cycles to image sequences instead of video and either merge them into a sprite sheet, or load them into active object animation frames.

[baron159]

And this can be done in blender?

[BossRighteous]

I am not super familiar with Blender, but all 3D packages have the capability to render the timeline/active camera into various formats, video, JPG, PNG, etc. There may be some pre-built plugin or setting for sprite sheet output but that is outside of my knowledge. If you render a range of frames it can auto-increment the filenames: animation1_001.png, animation1_002.png, etc. A PNG has a built in alpha-channel (for transparency) so I'd recommend it as a format.

[Alpha17x]

And this can be done in blender?

Yes just make sure you have your render output set to an image format and that the background around the object is a solid color so you don't have trouble with transparency. Or if you can render with transparency; even better. I haven't used Blender for years so I don't know where which UI elements are.

[happygreenfrog]

Actually, you can render with transparency. You can actually render an image (make sure the output file type is set to PNG), and then export it. You can also export blender animations in the same way, which will export a sequence of images, which MMF2/2.5 can import as an animation. I forget the exact way you render an image with a transparent background, though. I do remember that it isn't easy to find, so, if you can't find it, just turn off anti-aliasing, and remove the solid-colored bacakground in MMF2/2.5 itself.

[pit73]

Hi
How to render alpha with transparent alpha in blender? > check this picture
alpha_blender.jpg

Then render with F12 and when you see the picture F3 to save
It's works also for animation.

[happygreenfrog]

Ah, yes, that's where it was.

It's still kinda hidden among the bazillion other settings that exist there, so it can be hard to find it when you don't know where it is, but you provided a reference image, making it quite easy to just look at said reference image and then change the setting in Blender with the knowledge of where the setting is.