FBX import doesn't work. At all.

ametosakasha_a0aac1823c

Greetings.

When trying to import a .fbx file, nothing happens. Well, a window pops up for less than a second, with some lines writing on it, then disappears, and aobsolutely nothing gets loaded into the scene.
I tried different fbx SDK, especially 2013 and 2014/2015, in different formats (ASCII and Binary) without luck.
I checked the log file, and no error message. Log file even states "file imported".

 

You may ask "where the fbx files come from? Maya? 3DS Max? Motion Builder? Blender?" And I will answer you with the worst case scenario ever possible: I tried to export a fbx from Daz (and when importing it in other 3D packages, all is right), and then just reimport that exact same file in Daz. And yup, you guessed right, it didn't work.

 

So I can say with absolute certitude the problem doesn't lie in the fbx itself, but in Daz being unable to import even the files it exported beforehand as is.

If ever you ask: yes the plug ins for fbx import and export are checked in the "About Installed Plugins" window.

 

So I'm here to beg for some help because I ran out of ideas of why it doesn't work, and what I could attempt to fix the problem.

Please, help.

wolf359

Daz studio Does not have truly usable FBX import capability

Why are you exporting it out at all
if you intend to use it in Daz studio??

is there some intermediate step involved here
such as using it in another program for some purpose
and trying to bring it back to Daz studio?

Bryan Steagall

What are you exporting out as fbx?  I use fbx all the time with no issues, exporting out to other applications, animating and bringing it back into studio. 

here's a link trying to see if I can reproduce the problem https://bryan_steagall-hotmail.tinytake.com/sf/MzMzOTM0M185OTkxNTky

Padone

Bryan Steagall said:

I use fbx all the time with no issues, exporting out to other applications, animating and bringing it back into studio.

afaik the fbx importer never worked fine in ds apart from importing geometry alone .. someone had some success via poser, that is, ds > poser > fbx > ds .. so if you can explain what's your pipeline to use fbx with no issues it would be useful to many

thank you

 

Imago

Padone said:

Bryan Steagall said:

I use fbx all the time with no issues, exporting out to other applications, animating and bringing it back into studio.

afaik the fbx importer never worked fine in ds apart from importing geometry alone .. someone had some success via poser, that is, ds > poser > fbx > ds .. so if you can explain what's your pipeline to use fbx with no issues it would be useful to many

thank you

 

I agree, I never managed to load properly a FBX in DAZ Studio, from any source/software.

Bryan Steagall

Hi Padone and Imago, how are you?

Certainly, I made a video a couple of years ago on my workflow.. here it is https://vimeo.com/227139373  Now I"m using it basically as a mechanism to bring in animation for daz characters that is generated by mocap in Motionbuilder and saving it as .duf to apply to the native Daz character (there is editing involved of the .duf files to get it to work), done with any text editor (make sure you are not compressing the .duf file)..  I'm not using the fbx directly in Studio, so I apologize for not making that clear (maybe I should have included a caveat)

 

wolf359

Now I"m using it basically as a mechanism to bring in animation for daz
 characters that is generated by mocap in Motionbuilder and saving it as 
.duf to apply to the native Daz character (there is editing involved of the
 .duf files to get it to work), done with any text
 editor (make sure you are not compressing the .duf file).. 

I am curious Byan,
If you use motionbuilder why not  just import
the Daz Character into motionbuilder and animate it 
and export BVH to Daz studio, the way we do it with Iclone pro??

Bryan Steagall

Hi Wolf359

Several reasons really, that all together brought me to using fbx instead of bvh.  I don't know now, but for a long time bvh was really wonky in Daz Studio, and there were issues with stuff like floating feet, etc.  I also use facial mocap, which when using blendshapes is impossible for bvh (and even with bones, bvh only gives rotational values, not translation, so won't work with the facial bones), I capture both at the same time and animate together, so fbx gives me the consistency I need now.

Now, I will be honest and say that I only use daz studio for rendering when I want to use the high def mesh, most of the time I just bring the whole fbx into Marmoset toolbag, and render there, which suits me just fine (and soooooo much faster than Iray)

WendyLuvsCatz

some people just want to use DAZ studio for everything 

I am sort of that way with Carrara  so understand the obsession but fortunately Carrara has a reasonably decent FBX importer, not perfect many things need to be filtered through another software like iClone 3Dxchange or Ultimate Unwrap 3D first as it can do weird stuff with the root bone distorting the mesh otherwise.

I have used Poser11Pro to get FBX into DAZ studio by saving as a cr2 and pz2 and it works most times not always, I have no luck any other way.

Padone

Hi Bryan thank you very much for the video it is very instructive to me. Specially the details where you reset limits and all to get it work. But basically yeah you use fbx just to export a daz rig and bring the animation back to it. Similar to what bvh does.

What we mean is being able to import a game character to daz studio via fbx. For example a basic mixamo character. That's a total failure.

Anyway I tried to export a basic G1F animation to fbx and import it back to daz studio always via fbx. And it works fine. Honestly I was expecting it to fail. So may be there's hope if we can understand what kind of fbx features are needed by daz studio for it to work. For example we may edit the fbx in blender to get it right for importing. That would be interesting.

 

Bryan Steagall

Ahh, I see..  and yes, in that regards it really doesn't work, even for me.. so I just use the animation portion.  A lot has to do with the daz importer, but also in the way everyone else imnplements fbx too.  In my initial tests, things like clothing, props, etc would always explode or not come in or not even be attached to the base mesh, which is why I stuck to just the animation.

So let me ask, why bring in the mixamo character into studio? do you want to render it out in Studio or use if for some other purpose?  If it is only for render.. you might want to try Marmoset toolbag, it is not that expensive and will bring in most fbx as is with minimal problems (I've been working with them on bugs here and there), it has a 30 day trial.. most of my samples here https://vimeo.com/album/5150493 were rendered in Marmoset

wolf359

Several reasons really, that all together brought me to using fbx instead of
 bvh.  I don't know now, but for a long time bvh was really wonky in Daz Studio, and there were issues
 with stuff like floating feet, etc.

Understood. 
 My BVH from Iclone comes into Daz studio with excellent fidelity
(Baked to FK of course) as long as I turn off the ridiculous rotation default limits on 
the Daz genesis figure before importing 

Here is an Iclone Character constrained to a path that traverses a ramp
first in Iclone then in Daz studio Via BVH 

 

I also use facial mocap, which when using blendshapes is impossible for bvh 
(and even with bones, bvh only gives rotational values, not translation, 
so won't work with the facial bones), 

Indeed, for face animation/lipsynch ,I am still using mimic Live with manual facial animation
of the expression morphs for emoting.

we have  two decent Facial mocap options in iclone
but none are exportable except as Alembic caches

 

I just bring the whole fbx into
 Marmoset toolbag, and render there, which suits me just fine 
(and soooooo much faster than Iray)

For animation renders EVERYTHING is soooooo much faster than Iray

 

Padone

Bryan Steagall said:

So let me ask, why bring in the mixamo character into studio? If it is only for render.. you might want to try Marmoset toolbag

Mainly the idea would be to import in DS a character modeled and rigged in another application, such as blender or maya. The fbx format itself is good enough for this purpose if implemented right. The test with mixamo is really only to start with something simple everyone has easy access to.

As for toolbag I never used it but it seems to me an exceptional tool, well implemented, both for mac and windows, and with minimal hardware requirements. As a real-time pbr engine it is comparable to ue4, eevee and iclone though, so there are good alternatives.

 

MDM Artworks

Hi all

I know this thread is a bit old now however, has anyone figured out the issue with the .FBX importer?

I am using 3ds Max 2011-2019. I am unsure about any other programs issues. when importing from 3dsMax though daz goobers the Axis, I have even tried to change objects orientation in 3dsmax so that on import it would resolve. This does not work though it imports with same issue, now only it rotates all axis another direction lol. Example: I export g8 whatever to max, import to max = np correct orientaion, textures and all are fine. on Re- Import she is laying on the floor in T-pose rather than standing up. It was then that i decided to simply lay her down in Max thinking on import she would be standing up. I tried this on every axis i could possibly think of to no end and everytime same issue only the rotation in Daz would be incorrect. I will also note there was an error on import about axis. I would have to check that to let you know exacts on the error as i pretty much gave up on it until i came across this thread. Anyhow, hopefully someone has figured this out and could enlighten us :)

WendyLuvsCatz

the issue is it sucks  

unless someone else can write an independent FBX importer using the API you are out of luck

themaohking

Any solution? I have the exact SAME problem

voidvisuals

Same here, exact same problem.  A simple functioning FBX import should not be too much asked for.
Any updates?

santuziy78_b0d2f52d79

Hi everyone,

The topic is old, but it may be useful to someone..
I had the same problem. Daz Studio does not even import its FBX files.
Quite by accident, I discovered that Daz Studio did not like the path where these files are stored. I moved the files to the root directory and the files began to be imported. So the problem is exactly in the path where you store your FBX files.

Martirilla

Thanks Sant. Could you clarify what you mean by 'Root Directory' please? C drive, Daz install location, runtime folder, initial fbx export folder?

santuziy78_b0d2f52d79

Martirilla said:

Thanks Sant. Could you clarify what you mean by 'Root Directory' please? C drive, Daz install location, runtime folder, initial fbx export folder?

I moved the FBX file to the root of the local disk D (D:\)
After I created a folder on disk D (D:\FBX)
From this folder, files are also imported into Daz.
I tried to put the files in any other folder located on this disk. Daz Studio imports these files.
But as soon as I returned the files to the folder where these files were stored from the very beginning, importing FBX files to Daz Studio stopped working again. 

charles

I use other software like Blender or Rhino7 to convert the FBX to an OBJ and import that. Problem solved.

The only real issue still is if your trying to bring in rigging. But props and scenes, no problem, might even sub divide low poly models while walking them through the other software anyway.

Catherine3678ab

santuziy78_b0d2f52d79 said:

Martirilla said:

Thanks Sant. Could you clarify what you mean by 'Root Directory' please? C drive, Daz install location, runtime folder, initial fbx export folder?

I moved the FBX file to the root of the local disk D (D:\)
After I created a folder on disk D (D:\FBX)
From this folder, files are also imported into Daz.
I tried to put the files in any other folder located on this disk. Daz Studio imports these files.
But as soon as I returned the files to the folder where these files were stored from the very beginning, importing FBX files to Daz Studio stopped working again. 

That's rather odd. Thank you for sharing your discovery :-) 

srbvik91_3ba41f4763

Ok everyone, I'm a little late here but ran into issues importing fbx. I have characterized G8 in motionbuilder, the animation looks perfect in motionbuilder, but when I import it into daz studio after exporting fbx from motionbuilder, after first 1/4th of the frames, the animation is screwed up. I also opened the fbx file in other programs, and the animation is perfect, its just the Daz that has problems. Anyone having same problems and figured it out, let me know, it'll be a big help