Call For Content: Blender Animations For Collada Animation Support
Pieter Visser of Illusoft has been spearheading the Collada 1.4 specification support for Blender and has made huge advances in the plugin (for example, physics support). Recently, a proposal he submitted to implement animation support in the Blender Collada plug-in was accepted by the Dutch version of the “Summer of Code” (Dutch). Now Pieter needs our help to make the plugin better than ever.
To realize this major improvement, I would like to make a collection of different Blender files, each with more advanced animation. This way, I can start with the very basics and write the necessary code for it. Next to the animation function implemented, as demonstrated by the .blend files on the site, I will keep track of the version of the Collada plugin in which it’s implemented. That’s why I need your help! If you have suggestions for the plugin please e-mail your .blend files (Blender 2.42 is preferred) to me so I can add them to the list on the site. You could also use Illusoft’s Collada forum to discuss suggestions you might have. Also use the bugtracker for any bugs!
Why is Collada and this plugin so important you might ask? Collada is a standard format that allows completely different programs to work togther since they are able to read and write the same information no matter what program created it. It’s a huge boost for Blender because it allows a production pipeline to utilize Blender with other 3D tools. And if you also use Maya, Max, XSI, etc., you can help by creating and sending Illusoft Collada 1.4 files created from these programs to Illusoft in order to ensure that the Collada files are interoperable.
Pardon my ignorance, but can someone explain how Collada is difference from Verse integration? They both seem to be used to enable collaboration. Verse = real-time and Collada = file-trading?
Thanks.
P.S. Learning Blender for the third time :-) and enjoying it thoroughly. I love the new 2.4x improvements.
@Rob
I think you have it. I think it will help differentiate the two if I edit Verse’s intro paragraph to include a Collada file.
Verse is a network protocol that lets multiple applications act together as one large application by sharing [a Collada file] over a network. If one application makes a change to the shared [Collada file], the change is distributed instantly to all the other interested clients.
I’ll also add that theoretically, if I was using XSI and you were using Blender we could use Verse and a Collada file to both work on the same project/mesh/or whatever.
I’ll add one more thing… If you take my example above (using XSI and Blender), Blender might be at a disadvantage since the current incarnation of the Collada plugin from Illusoft has a lot of the Collada specification covered, but not everything – like animation. This is why the more the Blender Collada plugin has, the better Blender can play with other applications.
Got it. Thanks Eugene!
well I love standartisized formates and open data exchange so this sounds very very good :-)