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Importing Dynamation Files

Dynamation is Wavefront’s high-end particle animation system for Silicon Graphics workstations. Although some users won’t have access to this system, the format which it exports provides a very straightforward way of describing generic particle data. The following information is provided for those of you who wish to create your own Dynamation files.
A Dynamation file is simply an ASCII file containing the position and, optionally, directional vector information for any number of particles. Each file contains only one frame of information, so more often than not, multiple files will be needed. Each file has a numeric suffix to define its position in time. A typical file name might be something like “SwarmOfBees.00001” where 00001 would be the frame number.

The Dynamation File Format

A simple Dynamation file may look something like this:
4 6 5 0 0 1
This is a particle definition. The first three numbers define a particle’s position in space (x, y and z respectively.) The next three numbers represent a directional vector. This is simply a line which points in the direction the particle is heading. Because lines need at least two points to properly define them, in a direction vector it is assumed that the first point in the line is {0, 0, 0}. Currently the directional vector is assumed to be normalized. In other words the total length of the line is 1 unit.
For each particle in a scene there should be one particle definition like the one above. Each particle definition, except the last one, should be followed by a return character.
When PiXELS:3D imports a Dynamation file, it duplicates the currently selected object or hierarchy and places it according to the x, y, z information contained in the Dynamation file. For each particle definition a new copy of the selected object is created. Once all the particle definitions are read, PiXELS:3D goes to the next file in order. No more copies of the object are created. Instead the positional information is added to the object’s fCurves. This process is repeated until the last file is read in or the maximum number of keyframes is reached.

BVA Import Options

Sample Every n Frame(s)

Imported motion data will be sampled every n frames. The function curve generated is smoothed using all the imported data, but control points are spaced out giving the animator some room to manipulate the imported data.

Importing Dynamation Files

Dynamation is Wavefront’s high-end particle animation system for Silicon Graphics workstations. Although some users won’t have access to this system, the format which it exports provides a very straightforward way of describing generic particle data. The following information is provided for those of you who wish to create your own Dynamation files.
A Dynamation file is simply an ASCII file containing the position and, optionally, directional vector information for any number of particles. Each file contains only one frame of information, so more often than not, multiple files will be needed. Each file has a numeric suffix to define its position in time. A typical file name might be something like “SwarmOfBees.00001” where 00001 would be the frame number.

The Dynamation File Format

A simple Dynamation file may look something like this:
4 6 5 0 0 1
This is a particle definition. The first three numbers define a particle’s position in space (x, y and z respectively.) The next three numbers represent a directional vector. This is simply a line which points in the direction the particle is heading. Because lines need at least two points to properly define them, in a direction vector it is assumed that the first point in the line is {0, 0, 0}. Currently the directional vector is assumed to be normalized. In other words the total length of the line is 1 unit.
For each particle in a scene there should be one particle definition like the one above. Each particle definition, except the last one, should be followed by a return character.
When PiXELS:3D imports a Dynamation file, it duplicates the currently selected object or hierarchy and places it according to the x, y, z information contained in the Dynamation file. For each particle definition a new copy of the selected object is created. Once all the particle definitions are read, PiXELS:3D goes to the next file in order. No more copies of the object are created. Instead the positional information is added to the object’s fCurves. This process is repeated until the last file is read in or the maximum number of keyframes is reached.

BVA Import Options