9.5.2

90 • CHAPTER 3
CONFIGURATION • 91
Cameras
Cameras are supported including the roll channel and FOV. The cameras will be imported as child
objects of a Null object, thus allowing camera roll to be animated. Camera switchers will be converted
to Stage objects with a corresponding animation track.
Smart Merge option
This option gives you a smart way to merge the FBX le with the active CINEMA 4D scene: if the objects
do not yet exist in the CINEMA 4D scene, they will be imported; if the objects already exist, only their
animation data will be imported.
Bones
The hierarchy for skeletons in the FBX le format is usually different to the hierarchy required for
skeletons in CINEMA 4D. If the objects that are inuenced by a skeleton share its rest pose, a single
skeleton is generated for them and this skeleton is placed on the same hierarchical level as the topmost
inuenced object. If, on the other hand, the skeleton must use a different rest pose for each object,
each object receives a copy of the skeleton as a child. Skeletons that are not connected to geometry
are disabled. The inuence of bones is limited by the vertex maps assigned to the mesh.
Null objects are created for the original skeleton nodes if necessary to ensure correct animation.
FBX and CINEMA 4D also differ when it comes to the structure of bones — a CINEMA 4D bone
corresponds to the connection between two skeleton nodes in the FBX format. This means the names
of the elements cannot be imported 1:1. As a rule, a CINEMA 4D bone created from two FBX nodes
takes the name and the weighting of the rst node. If the last FBX node in a chain is weighted, a
CINEMA 4D bone of zero length is created and aligned with the parent.
For best results, ensure that Use Absolute Weights is enabled. This will allow the weight data of the
bones to be imported and exported without loss of precision. The deformation in MOTIONBUILDER
and CINEMA 4D will thus look identical.
Nodes that do not have a link pose or rest pose will be converted to unweighted, unreferenced null
bones.
If the MOCCA module is installed, the importer will create weight data for the Claude Bonet tool
instead of vertex maps and Restriction tags. If you require vertex maps, toggle the corresponding
option in the preferences dialog.
Lights
FBX supports the following types of lights: omni, round spot and directional. Directional lights will be
imported as parallel lights to ensure 3ds max les are imported correctly. The ambient and fog color
will be converted to an Environment object to allow correct import into MOTIONBUILDER should you
export the scene back to FBX later on.