Chop exporting of data on top of animation export data?

basically I have a robot modeld in maya and have done a short animation that plays on a loop.

now i have exported this as an FBX

i have then put a sound file in which data, i would like to control some of the objects the robot is made out of.

so the over all effect is to have this robot walking along, and the objects are distorted out of place by the music, but if there is no music playing all the objects are in their animations place

at the moment when i import the FBX its acting a bit wierd with the exporting, probably due to the exporting of the animation data from the Rig.

any one know if this is possible and how I could go about adding the data from the sound file ontop? (to the translate section of the objects)

many thanks!

when i say acting a bit wierd the export menu is all messy because of the many objects being controlled, and the chops from the sound file dont appear on the export menu. :frowning:

For exporting, your talking about the exporter in Maya right?

Once you import the FBX file. There will be a CHOP with all of the animation channels for each object. You can manipulate these channels using stuff like Math CHOPs to change how they behave.

no no,

I export the model with its animation into touch designer,

every thing is fine and it loops the animation,

i then have input a file chop, with a small piece of music, and edit it using other chops to simplify it (envelope, filter, maths etc etc) and then i want to make that controll say the X translation of the head,

now this works fine normally with a non animated fbx,

but because the fbx is animated, when i go to the chop exporter there is a big list (that seems a bit messy glitchy wise) of all the movements exported.

also the envelope / maths / file chops do not appear anywhere in the exporter so i cannot drag the arrow to say the X transition.

even if i could see the chops to drag the white arrow, im not sure if it would work properlly because the X translation is already getting its values from the animation.

so i dont know if you can have two values controlling one object…
which is what i want, to have the robot walking along, and shattering and coming back together as it walks.

if that makes sense >_>

thanks for your help though :slight_smile:

Ya, you can’t have two CHOPs exporting to the same parameter. What you need to do is use the channel you created to modify the animation channel before it gets exported.

First, since you probably have a lot of channels in the animation CHOP, pull out the channels you want to modify, using a Select CHOP. Delete them from the other CHOPs using a Delete CHOP. This will stop the export. The exports are done using Automatic Exporting. Automatic exporting exports channels based on the channel name (this is why you can’t turn them off using the CHOP exporter).
You can then modify the channels as you want, and export them yourself from there.

Hope that helps.

ok thanks, il give this a shot,

does this mean the objects controlled by the sound chop will soley be moved by the music?

because i would like the pieces of geometry to return to their place in the animation when the music is silent.

many thanks for the help :slight_smile: