Chaos Cosmos & Animation Plug-Ins?

[timgarner_10]

Anyone else see the new Vray VFX Animation & Chaos Cosmos show reels? Cosmos seems like a good 3D model resource but can we even use it with formZ? Speaking of which, I don't even see formZ listed anywhere on the Chaos website anymore. Seems like formZ isn't getting any love anymore and we aren't privy to any of these great tools from Chaos, or other companies. I'd love for formZ to revamp the whole animation side their software and start getting partnered with all these great plugins made by companies like Chaos. It's really annoying that I still can't get a decent simple animation to work correctly in formZ, yet I learned & created a great animation using Twinmotion for the first time all in the same day within a couple hours because it's so user friendly and fast at generating animations. I even had people walking around, added weather effects and sound effects going on! I even hear Lumion is pretty user friendly to use as well to create animations. I hate to say it because I've been a formZ user for almost 20 years, but I'm seriously thinking of making a switch to another program that's more with the times and supported. Hear our cries formZ and please help!

https://link.web.chaos.com/u/gm.php?prm=xa9I2fowHi_816088826_1948814_97799&_esuh=_11_9aacc188ff966dd17171804d1ccfad72bd50d4f0769f78410af4b625fa326c71

 

Edited September 30, 2021 by timgarner_10
added content

[Justin Montoya]

Hey Tim,

I was told that because VRay for FormZ is developed by AutoDesSys instead of Chaos directly, that means we do not have the same SDK access to the required Asset Manager that the other VRay installations have.  That means we are missing a few things, namely Chaos Cloud (seamless cloud rendering) and Chaos Cosmos (a Twinmotion style scene builder), because they do not yet have a SDK available to integrate them inside VRay for FormZ as the other features have been.

This is unfortunate, but likely to change in the future as Chaos releases more SDK availability.

I will say that this is a bit of a double edge sword though, since our plugin is more tightly integrated than most of the Chaos VRay plugins, meaning everything VRay can be controlled from inside FormZ, without the need for that added manager, which doesn't sync as easily and automatically for things like materials, and lighting when they are used in other FormZ modes like Shaded Full, or even RenderZone.  Our version feels like it's a part of FormZ, not just an add-on.  

 

[timgarner_10]

Thanks for the explanation Justin! And I agree, I do like how Vray feels like it's a part of formZ with how it's integrated. I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed Chaos releases more SDK availability. Which I hope formZ has already been in contact with Chaos about this?!?

[nano]

Hi - just a quick comment from my perspective being a long time user of FormZ and working in the design and arts industry and with other people since the late 1980's... and with many other 3D and CADCAM systems over that time. Regardless of which industry you are working in there are SO MANY tools out there now that will do great things for you.

The animation and visual effects area especially is saturated with really high quality systems that do amazing things -  once you have used Houdini and the other node based procedural systems with the current available rendering pipelines its hard to imagine why a 'real world' type modeller would be needed - but it is.

And the parallel architectural visualisation specific field has likewise spawned numerous fantastic tools. (and a lot of horrible stuff like Revit)

I still see FormZ as a very useful and reliable tool in the mix with the others which in my case is primarily for quickly making accurate fairly detailed models that can then if desired be moved across into other systems reliably. This includes a lot of concept 3D visualisation and prototyping with objects for production and architectural spaces and then detailed 'widgets' all of which which FormZ is pretty good for. It has many of the essential modelling and engineering tools that make it easier to create.

tbh I think developing the animation side of it any more than the basics would be a waste of time. But making sure the objects you create can be moved easily is a much higher priority. Building good object assets is a really tedious but required part of visual effects and graphic representation and illustration - and in many studios is seen as a separate but essential graphics procedure - just like you have those dull photoshop retouchers working out in the back room.

Reliable Integration with all these other systems is from my point of view way more important than trying to reproduce and include the other features directly.

Adding VRay integration is a huge step forward (I'd love to see Redshift too)

Adding more integration where we can move these models into other systems that also connect directly with VRay would be my preference. Like somehow adding a node based material editor to better access the available underlying features - that are there but hard to navigate. ( I know this would be difficult but pretty significant  advance if done)

And any new better connections with Chaos Vantage, Enscape, Lumion, Unreal, Unity would be desirable.

I think getting a full BIM system might be asking too much. (as discussed elsewhere in the forums)

Trying to use a comprehensive all encompassing 3D graphics system is a nice idea but I know lots of people who are fully embedded in Autodesk (Maya, 3DS max, sketchup), MODO, Rhino, Cinema3D, Houdini, Archicad, Blender, ZBrush etc who still all end up complaining endlessly about how they don't do what they need and about all the bugs and tools that don't work properly, their lack of support and their hacks to fix things.

And If you work by yourself... you just end up getting more software (and hardware) to do all those things. And spend an awful lot of time trying to (usually ineffectively) balance learning new things with doing 'actual work'.

 

[johnalexander1571]

Hi all,

I have been so happy with formZ and Twinmotion, because I have to import models of all different formats and clean them up (car seats, etc.), build accurate industrial product models from pages of plans, put them all together and have nice animation clips ready fast. To me this is a great system, the main weird thing is I have to control object animation in Twinmotion with materials. So if I have to have multiple panels moving, that share the same material, I have to manually make copies and assign them separately in formZ to make them move at different times. I could see a cool tool in formZ that allows one to organize materials along "object" thought lines. I noticed going to Sketchfab had the same system, if you didn't name your material separately, you had to go back and re-import. I think the new "onliney" interfaces want to work this way.

Edited October 1, 2021 by johnalexander1571