From FBX format files, VStitcher reads

• Geometry

• Skeleton

• Bind pose

• Skin weights

• Keyframes, and turns them into poses

  For smooth animation, you need sufficient keyframes to allow smooth transition from pose to pose. For more information, refer to Creating Avatars for Animation.

• Blend shapes, and turns them into deformation data that is initiated when you load a pose

• Textures

Unless you use the embed media function, which creates a combined FBX file - including the textures - you should have the textures in a separate file or files, as required.

FBX supports pose to pose simulation.

More About Blend Shapes

It is possible to apply a shape deformation on the avatars by applying keyframes to blend shapes/morphs for the avatar.

• First you should apply a skeleton keyframe so that VStitcher creates a pose on the poses drop menu. The pose is generated only if there is a keyframe for a joint rotation.

• Second you should select the blend shape when it is fully active on the same keyframe (pose) that you want it to be loaded with.

From OBJ format files, VStitcher reads:

• Geometry

• Textures

• MTL file

Unlike FBX format files, OBJ files do not hold animation keyframe information. Therefore, to have poses using the OBJ format, you must prepare each pose as a separate OBJ file.

The structure of the topology must be the same for the different poses to work. For example, you can start with one file, duplicate it, and then make changes to the file but still retain the basic topology.

Naming Convention

When importing OBJ files for avatars with poses, you must obey the following naming convention:

• The main file to be imported should be called something that suitably identifies the avatar for your purposes. For example, model.obj.

• The other files should be names in the following format: model_pose_<name of pose>.obj. For example, model_pose_running.obj, model_pose_cycling.obj, and so on.