Virtual InMoov currently works in Blender, but wouldn't it be great if we did not need Blender to display ?
Three.js is an great library for using webgl and displaying 3d models and environments.

Some benefits for using the WebGui to display Virtual InMoov.

  • No dependency on Blender - it would be 'all' MRL -  meaning end users just need to install MRL and would not have to install Blender
  • Speed?  The current Blender service drives Blender, but I'm wondering comparitavely if the WebGui would be faster as its sole purpose is to display, & Blender has much more complex functions than display (e.g a big editor)
  • Clean interface - currently the Blender service uses  a slightly hacked up interface over sockets.  The WebGui virtual InMoov service could use the identical interface as all other current services - (JSON over websockets)
  • Fewer open ports - all communication would be handled through the same ports which WebGui does all its other communication.
  • Portable - Yes this would work on any mobile device too, while getting Blender to run on a mobile device will probably not happen

Some of the details :

  • Three.js project has written many 'loaders' 
  • They have also written plug-ins for Blender, this library is called io_three, it comes in the three.js-r73 release.
  • We already have three.js-r73 in the webgui supporting the Inverse Kinematics service.
  • There are a variety of possibilities for exporting importing, I have tried several, but currently am marginally successful 

I'm working on the process / matrix below, but I've had limited success.  At this point I have not been able to get 'shading' working at all.  I'll keep updating with progress.

Blender Export Three Import Notes
Collada .dae  ObjectLoader ColladaLoader - this potentially seems like the most direct, and the preferred method according to this .   In this senario, no Blender plugin is needed.  Instead Blender exports to a 'common' file format, and a Three.js loader loads it directly
Three exporter to Json   JSONLoader Scenes always crash - individual objects seem to work

Rotating WebGl Ear of InMoov .. We want more !! 

 

References :

Gareth

8 years 10 months ago

I have checked out the three.js editor (still unable to run the http-server yet...patience..), though i was able to test out the three.js editor.

Indeed the Blender plugin is able to export to a .json format that three.js can accept.

First glance it only exports a single object at a time (so trying to select all of vinmoov as one batch does not appear to work - will persue this further), also it does not recognise bones.. again need to dive deeper.

Re:- the shaders ..... to get the above image I added a light pointing into vinmoovs face ... without it you will only see a black mass as in your video....try adding a light and vinmoov will "see the Light".

This is good news....

Although blender appears to be able to only export single objects at a time....

.... it does preserve the spacial position of each object..( often the case is that an objects position is zeroed around 0,0,0 after export...haha  .json exporter rocks ) ..so reconstructing Vinmoov in three.js would be possible....

... now the question lingers about bones.......

Gareth

8 years 10 months ago

Checked the Coolada export (I should have observed your  plugin_fu advise ).. and it appears to export the whole works.... including the bones (though it does not display them to screen).

This is the current export :-

Yes_yes we all know that this is the normal first birth of our vinmoov... its a start...

Hmmm..  What you did with the editor looked amazing, so I started clicking down the road, but seem to have taken a wrong turn.

I can't seem to get the editor to work with any of my Collada exports :P

Would you believe a InMoovHead looks like this?

Fading back 20 yards and punting .. I exported the omnipreset "Cube" ..
And what did I get ?

I don't think its there ...

I'm using the latest Blender 2.76b  .. perhaps I'm in version hell ?

Firstly Latest Blender works fine....

Two things come to mind here :-

(1) with three.js  there are only three mouse controls :-

  • Zoom with middle wheel
  • Left click whilst dragging mouse around gives rotation of whole field of view
  • Right click whilst dragging translates the whole field of view

     Zoom & home on into the middle axis...... when I first imported the Coolada I could not see the meshes either.

(2) By default blender scales most things to a very small level (I have to scale all my stl's by 1000 before I post to thingiverse for example). I would suggest adjusting the scale between (50 to 150) before exporting to Coolada.

    

hairygael

8 years 10 months ago

Woouiii, I am going to follow this very closely!

I don't know if this can help but, Blender can export OBJ files  keeping all the components and bones. At least it is what I use when I need to 3D print in colors and to conserve all the textures and meshes in place. I also use the OBJ exporter to create my 3D PDF files.

Wooouiii ! :D

Ahoy Gael ! :)

Ya one click worky, all in one, Virtual InMoov would be a huge benefit !

Right now its sooo many options of export & so many options of import ...

Three.js is the library to target, now its a matter of finding the language between the two systems (Three.js & Blender) 

This is what I've found so far.

With Gareth's exported finger + bones I have successfully put a collada loader and loaded the file in Three.js.  Got the Chrome Dev Tools to work too, so now I can inspect what exactly is loaded by the loader..

The collada gave me a scene with 6 children :

0 - Spot_001 
1 - i01_right_hand_pinky7_000
2 - i01_right_hand_pinky5_000
3 - i01_right_hand_pinky3_000
4 - Armature
5 - Spot
 
I assume 0 & 5 are lights
 
Gareth wrote me the following map :
Here is the pinky finger isolated , with the rest of the whole skeleton (thought it better to keep the skeleton intact)

so the pinky parts and the pinky bones associated are:-

i01.right.hand.pinky3.000   needs to be connected to bone   i01.rightHand.pinky.base

i01.right.hand.pinky5.000   needs to be connected to bone   i01.rightHand.pinky.mid

i01.right.hand.pinky7.000   needs to be connected to bone   i01.rightHand.pinky.tip

digging deaper into i01_right_hand_pinky7_000 I can see it has a THREE.Matrix4 - 4 matrix is typical for tranformations and a bunch of nice big values, so perhaps its as easy as changing the values or using a Quaternion to modify then update the position ...  

We'll push and pull on it a bit...