Import Formats

Supported Data Types by Format

Format

Mesh Stream

Vertex Colors

Texture Stream

MVE Stream

Animation Streams

Audio Stream

OMS

X

X

HCAP MP4

X

X

X

JPG

X

PNG

X

MP4

X

X

OBJ

X

PLY

X

X

FBX

X

X

4DS

X

X

X

ABC

X

WAV

X

MP3

X

HoloEdit supports several file types for import in the clip creation. The following sections contains details on each output format.

MVE

MVE, or Multi View Environment, is a format for raw image data used for geometry reconstruction and texturing. MVE frame sequences can be used in HoloEdit for the Reconstruct Texture stage. MVE data is imported as a special texture stream during ‘Make Clip’ if each frame is formatted according to the MVE specification:

  • One Asset Directory per frame, each containing a subfolder called “views”. Each “views” folder contains one or more “view_[number].mve” directories, each representing capture from a single camera (real or virtual). Each .mve directory contains one image plus a meta.ini file containing necessary camera metadata.

PNG

PNG image files can be imported as texture streams during ‘Make Clip’

JPG

JPG image files can be imported as texture streams during ‘Make Clip’

OMS

OMS files can be imported as mesh streams during ‘Make Clip’, and include Compressed Mesh Segments data. OMS files may be contained in a clip folder or imported individually as a single file clip.

MP4

MP4 files can contain texture streams and audio streams. MP4 files may be contained in a clip folder or imported individually as a single file clip.

HCAP MP4

HCAP MP4 files can contain mesh, texture and audio streams to be imported during ‘Make Clip’. HCAP MP4 files may be contained in a clip folder or imported individually as a single file clip.

OBJ

OBJ mesh files can be imported as mesh streams during ‘Make Clip’

PLY

The Polygon File format, or “PLY format”, is a versatile binary mesh format popular in research applications. PLY files contain arbitrary attributes, called properties, for data such as position, color, texture coordinates, and any additional data specified by the software that produced the .ply file.

Because of the versatility of the PLY format, it’s not possible to guarantee every individual of .ply file will be imported correctly. HoloEdit supports a common format for most mesh data, and three common formats for texture coordinates. This covers .ply files exported from most standard DCC software and several common capture stages.

HoloEdit supports ACSII and binary PLY files that are formatted as follows:

Data Type

Supported Vertex Property

Supported Face Property

Vertex Position

float x, y, and z

N/A

Vertex Normals

float nx, ny, and nz

N/A

Texture Coordinates

float u,v or float s,t

list uint8 float texcoord

Vertex Colors

uchar red, green, and blue

N/A

Vertex Indices

N/A

list uchar int vertex_indices

PLY mesh files can be imported as mesh streams during ‘Make Clip’. Vertex color data present in PLY files will be included in the mesh stream

FBX (Mesh)

FBX mesh files can be imported as mesh streams during ‘Make Clip’

FBX (Skeleton)

FBX files containing skeletons can be imported as animation streams during Make Clip. To import an FBX skeleton, take care to ensure that the skeleton matches the hierarchy and names provided in the Animation and Workflow HoloEdit exports.

FBX files for skeleton import must follow the sequence naming scheme to import animations: filename-\[startframe\]-\[endframe\].fbx. For example, “myfbx-0000-0009.fbx” will import the first ten frames of an FBX, and create a clip from frames 0-9. Each number must be four digits long, i.e. 0009, 0020, 0999, etc. Files without this exact naming scheme may not import correctly.

Important

Adjusting the frame numbers in the .fbx filename will change the number of frames imported and the start frame of the clip in HoloEdit, but not which frames are sampled from the .fbx. The .fbx will always be sampled starting from frame 0, and going until the length of your frame range.

Warning

FBX animation files are imported by HoloEdit at 30fps, so take care that your animation is exported at that framerate. Otherwise, you may see animation issues or desync.

4DS

4DS files can be imported as mesh streams during ‘Make Clip’. If the .4ds file contains embedded textures, a texture stream will be generated during ‘Make Clip’. If the .4ds file contains vertex colors they will visible in HoloEdit by enabling the ‘Vertex Color’ option in the viewport ‘Shading’ drop-down menu. To import a .4ds file, import that file individually as a clip, or import a folder containing a .4ds file.

ABC

Alembic mesh sequences can be imported as mesh streams during ‘Make Clip’. To properly import an Alembic sequence, it should be the only mesh data in a folder. When an Alembic file is imported, HoloEdit samples its frames at 30fps to produce the clip.

WAV

WAV audio files can be imported as audio streams during ‘Make Clip’. To import a .wav file, import that file individually as a clip, or import a folder containing one audio file and any number of other supported file types.

MP3

MP3 audio files can be imported as sudio streams during ‘Make Clip’. To import a .mp3 file, import that file individually as a clip, or import a folder containing one audio file and any number of other supported file types.