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Disguise User Guide

Alembic Files

Alembic files are animated 3D mesh objects that can be imported and used within Disguise.

Configuring an Alembic file within Disguise

  1. Open your project folder.
  2. Copy your working alembic file into the Mesh folder.
  3. Run your project.
  4. Right-click on the Stage menu.
  5. Left-click on the venue to assign one to the project. If the default ‘none’ is selected, create a new venue.
  6. Right click on the venue name and click on the + symbol to add a new prop. A prop can be a regular mesh or alembic file located in the Mesh folder.
  7. Right-click on the name of the newly created prop and under the Mesh property, select the alembic file.
  8. In the timeline, create an AnimateObjectPreset layer.
  9. Left-click on the layer to open it’s layer editor, and open the keyframe editor for the Config tab
  10. Create a new screenconfiguration named “off” and hit the + icon to add the alembic prop to the layer. Leave all fields at the default 0
  11. Duplicate this configuration and name it “on”
  12. Right-click on the header bar to open the “on” configuration’s properties menu, and set the Animate field to 1.
  13. Keyframe these two configurations to have the alembic file animate in the visualizer. The time between the “on” and “off” configurations will determine the speed the animation plays back.
  14. Enter a playmode in the timeline to see the file animate.

Please note, for questions about the UI or specific animation workflow of Blender, it is best to contact Blender support. This guide is intended only for the specific export settings needed with the Disguise workflow.

  1. Set the project’s units to Meters.
  2. Import or create the mesh of your prop object in Blender.
  3. Create an empty and animate it with either the keyframe or graphs editor.
  4. Attach this null to your object using an object constraint or modifier.
  5. Play your animation to ensure that the object is now attached to the null.
  6. Select the null and the object.
  7. Export the alembic file using the below settings:
    • Renderable Objects Only
    • UVs
    • Pack UV Islands
    • Normals

Important Notes about Alembic Files

Alembic files can only be brought in as prop objects, they cannot be used as UV mapped content screens.

There are some restrictions on the types of alembic files supported in Disguise. Please refer to these recommended alembic export settings if your custom alembic file is not rendering within Disguise.

The object must not contain:

  • Curves
  • Points
  • Camera
  • SubD
  • NuPatches
  • FaceSet
  • Light
  • Material
  • Custom data