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More FBX literature/learning resources?

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Message 1 of 7
thegeneralsolution
472 Views, 6 Replies

More FBX literature/learning resources?

I have read through all the documentation for the FBX SDK and am working my way through the example code, but I still have quite a few unanswered questions. Are there any additional learning resources that anyone would recommend?

I'm interested in knowing not only how FBX models are structured, but also how the structure is utilized to render various types of effects/animations, beyond the simple examples in the documentation.
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Message 2 of 7

This forum is a good place to ask questions.
And if you do a search here, there are also other people who already created sophisticated FBX viewer.
Talk with them would also be a good idea :).
Message 3 of 7

Thank you, Jiayang Xu! I will take your advice!
Message 4 of 7

I was going to post this as a new topic but I thought I might as well just continue this discussion.

I noticed that the documentation provides some very helpful descriptions of things like nodes, meshes, control points, animation curves, and the example code helps to reinforce the ideas, and this works beautifully for learning! Most of these example programs have a single 'main.cxx' source file.

A few of the sample programs are more complex and have quite a few source files. i.e. ImportScene and MyOwnWriteWriter. The documentation talks about these more detailed samples and walks you through the steps, which is great!

But the ViewScene example code, perhaps the most involved and complex of them all, does not have accompanying explanations/walk-troughs for how the process is carried out. More specifically, the details of how bone nodes, mesh deformers and skinning are modeled in the FBX format is left out. For something this complex, source code does not answer all your questions. Especially since the code is designed to handle all possible cases, and so has a lot of extra details and cases to handle.

I am not a beginner with animation and skinning. I successfully implemented animation and skinning in the ASSIMP library in just a few days. I've read a lot of online articles on skeletal animation and skinning and I understand the principles very well. My only problem is a lack of comprehensive detail for how FBX deformation and skinning has been designed and implemented by the developers, and the relevant terminology and data structures.

I have devoted much of my spare time these past few weeks, to looking through source code, and reading the message boards, but still have only a rough understanding of how skinning and deformers work. Is there any possibility that a new section on link nodes, skinning, clusters and deformers will be added to the online documentation? Are there any graphics programming books that explain the methods of skinning in the FBX format? There are comprehensive learning books on Autodesk Maya, 3ds max, and autocad. Why are their no such books for the FBX SDK?
Message 5 of 7

Hi, mv348, thanks a lot for your feedback and suggestion.
Due to the amount of questions thrown on ViewScene's cluster-related source code, you are totally right it is lack of clear documentation.
I guess the most confusing part is the associate model and eAdditive mode, they are mainly for rigid binding.
The part for smooth binding is not that hard to understand.

Anyway, I am collecting all kinds question/answers from the forum related to these source code and planned to update them in FBX SDK FAQ on this forum to give a more complete explanation about the cluster/binding in FBX SDK.
When it is in good shape, we may push to include them in the online documentation, but no time estimation here.
FBX SDK books? I am not sure, personally I prefer online resource more for technical stuff, :).

Thanks again for speak with us about your concerns and hope you can share your findings here to help others before that FAQ is out.
Message 6 of 7

Thank you so much! I am grateful that you are responding to user suggestions and willing to offer us more learning resources. I am sure it will make the SDK more accessible and appealing to many people!

I am hoping to use the FBX SDK extensively for my game development projects, and I want to learn all there is to know about it. I would be more than happy to help others understand the SDK as my understanding increases.

Do you have a rough idea of when we can expect an update to the FAQ?
Message 7 of 7

I am not sure about the time yet because I only have limited time for forum support every week.
And it is actually time consuming to make an easy-to-understand explanation.

But at least I can post a draft about binding, associate model first to reply your questions about them:
http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-fbx/fbx-sdk/questions-on-terminology-associate-geometry-refe...

This way, your and other users can also give more feedback to help me refine that draft.

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