Le_Forgeron <jgr### [at] freefr> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA256
>
> Le 30/05/2015 04:29, Tony Stecca a écrit :
> > Hello,
> >
>
> Hello,
>
> > my name is Tony Stecca.  I work for an online private school in
> > Ontario, Canada. We create 3D molecular models using software
> > called Avogadro.  It exports 3D models as POV-ray files.  I've had
> > good success animating the models in the POV-ray editor and
> > exporting pngs to make a video.  However, our video producer would
> > like to import these models into Adobe AfterEffects, likely via
> > Cinema4D, as .obj files.
> >
> > We've been able to do test imports of POV-ray's that are based on
> > mesh objects. That works.  However, the models from Avogadro aren't
> > mesh(?).  The are mathematical objects like cylinders and spheres.
> > Can I convert my models to mesh objects?
>
> I guess you mean "automatically", right ?
>
> you can try to have a look at the capability of crossroads (Windows 95
> to Windows 2000)
>
> http://animatricity.com/pages/downloads/3d_apps/crossroads.htm
>
> The homepage for the developper is lost in limbo, but the provided url
> provide a downloadable zip. Assumes your own risk about it (I do not
> have windows)
>
> The syntax of povray for sphere and cylinder is stable enough that it
> might be supported, even on current output of avogadro.
>
> Short of that, and unless someone provide a different answer, I would
> refer you to the knowledge base
>
> http://wiki.povray.org/content/Knowledgebase:Files_and_formats#Topic_2
>
> There is echo of 3D23D program, but I have no link for it (seems lost
> too).
>
> A request on Avogradro (#248) is opened since 2012 for export in
> obj/mtl, maybe you can contribute to it.
>
> >
> > How should can we use POV-rays in After Effects? Thanks.
>
> The irony of it: After Effects is a "software as a service" license, I
> could suggest to ask an evolution to Adobe (might not be free).
>
> On the other side, there is derivative of povray which might export as
> gts (Gnu Triangulated Surface library) or STL (STereoLithography)
> format, from imperfectly meshified finite 3D objects.
> Then it would be another story to find a converter to obj for one of the
> m.
>
>
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v2
>
> iJwEAQEIAAYFAlVp3fQACgkQhKAm8mTpkW3l/QP/f+oYS3exCCADPzkpVySrzPZj
> AaHDN0k5LIG/AvMPA91C+Rrja5rcXWUysmDQnJga+4/0tNtVuo4d9Ik8fBLKgmSf
> ltHfQMDuyzYKe0Y8vXAdgRsKuKZPJ+R7ctgQbiHvuhjyrhKCD+IOCadUfBErxbjE
> r/dPoM1SmFoLruIYWVs=
> =XWql
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Le_Forgeron,

thanks for the detailed reply.  My solution doesn't have to be automatic.  After
a few days of research on this topic there doesn't seem to be an automatic
approach.

The solutions I'm pursuing is this: use a macro to convert the spheres and
cylinders in my scenes to meshes.  Then, there's a program called Poseray with
will read my .pov files and convert them to objs.  But the .pov scenes have to
be built from mesh objects.

Where I'm stuck now is converting my scenes to meshes.  Could you recommend a
macro to convert spheres and cylinders to meshes?

I've reached out to the Avogadro community, but no luck there yet?  Is there a
mesh forum or a macro forum on this board?

Thanks again!

TS

Post a reply to this message