Stop Motion OBJ (OBJ, STL, PLY sequence importer) - v2.1.1

Hi everyone, I just finished a new version of an add-on I’ve been working on called Stop Motion OBJ.

Stop Motion OBJ allows you to import a sequence of meshes and display them one frame at a time.

Here are some of its features:

  • OBJ, STL, and PLY sequence import
  • Allows changing topology (the meshes don’t need to have the same number of vertices from frame to frame)
  • Supports VERY LARGE sequences via Streaming Sequences
  • Supports .mtl texture import for .obj sequences
  • Sequence baking for rendering in render farms
  • Render sequences with either Cycles or Eevee
  • Smart memory management

The script is hosted on Github. Grab the latest release here: https://github.com/neverhood311/Stop-motion-OBJ/releases.

Take a look at the README and the project wiki for quick start tutorials and in-depth documentation.

If you encounter any problems, either post them here or submit an issue on Github.

Feedback is greatly appreciated. If you have feature requests, either post them here or submit a feature request on Github

Please use #stopmotionobj when posting to social media

If you find this add-on helpful, please consider donating to support development:
PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/justinj
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/stopmotionobj
Bitcoin wallet: 3H6qEhZ2Cz16KZiahNby7ybLgCVsqSyXez
Ethereum wallet: 0xf90e374342ac886e2e5b40623e5d515cb3e47090

7 Likes

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know about a quick update to the addon.

I’ve added a new feature: OBJ Sequence Baking.

This allows you to ‘bake’ your sequence so that the animation doesn’t depend on the addon being installed. This makes it so anyone with a standard Blender installation can view the animation. Personally, I’m going to be using this feature to render large projects on my university’s supercomputer.

To download, simply use the link in the first post and download the script.

Try it out! Once again, I’m still wide open for feedback.

1 Like

Can you make a quick video demonstrating its purpose?

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As requested, here’s a quick video demonstration of the addon.

I’ve updated the script and fixed crashes that were occurring when the user performs undo/redo actions.

I made a quick update to the script. A Linux user was having problems getting OBJ files loaded in the right order. I’ve fixed that issue. Go grab the latest version of the script. You can find the link in post #1.

Another quick update. Some of you may have experienced a really frustrating bug that killed your mesh sequence any time you did an undo (on any object at any time). I’ve fixed that issue. Go grab the updated script!

I test you plug-in and works great:
I test it with:
-ply import: no issue
-obj import: no issue
-particle systems: no issue
-dupli vertex: no issue
-Sverchok add-on: no issue

TYVM is very helpfull plugin

Hie Neverhood

A lovely addon that you have made! I think it is very useful, particularly for those of us who still have to use the realflow route for very complex simulations. It reminds me of the now unavailable mesh foot addon on. Is it possible for you to make a video that shows a realflow to blender tutorial which includes how to assign material to the liquid simulation.

Thanks for the testing, TheToad! I’m glad you find my addon helpful.

Thanks Sims. Glad I can help. Actually, I created this addon because meshfoot is no longer available. My master’s thesis depends heavily on it.

Assigning a material to a fluid simulation mesh sequence is no different than assigning a material to any other object. You just select the mesh sequence object, click on its material tab, and create a new material. Have you tried doing this? If it’s not working as you expect it to, please let me know and we’ll figure out what’s going on.

I’ve just downloaded and tried to install this plugin, using the directions given. I have placed the mesh_sequence_controller.py in the addons folder, however when I look for the plugin in the user preferences, I don’t find anything. I’m a blender noob, so I’m wondering if there is some environment setting I need to enable to see third party.py files inside blender? (I’m using the 64 bit version if that makes a difference.)

Would be great to get this working - I’m trying to import a realflow mesh.

Many Thanks

@stevecullum When you search for the plugin (using the search text box), try typing ‘OBJ’. The add-on should appear in the list. If you’ve put the add-on in the folder with Blender open, you might have to restart Blender before it will show up. If none of those things work, try one of the following links:
https://www.blender.org/manual/advanced/scripting/python/addons.html


Thanks for responding. Ok tried again - here are the steps I took.

  1. Place .py in addons folder.

  2. Add the addon

  3. Search using OBJ

Don’t see anything there. I’ll see what happens if I run it from the text editor window…

Oh - some kind of syntax issue…any ideas?


Ok my bad - released what is going on. I had right clicked - saved link as on the file in gitHub, but all it did was copy the HTML from the page - Doh! :eek:

Sorted now and can see the addon - Cheers!

It doesn’t surprise me that it didn’t work from the text editor.

What confuses me is the <!DOCTYPE HTML> in your error window. If you open up the script in a text editor, does it look like Python? Or is there some HTML code mixed in?

Edit: just saw your latest post. Yeah, I thought that might be the case. Glad you got it sorted out.

Thank you so much for this add-on, I absolutely love it!

I’m working together with an animator on a project right now and he is using Maya and this tool to export OBJ sequences:
https://www.creativecrash.com/maya/script/obj-sequences-import-export

With your add-on I’m able to import the animations and render it all out - it’s really the glue that keeps our project together :yes:

I have an idea for a small feature you could add in the future. It would be really cool to have a “shade smooth imported sequence”-button, so all imported mesh data is shaded smooth, right now one has to do it by hand on all frames, or export the obj with normal data included. With a button like this you don’t have to export any normal data in the obj sequence in many cases, and by not doing that you can easily cut down the obj size to about half.

In any case, thank you so much for all your work!

So glad to hear that it’s been helpful!

A “shade smooth imported sequence” button has actually been on my wishlist for a while. I’m not exactly sure where that button should live, though. Maybe I’ll have to take a crack at it this week.

A minor update but a good one.

Thanks to a nudge from Marlaur, I’ve added buttons for Smooth/Flat shading. This feature’s been on my wishlist for a while. Previously, if you wanted to change the shading of your sequence, you had to do it manually for each frame. Now, you can do it with one click.

If that feature would be helpful for your project, go grab the updated script (link in the first post of this thread)

Thanks for the new feature - this will be helpful! :slight_smile: