💪Getting the Best Possible Results for your Model

This documentation will provide insight into how to prepare a 3D model to receive the best possible results when uploading to the Animate Anything service.

Please note that the Animate Anything service is currently in an early access stage. As with all innovations we’ve honed the spec for our MVP, choosing to offer a wide variety of categories for launch with a basic support function, so whilst Animate Anything is in its ”experimental phase” bear with us.

Preparing your model for Animate Anything:

Pose: Models should not exhibit any sort of energetic activity.

Bipeds: The mesh should adhere to a "neutral pose" meaning bipedal models (models that walk on two legs) should be in a "T-Pose" or "A-Pose".

Quadrupeds: The legs for animals or other four legged creatures should point straight down.

Mesh:

It's recommended that the model's pose is mirrored or symmetrical when facing the camera.

Note: Users may upload a model with some minor asymmetrical details and still receive quality animations however it depend on a case by case scenario.

The legs and feet of the mesh should not be touching or too close together . This may cause issues when processing the segmentation of the legs and feet.

Feet are too close together in this example.
No limb should overlap with another limb.

The model should not have holes in the mesh.

This is an example of a hole in the mesh.

The mesh of the model should not have inner faces.

This is an example of an inner face inside of the arm of this mesh.

The model should not have degenerate geometry:

Here is an example of degenerate geometry, or geometry that overlaps with the existing mesh.

The model should not have multiple mesh layers such as different clothing sub meshes.

The model on the left displays a clothing layer over the body mesh, while the mesh on the right has been simplified so that it only contains one mesh that represents the clothing as well as the body.

The model should not have complex accessories such as swords, shields, big hats or long dresses.

Please note that your model's geometry may be modified to make it more suitable for processing and animation. This can affect the polygon and vertex count as well as the topology of the model. We are working on ways to make this impact minimal the future.

Material/Textures:

Materials and textures should appear correctly when viewed in 3rd party 3D model editors such as Blender, Maya, 3DsMax, etc. before being uploaded to the Animate Anything tool.

If materials or textures fail to appear in the Animate Anything 3D model viewer, please double check the model in your favorite 3D editor.

It is recommended to either embedded the materials/textures in the 3D model file when relevant or strip the path for the external image files using a 3D modeling software (We recommend Blender).

Fixing missing materials and textures:

  • FBX:

    • Embedding the materials and textures into the model's file can be done in Blender when exporting a model. To do this simply change the path mode to copy and enable the Embed Textures option. Embedding the textures correctly will allow the user to only upload the FBX file alone rather than all image files.

      File > Export > FBX, then change path mode to Copy and enable the embed textures option.

    • Additionally you can strip the path of the external image files by changing the path model to Strip instead of copy. Be sure to move all image files into the same folder as the .fbx! Users will be required to upload all external image files when stripping the paths.

  • OBJ:

    • To ensure your OBJ model displays materials and texture files correctly it is recommended to open your file in Blender and re-export with the path mode set to Strip. Stripping the path will allow the user to put all files (OBJ, MTL, PNG, JPEG, etc.) in one folder. If done correctly, the model should display with texture and materials in any 3D viewing application include Animate Anything! Users will need to upload the external image files, when relevant, to Animate Anything for any OBJ models.

Alternatively you can open the MTL file and adjust the paths of the external files by adjusting the map_Kd value. Open the .mtl file in your favorite text editor and remove the file path while leaving the file name and save the .mtl file. Make sure to put the image files in the same folder as the .mtl and .obj files!

Strip the path of the map_Kd manually. Be sure to adjust your file structure so that all files are in one folder.

  • DAE:

    • When exporting DAE from Blender, please ensure that the 'Copy' texture option is enabled. Users will need to upload the external image files to Animate Anything in this circumstance.

  • GLB:

    • When exporting GLB from Blender, please ensure that the Materials option is set to 'Export' and that the Images option is set to Automatic. Doing this will embed the materials/textures in the GLB file. Users will not be required to upload external image files when following this process.

  • GLTF + BIN:

    • Similarly to GLB, the Materials option is set to 'Export' and that the Images option is set to Automatic when exporting the file. Users will notice that a gltf, bin, and image file (where applicable). Users should upload all of these files to the Animate Anything web tool for the best results.

  • GLTF Embedded:

    • The GLTF Embedded version will require the same steps as the GLB, and GLTF+BIN when exporting. The output for this version should be a single file that can be uploaded to Animate Anything without any additional work.

Face Direction: The model should conform with standard rotation - facing -Y axis in Blender; facing +Z axis in Maya.

When using Blender make sure the model is facing the -Y axis.

For more information regarding the correct rotation please see Preparing your 3D model.

Additional Resources:

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