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I need to export and import data with the following requirements: Hierarchical X,Y,Z euler rotation per keyframe around joints Overall Translation and rotation for each keyframe

I am looking to find as simple a format as I can (for example, .obj is very simple for models, but sadly no animation format, but on that scale). I'd like it to be editable in a modeller directly (although I'm ok with something that works in some modellers, and could in others if converted by a public tool). Preferably, have a simple public API, or be so simple I could write import/export myself. I thought about Collada, but the public open source APIs seem very very hard to deal with (I can't find one that really works). Anim8or files are suitable, except that no other modellers can really deal with it.

Mary Ellen Bench
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I've found that using FBX animations works pretty well. It's a bit more complicated than a .obj file, but it DOES come with its own free SDK. There's also always the good old MD5 format. However, FBX is (in my opinion, and apparently quite a bit of the animation community, as well) a bit of an easier format to build animations for, and tends to have a lot more bang for your buck, so to speak.

Gurgadurgen
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  • I thought the problem was the licensing on FBX, can't redistribute dlls? – Mary Ellen Bench Mar 29 '14 at 17:47
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    With the free license, no, you can't redistribute the dll files. However, there are other ways of handling fbx animations. You can actually find that out from the faq (though I think it's a year out of date, I'm sure this particular part hasn't changed since Autodesk acquired the FBX format) : http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/FBX-SDK/FBX-SDK-FAQ/td-p/4197594 However, they suggest you send a link with any redistribution so the user can download and install it, so if you plan to redistribute your program, you'd need to do that. FBX is just a REALLY popular format, is all. – Gurgadurgen Mar 29 '14 at 18:42
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    I can't say for sure if you need a license to use the FBX format, though, as I'm not a lawyer. I do know, however, that Blender does support FBX format, but doesn't use the FBX SDK, which tells me that the Blender Foundation doesn't have a license (and doesn't need one) to use the format, without the SDK. More info on the format itself can be found on Blender's page on the matter: http://code.blender.org/index.php/2013/08/fbx-binary-file-format-specification/ – Gurgadurgen Mar 29 '14 at 18:44