How do I render a VDB sequence?

[OlaHaldor]

I'm testing some OpenVDB smoke sequence a coworker simmed in Blender. I'd like to render it in LightWave with Octane.

I can't seem to figure out how to render the sequence!?
I load the first frame, but it renders that frame only through the entire 250 frames. It won't load and progress through the frames unless I manually go into the Octane Volumetric panel and select a different frame.

[juanjgon]

Hi,

You can use a"$F" token in the OpenVDB file name to instert the frame number. The frame number must have four digits, for example, the file "fire_$F.vbd" is expanded as "fire_0023.vdb" in the frame 23.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[OlaHaldor]

Ah, ok. Thanks. Couldn't find this in the manual, thus the reason I asked.
THanks Juan !

[DarkMoon]

So the VDB "$F" is "harcoded" to 4 digits in Octane for LW?

Found my own answer.. I can only get 4 digit vdb's to work..

[juanjgon]

Yes, currently is hardcoded to 4 digits, for example: fire-$F.vdb -> fire-0126.vdb

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[baltort]

As a quick hack, if your sequence has 5 digit numbering then you can add a 0 before the $F token:

For example: fire-0$F.vdb -> fire-00126.vdb

It helped me out!

[promity]

I first used Blender to create a fire effect, but my cache file looks like Fire_000400_00.vdb - how do I rename or re-save a sequence with fewer characters so I can use animation in Octane?

[juanjgon]

I first used Blender to create a fire effect, but my cache file looks like Fire_000400_00.vdb - how do I rename or re-save a sequence with fewer characters so I can use animation in Octane?

What are the digits on this filename used by the sequence? The 000400 or the latest 00 ....

In the first case, you could use Fire_00$F_00.vdb, if you file is the frame 400. If not, you can use a renamer tool, like this one to rename the sequence:
https://www.advancedrenamer.com/

Thanks,
-Juanjo

[promity]

The client sent me a VDB sequence that I should use in the animation. But I’m completely confused - I totally don’t understand the algorithm for working with VDB sequences in Octane+LW.
This is what the first file in this sequence looks like - Default_0001.vdb. Should I rename it and how should it look after renaming? Should sequence files contain $F characters in their name? Will it ever be possible to use volumetrics based on embedded lv tools without having to memorize all sorts of tricks for using VDB volumetrics?

P.S. This is gaseous volumetrics (explosion) so I can not use OpenVDB Evaluator tool.

[juanjgon]

If your OpenVDB file names are "Default_0001.vdb" it is easy, you only need to set as file name "Default_$F.vdb" and the Octane plugin should render the sequence without problems.

Thanks,
-Juanjo