First attempt at getting AE camera data into Houdini (hacky woo)

AE_to_Houdini.py

# Ultra quick'n'hacky AE camera animation importer for Houdini.
# Create a new shelf, create a new tool, paste this into the script box.
#
# In AE, select the Orientation and/or Position keyframes, and Ctrl/Cmd-C them to the clipboard
# Open a new text file (Notepad or Textedit) and paste the clipboard contents in. There's your keyframes.
# Save the text file somewhere and amend the filename line below to suit
# In Houdini, create a camera (it's up to you to set the same zoom / aperture as the AE one).
# ... and run this script (well, press the shelf button you stuck this on)


import hou

# amend the next two lines as required

h = hou.node("/obj/cam1")
filename = "cameraKeyFrameData.txt"



state = "crap"
ignoreLine = False

with open (filename,"rU") as ff:
        for theLine in ff:
                elements = theLine.strip().split("\t")
                ignoreLine = False
                if len(elements) == 0:
                        state = "crap"
                        ignoreLine = True
                else:
                        if elements.count("X degrees") > 0:
                                state = "orientation"
                                ignoreLine = True
                        if elements.count("X pixels") > 0:
                                state = "translate"
                                ignoreLine = True

                        if ignoreLine == False:
                                if len(elements) == 4:
                                        theFrame = elements[0]
                                        theXValue = elements[1]
                                        theYValue = elements[2]
                                        theZValue = elements[3]
                                if state == "translate":
                                        print ("At frame "+theFrame+" translate to: "+theXValue)
                                        setKey = hou.Keyframe()
                                        setKey.setFrame(int(theFrame))
                                        setKey.setValue(float(theXValue)*0.01)
                                        testCh = hou.parm("obj/cam1/tx")
                                        testCh.setKeyframe(setKey)
                                        
                                        setKey = hou.Keyframe()
                                        setKey.setFrame(int(theFrame))
                                        setKey.setValue(-float(theYValue)*0.01)
                                        testCh = hou.parm("obj/cam1/ty")
                                        testCh.setKeyframe(setKey)
                                        
                                        setKey = hou.Keyframe()
                                        setKey.setFrame(int(theFrame))
                                        setKey.setValue(-float(theZValue)*0.01)
                                        testCh = hou.parm("obj/cam1/tz")
                                        testCh.setKeyframe(setKey)
                                        
                                        
                                        
                                if state == "orientation":
                                        print ("At frame "+theFrame+" orient to: "+theXValue)
                                        
                                        setKey = hou.Keyframe()
                                        setKey.setFrame(int(theFrame))
                                        setKey.setValue(float(theXValue))
                                        testCh = hou.parm("obj/cam1/rx")
                                        testCh.setKeyframe(setKey)
                                        
                                        setKey = hou.Keyframe()
                                        setKey.setFrame(int(theFrame))
                                        setKey.setValue(-float(theYValue))
                                        testCh = hou.parm("obj/cam1/ry")
                                        testCh.setKeyframe(setKey)
                                        
                                        setKey = hou.Keyframe()
                                        setKey.setFrame(int(theFrame))
                                        setKey.setValue(-float(theZValue))
                                        testCh = hou.parm("obj/cam1/rz")
                                        testCh.setKeyframe(setKey)
                                        

thanks a lot for the script + your process comment : very helpfull for a newbie !!!
++

Hi friend. With your permission, I have a little finalized your idea. Now you do not need to save the txt file. The camera animation is immediately copied from the buffer.

https://pastebin.com/0wxHe9e2

Hi friend. With your permission, I have a little finalized your idea. Now you do not need to save the txt file. The camera animation is immediately copied from the buffer.

Heh - nice - but makes it platform dependent though. I'll try and get round to doing something a bit better. Tidiest solution would be to just grab the clipboard contents straight into a string and deal with it there.

Heh - nice - but makes it platform dependent though. I'll try and get round to doing something a bit better. Tidiest solution would be to just grab the clipboard contents straight into a string and deal with it there.

I didn’t quite manage to do this, because the buffer encoding adds extra tabs. But it will be very nice to look at your option

Houdini shows me an error when i run this code, that is- "ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''.
I found that replacing "setKey.setFrame(int(theFrame))" with "setKey.setFrame(int(float(theFrame)))" solves the problem.

Hey!! my camera was in the wrong direction and i don't understand how to correct it