[ArtLib] ModelLib User Guide

Modules

Select ModelLib at the top of the main interface to start using ModelLib.

Menu

The menu is located in the top-left corner, and contains the basic functions which are listed in the #Importing Local Resources and #Other Functions of the Main Interface sections.

Switching Repositories

You can switch between different repositories at the bottom of the menu bar. These include primary and secondary repositories. You can view the model resources of this repository after switching.

Switching Portals

Switch between Muse Resources and Local Resources (Muse Resources by default).

Resource Directories

1.For the Local Resource portal, you can select a folder path in the resource list on the left to view resources (where "demo" represents the path name and "31" represents the total number of 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder, and OBJ resources that exist in the path).

2. Click the blue part to hide the directory. Click again to expand it.

3. You can search for resources at the top of resource list.

4. Right-click on a blank space in the file list.

(1) Expand All: Expands all folders.

(2) Hide All: Hides all folders, only keeping the folder you originally selected.

(3) Loading Status: There are 2 options when you slide here: Load All Resources and Load Current Resources. Loading all resources will load all resources in all subfolders of this folder and will display when you double click the parent folder. Loading current resources is the default loading method, which means only the resources in the subfolders will be loaded.


(4) Refresh: Refreshes the current resource list and checks whether there is an increase or decrease in resources. If there is, automatically corrects the number of resources.

(5) Upload to Muse: Uploads all resources in the current folder to Muse.

5. Select the folder and right click.



(1) Expand All: Expands all selected folders.

(2) Hide All: Hides all selected folders.

(3) Viewport:

1) Select a folder. The default setting is front view, but this can be modified to other views. 2) Reimport the icons in the resource display area after modifying the view to the selected view. 3) If you change the view of a parent folder, the view of all subfolders will be changed. 4) Viewport settings for different folders at the same level do not interfere with each other.

5) After modifying the view of a folder that is open (icon being displayed), you need to double-click on the folder to load it again.

(4) Open the current folder: Opens the currently selected folder.

(5) Download GIFs: Downloads the icons for all files in the selected folder, as well as the icons for files in all subfolders.

(6) Delete Path: Deletes the selected folder in the folder directory.

Attention: Refresh Options: Provides the same function as the right-click menu on the resource list.

6. If there is an updated resource in the current path, you can double click the folder to refresh.

Resource Lists

1. ModelLib only contains models and no actions. As such, there is no display at the top.
   
2. You can change pages under the display area.
   
   Definitions: 1) Previous. 2) Current. 3) Total. 4) Next. 5) Number of 3ds Max, Maya, and MotionBuilder resources in this folder. 6) Jump to a specific page. 7) Number of resources shown on each page (customizable).
3. You can search resources by name via the upper-right corner of the Local Resources window. For example, you can search for all resources containing “soldier”.
   
   
4. Click the icon button in the upper right corner to select the icon size (large, medium [default], and small).
   
   
   
   
5. A right-click menu has been set for each icon. The main functions are as follows: download, re-rendering (not available for Muse), format conversion, file path (not available for Muse), uncheck all (when resources have been checked), upload to Muse, deletion.
   
   
   
   
6. Downloading resources will download the selected resources. Supports single selection and multiple selection (click, check, or box).
   
   
   
   

Downloading GIFs (Muse and local resources)

Downloading GIFs via the Muse Interface

1. Click to download and select the path you want to save to. After the download is complete, a pop-up window will appear.

2. After confirmation, select the downloaded icon on the file explorer that pops up.

Downloading GIFs via Local Resources 1. Click on the pop-up window to select the GIF quality to download (high, medium, or low). Muse does not support quality selection.



2. After selecting the path, a download progress bar will appear. When downloading a single resource, the progress bar will simply display “In Progress”:



3. When downloading multiple resources, actual progress will be shown:

4. A prompt will pop up when the download is complete.

5. After confirmation, select the downloaded icon on the file explorer that pops up.

Download Original Resources (Muse only)

1. Click to download original resources. Fill in the resource usage notes, acknowledge the Things to Be Aware Of, then click Confirm.

2. Select a path.

3. Click save and start the download (ZIP file).

4. A prompt will pop up when the download is complete.

5. After confirmation, select the downloaded resources on the file explorer that pops up.

Re-rendering

The main function of re-rendering is to change the icon viewport display (only available in Local Resources).



(1) Update Resources: If a resource has been modified, it can then be updated. For example, if you add a weapon to a resource, the Update function can be used to reimport the resource, allowing you to see the weapon on the generated icon. You can also see the weapon by double-clicking the resource to preview.

(2) Preview Window: Modify the viewport of the icon to match the preview window. (You cannot use this function if the selected icon resource is not the same as the preview resource.) Viewports: top, bottom, front (default), back, right. and left.
(3) Set Rendering Time: Generally used when larger files fail to load as resource icons (time can be set between 40s [default] and 300s).

(4) Icons will be re-imported after successful configuration.

Click to show file path.

Quickly locates the local path of the resource. Uncheck All

Unchecks all resources.

Other Functions of the Main Interface

Setting Temporary Paths

1. Click Tools -> ModelLib Settings -> Temporary File Path Settings -> Local Temporary Path in the upper-left corner.
   
   
2. The following box will pop up. You can change the temporary path and clear the previous temporary path according to your needs. (Clearing the temporary path will only take effect after restart.)
   
   

3ds Max Version Settings

1. Click Tools -> ModelLib Settings -> DCC Software Version Settings -> 3ds Max Version Settings in the upper left corner.
   
   
2. The following box will pop up. 3ds Max 2017 is used for batch rendering by default. When this version is unavailable, the highest version of 3ds Max installed will be automatically selected for conversion instead. If you are not satisfied with the default settings, you can change them.
   
   

Maya Version Settings

1. Click Tools -> ModelLib Settings -> DCC Software Version Settings -> Maya Version Settings in the upper-left corner.
   
   
2. The following box will pop up. The highest version of Maya installed on your computer will be selected by default for batch rendering. If you are not satisfied with the default settings, you can change them. (Changes take effect after switching folders or pages.)
   
   

Help

Click Help --> Help in the upper-left corner to visit the ArtLib website.

Click About to check the current version and update announcements.

Click Update Check to look for new versions of ArtLib.

Click Feedback to report problems you encountered to our POPO group.

Muse Interface

The "Muse" portal on the left side allows you to view resources on the Muse website. For now, we can take the resources in the Muse public repository as an example.

Local Resources Portal (import resources)

You can import local resources and perform operations such as previewing and exporting to DCC in the "Local Resources" portal on the left.

Importing Local Resources

1. Direct Loading

(1) Go to Menu -> File -> Open -> Local Resources, or use the shortcut: Ctrl+O

(2) The following pop-up box will appear, select your own resource path.

(3) Or drag down to choose a previously used path.

(4) After selecting the character library path, click Load Directly.

(5) Click Load Directly again in the pop-up window that appears.

(6) Add folders in the directory on the left. Double click added folders to import resources. The display area shows the resource name and the loading circle, which means it is being imported. DCC resources must be converted to FBX resources before being converted to icons, so you need to wait for a while.

(7) When importing, if the page is changed before the import is complete, resources on the new page will be imported first; if the path is switched to import other resources before the import is complete, the folder after the switch will be imported first.

(8) Once importing is complete, you can see the content as shown below. The resource path is displayed on the left; the resource icon is displayed in the middle; and the resource preview is displayed on the right.

2. Background Loading

(1) Go to Menu -> File -> Open -> Local Resources, or use the shortcut: Ctrl+O

(2) The following pop-up box will appear, select your own resource path.

(3) Or drag down to choose a previously used path.

(4) After selecting the character library path, click More Options -> Background Loading. (You can also set Background Loading as default.)

There are 6 settings in Options: 1) GIF Prefixes: You can add prefixes to generated GIFs (no prefix by default).
2) Max Run Number: Sets the number of Max processes to run when Background Loading is used to improve loading speed (up to 5). This number is 1 by default and cannot exceed the number of Max resources in the path.
3) Viewport: Determines the viewpoint of generated GIFs (front by default).
4) For Existing FBX Files: Select a resource loading method. Replace: Replaces the existing resources and generates new FBX files; Skip: Skips existing resources. If there is a missing file in the cache, it will be completed (skip by default).
5) Choose Type: Select the storage path of generated FBX and GIF resources: Cache: Saves the set temporary path; Same Folder as Resource: Creates a folder with the .artlib suffix in the resource folder and saves there (same folder as resource by default).
6) GIF Quality: High, medium, or low (low by default). Tips: More Options is only applicable for Background Loading.
(5) Click Background Loading. An interface will pop up displaying progress. File names will be shown on the left and paths will be shown at the bottom. If there are too many files, the initialization window will pop up first. (You can still use other functions normally.)

(6) You can cancel the loading process by clicking Cancel and then Confirm in the confirmation window. During initialization, the confirmation window will not appear.

(7) After loading, click the Direct Loading Directory in the pop-up window that appears to add the folder. If you click Later, you will have to add the path manually using the method mentioned in the Direct Loading section.

(8) After importing, double click the folder on the left to preview the resource.

Uploading Local Resources to Muse

1. Select the resource icon or folder you want to upload.
2. Click the upper-right corner and choose Upload to Muse.
   
   You can also right click the folder and choose Upload to Muse.
   
   
3. Fill in the necessary information (items marked with an asterisk) and click Confirm.
   
   
4. A progress bar will appear at the bottom displaying the number of uploaded files as a fraction of the total files to upload.
   
   
5. A notification will pop up once the upload is complete.
   
   

Previews

You can check the preview window (grayed out when no resource selected). The main interface is shown in the following figure.

1. There are some hover-over buttons in the top-left corner of the preview window with the following functions: : Default Rotation (left button: rotate; middle button: pan; scroll middle button: zoom) : Default Pan (left button: pan; middle button: pan; scroll middle button: zoom) : Default Zoom (left button: zoom; middle button: pan; scroll middle button: zoom) : Default Settings (left button: rotate; middle button: pan; scroll middle button: zoom) : Restore Default View : Re-render (reload the viewport of the icon to be the same as the viewport of the preview window) : Light Direction Switch (light direction can be rotated through 360°) : Show Background (enable: show background; disable: hide background [enabled by default]) : Show Mesh (enable: show mesh; disable: hide mesh [enabled by default]) : Switch Display Mode (update resources to the selected display mode) 2. Some Muse resources from external sites display a hint in the preview, as well as the word "external” in the lower right corner of their GIF.

3. Tap the Download button in the lower-right corner of a Muse resource to download it.



4. If the Download button is not shown that means this resource is already in your Cache. You can drag it to DCC to view it.



5. Below the preview window are the viewport choices: default, top view, bottom view, front view, back view, right view, and left view.

6. At the bottom is the property display area. Only 3ds Max resource properties are currently supported, such as version number; material information; mesh vertices, and surface number.

Preview Drag

1. Double-click to preview a resource. A loading circle will appear in the initial preview; resources that have been loaded or loaded in the background will be displayed directly.
   
   
2. You can conduct Preview Drag after loading is complete. This means you can drag the model in the preview window.
   
   

Dragging Resources

1. Drag local resources to MotionBuilder, Maya, or 3ds Max
   
   
2. Select a local resource and drag it to an open MotionBuilder, Maya, or 3ds Max project.
   
   Examples: (1) MotionBuilder:
   
   (2) 3ds Max:
   
   (3) Maya: