Skybrush Studio for Blender includes built-in support for exporting drone shows to the VVIZ format for use in Finale 3D. This guide provides an overview of the export process and available options.
Step 1: Design your drone show
Create your drone show in Skybrush Studio for Blender, including drone motion paths, light animations, yaw control, and pyro triggers. The integrated VVIZ exporter supports exporting all necessary elements to prepare your show for hybrid design or simulation in Finale 3D.
Drone shows created in Skybrush Studio for Blender will have the X+ axis in Blender aligned with the “Front” direction of Finale 3D, and this direction will also correspond to 0 degrees rotation of yaw control in both systems.
Figure 1 – VVIZ export button in Skybrush Studio for Blender
Step 2: Add pyro to your drone show
When adding pyro trigger events to drones in Skybrush Studio for Blender, you will have the following options to configure for each event:
- Channel: The 1-based channel index the pyro payload is attached to. This corresponds to the 1-based rail number in VVIZ files.
- Name: The name of the payload. This should be a VDL descriptor (e.g., “10s Gold Gerb”) to be used in VVIZ and Finale 3D.
- Duration: Used for visualization in Skybrush, but not included in VVIZ. Duration should be expressed in the VDL descriptor.
- Prefire time: Also used for visualization in Skybrush but not included in VVIZ. This should also be reflected in the VDL string.
Figure 2 – Pyro control settings in Skybrush Studio for Blender
Step 3: Set export parameters
After clicking the VVIZ export button, a dialog will appear allowing you to configure the export options. You can set:
- Sampling rate (FPS) for trajectories and light animations
- Frame range for export
- Whether to include yaw control data
- Whether to include drone-launched pyro data
Figure 3 – Export parameter options for VVIZ
Step 4: Import the VVIZ file into Finale 3D
After exporting, switch to Finale 3D and use the menu command “File > Import > Import drone show”. The imported drones and effects will appear in your show. If your VVIZ file included pyro payloads, Finale 3D will import them as effects positioned on the drones.
For additional details about how VVIZ files are handled in Finale 3D, see the Importing Drone Shows documentation.
For further details, see the official documentation of Skybrush Studio for Blender.