Publishing Animation (.blend) produces empty file which is unusable

[LiborBatek]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior:

When using Animation publish instance type and enabled Extract blend option it produces .blend file which does not contain any data. (Been tested to manually append any data from published scene but nothing shown within the file)

Expected Behavior:

Published .blend file should at least contain action data which then could be loaded and used later in production.

As now it does not have any usage being it empty.

Version

1.0.0

What platform you are running on?

Windows

Steps To Reproduce:

1. Load some rig
2. Animate it
3. Create Animation instance for publish
4. Enable Extract Blend option
5. Check the published file via Blender by File>Append and navigate to the published file
6. There wont be any content for appending

Are there any labels you wish to add?

• I have added the relevant labels to the bug report.

Relevant log output:

No response

Additional context:

No response

[moonyuet]

I am trying to replicate the issue, and I believe we need to elaborate a bit more of how it works.
When the animation is exported, the animation data are stored as data block, but it doesn't mean the asset is exported.
When the animation is loaded and linked, this needs to be done in the existing scene, which is similar to unreal. You need to have rig so that you can link your animation.
Steps to test:

1. Animate your loaded rig
2. Publish
3. New scene
4. Load your rig
5. Link your animation.

[LiborBatek]

First, we should "fix" the extraction in .blend repre type and save Action from the selected enitity (rig char) as a published product. (thats this issue all about)

Next, speaking of missing parts...

Yes, in theory there should be completely new part of the workflow speaking of applying published animation product as .blend representation > Action datablock in blender terms.

The workflow could be like this:

1. Already published Animation product in .blend repre meaning Action been stored within blender file and nothing else

2. Loader for Action product > results in version managable asset in Scene Inventory we also need to set it to Fake User as implicitly not connected yet to anything within scene (otherwise if not doing so it might be removed once closing the workfile as unused data)

3. User able to trigger Scene Inventory Action via right clicking on the loaded Rig asset to connect this Animation product

Right now Animation have both .blend and Alembic and it should stay as is (just need to be working ok) I have tested the Animation as Alembic and it works ok and behaves exactly like pointcache product so no need to tweak anything on this front.