how to upload obj animations to davinci resolve?

I've been struggling for a long time and can't find out, I've watched a few vids but nothing helpful. I import the animation into Davanci and it only shows the first frame. I'm unsure on how to show/import all the frames with it

Was obj updated to support animations?
If yes then Fusion might not support the new version.
Have you tried alembic (abc)?
Never had any issues to get alembic animations into Fusion.

Obj animations are sequences of obj files, just like image sequences.

There is an old (2009) tip entry on VFXPedia that I used to use -

https://www.steakunderwater.com/VFXPedia/96.0.243.189indexe51d.html?title=Tips_and_Techniques#Tips_for_Scripts

- for obj sequencing but I don't know if it still works on FusStudio or if it would work at all in FuResolve. Search the VFXPedia page for "obj".

However I've found alembic much better for importing animated geometry into Fusion, although you have to re-attach the materials.

Alembic has the benefit of being able to motion blur movement when rendered.

FBX can sometimes work but is very fiddly and various versions are pretty buggy.

If you use both Alembic and FBX, you can get the materials from the FBX and apply them to the abc using a ReplaceMaterial node.

Bryan is right but be prepared to have to try various FBX versions from your modelling software and also in the Fusion read to get one that actually reads without hanging or doing other odd things. Autodesk never really got a stable working fbx format that stayed consistent.

Using alembic and fbx also usually results in faster reads than obj especially with very large obj files, which can take AGES to read with no indication that fusion is actually working (as opposed to hung).

FBX 2014 seems to work consistently. I'm not sure how that translates to the software version number. But in the case I mentioned, you'll be throwing away the geo, anyway, so as long as the textures import it should be good.

The reason, by the way, to avoid FBX is because most animated models in FBX format are still bound to bones, which Fusion doesn't understand. You can point-cache into FBX and it will work largely the same as Alembic, but it requires an additional step, whereas Alembic just works.

There's also a weird problem in Fusion's FBX translator where cameras and lights come in rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise in Y. That's pretty easy to get around, but an Alembic camera will work right the first time.

Anyway, I don't see a way to import an obj sequence. The filename field can't process an expression, and the FBX Mesh tool will only point to one file.

I have had problems even with FBX2014 but that may have been down to issues with the models themselves.

For what it's worth, I've just tested the VFXpedia obj sequence import procedure mentioned above in Fu9 and it still works (copied below). Don't know if it would work in FuRes though. It uses the FBXmesh frame render script to swap the models so the frame numbers have to exactly match the render range, which might cause problems.
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Importing OBJ or FBX sequences

(Last Updated: Feb 18, 2009)
You want to import 3D objects on a frame-by-frame basis? Here's how it works in Fusion 5:
This assumes you have a sequence of FBX or OBJ like "MyMesh0000.obj, MyMesh0001.obj, etc. and want to have MyMesh0000 at frame 0 and MyMesh0001 at frame 1 of your composition.
Add an FBXMesh3D to your scene and load any of the meshes.
Adjust the material of the mesh in the FBXMesh's Material tab.
Once this is done to suit your needs, add an animation to the materials by right-clicking on any of the color sliders and selecting "Animate MaterialsStdInputs group".
This step is important, because else every time a new mesh is loaded (i.e. on every frame) all color values would be reset.

Now for the trick. Go to the FBXMesh's Scripting tab and in the FrameRenderScript add the lines

MyPadding=4 --set the padding of your sequence
MyFrameNum=string.format("%0"..MyPadding.."d", time) --derive the framenumber from the current time in padded format
ImportFile="Comp:\\OBJ_SEQUENCE\\MyMesh"..MyFrameNum..".obj"

Most likely you would have to tweak the path to your needs.

That's it.

Enjoy.
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Alembic is still the best option, though.

Just checked - the obj sequence animation trick also works in Fu17.2.1, just in case it's of any use to anyone . . .

Of course, I only tested it coz this is probably the one and only time I'll ever be able to tell the brilliant and incredibly helpful Bryan something about Fusion that he doesn't already know inside out

lol. I learned something!

I admit that I largely ignore the in-tool scripts because almost every time I've tried to use one it's failed. Good to know that's possible, though. I'm betting that if the point count isn't changing over time, it might be possible to generate vectors using a CustomVertex3D tool. Might be worth some experimenting. I don't know if that would give you motion blur at render time, but if not, you could probably then convert to screen-space vectors and post blur.

Not something I'll likely spend the time developing because I don't anticipate ever using an obj sequence, but it could be an interesting project.