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UV Animation

by Greg Gardinier · in Artist Corner · 03/11/2007 (7:45 pm) · 10 replies

The DTS feature chart said that UV animation was not supported by the Maya exporter and that it was "outdated". I am not sure what is "outdated" about it.

But, regardless, I need to animate the tracks on a small tank like vehicle. I thought the best way to do this would have been to animate the UVS so I could forgo creating an IFL animation.

However my current pipleine is based around Maya. So does anyone have any recommendations, or potential alternatives to get the same affect with limited overhead.

Thanks
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Torque Owner Magnus Blikstad
#1
03/11/2007 (8:14 pm)
Not sure about the outdated part either, UV animation is quite useful in a lot of cases. Anyway, IFLs is probably your best bet if the maya exporter doesn't support it.

For the record though; UV animation works in max, BUT unfortunately not really for tank treads. I tried this the other week, you generally want the treads to be vertex weighted (to follow the wheels suspension properly). The max exporter craps out if you have both UV animation and vertex weighting on a mesh, doh. This is most likely why all tank models for torque you find are using IFLs rather than the technique that both looks better, is easier to setup and that use less resources...

Torque Owner Greg Gardinier
#2
03/11/2007 (9:35 pm)
This is strictly for a cinematic model, its VERY small, and is going to be moving along a perfectly flat surface. So in this particular instance, there wont need to be any kind of dynamics other than the moving track.

So in case instance would UV animation still have more overhead than an IFL animation? (I have access to max at work so I could go that route...)

Torque Owner Grim Moroe
Quantum Space Studios
#3
04/14/2007 (3:38 pm)
The reason UV animation is outdated is because of IFLs just assign your IFL files in maya (although they will show as white or grey textures since maya doesn't support IFL files) and do your export and everything should work fine once your scripts are up and running.

HTH
Grim

Torque Owner Cinder Games
#4
04/14/2007 (4:37 pm)
I'm upset about UV animation being "outdated" as well. Seems like the only way to get proper uv animation is gonna be thru shaders or something.

Torque Owner Jeff Murray
Default Studio Name
#5
08/13/2007 (8:27 am)
Is there any particular reason that UV animation could not be added?

I have been able to create a node in Maya that animates UV's the same way max does, if there is a programmer who could make the maya exporter export the (MFrn flag in show tool pro, unsure what it is that controls this (TVert?) ) either point me in the right direction or even help me out, would be greatly apreciated

Torque Owner Sean T. Boyette
#6
08/15/2007 (8:40 pm)
Hey Jeff,
I can give it a shot, I have been tweaking the exported ever so much as I have been using it more!
I would like to get it to the same state, if not better than the max version.

Torque Owner Jeff Murray
Default Studio Name
#7
08/16/2007 (10:56 am)
Email Mike at mdeschamps@fuelindustries.com he has made some maya tools that mimic 3DS max's UV gizmo's, he is the one that is working on the UV animations right now

Kurt Emch
#8
08/21/2007 (6:26 pm)
I would really get a lot of mileage out of simple UV animation. I don't understand why it is outdated either. I mean, IFLs and UV animation are two different things that you would use for different situations.

Mike Paixao
#9
08/31/2007 (10:48 am)
It is done! you can now export UV animation from Maya, I have posted a guide and it awaits GG approval, but that doesnt mean you cant grab the plugin off my site now!


simpletofind.ca/mike/maya2dtsExporter.mll


the guide will explain how to set keys on UV's

Mike Paixao
#10
09/05/2007 (10:24 am)
Heres a link to the resource I wrote for actually animating UV's in Maya

www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=mg&mod=resource&page=view&qid=13481