Maya 8 export
by Killer Miller · in Constructor · 04/09/2007 (12:01 pm) · 7 replies
I noticed there was a LW exported that shipped with Constructor. Has anyone written a Maya 8 or 8.5 plugin yet?
#2
04/10/2007 (9:05 pm)
What is the reasoning for exporting to maya - I can see about an exporter...
#3
04/11/2007 (11:12 am)
Well, I assumed that he MEANT importer. Can't Constructor IMPORT .lwo's also?? I thought I saw that option. Exporting doesn't really seem that usefull.... maybe for texturing.... i haven't really looked into it in constructor. Where's the UV edit window?? I looked for it but didn't find it. It's scaling some of the textures funny, so far i've just ignored it. I haven't really had much time to play with it yet.
#4
1. It would be great to know how DTSs created in Maya would fit into your DIF scene while you're building them without having to export. Much more efficient.
2. When software rendering is needed for pre-rendered cinematics. Right now, I have to rebuild the scene in Maya. That's a waste of time.
BTW, It could just be an OBJ exporter. You already have a LWO exporter. I'm assuming Lightwave Dave would have some good examples of why you would want a Maya exporter also. ;-)
04/14/2007 (6:21 pm)
2 reasons for export to Maya...1. It would be great to know how DTSs created in Maya would fit into your DIF scene while you're building them without having to export. Much more efficient.
2. When software rendering is needed for pre-rendered cinematics. Right now, I have to rebuild the scene in Maya. That's a waste of time.
BTW, It could just be an OBJ exporter. You already have a LWO exporter. I'm assuming Lightwave Dave would have some good examples of why you would want a Maya exporter also. ;-)
#5
Currently there are no import or export plug-in capabilities within Constructor. The LightWave exporter was a source code experiment on my part and I decided to leave it in for you guys to play with.
As for why you'd want to export to a 3D application's file format, Killer Miller pretty much covers it.
As for importing: Constructor only handles MAP files and its own XML-based format, CSX. If you'd like to get CGS geometry into Constructor from another application, probably the easiest method would be to have that application save to a MAP file. This then puts the onus on the other application to generate valid convex brushes. :o)
Anguel:
The method of modifying the texture placement within Constructor is to select the brush face in Faces selection mode and then go to the Object tab on the left of the default layout and choose the Face tab. From there you may change the texture's scale etc. If you'd like to see what this looks like from a UV perspective you could change one of your viewports to use a Texture (UV) display type although it is currently not possible to edit anything from this view.
There isn't a specific method to modify the UV values on a per-vertex method if that is what you're looking for. Torque uses texture planes for its CSG geometry so texture placement is uniform across a face.
I hope that helps.
- LightWave Dave
04/15/2007 (9:28 pm)
Greetings!Currently there are no import or export plug-in capabilities within Constructor. The LightWave exporter was a source code experiment on my part and I decided to leave it in for you guys to play with.
As for why you'd want to export to a 3D application's file format, Killer Miller pretty much covers it.
As for importing: Constructor only handles MAP files and its own XML-based format, CSX. If you'd like to get CGS geometry into Constructor from another application, probably the easiest method would be to have that application save to a MAP file. This then puts the onus on the other application to generate valid convex brushes. :o)
Anguel:
The method of modifying the texture placement within Constructor is to select the brush face in Faces selection mode and then go to the Object tab on the left of the default layout and choose the Face tab. From there you may change the texture's scale etc. If you'd like to see what this looks like from a UV perspective you could change one of your viewports to use a Texture (UV) display type although it is currently not possible to edit anything from this view.
There isn't a specific method to modify the UV values on a per-vertex method if that is what you're looking for. Torque uses texture planes for its CSG geometry so texture placement is uniform across a face.
I hope that helps.
- LightWave Dave
#6
Just revisiting this post and thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
I would also LOVE to see a Maya Export option (or OBJ, or 3DS -- I believe Maya's "Bonus Tools" plugin supports 3ds importing) as this would speed things up emmensely. However, for the time being, as a work around I have successfully exported to the LWO, then taken that into a 3rd-party program called "Deep Exploration" (www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/de_std.html) .. they do have a free trial there too, FYI ... export from there as a Maya ASCII file and open in Maya. It's a bit of a pain, but you can at least get your geometry in that way.
The problem is that the geometry will come in all as one object. I haven't messed with it for some time, but I believe there was either a setting in Deep Exploration to fix this, or that you could do a Poly > Separate in Maya... don't remember. Else one would have to grab faces in Maya to keep what you need as a reference and get rid of the others.
Anyway, hope that helps.
11/20/2007 (11:23 am)
Killer Miller ...Just revisiting this post and thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
I would also LOVE to see a Maya Export option (or OBJ, or 3DS -- I believe Maya's "Bonus Tools" plugin supports 3ds importing) as this would speed things up emmensely. However, for the time being, as a work around I have successfully exported to the LWO, then taken that into a 3rd-party program called "Deep Exploration" (www.righthemisphere.com/products/dexp/de_std.html) .. they do have a free trial there too, FYI ... export from there as a Maya ASCII file and open in Maya. It's a bit of a pain, but you can at least get your geometry in that way.
The problem is that the geometry will come in all as one object. I haven't messed with it for some time, but I believe there was either a setting in Deep Exploration to fix this, or that you could do a Poly > Separate in Maya... don't remember. Else one would have to grab faces in Maya to keep what you need as a reference and get rid of the others.
Anyway, hope that helps.
#7
www.khronos.org/collada/
12/17/2007 (10:26 am)
I have been looking at things like Daz3d studio and stuff. There is a COLLADA exporter thats a universal file format. It can export things to 3d Studio MAX, Maya, Soft Image formats. Its powerfull enough to bring in complete mesh, skinning, rigging, lighting, camera, and animation data. I would like to see this added as an exporter. www.khronos.org/collada/
Anguel