Lordfly Digeridoo

I don't learn by tutorials, I tend to learn best by trial by fire. Thus, I'm diving into Maya, trying to remmeber the little bits and pieces I learned last time.

I'll be asking random questions and cursing here, so feel free to sticky this thread to witness the meltdown.

Okay, so I'm trying to make a gnarled tree. So far I've managed to make it look pretty good in Maya, but exporting to SL is turning into a comical pile of scripting errors and crashes.

Using Qarl's script (unless there's a better one) in Maya, exporting works fine until I get to a specific branch. Then, the MEL script complains about one of two things:

1) Cannot use type no type in scalar operations
2) It complains about the object having the same name as another object (which it doesn't, until the script copies the damn object when it crashes out)

I cant get it to fix itself. I hate life.

So THEN, I've tried even just doing the ones that DO work, but Qarl's LSL scripts like to send them off-world as soon as they're rezzed; his scripts toss them sideways until they fly off the region simulator.

What the fuck am I doing wrong here?


OH. And how the hell do you shrink multiple objects cohesively, like SL links do? I thought maybe the tree might be too big, so I tried shrinking it... and then the objects all decided to shrink independently, ruining the tree.

Help a po man out.

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Lordfly Digeridoo

And now the camera is screwed up. It seems to think that I want to jump 50m every time I move my mouse a little bit.

Khamon

OMG WHAT A STUPID QUESTION!





WHASRONGWITCHU?

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Compulsion

1. import premade .obj files that already conform to sculpty verts.
1. export finished maya model as another .obj to wings3d and export from that as sculpt.
3. profit?

Sobriquet Kryakutnoy

Are you working from Poly meshes, or NURBS surfaces? If NURBS, are you using lofting or rotating curves to build the shape, or just deforming the default 'primitive' surfaces (sphere, torus, cyl..)?

I have had the object name/scalar operation issue before when working with rotated surfaces, which was tied to the 'correct orientation' checkbox. If you're running with that checked and working from an object without definite poles (i.e. not using the 'sphere' stitching type) try un-checking it and exporting again.

qarl

Lordfly - make sure you're using the latest: http://www.qarl.com/sculpt.mel

i wouldn't use the LSL scripts to make these - Eddy Stryker has a libsl based program that does a much better job.

to scale multiple objects cohesively, group them first (ctrl-g) and then scale the group, not the individuals.

best yet, wait for meshes which should have much better support.

best,


K.

Compulsion

when when when.?

LoganBauer

re: Scalar error , it looks like unchecking "correct orientation" fixed that for Josh in a previous thread - don't think I've seen that error myself yet.
I MADE SOMETHING IN MAYA!


if that doesn't fix it, copy all of your objects, open a new scene in maya, and paste them in.

if THAT still doesn't fix it, try steps 1-4 posted at the bottom here


/me begins holding his breath and turning blue right now.

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Sobriquet Kryakutnoy

It probably goes without saying, but if you are using a curve or other object as a parent to define part of your geometry, be sure to delete history before scaling in this manner. Otherwise, you will get some..interesting results.

Lordfly Digeridoo

I'm using pre-made NURB prims, such as cylinders, and generally just applying deformers to them (bend, twist, etc).

What does "correct orientation" do exactly?

Lordfly Digeridoo

Ah yes, I forgot about that. It... didn't do anything. It uploaded the files and then promptly failed to rez them in any particular fashion, on my own land. What did I do wrong?

Lordfly Digeridoo

Okay. Let's say I wanted to use Maya for something else.

I model a crate, and then simulate cloth to drape some burlap over the crate (impromptu seat). I light it up.

How would I export just the textures in a correct UV setup? I've looked everywhere online, and can't find a simple way to just export the textures into a jpg or something.

HOW DUZ I DO ZAT?

Sobriquet Kryakutnoy

The short answer? Open the hypershade, make sure your object is selected in the main window, and its associated material is selected in the hypershade. Then, in the hypershade, go to Edit > Convert File to Texture (Maya Software). The options are pretty self explanatory..bake shadows, texture size/format, et cetera.

You can also run bakes through Mental Ray if you prefer raytracing over depth map for your shadows, if you use reflections/environment maps, et cetera. To do that, set your menus to the Rendering toolset, and use Lighting/Shading > Batch Bake (Mental Ray).

ETA: Bakes run through the Maya Software renderer go into your project's 'sourceimages' directory. Mental ray bakes go to the '/renderData/mentalRay/lightMap' directory.

Lordfly Digeridoo

Thanks for that - two problems I've found, however. Inputting the problems into Google finds me at some Japanese forum that's shut down.

If I use anything but Mental Ray, I get an error about "not selecting a shader node". I don't know what that means, but in any case the rendering poops out.

If I use Mental Ray, it compiles, but the results are... less than flattering. It looks like the resulting texture files are corrupt (lots of bit noise, squares missing, etc).

Sobriquet Kryakutnoy

Yes, getting shading to look nice using ray tracing is a bit tricky, though the final result is fantastic.

As far as the shader node message from the software renderer, be sure that your object in the perspective(or top/side/etc) view in the main window is selected (it will highlight green along the edges) as well as the material you have assigned to it inside the hypershade window. You have to shift-select, even though you are working in separate windows.

Cristiano

This PDF has a whole section on textures and sculpties:

http://www.landgasthof-waldschaenke....orial_v1.1.pdf

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* slu stuff *

Lordfly Digeridoo

I'm currently not working with sculpties. This is for... something else.