Maya Blitz3D Exporter v2

Hi Everybody.

Here is my gift to the blitz community.
My new version of he maya blitz3d exporter.

Now with animation support.

I had so many headhaches , but finally at last ! ;-)


I provided within the zip file, an example of my own creation.
(b3d file and maya 8.5 file)

Check My blog for the download link.

Click here

Spread the word.
As usual, I would like as many people to try it, and give me feedback, so i can make improvements, and maybe add new functionnalities.

For the moment, I'm gonna make a pause in the developement of this plugin, except for bug corrections.

Cool, great work! Does this plugin only work with Maya 8.5, or will it work with newer versions?

Hi, joe, this version is for 8.5 only.

for the 7th version I've a big bug on textures export (big maya crash lol ).

and for the 2008 I've got a weird behavior on some computers.
I will put it online if you really want, but I cannot assume that it will work on your computer(animation export problem).
But it can be working good on other computers.

So just tell me if there's need for the 2008 version.

Well no immediate need, just it'll be great to have the exporter with animation for 2008. I hope you get the bugs sorted out!

how exactly should I rig my models? do they have to be a single mesh or can it be separate parts parented to the bones? can I name my bones? thank you very much for this, I have so many uses for this!!

Hi MtnHome3d.

You should at first open the sample maya file, to see the stuff, the settings, and play around with it.

to rig for the moment only one mesh and a skeleton are supported.

but object hierarchy is supported.

I forgot one thing,
to export choose something in your scene and do export selection,
in fact it exports everything that can be exported, lol.
I'll do an update later. :-p

In the maya file I used an FBIK STRUcture with my joints.
i animated with it, but to have keys on joints I applied a bake simulation function before.

let's keep in touch.
See you
Filipe

i run into a problem when i try to export. i have a scene i got from a book, and I wanted to test it. i loaded it and hit export. Maya then exits and gives me the option to send an error report to Autodesk. I can send you the file to test but it basicly is a mesh with a skeleton and key frames on the mesh. any ideas?. also what boxes did you mark on when exporting the sample scene?the scene file has them as blank.

you can send me your file in a zip file at this adress:
filipe
at
asianalternative.com


Filipe

Hi MtnHome3d,
I didn't received your mail.
Maybe I missed something, because I'm receiving so many junk mails.
If you already sent it, could you resend it to me with the subject : "pour filipe".
Thanks.

Filipe

Hi Filipe,
i just got around to sending it last night, try checking again. if its not there i can send it again. its under the topic of "maya-b3d exporter"

Sorry, I think it has been treated by my mail program as a spam.
If you can put a zip online somewhere, I'll be able to get it.
See you
Filipe

i uploaded it to my site, its the link thats titled blob on this page http://mtnhome3d.com/extra.aspx its in big bold letters

Did you get the file??

Hi mtnhome3d, I've downloaded your file, and tried it on the maya exporter, and it didn't crash.
But, there are some weird behaviors on the transforms data of joints that don't export well.
I'll try to give it an eye next week, caus for now I'm a little busy.

ps: your model is cool.

Filipe

thanks for trying, its a model i got from a book and was the most final thing i had to show at the moment with animation. i'm not sure how it was animated, that is the stock it came with. i'm re-animating it myself.

hey i was playing around with a 3d rectangle with some bones bound to it, and only the first bone's animation was saved. any ideas? i had export hierarchies and animation checked. i will try an ik setup to see if that works.

[edit] the ik setup didn't do anything. could you please post you pipeline from animation to export so i can see if i'm missing something, i remember you said something about baking the animations or something

[edit#2] i got the bake simulation to work, mostly. it seams to want to mess up a certain bone, im not sure why this one bone but it does.

that's interesting.

can you make the file available, to me please?
the more messed files I have, the more I can debug better the exporter.

for the moment, the option export hierarchy, is not linked to any code :-p
so leave it off for now.

for the moment, the plugin exports all with the hierarchy (even if you only selected one object)
the hierarchy option will be for the case when you export some objects in the same hierarchy, it will retrieve the hierarchy, with the objects selected, and with pivots for the unselected objects.

For the FBIK system on Maya I really encourage you to not to use it unless you really know working with it.
I recentely worked with it, and had all My animation FU***D UP, because it was insanely rescaling some joints.
try on google this string : maya FBIK bug
and search some tutorials.


Use simple Ik system instead.
Here is a reallly good tutorial:
rigging tutorial

in the same website, there are also many cool tutorials.

To bake keys, you must select the bones you want keys to be generated.
I select them in the hypergraph panel with a simple mouse rectangle drag over my bones hierarchy (be sure to select just bones).

Before exporting, check your bone, to see if they have keys (animCurves) on the translate, rotate & scale channels.

Check the end of this document for more information about bake simulation
bake simulation documentation

hope this can help also
Filipe

Hi there. This is exciting. I've been waiting for a Maya exporter for ages!! I currently have access to Maya 8.5 and 2009. Hopefully you'll get a 2009 version up soon. ;)
My question is. Does this exporter export simple keyframed transform animation, without any bones or skeletons? Does it export simple keyframed vertex animation?
I'm not an animator so rigging and bones etc are not something I know anything about. :)

Thanks, this all super cool news though. Hope you can answer my quesitons.

John.

hi john, it supports bones only i think. also animation isn't that hard, i would suggest you look at the help files in maya and practice on a subdivided cube with bones bound to it. if you want, i can show you how.

@lordshion, i can upload the .b3d file and the .mb file in a few hours, i have a research paper due tonight.

Hi John.

It seems, that the b3d file format does not support simple transforms animation.

But maybe I missed something on the b3d file format.

I think that it's not possible.

what you can do is mesh combine all your objects, make a skeleton, do a smooth bind, & paints weights.

You can also do one solo joint(no joint parenting) for each object(with hierarchy), and smooth bind each object of them, but I'm not sure, of the result you can get.

See you
Don't hesitate to give me feedback.
See you soon