Export object, UV, Morph targets from LW to Maya?

[SP00]

Hi guys,

I'm looking for some help in moving my geometry, UV, and morph targets from Lightwave into Maya. What would be the best program to use for this? I'm thinking polytrans or even Deep exploration, but never used it and not sure if there is anything else that is better. Does anyone have experience with this? Thanks.

[SP00]

yes, this looks good for the model and UV, but what about morph targets for facial expressions? Will this be good for that? Thanks.

[Cageman]

I'm afraid you have to do it manually, that is, exporting each morph as a separate obj and then in Maya re-make them as Blendshapes.

PointOven doesn't transfer morphtargets but it exports vertex cache if you animate in LW and want to transfer the finished anim.

[SP00]

I'm afraid you have to do it manually, that is, exporting each morph as a separate obj and then in Maya re-make them as Blendshapes.

Ok thanks, is it easy to import the morph object and make them into blendshapes? I've never done it before :( Why can't collada and fbx cover this. Life could be much easier.

[Cageman]

Ok thanks, is it easy to import the morph object and make them into blendshapes? I've never done it before :( Why can't collada and fbx cover this. Life could be much easier.

Maybe they do? But, honestly, I've not seen any support for Morphs/Blendshapes in the FBX-exporter for Maya.

Creating blendshapes in Maya is quite easy. Import your base mesh and all the morph-meshes.. keep your basemesh at the original position, but move the morphmeshes so that they don't obstruct the basemesh. Shiftselect your morphmeshes one by one and last, shiftselect the basemesh. Under Animation->Create Deformers, you should find Blendshape.

Anyhow, I've recorded a video...

ftp://LightWave:newtek@cageman.dyndns.org:21/Maya_blendshapes.wmv

[SP00]

Thanks dude, that was pretty awesome. This will help me out greatly. :thumbsup:

[SP00]

Darn, I know have a new questions. Can this be done in Lightwave too. Saving out individual files of the facial morph or blendshapes and bringing them into Lightwave to create the Endomorph? Thanks.

[Cageman]

Yes! It can!

Load your basemesh in Modeler, load each blendshape mesh into backgroundlayers in modeler and use a tool called 'Background to Morph" which takes whatever you have in a backgroundlayer and makes it a morphtarget for the foregroundlayer.

EDIT: You can't create several morphs at the same time as you can with Maya, so there is some more work involved in Modeler, that aside, it def. works!

[Cageman]

Found a couple of commercial plugins for Modeler that are designed to aid in multiapp pipelines where morphtargets are either created in Modeler or other apps.

http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=1699
http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=1800

[SP00]

Found a couple of commercial plugins for Modeler that are designed to aid in multiapp pipelines where morphtargets are either created in Modeler or other apps.

http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=1699
http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=1800

Dude, you are now on my AAA list. Thanks. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: