CGTalk - esport from 3dmax in to maya...is it possible?

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yolao

02-08-2006, 01:15 PM

Hi 3dmax comunity

i`m a maya user, but recently i read about joe`s alter hair implamantation in to max 8 and i search 3dmax website for more info....and i was really impresed not only with joe`s alter hair plugin but with a lot of fantastic tools and feautures that max has...

I`m increasing my interested in max, and i want to learn all about it (i will download the demo), i know that if you have experience in more than one app is better..

well to don`t make this longer i`m goin straight to the point...

there are some things that i would like to learn and do in 3d max, for example create hair, can i bring in to max a model that i made in maya put some hair and then exported back in to maya?....speaking of exporting and importing so far i have just export figures and objects as an obj. but i don`t know if this format support things like hair, rigs, etc.

Now that Max buy alias i imaging that in the future it will be an file format that both apps will share apart from their individual formats...

thanks in advance
cheers

mustan9

02-08-2006, 02:08 PM

I've been using the Maya OBJ file format to export/import models from Max to ZBrush. This is the model format file for Maya. The ZBrush paint tool doesn't support Max files, but does read this Maya file format.

Each time I have done this the models turn out just fine. So I would recommend exporting from Maya in OBJ, and then importing it into Max as OBJ.

I'm not sure you will be able to export things like animations, particle systems, dynamics and stuff like that. But models, UV, simple materials, and texture should export in the OBJ format.

yolao

02-08-2006, 03:25 PM

thanks Mathew....

and what about the hair?...is there a way to export that to maya?..

the uv unwrap also looks sweet....if i unwrap a model in max would that uvgroups remains when i export it to another app?

i have used obj to work between maya and zbrush, but i imagin that obj is just for geometry...right?

thanks again

mustan9

02-08-2006, 03:41 PM

The hair can not be exported. I assume that it requires custom data assigned to the geometry that only the Hair shader knows. Now, I haven't done any hair in Max 8. Been far to busy to play with the new features :(

You can export the geometry and UV mapping. Infact, I have done this with ZBrush. Done UV unwrap in Max and used it in ZBrush. So I know it works.

The OBJ is just for geometry. You are correct. But UVW mapping is part of geometry. The other thing is that OBJ retains the smoothing group data. I think the smoothing groups in Maya are 32-bit and Max is 16-bit??? or something like that. So you loose a bit of smoothing data going from Max to Maya, but most people can't even tell since 16-bit is high resolution, and 32-bit is just crazy high resolution. hehehe..

yolao

02-08-2006, 04:44 PM

thanks Mathew, i imagin that things like hair can not be exported....

3DMAX 8 looks wonderful, i`m goin to download the demo and start playing with it, because the day will come when i can open a max file in maya and vice versa...

now that max and maya are under the same roof, i`m sure that one of the fist things that we are goin to see in next versions of max and maya will be a file format that both apps will share..

cheers

mustan9

02-08-2006, 05:02 PM

3DMAX 8 looks wonderful, i`m goin to download the demo and start playing with it, because the day will come when i can open a max file in maya and vice versa...

lol! That day that happens is the day hell freezes over. I could picture Maya developers and Max developers in the same room. There would be so much blood on the floor!

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