Alias|Wavefront Releases Maya 5

[CGmonkey]

Aaaawesome!! I just switched to maya so I haven't bought any license yet.. so this is perfect timing! yehaw!

[l7d]

maybe i need to switch to maya, huh?
oooh ahhhhh Oscar® winning!!!!

[elvis75k]

Now i can go to sleep! Hurrà! :bounce:

[wgreenlee1]

Come on Newtek!

Oh baby........:scream:

[lowkey]

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss, lookin' forward to purchase my own private license soon!!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Chappo]

:bounce: ALIASWAVEFRONT Rocks !!! :bounce:

[raine]

I look forward to this one. Always exciting when a new release with new features comes out.. Rock on!! :buttrock:

[Ozren]

Great !!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

I wonder how Mentalray 3.2 will behave in 5.0.

[spacemunky]

as a modeler i can safely say this is the worst program on the market.....I don't want to download script after script just to make an edgleoop....way to go alias in ignoring the modeling community again with you lastest release....I've been using maya for 2 years and in that time i have not seen one improvement in the modeling tools outside of the useless cut poke and wedge....I like maya for its ease of use and intuitaive workflow but to constantly lag in the modeling tool department is just unexcusable, thats why Max will continure to rule games....and for everyone that insists MJ Polytools is great...just examine your history after an edgeloop(what a mess).........viva XSI

[RichSuchy]

From what I saw at LAMRUG the other day, it works great!

LAMRUG= LA MentalRay User Group

http://lamrug.org

Originally posted by Ozren
Great !!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

I wonder how Mentalray 3.2 will behave in 5.0.

[Pinionist]

Yeah, I tried to swich from Max to Maya, but I found it worhless modeling in their SudDiv's. Without huge flowness coming thought simple tools like edge loop or ring, cut, connect or whatever, I found it very hard to accept. Still, XSI has it's best and fastest SubDiv's i know. And pretty good animation tools, easy-to-learn scripting language, solid renderer (Mental Ray 3.2), and many other usefull things.

[Digital Magi]

NO NEED TO BE NASTY. Them's fighting words, hehe.

Everyone grows accustomed to certain features, and workflows. I myself can point out a number of things that encumber my workflow from max.

Go with what you like.

[Grayson]

I'm a little concerned at the speed in while Alias is releasing new versions. :hmm:

- Can they really be that different (worth the upgrade)? A move from 4.5 to 5; I'd expect new core operating code or some more substantial feature additions, not just a big collection of small tweaks and additions. In the new features list I see a lot of "enhanced, expanded, and improved" statements...no brand new tools ?

- Also just concerning the speed issue. My school just got up to 4.5 a few months ago; if Alias keeps this speed up they'll have 6.5 out before we get up to 5 here.

Is it just me; am I been too critical?

[DAbuel]

:buttrock: Maya is the Best around:buttrock: !!! and Rocks:buttrock: !! and to comment on spacemunky, it's how to use the tools available and adjusting it to your preference, That matters ( as I say "If there is a Will there is a WAY" ) and plus the best of the best in the industry use this software ! so you cant say that is the worst:shame: !
:beer:

ALIAS|WAVEFRONT KEEP BRINGING IT ON!!!! THE MAYA FANS LOVE YOU!!

[Ozren]

Now all we need is some good MR docs, tutorials and examples. I hope Maya 5 has released better docs for MR then 4.5 with Mr 1.5.1 version.

[Signal2Noise]

Is it safe to buy? I mean with the SARS issue and Toronto being off limits and all? ;) You might catch something from inside the box!

(Hmm, the term 'software virus' takes on a whole new dimension:D )

[Kabab]

You guys are going to love the vector render and the painfx strokes in real-time are much faster.

This is a model i had lying around all i did was choose the vector render and click a few options took 30seconds to setup.

vector render (http://members.optusnet.com.au/bsanayei/3d_vis/lego.swf)

[nuke]

:beer:

[brianellebracht]

:drool: :drool: :drool:
I can't wait!!!

Brian E

[roach105]

Boxes do not get shipped from Toronto. All shipping takes place in the U.S. Plus, have not heard of SARS being transmitted that Way!

[Aeroplane]

Sweet~~~!:drool: :love:

[Zoober]

Looking forward to the new Maya. I've been wondering since they announced it though if they fixed the bevel tool. Some edge chamfering would be nice too. Does anyone know FOR SURE without speculation if Alias|Wavefront fixed these?

[Roasturkey]

:beer: :buttrock: :scream: :applause: :wip: :thumbsup: :love: :airguitar

[Isrithe]

Maya 5 is sweet man!

[FClub_TDurden]

I think its funny that people still complain about Maya's renderer...Ive seen some great stuff outta the maya renderer...people just want new bells and whistles....well if you want that just get Mental Ray for Maya ...its a free download...or if you want film quality....get Prman for Maya....

in terms of modeling....while its not perfect...again ive seen people do some pretty badass stuff with it and very quickly..just ck out Dave Komorowski's page...all polys...all default maya..
www.TheHobbitGuy.com

[RichSuchy]

There is a good book on the subject for around 45 bucks. Make sure you get the newest version of it that was just released. I believe its called rendering with mental ray or something like that.

There is a more expensive book that is about programming for mental ray as well.

the people at LAMRUG will be happy to help

lamrug.org



Originally posted by Ozren
Now all we need is some good MR docs, tutorials and examples. I hope Maya 5 has released better docs for MR then 4.5 with Mr 1.5.1 version.

[SheepFactory]

Originally posted by Kabab
You guys are going to love the vector render ....



YES! No more "how do I render wireframes in Maya" questions in the forum , Thank you alias!

[frye]

I expect to hear much "my program is the l33t, yours is teh suX," so I thought this pic most appropriate....

HINT FROM BALISTIC: Don't leech the bandwidth of someone who can edit your posts.:p

[roach105]

Vector 2 colours and edges turned on

http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/pubimage.asp?id_=2313722

[spacemunky]

all i can say is that it is possible to model anything you want in any program if you are skilled but to do it quickly sometimes the software needs to help you out. I used maya faithfully for 2 years and in that time i found more bugs and broken tools than i can shake a stick at....and yes granted that can be found in any program...but maya's shortcoming always seemed to pop up in the modeling tools.....i mean come on enough is enough. Until people in the industry stand up and make their voices heard that they want a solid program with less bugs and more efficient tools Alias will continue to flood the market with .5 upgrades that do nothing but pack more features on without improving and fixing what already exists. I would love nothing more than to go back to using Maya from XSI if they fixed some things, but until they stop giving us gimicks and start with some real improvements they can keep their vector flash rendered (which has been available long before 5 and has been available for max for years) and I'll stick with XSI.

[Viper3d]

is this thread about which program is better... or about the release of a program? seems like its kind of skewed from its original meaning. I dont think this thread is meant to say which program has "a bigger stick."

Either talk about Maya 5 and its new features and whatnot... or dont post in this thread... just my 2 cents.

-Vips

[ZVAN]

iM a MaYA diE haRd FaN! MAYA RULEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KICK ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bounce: :bounce: :applause: :beer:

[Portugal]

Well, i´ve been learning Maya for my own since December 2001, and i must agree that A|W could improve some of the modelling tools, but again most people only want it to be a "Max-alike" or a "XSI-alike" because they either work better with it, or they just like it better.
I found that Maya has just enough tools for one to model, provided that one knows the software. Most people i see don´t have a good basis about the basic toolset of Maya, nor are able to find a solution for themselves.

About Maya 5, i don´t know if it´s really 5, or it should be 4.9, since the improvements aren´t that big, nor importants.
I must confess that i´ll probably change for Maya 5 when i get the chance, but since i only got Maya 4.5 two months ago, ill stick with it.

The thing i would like the best, was a project driven help documentation, since it´s sometimes hard to make a connection between several parts of the software, and use the most effective tools in a given situation.
Also a better manual about MEL, thinking in the non-programming users, since that they are the most...
But nevertheless i must confess that Maya (4.5) already has a very large toolset, and with some imagination and knowledge it´s possible to do wonders with it.
About the renderer, personally i don´t see that it comes as such a big inovation, nor it´s something i am dying to use, personaly i believe that a better made shader can beat a better render engine...

[Signal2Noise]

Originally posted by frye
I expect to hear much "my program is the l33t, yours is teh suX," so I thought this pic most appropriate....

HINT FROM BALISTIC: Don't leech the bandwidth of someone who can edit your posts.:p



LoL! Say, frye, did you do that in Houdini: The Bestest App of All Apps? ;)

[nuke]

Fanboys... now we need Trolls here, lol!

[swag]

AW makes the best 3d Software even better ;) great :)

[gigatron]

Originally posted by Signal to Noise
Is it safe to buy? I mean with the SARS issue and Toronto being off limits and all? ;) You might catch something from inside the box!

(Hmm, the term 'software virus' takes on a whole new dimension:D )

LOL, Canadian right here :D Who wants a box of maya for free :D *stay back stay back UNCLEAN UNCLEAN!*

[Waters]

Looks like a sweet release. Just because they didnt re-invent the wheel, or change the ui to something flashy looking, doesnt mean this isnt a worthwhile release of maya. For those of you taking your time to pick out all the things maya is laking.. if your creative you can do just about anything your looking to do with maya, its depth sometimes obscures its power, and if you have already switched to another program ( xsi, max ), then stop your complaining, and good luck with your new program.

Its not the size of your brush.. but how good you are in bed.. or something like that, so dont blame it on maya.

[CIM]

If you think Maya's modeling tools suck (which they do), go download Wings3D or something. :D

[tyson12zoll]

anyone feel like posting a screenshot of the mentalray interface of 5 in os X?

[Portugal]

Well Waters, i´m glad too that they didn´t went to the "bubble and noise" graphic style.
Although i have some artistic education and i like "pretty" things, i prefer to have a tool that looks like a tool.
The shape must follow the function, as Walter Gropius stated (and very well).
Personally i hate to change from one version to another and have to re-learn the UI, then screwing up big-time when using the Hotbox in a blazing fast speed.

But i still believe that 4.5 will remain as a valid tool for a long time... And i would really hate to see A|W involved in a version number war with other companies, since i really enjoy they´re software.

and if you have already switched to another program
Believe me that in the begining i thought of doing that, since the only thing a friend of mine thought me in the first time i used the software was the QWERT (without the Y) hotkeys.
Provided that i was a complete ignorant (maybe i still am :scream: ) in 3D, Maya is really uncomfortable at the begining, but now i really love that UI, and usually i try to use things like the Hotbox, and Duplicate in other programs and in the OS...lol

Down with the multi-color, oversized, noisy, and animated buttons, and long live 25% gray!

[Signal2Noise]

Guys, I think you'll all agree without a doubt, that the nicest interface and best workflow belongs to XSI.:buttrock:

Seriously.

[visualboo]

gah

[lebada]

coincidentally i just enrolled into a intro to maya course after i finished my intro to max course a couple of weeks ago..hehe:buttrock:

[Jhonus]

Originally posted by CIM
If you think Maya's modeling tools suck (which they do), go download Wings3D or something. :D

Or, you could customize maya so it works like Wings3d in terms of GUI, shortcuts and workflow... then you dont have the added hassle of exporting/importing and working with mulitple apps which have two slightly different modelling methods (shell and solid).

[KLThomas]

Dumb question, I'm looking into switching from Lightwave. When they say purchasers of 4.5 after april 7th will be eligible to get version 5, do they mean a free upgrade? Or will I be eligible for the upgrade price?

[Kabab]

Originally posted by spacemunky
all i can say is that it is possible to model anything you want in any program if you are skilled but to do it quickly sometimes the software needs to help you out. I used maya faithfully for 2 years and in that time i found more bugs and broken tools than i can shake a stick at....and yes granted that can be found in any program...but maya's shortcoming always seemed to pop up in the modeling tools.....
Go model a car or a character in nurbs in max then do the same in maya.

Then the same thing could be said about max's nurbs modeling tools.

[Diablo™]

I've been recently "mayafide", just in time for the upgrade.

[ndat]

3D Software has been evolving so fast lately... I think I'm getting a head ache :surprised.

[Isrithe]

you know, I dont think Mental Ray can do the glow stuff in maya 5. No big deal though, I think its still a hell of an upgrade.

[eQvitas]

:bounce: "WOHOO! Maya 5 is here!" :bounce:

[augustus]

There aren't so much new things, but all additions and improvements are good. :bounce: :bounce:

Mr connection looks complated, but still there is an important limitation: If you wanna render a subd model with Mr, base mesh must be all-quad. Lightwave like discipline, but harder :shrug:

[roach105]

mental ray for maya still does not do glows but you can add a mental ray contour shader which will do a glow type of effect

[Isrithe]

cool, I'll check it out.

[beaker]

If you want specific features in future versions of maya like the modeling tools then go over to the Maya feature request page:

A/W is watching this list(Shai, one of the heads of development on maya helped to setup):
http://www.maya.digication.com/

[jschleifer]

I've been enjoying the 5.0 vertex renderer.. check out some images from my current project. They're still WIP (bigtime, work in progress), but it's fun to play with!

http://homepage.mac.com/jschleifer/HomePage/projects.html

-jason

[jschleifer]

sorry.. not vertex render.. vector. sheesh.

more coffee!! now!!!

[Apoclypse]

I just surprised at how fast they pumped this one out. ( they only tweaked it thought so not that big a deal softimage did the same now they are at 3.5) My real big thing is the fact that mental ray will now be part of the package when you buy it ( don't have to download it) and the fact that they finally improved the hardware render buffer which was getting kind of stale ( i'm still waiting for softimage to re-implement glrender for XSi). That PaintFx thing is really the kicker becuase I don't know how many "I can't render paint fx in mr" posts there has been on this forum (it was getting tedious). I just love the way the masses have flocked to the tune of mental ray ( it has always been my favorite renderer since version 1.9). Now that maya has embraced it ( though softimage does it better) we will see a slew of mental ray groupies come out for mental images to sign their breastses. ( i'll be the first in line so you bitches better take a number).

[Ozren]

I agree...still waiting for my 5.0 to arive, but AW's best thing is implementing Mray into Maya. I agree XSI has better implementation, but in time (ver 5.5 or someting) implementation of Mray in Maya will get better abd better. This is, lets say, second try to get Mray into Maya, so it still needs work, but in Maya 5 i heard Mray is well integrated and very usifull. Lets just hope for better Mray documentation.

[BadKarma]

hmm i wonder how long its gunna take to come out on tha warez scene... :D - only joking cant wait till i can get a sexy lil upgrade !

BadKarma

[lebada]

its been a month before this thread even existed..but haven't bothered to get it...and now its on the newsgroups too...

i'm gonna wait for its release tho:)

[matty429]

Why don't we, all the maya users, go hang out in the Max and Xsi Posts, and bash thier new features and releases...oh yeah..thats right...We've got better things to do...like use maya...and we don't suffer from Software envy...Sorry about your bad purchases guys....

[b.Schulz]

I agree on the modeling rants. I am just learning how to model with Maya and I see videos of other peoples workflow in other programs such as max, wings, and mirai and such and maya is a bit behind in that catergory. For example it would be great to have 'soft selection' options like max has. where verts are colorized based on their falloff from the verts your manipulating. Also, ie. in the graph editor too it has this option! that's a rad feature for some animators. Also the tools mentioned before, like edgeloop and stuff like that which is extremely helpful. BUT on the otherhand I love the usability of maya. Soooo user friendly to navigate around in my opinion and the interface actually makes sense most of the time, AANd as others said, it's very customizable thanks to mel!!! Now Mental Ray is here.....never played with it, should be interesting. Cant' wait to play.

[Boone]

Thank god I've not got quite enough cash saved for Maya 4.5...

Looks like I'll have to get Maya 5 now!:bounce:

[spacemunky]

i think everyone is also missing one big thing.....i've been using mental ray for maya since the beta....and it has not progressed very far since then...3.2 will still not integrate correctly because maya's shaders are all but incompatable with MR. Most people who have not used it extensivly do not know this but you are supposed to use MR DGS and Volume shaders for correct light simulations. For instance...photons will not pass through a transparent object in MR unless you give them a MR shader node which is not a very well documented procedure. I'll say this again as a disclaimer....I LIKE MAYA....but this new relrease does nothing to improve the product....its like Win2k-XP...no difference just more stuff to crash....if you want to see a good rendered integrated into a package look at Brazil with max and MR with xsi.....we all need to demand more from alias if they are to remain in top otherwise we are selling ourselves short

[spacemunky]

oh ya and if you want go ahead in the xsi and max forums and bash them if you like...maybe if you do it enough maya will magically sprout an edgeloop tool and PRman will suddenly come pre-packaged:beer:

[matty429]

To this day I still don't see why a renderman Lite sort of renderer
Doesn't come integrated...its seems like a win for everyone...Well..except the for the competition....

[spacemunky]

because pixar is greedy like that...they give everyone else the chance to buy PRMan 11 while they are using release 16 in house....we just got radiosity(that doesn't work yet without hard coding) while they make features with stuff we haven't even heard of...thats why they make the package....and thats also why it costs more than Maya does as a whole, plus it is worth every penny.......if you have ever actaully crashed PRMan you deserve a cookie...cause you are seriously messed up....Renderman rules

[a23]

spacemunky is right,

the integration of MR in 5 hasn't been tightened. Much worse, the killer Rapid Motion Blur which is part of MR 3.2 is not available AFAIK. It's not much more than where it came from: MRfM 1.5. Sad but true.

5 showed some potential with a lot of fixes that were important to the users.

it's beyond me why A|W just gave the advantage of really fast motion blur so easily away to the competition.

[Ozren]

I think is to early to comment anything, noone did some hardcore tests with Mr and new Maya.
Tho i agree about documentation, it just sucks alot, you cant figure anything out of it, and alot of things are missing from docs, like for example DGS shaders. So i think some time needs to pass untill peeps figure out those things, and write some tuts, or docs of prons and cons about Mr and Maya.

About comparing other software packages with Maya, i think thats very dumb, each of those has its own up's and down's. Maya has its up's, if it doesent, why is it one of the most respected 3d packages out there?

Now we got Mr in Maya, for same price, you got GI, FG, SSS, and alot of other great features, but like SSS, some need to be figured out before posting Mray cant do this and that. In Brazil, SSS is one click away, in Mray its not, but Brazil has its own downs, like writing shaders for example.

I agree with monkey about pressing AW to get us new cool features, but everything has its limits ,so does AW. We all asked for GI and other 'cant live without' features, and we got them.

So dont spit on AW, or Maya 5.0. Its a great package that needs to be figured out. Mray is very new to Maya package, and very new to Maya customers, and its not even similar to Mray in XSI, so there is no point is comparing those two.

Over and out !

[wgreenlee1]

Originally posted by Krugar
Or, you could customize maya so it works like Wings3d in terms of GUI, shortcuts and workflow... then you dont have the added hassle of exporting/importing and working with mulitple apps which have two slightly different modelling methods (shell and solid).

I agree.


BTW:Does anyone know if 4.5 MELs are going to work in 5?
Are they updateds the script versions also?

[a23]

hi ozren,

i just have to comment:

MR might be 'new' to Maya and alot of its customers, but infact it's over 2 years old ;-) Neither am i new to MR. i've been using it for over 6 years and not just from the interface, but it's underpinnings too. a firm understanding of mental ray i have :-)

so when i'm bashing A|W for not offering the new motion blur i'm doing so because even the MR docs state that it's a commandline option. there's really nothing to integrate! i'm bashing them because this option can be hacked into a custom text field inside maya's MR options but unfortunately these are not evaluated in 'interactive' rendering, which means only in the standalone version.

just to clear this up, i'm not comparing features of packages not even really the integration of the renderer. but i am comparing 'simple' options giving to the user of the same product (renderer) from two different 'resellers' (i didn't know what word to put in here). and this i am allowed to do.

[Apoclypse]

One thing that bothers me is the pot shots some of you guys been taking at maya's modeling. I think that yes in terms of polys maya is not the best o fastest or the most stable. However to sya that all the modeling features in the app suck becuase of this is wrong. Every one agrees that Maya's nurbs modeling is on the best if not the best. But since everyone and their dog is jumping on the subd modeling craze it seems that a package is useless even though it has great nurbs and patch modeler.

[Apoclypse]

And another thing if it can render a ball without all that grainy crap that max puts in it's renders and it can do it without having to pump up the iltering all the way up to get decent results like maya's renderer, it all gravy.:thumbsup:

[trevlb]

Originally posted by a23
this option can be hacked into a custom text field inside maya's MR options but unfortunately these are not evaluated in 'interactive' rendering, which means only in the standalone version.

quick question for a23. does this mean that feature is completely unaccessible to your kowledge in MR for maya, or it is just not well integrated into the workflow?

this is the first i've heard about MR's motion blur.

[a23]

hi trevlb,

i'm referring to the new motion blur introduced in MR 3.2 called 'rapid motion blur'. this OPTION cannot be turned on/be made available to render inside Maya 5. Only when outputing to .mi and rendering with the standalone ($$$).

i'm still waiting for A|W support to anwser this question on the A|W e-support forum.

btw, the 'old' motion blur of course is available in the render options.

[trevlb]

thanks for explaining that a23. i'd definitely be interested to know what you hear back.

is there a list on the web somewhere of features like this in MR that are supported in the standalone but not in Maya?

[a23]

ok guys,

A|W support has just answered.
the trick to enable the new 'rapid motion blur' is to add the 'scanline rapid' option to a mental ray custom global text node instead of a custom option text node.

excerpt:
---
You need to add a custom global text node to mentalrayGlobals>
custom entities> custom scene> custom global text:

scanline rapid

If you're rendering in preview mode, you need to turn ON 'preview
custom' in mentalrayGlobals> Preview
---

they are on it to 'integrate' it into the UI.

I suggest to everyone to try this new motion blur it's awesome. compares easily to PRMan.

AndY

[kamil_w]

Great!

Thanks.

[elvis75k]

i just download the bonustools for maya5... Inside i see the "light"

3ds max import.
skin shader
diffraction shader (cd rom chromatic phenomena)
hwshader (i think hardware render shader for the cg plug)
skeletontools
.....
and a lot (lot) more

I really want to buy maya5!! :thumbsup:

[db5007]

My personal favorite additions to Maya 5.0(from a Character Setup point of view):

1. Arbitrary nurbs shapes for sculpt deformers.
This will be good for muscles.

2. Parent contraint.

3. Ability to animate contrained objects(It about time!)

4. Multi-nested referencing(my favorite)
A critical tool for any large production pipeline. I dont think this feature was even mentioned in the whats new section.

5. Freeze transforms on Joints! Joy!

6. Ik/FK auto blending!(havent fully tested it yet, but in theory its great.)
Saves alot of hassle setting up blend chains.

Overall I think that this release is quite signifigant and am really looking forward to using it. Some may argue that amount of feature additions may not be as high as lets say, XSI, however, I much rather have a small set of stable tools than a large set of unstable ones.

Maya, you've come a long way baby.

Also, thanks to the R&D folks at Dreamworks who also contributed alot to this release.

[trevlb]

thanks for posting that response a23


db5007 what is that multi-nested feature you described. sounds cool.

[db5007]

Originally posted by trevlb
thanks for posting that response a23


db5007 what is that multi-nested feature you described. sounds cool.

Basically what that means is the you can reference a file that is referencing something else.

Let's say for example, an animator references a character, and begins animating it. Since the rig is heavy, the animator replaces the reference with a low resolution rig.

At the same time, a TD wants to begin lighting the shot altough animation is in progress. The TD would then reference the animators shot, open the scene, get the latest animation AND he could swap in the high resolution rig. That is multinesting.

So in this scenario, you could have the rigger revising the rig, animators animating and TD's lighting simultaneously.

[trevlb]

wow. that sounds cool. i haven't even used regular referencing in maya, much less multi-nesting. is it like xref in max?

[MDuffy]

Even with 4.5 you can reference in a file that references in another file. The question is whether they addressed the bugs that pop up when you do multi-level referencing, such as some nodes failing to update correctly. We've had point and orient constraints fail to solve on loading, and strangeness with some of the animCurves routing through character sets failing to solve (though I don't recall if the character set problem is related to multiple referencing or not). Those bugs are what currently prevent us from using multi-level referencing in our pipeline.

Cheers,
Michael Duffy
mduffy@ionet.net

[db5007]

Originally posted by MDuffy
Even with 4.5 you can reference in a file that references in another file. The question is whether they addressed the bugs that pop up when you do multi-level referencing, such as some nodes failing to update correctly. We've had point and orient constraints fail to solve on loading, and strangeness with some of the animCurves routing through character sets failing to solve (though I don't recall if the character set problem is related to multiple referencing or not). Those bugs are what currently prevent us from using multi-level referencing in our pipeline.

Cheers,
Michael Duffy
mduffy@ionet.net

Yes, in 4.5 you can reference a reference but you cant unload or replace refernce files within the file (In 4.5 you get this error if you try to reload a reference that was referenced in another file:Error: This reference cannot be unloaded since its parent is a reference.) In 5.0 you can unload and reload files.

Also yes, we found problems occured with character sets when referencing. I havent tested yet to see if they fixed it in 5.0 though. Since we didnt use Character sets it wasnt really a big deal. We just used regular sets to group animation nodes. Also another area to avoid with referencing is locking channels(better to set limits instead.)

As for the contraints not working, I am not quite sure what is causing that but you may want to check the main RF node. When Maya doesnt know where to put something, it attaches a connection to the RF node. Might be a good place to start when trouble shooting. Another potential problem may be in the naming conventions.

While I was at Blue Sky, we used referencing for Ice Age. It proved to be a really good thing for us and we didnt encounter too many problems.

[db5007]

Originally posted by trevlb
wow. that sounds cool. i haven't even used regular referencing in maya, much less multi-nesting. is it like xref in max?

Could be wrong but I get the impression that not too many people use referencing all that much. Personally I think it is one of the coolest tools in Maya!

I am not sure about Max's Xref but i think its a little different.
Here is referencing in a nutshell:

when you create a reference in Maya for your scene, you are simple pointing to one file somewhere. So lets say you have 100 shots that are referencing the same rig file, and you wanted to make a minor change to the rig, such as modifing the skin weights, all you would have to do to update those 100 shots is to make the change once and it would propogate throughout all the shots automatically upon the next loading of the shot. In addition to that, if the rig is to heavy for animation, you can make a stripped down version of the rig and release that for people to swap in(I usually just delete all deforming geo and replace with low polys.)

[jschleifer]

The problem with referencing in Maya right now is that it's not very stable. If you change an attribute name, Maya isn't smart enough to know how to re-connect an animation curve. If you have 30 characters referenced into a scene, you should be able to specify which characters you want to load BEFORE the scene opens up. This would save heaps and heaps of time!

also, you should be able to save your animation curves as refenced files as well.. which would allow you to apply animation from one scene to another scene. And, you should be able to store your constraint information separately & keep track of it, so if you had one character constrained to another character, Maya would know that the second character is a dependency to the first character, so in order to load the first character, the second one must be loaded as well.

-jason

[db5007]

Originally posted by jschleifer
The problem with referencing in Maya right now is that it's not very stable.

hmm..from my experience I found it to be stable enough for production. When I was a technical animator at Blue Sky, we used it quite extensively. It is still being used in the current pipeline for their next feature as well.

I have heard rumor that Dreamworks put alot of work into improving the current Maya referencing system which has now been put into the next release of Maya5.0.

anyhow, just my two cents.

[jschleifer]

I should clarify.. if you're careful, it can be extremely stable! you just have to make sure your pipeline is figured out. :) As long as you follow some rules, it can work fine w/out breaking.. the problem is in those times when you need to do something it wasn't designed to do, then it can break pretty easily!

-jason

[trevlb]

thanks for those replies jason, and db5007. they were very helpful.

i'm interested to know a 'safe' workflow for referencing. i recently worked on a project where each shot was a maya scene file. it would have been great to just point to reused objects and their materials from the different scene files. it sounds like referencing would do that sort of thing.

[zcmaya3d]

maya -------------my love
love A|w forever ~~:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Boone]

Hey guys. Need help in buying a system that can run Maya 5.

Is the following specs enough to run Maya 5?...

1) Pentium4 2.4GHz
2) 512MB Ram
3) Windows XP Professional
4) 60GB Harddrive

...is this all I need to run it? Will it run on any graphics card or is there a minimum spec?

Cheers!:beer:

[a23]

your specs sound good and sufficient for a workstation.

as for the graphics: i'm running a GF4 Ti4200 patched into a Quadro 750 and there are no problems, though i'm running w2k.

AndY

[Boone]

Re: A23.

Cheers, mate!:beer:

I should be ordering the PC on my next pay-day( 30th May! )...:)

[Boone]

Oh! One last question!

Is the following graphics card suitable for Maya 5?...

"128 ATI RADEON 9800 PRO ( DVI DUAL MONITOR support, TV-out, S-video)"

[roger]

I would suggest getting at LEAST 1gig of ram and if you can, get 2 gig's.
You can never have to much ram, but you can have to little.

[brianellebracht]

I work for an engineering company, And I demonstrate how our HRSG Units are put together by using Maya... Basically an HRSG is just 7 stories worth of piping, but I have to have the ability to go in and pick a certain pipeline, platform, or structure by name and edit it if I have to... I do this by using References. I find this very useful. I have each pipeline on its own specific model. So, the scene that I am animating, has no less than 50 references at a time if not more. I have not had any significant problems with using Maya and many references. I don't think I would be able to do this as efficient any other way. I also have about 300-400 layers between all of these references. I have been doing this way for about 8 mo and I am pretty satisfied with the results! :) Thanks,
Brian


BTW i heard a rummor that Maya 5 would have the ability to import Max scenes..... I have Maya 5, but I am pretty sure this isn't true. Has anybody else heard this?

[Boone]

Re: Roger.

Yeah, 2GB ram would be awesome...but my wallet says otherwise!:beer:

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