Welcome to the Second Life Forums Archive

These forums are CLOSED. Please visit the new forums HERE

Maya Help Please! :(

Venessa Khandr
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jul 2008
Posts: 17
12-04-2008 09:51
Hi, I recently got AutoDesk Maya 8, and have been fooling around with it for a few days, im pretty familiar with Cinema4d, (what i had before this) so transitioning to Maya i hope wont be to difficult..

OS: win.xp

Well here's my Problem..

I followed the Dir to http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Advanced_Sculptie_Exporter_From_Maya , Step by step..


But, when i go to export it, and enter the .Mel script - The window pops up, but i do not have the option to "Generate Primscript"..


Is there something im doing wrong? IF someone could give me a nice run-down on how to get this working, I'd truly truly appreciate it!

Thanks all.
Chosen Few
Alpha Channel Slave
Join date: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 7,496
12-04-2008 10:34
Is there a scrollbar across the bottom of the sculpt exporter window? If so, it's covering up one or more of the options. This is due to a typo in the script. Search the script for the word "scrollable". If there's a 1 next to it, change it to a zero. Re-run the script, and you should be all set.
Venessa Khandr
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jul 2008
Posts: 17
12-04-2008 11:07
Yep, that was the case, hehe. Thanks a lot!! i truly appreciate the quick help!
Venessa Khandr
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jul 2008
Posts: 17
12-04-2008 11:20
uh oh. well i was exporting it, and almost done and.. got this ''// Error: Object list must contain a surface and a texture // ''

hmm
Chosen Few
Alpha Channel Slave
Join date: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 7,496
12-04-2008 16:52
Most likely you had an object selected that was something other than a surface. It was probably a light or a projection node or something. It's no big deal. Just be more careful with your selections in the future to prevent the error.
Venessa Khandr
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jul 2008
Posts: 17
12-05-2008 12:43
oh okies :)

also.. when i do sphere nurbs, and import to SL and make it a sculpt, they have holes? and sometimes they dont go all the way around, *some transparency* ..

and question.. Can you use anything under the "surface" tab for SL use?.. .say i wanna do a building. could i import it in the same sense as the ant?
Chosen Few
Alpha Channel Slave
Join date: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 7,496
12-05-2008 13:10
From: Venessa Khandr
also.. when i do sphere nurbs, and import to SL and make it a sculpt, they have holes? and sometimes they dont go all the way around, *some transparency* ..

Always do the following before you export your sculpt maps:

1. Select all objects you wish to export.

2. Edit -> Delete by type -> History

3. Modify -> Freeze Transformations

4. Modify -> Reset Transformations

5. Edit -> Delete by type -> History

You want to make sure your objects are "clean". If they've got any history or transformations on them, that can interfere with the surface sampling.

Also, make sure Correct Orientation is checked in the exporter dialog.

From: Venessa Khandr
and question.. Can you use anything under the "surface" tab for SL use?

No. In order to be compatible with sculpties, your geometry must be made in specific ways. Generally, it's best to stick with spheres, toruses, cylinders, and planes. Additionally, simple lofts will sometimes work, but only if you're very careful.


From: Venessa Khandr
say i wanna do a building. could i import it in the same sense as the ant?

Sure, but only if you've built it properly. Make it out of sculpty-friendly building blocks, and it doesn't matter if it's a building, an ant, or anything else. It's just a collection of surfaces.

But don't expect to be able to model it in just any old arbitrary manner and have it work. It must be done the right way. The rules for each part are as follows:

1. Each part must be a single contiguous surface. Regardless of its shape in 3D space, a sculpty's 2D topology must be a perfect rectangle. Think of it kind of like wrapping paper around a gift box. The paper takes on the shape of the box in 3D space, but its 2D form never changes. It's always still just a rectangular piece of paper, no matter how you fold it to fit it around the box.

2. Each part's shape can't be overly complex. For best results, 16x16 sections & spans is as high as you should go. You can use less, of course, but it's not generally a good idea to use more.

3. History and transformation nodes should be removed/zeroed before export, as explained above.

4. In-world, all sculpties will start out with spherical stitching by default. If you want to use any of the other stitching types (plane, torus, cylinder), remember to make the appropriate changes by hand. If you're using a recent viewer, there's a dropdown box for stitching type under the sculpt map field. If you're using an older viewer, you'll need to use a script to change the type.

That's basically it.
Venessa Khandr
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jul 2008
Posts: 17
12-05-2008 14:42
wow, great info. Thanks for all the Great advice and tips!! much appreciated!! yay :P
Venessa Khandr
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jul 2008
Posts: 17
Maya help again :O :(
01-27-2009 13:10
Hi there, back again with some issues .. :P today i decided to import some of my work, and this is what i ran into..

well, when i went to use my "primscript" that maya generated for me, it says Syntax Error.. I'm not sure what im doing wrong, and would love to figure this out. its been bugging me all day!

Thanks alot!
Chosen Few
Alpha Channel Slave
Join date: 16 Jan 2004
Posts: 7,496
01-27-2009 13:25
What importer are you using? And at what step does it report the error?

If you're using Qlab, there are two pretty easy places to make a syntax mistake. One is when you copy & paste the contents of the .primscript file into the notecard. It's possible you inadvertently added or deleted a character somewhere. The other is when you type the command to run the assembler. Since you're 'speaking' over a custom channel, the text doesn't show up in the chat log. This can make it tough to figure out what you typed wrong. It's better to type into a notecard or something first, and then copy & paste into the chat bar, so you've got a record of exactly what you typed.


If you're using importprimscript, the process is more automated, so it's unlikely there's any problem with the .primscript information itself. It's pretty easy to mistype the command line info, though. Whenever I type it myself, I usually mess something up, so I've stopped typing altogether. Instead I keep a text document in my importprimscript folder, with the whole command line on it. Each time I use it, I copy & paste the .primscript file name and location into it, and then I copy & paste the whole line into the command prompt. My butterfingers don't get a chance to make any mistakes that way.
_____________________
.

Land now available for rent in Indigo. Low rates. Quiet, low-lag mainland sim with good neighbors. IM me in-world if you're interested.
Venessa Khandr
Registered User
Join date: 2 Jul 2008
Posts: 17
01-27-2009 13:30
i am using the Qlab exporter..
everytime i try to add it, i get the error on (1, 0) : ERROR : Syntax Error.

im using the Qlab exporter cause i can't seem to figure out how to work Importprimscript exporter. :(