How do I combine maya with Digital Video
 

Please can anyone suggest any ideas how to combine a maya animation with a video scene, for example, an animated character pushing a real life object such as a book.

Im just looking for a starting point so I can do some research. Ive heard that I may have to use After Effects to achieve this. Is this true and is there any other way?!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Please email me directly with ANY suggestions!

Thanks guys
Chris

Sure there is.... Maya Live in the Unlimited version is just for doing what you need to do

-Emo

Thank you!
This looks like just what I need. Its funny, I never even knew this part of maya existed!

Well on with my project and trying to work out how to use this hidden part of Maya!
Thanks again! :o)

well first of all do you have Unlimited?

if you do... make sure the live plug in is started... to check.. go to Window-> I think it was general mangers and then Plug in Manager..then look for LIVE and start it...

then it should appear in the menu where you pick Modeling/Rendering/Animation and so on

-Emo

Yes I do have unlimited and Ive managed to start the live plug-in.

Thanks again for your help!

Chris

You dont need Live really.(sounds cool) You just got to render your project out in tiff or tga files. That way it will read in after affects, shake, or whatever compositing softwares you have, plus it will have an alpha channel so it wouldnt be transparent, unlike jpg files. You'd have to model a replacement object of whatever object the model is going to push then replace it with a real object later on in a compositing software. Thats the way i know it... maybe "live" has an easier way of doing it?

Well, "live" allows you to record the video/film first, then set up appropriate match points for your 3d object to follow. AE on the other hand allows you import Maya camera data so using both together isn't out of the question.

Live seems the easiest to learn and use so I think Im going to try it that way. Why do more work than I need to!

Not too sure on the advantages and disadvantages of Live and AE, so will have to go with my gut instinct...