Combining Live Video and maya tutorial
 

Hi guys first time posting!!

If i'm here i'm a newbie :) Question:
I would like to know how to combine a Live video footage with maya 5 to use for reference in animating a character walking.

I will shoot myself walking and use it as a reference.

???? what do i have to do to import (i have Vegas Video or Premier 6 and Maya 5 no ADOBE After effects or Quick time software)

Thanks in advance

You'll need Maya Live to do that...

-Emo

i have it!!

If you are just using it for reference for "rotomation",

(the act of animating your object to mimic 2d footage using said footage as a direct reference)

..which it sounds like you are doing, you could just map your video onto a plane, and just animate your object in front of that.

Emo has a great point with using Live, as that will help you also setup your camera/lens configuration & animation at the same time as well, so....

That is what I LOVE about Maya, is that there are a zillion ways to do everything:)

Good luck!

Is there a tutorial about Maya live, sounds like i will use it a lot cause i want to mix 3d with live video.

thanks!!!

Well I looked for a good MayaLive tutorial for a LONG time and yes, I did find some but didnt really understand it... so I gathered 20 bucks and I bought the Clearance VHS version of Alias' MayaLive and so far it's really good!

-Emo

well i guess i'll go and find some dvd or book

thanks for replying!!

before you go spending money, check this out :D

http://www.bk.tudelft.nl/scripts/gui...asp?dbid=11000

-Emo

good deal... no money

OMG Emo, where how did u find this? hehehe

Thanks very much for the great help!!!!

Hope to post some of my newbie work for ur comments!!!

i was reading that free tutorial but once you get to page three it goes to the wrong link damn i really want to finish reading it. anybody know any other maya live tutorials. i need to know how to import the video into maya in the first place.

Well I got some bad and some good news...I found another tutorial (that's the good news) but if you can't read Korean, that's your bad news :D

http://www.funny3d.com/tutorial/article/Live.pdf

-Emo

First off, open maya, hit F1 and read the help docs on "live" if you haven't already. You could also do the "live" tutorial in the "Instant Unlimited" section of the help docs. As for the missing page in the tut Emo linked up....look at the url and you'll notice a database ID number when you go through the pages. Apparently they linked things wrong so type 11300 for the ID and you'll get part 3. Or just click here:

http://www.bk.tudelft.nl/scripts/gui...asp?dbid=11300

MAN
 

this si what i've been wanting to do all along and no one understood what i was trying to say. I got all this weird info. All i wanted to know as how to put maya and live footage together. :mad:

And here it goes finally. can anyone provide anymore indepth info on this subject please?

What specifically do you need to know? If you look at the various information we gave in this post, it should get you on your way. If you don't have Maya Unlimited (which has Maya Live), you would have to use a separate matchmoving software that exports camera data into a format maya reads. ICARUS was a free one that was good but is no longer available. The General Idea of how all this works is:

1. You shoot your footage, keeping in mind objects or things in the scene you will use to setup matchpoints later.

2. With Maya Live, you bring in the frames of your footage as a series of still images, then you designate multiple matchpoints to help Maya determine how the camera is moving. Very trial and error.

3. After everything is done. You can composite everything in After Effects 5.5 and above as it will import Maya camera data.

That's the general idea, anyway.