maya & After Effects

# 1 11-11-2008 , 06:42 PM

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I Want to import a maya scene into after effects...I know this has been done many times...I guess you bake the c=scene to the camera...However does anyone know of a good site to get some help? Maybe a tutorial etc..I found one at creative cow but its really not that good. Any help I would really appreciate it. This is for a school project.
thanks

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# 2 12-11-2008 , 08:51 AM

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I have 2 solutions for you:

1. Download my video tutorial on this in the following post.
or
2. Use a free plugin/script called MoCon available at the link below.

Regardless of the path you take, there are some issues regarding the .ma Maya8.5+ file format that you NEED to understand before you begin.

As of Maya v8.5, Maya has restructured their export of the .ma fileformat.

Here is a non-comprehensive list of issues/best practices you should make sure you do when in Maya:

1. Make sure you do NOT bake the keys of your default perspective camera.
(That's assuming you animated the default perspective camera which is a very bad habit. Don't do that)
If you DID animate the default perspective camera, create a separate NEW camera, and PARENT it to the perspective camera, then bake keys for the NEW camera.

2. When you create your Locators in Maya, make sure to RENAME them so they start with: "null_"
As long as the names of your locators start with: "null_" then AE will see them as null objects and place them accordingly.
After the underscore you can name them whatever you want. i.e null_simplymaya , etc.
I personally like to name them null_foreground, null_bg etc...

Here is the plugin/scripts combo that was made a while back also that is free and works well called MoCon:
https://3dmation.com/
https://3dmation.com/maya_to_ae.html

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 3 12-11-2008 , 09:41 AM

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Ok, here are the links to my video tutorial in 2 formats:

H264 Quicktime OR Windows Media

Enjoy user added image

ragecg

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 4 12-11-2008 , 01:41 PM

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AWESOME

AWESOME due thank you so much, exactly what I was looking for Great job
BRady

Bradysammons.com
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Student: Academy of Art University S.F.
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# 5 12-11-2008 , 02:09 PM

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No problem.

Let me know if you have any issues user added image

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 6 12-11-2008 , 02:42 PM

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this isnt really relative to this post, but i figure you would know the answer to this...how the heck do i delete and image plane??
thanks so much
Brady

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# 7 12-11-2008 , 02:58 PM

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No problem, just open the Hypershade, and in the Camera Tab, delete the Image Plane node there user added image

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 8 27-07-2009 , 09:06 PM

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maya into ae and PARTICULAR

Hey ragecgi you helped me a while back in reguards to importing maya footage by baking camera data and you where a huge help. I have a problem. I have maya footage and camera data I have brought into ae. I have multiple nulls (locators) that I wanted to attach particular to. However the the word unit differences are really screwing particular...I dont know if there is a way to match the wold units by changing something in maya, or ae...I am open to any suggestions, as I am desperate this is for a school project.
thanks in advance

Bradysammons.com
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Student: Academy of Art University S.F.
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# 9 27-07-2009 , 09:32 PM

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Re: maya into ae and PARTICULAR

Originally posted by Soulrider911
...the the word unit differences are really screwing particular...I dont know if there is a way to match the wold units by changing something in maya, or ae...

Originally Posted by

When you say word and wold, do you mean WORLD?

If so, not that I know of user added image

To effect World units in AE you would need to do one of 2 things that MAy or MAY NOT do anything at all:
1. Open the .ma ascii file in a text editor and look for a units string and change it there to match AE units which are pixels I think.
2. Simply scale the imported comp up or down to taste, again, not exact.

If you change the Maya units from the default of Centemeters to anything else, then you need to understand that that things like this can happen.

Regardless, to attach a Particular emitter to a null the easiest way is to use an AE light.

So, parent a basic point light to the Maya locator/null of your choice, then tell Particular to use the that light as the emitter.

(or copy & paste the null position keyframes to the light)

Then set the Emitter type to Light.

The use of a light allows you to move particles in 3D instead of having to use expressions on a separate Z attribute.

Good luck user added image

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 10 28-07-2009 , 05:08 PM

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thanks for the help, yes I meant world...as far as i know the AE world is 100 times larger than the Maya world...So when you throw particular into a scene with cameras from maya you must shrink particular down to a minuscule size like.003, that was the problem, what a head ache autodesk needs to make this process a little easier. user added image

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# 11 28-07-2009 , 09:33 PM

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thanks for the help

Originally Posted by

No problem user added image

...as far as i know the AE world is 100 times larger than the Maya world...

Originally Posted by

Actually, AE does not have a true 3d space, only 2.5d, so "grid units" and world space mean nothing in AE.
Per Adobe Support: "Imported scene scale is driven by the 3d app used."

So when you throw particular into a scene with cameras from maya you must shrink particular down to a minuscule size like.003, that was the problem...

Originally Posted by

Glad you found a workaround for your shot, but for future reference don't change your scene scale from the defaults, and especially never change it mid scene-creation, it screws things up for exporting to other apps user added image

what a head ache autodesk needs to make this process a little easier.

Originally Posted by

Actually, in my first reply to this thread, there is a free set of scripts for getting data to AND from Maya to AE.... for free user added image

It's called MoCon:
https://3dmation.com
It's pretty sweet, easy to use, and solves most of the issues you are going through user added image

PS: here is a simple tutorial from them as well how to work with it:
https://3dmation.com/maya_to_ae.html

Good luck!

Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com

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# 12 29-07-2009 , 10:24 PM

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Thanks

Man you are a saint thank you so much for the help I can't tell you how much I appreciate it...it's really hard to find someone who knows a lot about Maya and Ae integration, seems people just opt for cinema and I don't really enjoy using cinema 4d all that much...Again thank you can't wait to try the plugin
Brady

Bradysammons.com
New Media Designer
Student: Academy of Art University S.F.
My WIP

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