Maya Station

Lock up your Sets !

I recently found out that if you duplicate an object that is a member of a Set, by default the new object becomes a member of the Set too. This is not always desirable.

When trying to find a workaround that prohibits Maya from assigning objects to a Set, I reached a dead-end trying to query the names of objects created by the 'duplicate' command. Until a colleague showed me how to use the Python API to work around the problem.

Here's how we did it....

Mental ray Phenomena naming limitation.

Please note that when creating your Phenomena , the attribute naming conflicts are not resolved automatically.
When connecting a new interface element to an attribute, the name of that attribute is used as the new name of the corresponding interface attribute. If such a name exists already in the interface, the attribute creation fails. If necessary, rename the attributes in the interface before establishing new interface connections.

The terminator effect (shadow artifacts)

You might laugh at the name, but it’s actually called that..
It’s a self-shadowing error that results from tessellation (triangles that approximate a smooth surface). This can be fixed by number of ways

•  Rotate the light causing the shadow ever slightly
• Increase the object tessellation
• Change the Bias (if you are using Maya software render)

MTime::as is no longer supported in Maya 2010 Python API

In Python 2.6 and higher, the reserved word 'as' has been added to the Python language.This now conflicts with the method 'as' in the class MTime, for a workaround use the method asUnits instead.

You will need to make changes in these scripted devkit samples that we ship with the install.

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\devkit\plug-ins\scripted\animCubeNode.py(62):

frame = int(tempTime.as(OpenMaya.MTime.kFilm))

becomes

frame = int(tempTime.asUnits(OpenMaya.MTime.kFilm))

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\devkit\plug-ins\scripted\simpleEmitter.py(301):

dtRateDbl = dtRate.as( OpenMaya.MTime.kSeconds )

becomes

dtRateDbl = dtRate.asUnits( OpenMaya.MTime.kSeconds )

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\devkit\plug-ins\scripted\simpleEmitter.py(320):

dt = dT.as( OpenMaya.MTime.kSeconds )

becomes

dt = dT.asUnits( OpenMaya.MTime.kSeconds )

The confusing part is when you try to load these devkit examples without making the above changes, they won't load but with no descriptive error, unless you comment everything out below the line in question in that given function, if you do that then when you try to load the plug-in it will tell you there is a syntax error with the 'as' method.

This does not affect the C++ API.

~Kristine

Troubleshooting mental ray Rendering on Maya

Testing the idea of adding videos in the blog
Thanks to Martin and Owen for their help 
 

 

The HD vr can be found here TS14075966

 

Ptex: per-face texture mapping from Disney

Some of you may be aware of disney's Ptex technology, some of you may not....I hadn't heard of this until recently.

http://www.disneyanimation.com/library/ptex/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxNlAlOuQQQ

S'very nice.

Owen

Debugging Resources

Here are some helpful pages to learn about the compiling, linking and debugging of your code. When you first start using compilers with C++ it can be overwhelming and confusing for someone that is transitioning from scripting in MEL/Python to compiling your API code in C++.

Learning about Compiling and Linking, and the differences:

http://www.cprogramming.com/compilingandlinking.html

Dealing with Compiler Errors:

http://www.cprogramming.com/tutorial/compiler_linker_errors.html

Introduction to Debugging:

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/programming/features/debugging/

C++ Debugging:

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1344.asp

~Kristine

Maya and architectural modeling

PSD in Maya - Using Photoshop layers in Maya as a reference for building 3D objects

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/stevenr/psd_in_maya_using_photoshop_layers_in_maya_as_a_reference_for_building_3d_objects#

Importing objects in layers from Studio Tools to Maya

After assigning some objects to layers in Studio and then importing them into Maya (.wire, iges, or .stp), both the shape and transform nodes for each object are assigned to a display layer.
Thus when you go to assign one of those objects to a new layer (via selection in the workspace or Outliner), only the transform node is reassigned while the shape node remains connected to the original layer.


Use this script to help solve this issue:

string $allObjects[] = `ls -type nurbsSurface -type mesh`;

string $allLayers[] = `ls -type displayLayer`;

select $allObjects;

layerEditorRemoveObjects $allLayers[0];


After executing this script, you can now select any of the imported objects and assign them to new Display Layers without their shape nodes remaining connected to their original layers.

Thanks to Jeremy Keays for his tip

Searching for files on Mac

This entry was triggered by a request from one of our customers who couldn’t locate a specific maya file on Mac
To search from a command line type
find . –name “Myfile” –print
Where MyFile is the name of the file you are looking for