koobas.hobune.stream
Is purchasing Maya really necessary?
Hi folks.
I'm part of a team developing the same project. Our graphic artists make their models in Maya and drop them into assets in the .ma format. Now, I know that if they exported as .fbx files then I could actually use those assets, but they argue that the amount of added time considering the size of the projects and the number of models involved would be a ridiculous waste, especially if an export had to be made every time a model received any kind of adjustment, no matter how small. I see two options: either all models are exported to .fbx and we lose time, or all team members install Maya. I, myself, am never going to use Maya. I have no talent for graphics. I would have it for the sole purpose of being able to view .ma files in Unity. That seems like a tremendous waste considering the price of Maya. Is there a legal solution? Maybe, a version of Maya that allows viewing of models without being able to edit them? I'm curious to see how other teams have handled this situation, if any.
how exactly is it a waste to make the assets useable? exporting a model is just a few clicks!
Your $$anonymous$$m needs to agree on a definition of "done" for a modeled asset.. but (obviously) making the asset USEABLE in the engine should be the responsibility of the animator, any $$anonymous$$m I've ever worked with requires all animation assets to be tested in the build before they are submitted.. and honestly, exporting an fbx takes almost no time or effort!
I imagine there are tools for mass exporting or easy 1 click re-export. I dont have real info though. But then again why not using ma files? Native support
Edit: stuppid me. Thats why you need maya installed...
You might get better info in some maya forum though.
@Lovrenc , as you will note in your link, this requires $$anonymous$$aya to be installed on your machine
Bottom line, it's up to the $$anonymous$$m as a group to decide how to handle this.. But usually the programmers on a $$anonymous$$m should not all be expected to have expensive modeling software in order to view their build!
(Just one other thought: if you are a student, you could always install the educational version, which would solve the issue and has a three-year license)
I think the demo of $$anonymous$$aya is enough to use for Unity, though I don't use $$anonymous$$aya so I can't say for sure.
the demo would do it.. but without a student/educator license, the demo times out after 30 or 60 days.. I THIN$$anonymous$$ that the educational version, you get 3 years (at least that's how it is with the other Autodesk software as far as I know)
Though it is quite possible that even once expired, you would still have what you need..
Tell your artists they are lazy and make them export their models. I export all my models to fbx and the effort to do so is negligible. I created a simple shortcut to export the selected object(s) and it's usually just three button presses to export the new iteration of a model into the correct folder, after I exported it once.
Also having single objects as fbx is a lot more tidy than having huge Maya scenes with dozens of models, at least in my opinion.
Philip is of course correct.
This question is really bizarre -
if your artists don't know how to "save the file" for use in the 3D industry,
just forget you ever knew them and don't talk to them again.
Find other artists :)
use a cache server on your lan they do the import within unity
