[deadalvs]

hi everyone.

i have not too much experience in MEL, but i think there are some genious MEL programmers around...

i have the following idea.

it must be possible to create an automated script that bakes maya's procedural textures in the complete UV-range to a texture, save the file and automatically assign it to the right texture node of maxwell's materials just before rendering.
like this, normal maya procedurals could be used!
we'd «only» need a small GUI that saves the path where the textures will be saved to and the resolution of the UV-zero-to-one-space (like 1024, 2048, ...)

could anyone help me to script this ? it should be relatively easy for a pro! anyone from NL ?

thanks...

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deadalvs

[DrMerman]

Hey deadalvs.

I've been in the process of writing a set of melScripts, (although haven't working on it in a week or two now.) I basically rewrote the plug-in UI (using mel, as the current sdk did not allow access to the needed features,) and added in several features that I thought would be useful. These were (off the top of my head) :

* Camera options all in one place, and organised like studio
* Working res/film gates, that adjust to match focal length/resolution
* Ability to load a custom studio environment directly from the script
* MultiLight, and HD support
* A focusTo script, like studio's.
* A movable north for physical sky, allowing a user to easily tweak sun position without rotating the entire model.
* A basic material converter. This converts Maya file nodes, and add-in nodes (gradients, procedurals etc.) to basic Maxwell materials. This also solves the repeating UV problem.
* An emitter converter. This converts Maya lights to lights that will work with Maxwell.

Although a few of these are still wip, the main coding has been done. The reason that I stopped work on them for the time being, was that there started to be rumours all over the Maya forum about an updated plug-in, and I figured that if NL were to come out with an amazing plug-in set relatively soon (which Juan has now hinted at ) then my set of tools would be obsolete.

However if enough people are interested...

Cheers,
Dr Merman

[deadalvs]

yes, exactly that's the stuff we want !

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for me personally, i'd like to learn how to script such stuff properly. please post the stuff that is working, especially in this case the «gradient and procedural to maxwell materials» converter. i'm sure, there are many maya users that would LOVE to use procedurals again !!!

i'm a little lost in good scripting, so help from a pro would be very welcome. we want to learn !

* * *

deadalvs

[deadalvs]

i have an other small problem, off topic...

* * *

if You look at this picture:


You see the upper sphere with a correct displayed maya lambert material that shows a hires texture.
on the lower model, there is a maxwell shader assigned with a texture applied, but the texture is extremely unsharp and sometimes very very dark. so none of my maxwell textures are nicely displayed.

how can i solve this problem ?

* * *

deadalvs

[p3tamaxwell]

Well for one I would be thrilled if you were to keep going on the mel scripts you have been writing. The information regarding Maya plugin that Maxwell gives is so sketchy that I am not sure where the hint that they are re-doing it is comming from. The general turn around on any technical questions directly to Maxwell is about a week. (That is if you complain loud enough) So.. hey go for it... I would be happy to pay for something like that.

Peter

[DrMerman]

Hey guys.

First of all, this should probably be moved to the maya forum, if any moderators read this.

Second, sorry for not getting back to you (you know how it is... ) But thanks for the support

deadalvs: your problem is a known bug. I don't think I've ever had a texture displayed nicely . This is one of the things that I am trying to fix with my scripts package. Speaking of which, I will hopefully post more on soon.

Peter: As I said above, I'll hopefully be posting some more info in the Maya forum sometime soon. Things are pretty busy at the moment, but what I can talk about, I will.

Cheers
Dr Merman

[p3tamaxwell]

Many thanks for the reply... look forward to what you come up with


Peter