Whatsinaname Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Hi, I am trying to import an animated sequence from Maya (animated character) into Houdini. FBX didn't work properly (the character is a running horse, after importing it from Maya into Houdini it was looking like some preheistoric ancestor of a horse), so I tried Alembic in Maya 2012 SAP. It exports fine (at least, there are no errors shown) but when importing the *.abs file into Houdini, I just see an Alembuc node and inside that node there is an empty node named persp and that's it. Has anyone ever expereienced similar problems or can give any hints on what's going wrong? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annon Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Select the file name in the first field, then click "Build or Update Hierarchy". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
br1 Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 I remember having issues with namespaces with alembics coming from Maya. Be sure that those are taken care of, as something like Mesh::Name wasn't working last time I tried. Bruno Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatsinaname Posted May 14, 2012 Author Share Posted May 14, 2012 Thanks for the replies. I removed all namespaces from the file, but unfortunately that didn't help. I also couldn't find any Build or Update hierarchy button, anywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 TRY maya 2013 the almebic maybe intergrated better. mangi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatsinaname Posted May 14, 2012 Author Share Posted May 14, 2012 Ok, the Alembic exporter in Maya2013 is more advanced and it manages to get the geometry to Houdini, at least. But the character doesn't move. I baked the animation in Maya prior to exporting but that didn't help, either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 Ok, the Alembic exporter in Maya2013 is more advanced and it manages to get the geometry to Houdini, at least. But the character doesn't move. I baked the animation in Maya prior to exporting but that didn't help, either. Okay what you should do is make a rop output driver of the animation mesh from houdini into a bgeo sequence, once you have the sequence in a new houdini dring it back into the work area with a geo read. Make sure tha is working for you . And if is do the alembic again mangi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbukovec Posted May 14, 2012 Share Posted May 14, 2012 i use the alembic import all the time in production, and it works just fine. One trick that i use, is that i export as selected from maya (strip namespaces), and rectangle select the geometry in the viewport, so filter down your viewport to only show polygons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 (edited) excuse my reply "Okay what you should do is make a rop output driver of the animation mesh from houdini into a bgeo sequence," This method is the other way from houdini into maya, well at least the way I did it. Just wanted to point it out mangi Edited May 15, 2012 by mangi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatsinaname Posted May 15, 2012 Author Share Posted May 15, 2012 (edited) Ok, I managed getting the animated character into Houdini. Therefore, I extracted the original geometry out of the scene and put it into a new one. Then I applied the Geoetry Cache to that object and exported this as Alembic. I can import it into Houdini, and I can see my animated character, now. Edited May 15, 2012 by Phlok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whatsinaname Posted May 15, 2012 Author Share Posted May 15, 2012 Still, strange things are happening. In Maya, the horse (the animated character I was referring to a bit earlier)is 2cm high (the scene comes from some motiontracker, I don't know what that guy smokes all day long). At least, the horse is running on a plane that is on y = 0 level and close to world 0. After importing it to Houdini, the horse is kilometers tall and flying somewhere in space, having nothing to do with world 0. Any idea how to get this into Houdini in a more sensible manner, scale and location wise? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mangi Posted May 15, 2012 Share Posted May 15, 2012 Phlok I just made a simple test from maya 2013 exporting ALMEBIC , then into houdini As you can see the scale is about the same, Check the grid. I can´t really see what is going on , I would have to see the maya scene well let me know and I can look at it. don´t worry I´ll delete latter houdini.work@gamil.com cheers mangi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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