AE3D EXPORT - AE scene to Maya, Max, and Lightwave

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ymmij
Posts: 28
Joined: December 1st, 2006, 1:20 pm

urbanspaceman wrote:Hi Guys, new version uploaded. v1.11.

What caused Shayder's problems were the names of the layers. Some were too long, and 3 of them had the same name, which Maya doesn't understand. So I've added some new code that takes care of this. It basically changes the names, processes them, and then changes them back.

I've also increased the camera size by 100 times, which should get it looking normal again.

Some other new additions:

- front, top, and side cameras in Maya now included
- unanimated layers now have only one keyframe at frame 1 in the 3D packages. This makes things more efficient, especially for 3ds Max, which is very slow in importing (so a shortened scene file helps)
- the preview range of the animation is now set properly in Max

Enjoy!
Working great for me now. Just doing a few more tests and will get back to you.

One thing that has cropped up is when exporting out a second camera from the AE scene. I type in the name 'camera_1' into the GUI, select 'browse' to indicate where to save the file. Exports fine. I then create camera_2 in AE, and create my animation. Ready to export the new camera. I type in 'camera_2' in your interface and hit export. A dialog box comes up asking if I want to save over camera_1. I have to cancel that, go back to 'browse' and select where to save, and then all was okay again.

Is it possible for you to update the software to allow me to type in a new name without this happening. Would only use the 'browse' if I wanted to save to a different location?

Once again....great stuff.

Russ
tfortier
Posts: 3
Joined: April 17th, 2008, 8:23 pm

man, best script ever!! a big big thanks!

since years I tried to do clean transfert between AE and 3d package... transmotion ect... its never clean! now finally we have a solution!

thanks a lot!

thierry
urbanspaceman
Posts: 54
Joined: December 12th, 2007, 9:56 am
Location: London
Contact:

tfortier wrote:man, best script ever!! a big big thanks!
You're welcome. Again, let me know how you use it. I take payment in love and adoration. :)

It's been years for me too of trying other people's plug-ins, and they either didn't work or had big limitations. I always thought, "Why is this so hard? It's really only 10 or so numbers (per frame) converted from one program to the next". It WAS hard to do, but in principle it is about knowing the proper way to convert about 10 numbers.
ymmij wrote:Is it possible for you to update the software to allow me to type in a new name without this happening?
I've had the same issue with it, and I was undecided whether to change the design of it. The way it is now, the only way AE knows you've typed in something is when you press the tab key, which makes it different to the dialogue boxes you're used to in the OS. I'm not sure if this can be changed...for now, just remember to hit the tab key before you hit export.
urbanspaceman
Posts: 54
Joined: December 12th, 2007, 9:56 am
Location: London
Contact:

Russ, turns out it can be changed. Should now work as you expect.

presenting v.1.12 :

http://www.urbanspaceman.net/shared/AEs ... Export.jsx
ymmij
Posts: 28
Joined: December 1st, 2006, 1:20 pm

urbanspaceman wrote:Russ, turns out it can be changed. Should now work as you expect.

presenting v.1.12 :

http://www.urbanspaceman.net/shared/AEs ... Export.jsx
Sorry....v1.12 seems to work the same way when it comes to inputting a new name. Still have to hit tab before hitting export or I asked if I want to save over the previous name.

Russ
urbanspaceman
Posts: 54
Joined: December 12th, 2007, 9:56 am
Location: London
Contact:

What I've been doing is working on the script on my MacBook with AE 6.5 at home, and doing some tests on a PC and a Mac on AE CS3 at work in the evenings. It works perfectly at home at the moment. What OS and AE version are you on? Could be those Mac CS3 bugs I've encountered that are definitely Adobe's fault. I won't know until I test it on my work computer.
ymmij
Posts: 28
Joined: December 1st, 2006, 1:20 pm

urbanspaceman wrote:What I've been doing is working on the script on my MacBook with AE 6.5 at home, and doing some tests on a PC and a Mac on AE CS3 at work in the evenings. It works perfectly at home at the moment. What OS and AE version are you on? Could be those Mac CS3 bugs I've encountered that are definitely Adobe's fault. I won't know until I test it on my work computer.
I am running AE 8.0.2 on a Mac G5. Will try this on the computers at work today (same configuration) and let you know the results.

Russ
ymmij
Posts: 28
Joined: December 1st, 2006, 1:20 pm

ymmij wrote:
urbanspaceman wrote:What I've been doing is working on the script on my MacBook with AE 6.5 at home, and doing some tests on a PC and a Mac on AE CS3 at work in the evenings. It works perfectly at home at the moment. What OS and AE version are you on? Could be those Mac CS3 bugs I've encountered that are definitely Adobe's fault. I won't know until I test it on my work computer.
I am running AE 8.0.2 on a Mac G5. Will try this on the computers at work today (same configuration) and let you know the results.

Russ
Yep....same result as the office.

Russ
urbanspaceman
Posts: 54
Joined: December 12th, 2007, 9:56 am
Location: London
Contact:

I've tried it at the office now too. It's as I expected. In CS3 it works on a PC, not on a Mac. I'm pretty sure there is nothing I can do about, since it looks like Adobe has screwed up a few things since AE 7 on the Mac. This probably related to the fact that GUI window updates don't happen on the Mac, and this is obviously a cock up, since it renders the progressbar command totally useless (ie. progress bars don't update while the script is running...it's obviously doing things in the wrong order...I think programmers call this "threading"?).

You probably haven't noticed, but my script does have feedback on the bottom while it's running...which just hangs there on the Mac version of CS3 until it's finished. It works in AE 6.5 and AE 8 on the PC, though.

A slight annoyance, but I think you'll agree this is quite a minor problem.

Shayder brought up a slight rotation glitch that I'll look in to next...
thomaskiel
Posts: 11
Joined: March 13th, 2007, 9:42 am
Location: Hannover, Germany
Contact:

Hey urbanspaceman,

great work, man! I loved exportcam already, and I'm definitely looking forward to see this one working. Which means... unfortunately, it doesn't work on my machine.

I'm using AE 7.0.1 on a PC and I wanna do a Maya export. When I select my layers and hit export, the user feedback field says "Exporting...", then freezes. I can click on the "About" button and after closing the credits window, the feedback will be "Ready." Also, the file created by the script is corrupt (0kB size, compared to 16kB in my exportcam tests). Maya says, "Unrecognizable file type."

Apart from that, the script seems to do everything I was missing about exportcam - object and lights export, switching of comp center... only thing I would still want to have is a custom scaling option for the export. But nonetheless, once the bugs are gone, it'll be one hell of a script! Thanks again!

Thomas
urbanspaceman
Posts: 54
Joined: December 12th, 2007, 9:56 am
Location: London
Contact:

Sounds like your project has a situation that the script doesn't know what to do with, and it just stops. Sometimes it doesn't tell you the line where the error occured, which makes my job harder. Could be something in your scene that I didn't anticipate, and hopefully not something weird in AE 7 (which I don't have and can't test). The best thing would be to send me the AE file and I'll see if I can recreate the error (email: contact at urbanspaceman dot net). Have you tried different projects, different layers and different layer names, or does it always freeze?

How would you make use of the scaling option? I was trying to keep it simple and avoid using one if I could...but if enough people think it's needed, I'll put one in...maybe as a slider.
urbanspaceman
Posts: 54
Joined: December 12th, 2007, 9:56 am
Location: London
Contact:

Hey Thomas.

I just remembered...go into the general preferences and make sure the "Allow Scripts to Write Files and Access Network" checkbox is checked. That could be it, and would make sense why it stops just as it's about to export the ASCII file. I'll try and error check that in a future version.
thomaskiel
Posts: 11
Joined: March 13th, 2007, 9:42 am
Location: Hannover, Germany
Contact:

Damnit, shame on me! Fresh installation, didn't even check those preferences yet... everything's fine now, working flawlessly! Thanks alot!!
kanton7
Posts: 3
Joined: April 23rd, 2008, 4:47 am

Thanks, I think it's very wonderful script.

but I can't download script. how to get?

Have a nice day..
Shayder
Posts: 8
Joined: April 8th, 2008, 10:50 am

Just right click on the link and choose "save as".
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