Importing a maya camera into houdini

[titof2]

anyone have any ideas on how to do this?
is there some way to get houdini to write/read an ascii version of hip files so that maybe a script could be written in order to translate the camera's translation and rotation values from a maya ascii file?

thanks

nick

[gdc]

short answer is no. However writing a cmd file that houdini can source in is pretty simple. You could write a script that takes the ascii output from Maya and plugs in the values you need into the cmd file. I've done this once before for taking soft's animation into houdini. Some things to look out for are unit sizes. All 3d packages have different sizes for 1 unit. So a translation in Maya by say 5 units may turn out to be only .5 units in Houdini. Also because you are asking about camera's you must also keep in mind that both Maya and Houdini also use different measuring systems for things like focal distance, ampeture, ect. So you also need to compensate for that. Or are you only after the animation of the camera?
--g

[titof2]

thanks for the input.... i know about the camera attributes such as focal lengths and such... there is a post on the houdini website about how to convert those things.

hopefully i can figure this thing out... this is my first attempt at doing something of this nature... any ideas on where i could get some more information on writing a cmd file that houdini could source?

thanks for the help.

Nick Eberle

[gdc]

the easiest thing to do is write out a .cmd file of a camera from Houdini and look at what's in there. Then in your script you can echo back in the lines with the info you need. For example, say in the .cmd file you have a line that reads:
opset -d off -r off -C off -p off cam1
then in your script you could put:
echo "opset -d off -r off -C off -p off cam1" >> Maya2HoudiniCam.cmd

This is just one way to do it. Look at opscript, opwrite,opread, and source in Houdini. It will also help to have some animation on your camera when you write it so you can see how Houdini writes out the key frames into the .cmd file.
good luck
--g

[titof2]

thanks again
nick eberle

[gdc]

no problem. If you run into any problems let me know. I love working on things like this.
--g

[ivan-dewolf]

Martian Labs has a Maya to Houdini (or any software to Houdini) tool at www.martian-labs.com...

In reply to:
anyone have any ideas on how to do this?
is there some way to get houdini to write/read an ascii version of hip files so that maybe a script could be written in order to translate the camera's translation and rotation values from a maya ascii file?

thanks

nick