Maya 7.01 Osx - Image Sequences Won't Load

[cheese38]

I'm working on a job with image sequences. The original scene file was created on Maya7.01 on XP and renders beautifully using RfM. When I transfer the file to my OSX box I get an error saying Maya can't find the file.

My file name structure is FifEmpA.#### located in sourceimages/FifteenSeconds/EmployeesA/

If I turn off use image sequence, Maya finds the image.

To troubleshoot, I have tried using FifEmpA.####.tif to no avail.

I have created a new scene in Maya and created an image sequence and had it work. When I create another image sequence the first image sequence now has the same error as before. I can create one long image sequence ando use offset to get around this which works, but...

with one working image sequence when I save the file and reopen it again has the same error.

Has anyone else had a similar problem under OSX or am I just doing something stupid (very possible)?

Cheers

James

[christiangreet]

OK, this is probably happening because your frame sequence is not starting with the number 0.
When ticking on 'Use Image Sequence' you create a expression ( file1.frameExtension=frame)
That means if the timline is on frame 0 Maya will be looking for frame 0 ( unless you use frame offset)
You can right click on 'Image Number' next to the purple box and delete expression. Then go to the appropriate point in your timline were you want your image sequence to begin. Type in the starting number of your sequence into the 'Image Number' box. rightclick on 'Image Number' and set a key.
now go to frame in your timline at witch your sequence should end, go back to your texture file load the last frame of your sequence and set a key.

basically do it the oldfashioned way

You can edit these keys in the graph editor

[user_deleted]

Hey, I've got this same problem. I'm using maya 7 on mac OSX.

i've got several iff sequences, and they work when i load them in, but when i quit out and come back it goes

Warning: Texture file /Users/uvag5/Desktop/work/personal/hyperEditTest/images/preparedPhotos/photos.00000.iff doesn't exist, node outputImage

or something similar. The file does exist! It's in the specified images directory of the project, and I've tried name.0000.ext, I've tried name.ext.0000, and I've tried name00000.ext, but no luck! I've had this problem before on maya 6.5 on OSX. Sounds like a bug?

even tried the setting a key thing...nope! any ideas?

[drblacksnake]

try to stip padding zeros and extension - name.@
i dont know if it is available for OSX, but on Win we have imgcvt utility.
for Your case command would be something like

imgcvt -n 0 100 1 name.#.ext name.@

use imgcvt -h for detailed info.

[cheese38]

What worked for me in OSX was to place the images directly in the project/sourceimages/ directory.

I also used a very simple filename and kept it all uppercase so my filename looked like AAAAAAAA.####

Hope this helps - it was my only way of getting around possible naming issues

[user_deleted]

I would ask what your resolution is for the files loading.

In general maya can't support files over 1.5mb per frame for the image sequences.

As for the format:

something like:
vfx_shot_bg.####.iff @ 720x480 (PAL 720x540)

should most definatly work.

I would recommend the Image convert tool that was recommend above.
It's useful, and you can read about other file formats that are better supported for large files such as the "Map" extentions.

Another note, you dont actually have to change the extentions either, it this is time consuming.

imgcvt -f iff -t bmp MayaStartupImage.xpm MayaStartupImage.xpm bmp

Notice the space after the xpm then bmp (this retains the xpm extenstion, but writes the BMP format)

-f (FILE IN)
-t (FILE OUT)

Also, look into the .map extestion for large HDRI or HiRes textures using MentalRay.

[stuartlangfield]

Hope this isn't going off topic too much but I've also noticed there seems to be a problem rendering image sequences with Mental Ray. A project i'm working on just now features a robot with an animated lcd like face, which renders fine in software but not in mr. I've managed to work around much of it by compositing in After Effects but am wondering if anyone else has had the same problem?.

[joojaa]

Cant say i do! But be sure to understand thet maya SW and mr support different formats and mr does not support all compression algorithms.

i suggest you suse a uncompressed tif, or even better map with mr tough!

[stuartlangfield]

Perhaps it's just an OSX problem. The textures render beautifully in mr normally, it's only when I use a sequence that I have problems. I might experiment with different file formats to see if it makes any difference just incase.

[joojaa]

Yes ive seen people having problems with iffs and some other formats.

Edity: heres a scene that worked on my computer (unzip the entire folder to yoru projects dir) testing.zip (~64KB)

[user_deleted]

Thes are tiff's, typically this is not supported by mentalray and a bit buggy with Maya.

I recommend converting to iff or tga,

other formats we use in the film industry:
exr, dpx, cin
These are usually converted to tga or map files for use in mentalray.

Again, map files are very handy for larger resolution files such as HDRI and Environment Maps.

Regards,

[joojaa]

its tif because iff didnt work. Anywya theres no bugginess in tifs, theres just many formats that are called tif. And not all nyances of tif is supported.

QUOTE
Thes are tiff's, typically this is not supported by mentalray and a bit buggy with Maya.

Tif yes the format IS supported fien just not the LZW compression that may or may not be what the compressions cheme of the tif is in ids not supported by MR. If you read the mr manual thst exactly what they state too.

So if you sue uncompressed tifs you shouldnt have any problems whatsoever

PS by the way its not actualy because LZW compression wouldnt be doable by mr but bacuse oof patent law screwups. Same applies to PRMAN, wich is alo under therat of loosig lzw support. because of the same reason, major legal screwup.

Anyway tiff can be many different things so for example while a16 bit uncompressed tif works both on maya and mr a 16 bit xcopressed one wont work on mr, and floating point wont work on maya.
QUOTE(tcomputerchip @ 05/30/06, 11:00 AM) [snapback]238518[/snapback]
iff

Ive actualy just come across a thing (i was sent this file as demonstration of iff files that dont work buut the tifs did) with mr and iff sequences that wrok totaly bonkesr while the iffs are RIGHT they replicate worong in mr when batching. (its like iff were loosing tiles)

Also i wont go into why i wont use TGA for anything.

PS. i know yoyur fond of formats that allways work.thets fine by me Problem being that while we all spread foobaaar every now and then (yes i know im guilty, but its nearly impossible not to be) would be nice to tell pople WHY NOT. Yes i know tif has othetr problems too but they DO work if you know wich structure of tif you happen to have. Tif is more like AVI the extension does not tell what kind of TIFF is in question.

So just because all adobe phootoshop users happen to make lzw compressed tifs does not mean the tif support is not there. Just like maya sw cant support floating point tif, does not man the tif is boroken or anything just taht ist a too broad spectrum definition. However its easy enouggh to chek what ist format is iwth commanline tools such as shake.

So saying dont use tif is a quick fix, for those who want to tell their artists not to screw up. But not realy whats going on.

PPS. this is not personal but rather a observational thing. TGA isnt any better, it just is one thing exactly and implicitely so you cant have a half support for tga. Even photoshop does not support all formats of tif youknow just bacuse its a open ended format.