Maya Chan Exporter

[marien]

hi,
I downloaded the demo version of Nuke and - WOW - it's amazing. Now Nuke has a great 3D space to work with, and the obj import works fine. But is there a script to output chan files from Maya, and where can I find such a tool? That would help a lot, when working with 3d cameras.

thanks
Frank

[user_deleted]

Check with D2Software, they should be able to send you one. In fact, I think they should upload it somewhere or even just include it in the shipping version.

frank

[marien]

thanks a lot,
I wonder why there is a chan exporter for XSI here on the site. Nevertheless I wrote a mail to D2, hope they can help me.

so greets from germany
Frank

[marien]

I got mail from D2 and they referred to this site here. So maybe someone of you can help me out.

thanks
Frank

[user_deleted]

Unless I'm mistaken the mel script in question has never been posted to this site (but it should).
I was looking for it in the Maya section as well but couldn't find anything.
I know DD and Weta are both using it so maybe someone there can hit the upload button?

I'm at home at the moment so I don't have access to it myself.

frank

[marien]

I searched the net and still haven't found this little tool, that would make work much easier. So someone for sure can help me out on this...

Thanks
Frank

[user_deleted]

Ok, I got it now (thanks to Dan for writing it ages ago and thanks to Erik for sending it over).
I just posted it in the general tools section so keep an eye out for it.

cheers,
frank

QUOTE(fbrandst @ 10/03/06, 06:26 AM) [snapback]249104[/snapback]
I searched the net and still haven't found this little tool, that would make work much easier. So someone for sure can help me out on this...
Thanks
Frank

[marien]

Thanks a lot man, that helps me out!!!

Cheers
Frank

[user_deleted]

it still hasn't shown up, has it?!
shoot me a mail and I'll send it to you if you're in a hurry.

[darcel]

Does anyone mind explaining how this script works? I notice that its a Mel script however I cant seem to get the script to work. Sorry if the questions a bit amateurish.

Cheers,

[user_deleted]

I don't have Maya here and it's ages ago since I used this last but from looking at the script itself it seems that all you have to do is select the camera that you want to export and type "exportCamChan" in the mel lister.
This should pop up a file browser to choose where to write the chan file.

If you want to export a chan file for an object type "exportObjChan".

It's got some other procs in it as well (for importing etc.) but that shouldn't be relevant if you just want to get stuff from Maya to Nuke.

Let me know if this works for you.

cheers,
frank

[marien]

That is right what Frank said. It is really easy to export camera data from Maya with that script, so thanks again!! The only drawback is that you can not use the function in the demo version,
because the open_command of Nuke is disabled!

[darcel]

Thank you guys, for answering my question, I must of did the procedure incorrectly. My next question is what format does Nuke understand once you export the data? I notice that it gives you options to export to .ma, .mb, .obj, .dxf, will it have to be opened in a text editor?

[user_deleted]

not sure if I understand correctly but the mel script exports chan files which is what Nuke needs.
it's a simple text file with one line per frame formatted like this:

frame tx ty tz rx ry rz fovv

if it's an object chan file there won't be a fov.

[darcel]

Thank you Frank,

yeah it works, however when it asks were to save it doesnt give me the option of saving as .txt file. Its probably me doing something wrong again.

[user_deleted]

I can't remember what the file browser was like and from looking at the mel script it doesn't seem to use suffix filtering which might be where the confusion is. Can't you just type something like myOutput.chan as a file name and hit save (ignore any file format options)?

you should see something like "Exporting to " followed by your file name in the mel terminal is you do it right.

sorry, without a maya here I can only guess.

[darcel]

Yep, that was it! Thank you Frank. Big fan of your work too!

[user_deleted]

no worries, glad I could help

[darcel]

Hey Frank or anyone who might know this,

What settings do I need to change once I've imported the .chan file in from Maya? Do I need to match the camera settings that Maya was working with or does Nuke do this for you automatically? The reason I ask is becuase I'm trying to match talent into a virtual set done in maya. I'm getting the best results in Nuke other than in Shake or After Effects. The one issue would be the focal length, Hor, Vert, film aperature etc... that doesn't match. Any tips?

[lebedev2]

You will need to adjust the settings in Nukes camera to match Maya's camera, all that comes into Nuke is translation, rotation and FOV (unless I am animating the FOV I just usually input this manually into NUKE . Maya's camera aperture is in inches while Nukes in is MM so what you do is you take Maya's h and v aperture and covert the inches to mm and input it that result into Nuke's H and V aperture. You need to also make sure that your Maya's film aspect ratio is set correctly in Maya. I set my rotation order to xyz and all works great.

Jordan