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[jjunkers87]

Hey,

I was wondering if it is possible to use Maya to model and texture something, import it to 3ds Max then export it to source??  So far I have exported the model successfully, but the texture is still pink and black in the model viewer grrr so close!!  I really don't want to learn 3ds Max if I can avoid it.

Thanks for any help,

junkers

[wallworm]

Welcome to the forums.

Yes, you can export models you bring in from Maya. There are some things you may want to read regarding normals from Maya to Max here. Unfortunately, we had a server crash a month or two back and most of that thread is lost to the abyss... but I retrieved and reposted some of it.

There is a beta version of the upcoming Wunderboy SMD Exporter available upon request if you are having problems with your normals. (If you would like to test it, I have it for Max 2012 in 64bit and I think maybe 2010/2011 32bit)

You may want to direct any specific questions to our resident Maya expert MR. Kevinlongtime.

[jjunkers87]

Thanks for the speedy reply.  :)

I'm not that experienced with Maya to know enough about normals, what they are and how to use em.  I was sorta hoping there would be an easier way of understand of what I was reading the forum you provided haha.  I'll just keep chipping away at the texture problem.  Maybe I'll try to apply the texture manually in 3ds from the UV made in Maya, would that work??  Haha, once again sorry - I know how to model and use basic textures in Maya.  :-\

[jjunkers87]

Any ideas if that would work??

Taking a UV made in Maya, using it in 3ds Max as it's texture??

[wallworm]

Basically... it should be pretty much straightforward. You might find that using FBX instead of OBJ is easier to transfer the materials... but I'm just speaking from expectation.

But here is what you may need to do. If your material has already been baked into bitmaps... you can easily apply them in Max. It may simply just work if you copy those bitmaps into the sceneassets/images folder of your 3ds Max project. If not, a new Standard Material in Max and assign a bitmap to the diffuse slot of the material. For that bitmap, choose the diffuse texture you've already created in Maya (and do the same for any other map like bump, specular, etc that belong to the material).

Since you already have unwrapped the model and made the textures, it should be pretty much straightforward. But, again, since I've never started the process from the Maya side, I don't have first-hand knowledge of anything leading up to the import stage from Max.

[KevinLongtime]

All I usually do is: 

- Model in Maya and UV map with an external program and re-import the UV mapped model back inside of Maya (Or you can use Maya's built in unwrap tools and skip this step of having to re-import back into Maya)
- Export the UV mapped model as an obj file
- Save the texture as a ".tga" file type
- Import the OBJ model file into max
- Click on the model you've just imported, so that its selected, and go to the material editor inside of Max (the button sort of looks like a globe)
- Right click inside the material editor window and choose standard material 
- Drag the tga texture into the window and hook it up to "diffuse color" slot
- Since your model was selected in the earlier step, highlight your texture in the material editor and then click the 3rd top bottom from the left inside of the material editor to assign the selected material to your selected model.

That is pretty much it. From there on, you would use Wallworm model tools as you normally would and assign the directorys with the UI, and it should export whichever texture you had without an issue. Maybe you just werent assigning your tga texture to your model inside of max first? The pink checker thing only seems to happen for me when I dont assign the model a material in Max or I never typed anything for a texture directory with the tools UI.

[KevinLongtime]

Talked with him on steam and got it figured out.

Was basically a matter of him needing to save the textures as the right file type (.tga) and correctly applying them (the standard material with the .tga texture) to the model in 3DS Max. I also showed him which settings I used for OBJ export (Which the settings are only smoothing and normals checked as ON for export).

[jjunkers87]

Yeah thanks again Kevin you definitely made it a less painful experience!1 I'll be posting my work throughout the year for my own mini mod I'm creating :D

Thanks again