Maya to Max FBX Vertex Colour

ajv3d

I'm curious if anyone has ever experienced this and may have an answer....

I'm trying to import a scene from Maya into Max and it seems like geometry containing vertex color information is is showing up black (or not at all) inside of Max. What is causing this?

ajv3d

It seems some of my UVs have changed too... *shurgs*

ajv3d

I couldnt find much information on the web and I'll be posting what I find out on this topic. Going between packages seems to be a complicated scenerio, ESP when it comes to carry so much information between them. I'm going to install Max 2011 and see if it's a version issue.

I'm trying to go from Maya 2011 to Max 2009 via fbx carrying UV and vertex color information along with the textures. I'll post an update to what I find or a possible work around.

Ace-Angel

Did you look around the FBX menu when you import? There is one about overriding the Vertex Color information and one for Clearing it. It's pretty nastily hidden (same with bones importation) so my advice is to go through them all one by one and see anything about colors and vertex id.

Also, sometimes in Max, the Vertex colors won't show off the bat, try adding a Vertex color slot in your materials and render it, see what happens.

ajv3d

Hi, thanks for the information. It seems like Max 2009 doesn't want to accept UVs through FBX. The vertex color information is on the mesh, but for some reason it's black because the UVs are reset, and Max2009 won't accept them via FBX. I added an 'Unwrap UVW' and the mesh lit up (material & vertex colour), but now I'd need to add the modifier to all the meshes in the scene and re-UV... is their a way around this? or should I just re-UV and suck it up? Either way, I'd like to know a work around in case I come across somthing like this in the future.

Ace-Angel wrote: »

Did you look around the FBX menu when you import? There is one about overriding the Vertex Color information and one for Clearing it. It's pretty nastily hidden (same with bones importation) so my advice is to go through them all one by one and see anything about colors and vertex id.

Also, sometimes in Max, the Vertex colors won't show off the bat, try adding a Vertex color slot in your materials and render it, see what happens.

ajv3d

It seems like when I export/import via OBJ the UV's stay, but I lose the vertex colour, when I export/import FBX, I keep the color, lose the UV's.... man this is such a pain in the @ss.

Ace-Angel wrote: »

Did you look around the FBX menu when you import? There is one about overriding the Vertex Color information and one for Clearing it. It's pretty nastily hidden (same with bones importation) so my advice is to go through them all one by one and see anything about colors and vertex id.

Also, sometimes in Max, the Vertex colors won't show off the bat, try adding a Vertex color slot in your materials and render it, see what happens.

ajv3d

Ok, I've narrowed it down to just being a bug. A really big bug.

To recap, I'm trying to move a scene from Maya 2011, to Max 2009. I installed Max 2011 to also test, and there were some differences no matter what version I set the FBX to export.

Going Maya 2011 to Max 2011, it worked fine. I had to go into my Object Properties and turn on Vertex Channel Display and set it to be Shaded. Once I did this, my vertex colour information displayed. However, going from Max 2011 to Max 2009 hasn't been so easy and it's the package I need to be in.

In Max 2009 when I export via FBX from Max 2011 I'm able to keep my vertex colour information but I lose my UV's. When I export via OBJ, I keep the UV's but lose vertex colour information (being it's not supported). I'm ready to just import via OBJ and just re-do my vertex painting. I can't keep trouble shooting this situation. I don't have time, but I would really love to know what the hell is causing this.

My Hypothesis, FBX sucks.