Maya ao !! :@

Joao Sapiro

Hey guys , i need to bake ao in maya. I have the normal baked etc, but i cant find any efficient way to render ao in maya and i am trying to export to xnormal,but unfortunately the results in ao come different ( it misaligns from maya normal ) is there any format or any way to achieve a decent maya ao bake in xnormal or ithin maya ? maya 200864bits and maya 2009 32 bits here.

pior

To make Xnormals bakes align with Mayas, simply use a lowpoly projection cage (created using push/transform components on the original low).

Usually, if the whole object is smooth then the bakes are naturally aligned between Maya and XN. But as soon as you use hard edges/split UVs on the low, XN starts to bend the projection direction differently.

(if I remember correctly! Correct me if I'm wrong)

Aaron_Fang

Except baking ao based on high poly model. you also can generate ao based on normal map details and low poly model. Here is a maya script to do it easily: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/texturing/c/normal-map-based-baking-tool-version-1-0-for-ao

I use both way to bake ao, then combine them accordingly in PS.

Joao Sapiro

i import it to max using FBX , push and when i export as SBM as a cage it says i dont have the same ammout of verts etc, im seriously getting pissed at maya right now.

Joao Sapiro

Aaron thanks , but i really need a clean ao bake like i do on all other packages

Mongrelman

What I do is make sure my high poly models have UVs (even auto UVs from zbrush), decimate the meshes and take them all into maya. In the hypershade make a surface shader, then in mental ray materials, go to texture and get a mib_amb_occlusion node. Plug that into the default slot of the surface shader. In the settinngs for the mib_amb_occlusion node go in and up the rays and set your falloff (default is 0.8, I set it to 1.8).

Apply this to all your high poly meshes, then go to lighting/rendering, batch bake (mental) ray and use bake set override.

Set color mode to 'Light and Color' then pick your texture sizes. This bakes the AO into a texture for each high poly mesh. You can then use transfer maps and bake this across as diffuse for the AO when you bake your normal maps too. As the information is in the texture you can also do the bakes in parts and retain all the lighting information.

Hope that helps.

EarthQuake

Well first of, let me say how absolutely insane it is that Maya still does not have a valid way of baking high to low AO, i mean like Max and most other apps have had for 10 years. Even the most hardcore Maya guys have to admit this is just plain retarded.

Now Joao, we've used this workflow before and it should be documented on the 3PS forum, really, you just need to "Smooth Normals" before you export your obj to XN to bake, this should result in about 98% accuracy, and any little problems you can paint out. So i'm a little confused why you're having trouble here, if its like a real specific mesh that is causing problems, hit me up on skype.

Gordo Nino

malcolm

Hi Johny, don't bother trying to bake ao high to low in Maya. The ao transfer maps is completely broken for ao. I have logged this bug many times with Autodesk but they are yet to address it. The transfer maps menu is missing some key settings which will cause your ao bake to look different each time you generate it, that and it will literally take over night to bake a 2048x2048 ao texture. I transfer may normal map in Maya high to low and then bake my ao in xNormal. I have gone through the same process you are going through and have the steps I used to solve it in my workshop #3, link below. The error with the SBM having different verts might be due to it not being triangulated, xNormal likes triangulated models. I wouldn't bother sending it to Max though, you can save out the envelope cage from Maya directly. Or duplicate the model and use the transform component tool to grow the cage along the face normals, or you could just grow the mesh in xNormal. The xNormal cage editing tool looks ghetto at first but I actually found it pretty fast and useful once you sit down and learn its crazy interface.

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=76256