Mayas 3D Painting is very rudymentary, but quite useful and stable, for example for painting masks etc. I wonder if they have fixed the bug, where the brush cursor doesnt work when doing projection paintning, but i seem to be the only person in the world who cares about that...
So I had forgotten about the 3D Painting - I've used it in the past, not very fleshed out of a tool. I did have a friend suggest mudbox since I guess that's got a nice feature set there for 3d painting. Although I'm a zbrush guy so I'd probably use mudbox just to do my texturing if that was the case. Would be nice just to have that feature in LT tho.
bhall, also look into Substance Painter. I'm evaluating Mudbox and Substance now-although I already own Painter so I guess I'm testing to see if Mudbox has something Substance doesn't
bhall, also look into Substance Painter. I'm evaluating Mudbox and Substance now-although I already own Painter so I guess I'm testing to see if Mudbox has something Substance doesn't
awesome thanks, I'll check it out! Most of my stuff is very stylized, handpainted stuff, I have a copy at work that I'm going to test before I sign up for a sub at home, 10 bucks a month isn't bad for Mudbox...so we'll see.
Looks like Extension 2 dropped today. I just re-subbed on steam for another month to give it another go. Finally has send to Unreal. I think it is really close to acheiving the right balance of price/power if you buy a year sub at the current deal of 15mo for the price of 12mo.
I'm really happy with 2015 Extension 1 and 2:
1. Set Driven Keys was put back, which is really helpful for rigging.
2. Send to UE4 and Mudbox were implemented.
3. Modeling toolkit was integrated way better than it was in 2014.
4. Game Exporter.
I've been giving it a test drive w/o the extensions and it does everything I need it to. Well done Autodesk-Python Support would be nice but I do understand keeping it strictly to Mel. Subbing in the next couple of days
That's a nice update to Maya LT! Extension 2 brings some useful updates as others mentioned already. Having color management features is also welcome. I would still love to see some viewport navigation changes/additions however. Overall I am very happy with Maya LT.
The next top items on my wishlist are:
1. Python (UE4 Rigging and Animation Toolkit as well as other Python plugins)
2. Bring back some animation features like Animation Layers, etc.
3. Create Reference/Reference Editor
4. GoZ
It's a script to export/import skin weights and it's giving me an issue constantly where it won't save the exported file no matter what. Thank you in advance.
tach, Autodesk didn't want you to export high poly models (above 65,000 polys) by using MEL script, so they blocked the regular file output API in Maya LT. This has caused a lot of MEL scripts not working in Maya LT. But there is an workaround: you need to modify the MEL script yourself by using their new API: fwriteAllLines or fwriteAllText.
I don't understand why they still put poly count limit in Maya LT, as there are already a lot of ways to work around it: export to a game engine, export to Mudbox, etc.
So what is the general verdict on Maya LT at this stage? I'm currently subbed to Max 2015 for $220 /month, but Maya LT seems to have a pretty robust feature set for a fraction of the cost...
I'm really only using the modeling and texture baking tools in Max.
Would I run into any significant limitations if I switched to Maya LT?
From what I've read there are some issues with comparability with the big brother programs, Maya/Max.
I frequently need to submit max/maya files for freelance work.
So what is the general verdict on Maya LT at this stage? I'm currently subbed to Max 2015 for $220 /month, but Maya LT seems to have a pretty robust feature set for a fraction of the cost...
I'm really only using the modeling and texture baking tools in Max.
Would I run into any significant limitations if I switched to Maya LT?
I find the biggest limitation for game art is the export limit on high poly models. You can import them but not export them. This means you have to use workarounds if you want to export for texture baking in xnormal or substance designer.
Otherwise it's pretty good. If you've used maya it's definitely worth a look.
I find the biggest limitation for game art is that it won't let you export a high poly model from LT. You can import them but not export them. This means you have to use workarounds if you want to export for texture baking in xnormal or substance designer.
Otherwise it's pretty good. If you've used maya it's definitely worth a look.
Can you not bake your normal maps/AO directly in Maya LT?
Also, 65k polygons means QUADS, not tris. You can export a model with 130k tris. That limit coincides with engines like Unity and Unreal, which wont let you import a static mesh of higher density than that by default.
The biggest issue I see is not being able to save as a native .ma file and instead having the .mlt. Basically makes it useless for me as I usually am required to submit scene files in either .ma or .max with a specific scene setup/layers.
I suppose you could export everything to .fbx, but that isn't always what's requested.
If not for that and the odd poly limitation I would probably try it out, as I really don't use the entire max feature set, just the modeling tools. Although I would miss the good ol' modifier stack.
I have had my eyes on Maya LT for a long time now, but I just realized that there's no plugin-support whatsoever. Rigging characters without plugins is way too time consuming. Anyone know if Autodesk are planning on adding plugin-support anytime soon?
Downloaded the demo of Maya LT and realizing how much I don't want to learn a new modeling program lol. Also looking at the MODO Indie that just came out, but it seems like Maya LT has less restrictions overall if your just modeling.
I'm still disappointed that I (as a indie dev) can't use this software. Rigging with out plugins is really time consuming for indie developers. No plugin support is such a slap in the face since people can't use stuff like The Setup Machine, UE4 A.R.T, AnimSchool Picker and Red9 Studio Tools. I really wish Autodesk would realize that the third party plugin support is a essential for Maya.
Replies
awesome thanks, I'll check it out! Most of my stuff is very stylized, handpainted stuff, I have a copy at work that I'm going to test before I sign up for a sub at home, 10 bucks a month isn't bad for Mudbox...so we'll see.
Will check that out tho, thanks!
I really really like zbrush's dynamesh though...
1. Set Driven Keys was put back, which is really helpful for rigging.
2. Send to UE4 and Mudbox were implemented.
3. Modeling toolkit was integrated way better than it was in 2014.
4. Game Exporter.
1. Python (UE4 Rigging and Animation Toolkit as well as other Python plugins)
2. Bring back some animation features like Animation Layers, etc.
3. Create Reference/Reference Editor
4. GoZ
It's a script to export/import skin weights and it's giving me an issue constantly where it won't save the exported file no matter what. Thank you in advance.
I don't understand why they still put poly count limit in Maya LT, as there are already a lot of ways to work around it: export to a game engine, export to Mudbox, etc.
I'm really only using the modeling and texture baking tools in Max.
Would I run into any significant limitations if I switched to Maya LT?
From what I've read there are some issues with comparability with the big brother programs, Maya/Max.
I frequently need to submit max/maya files for freelance work.
I find the biggest limitation for game art is the export limit on high poly models. You can import them but not export them. This means you have to use workarounds if you want to export for texture baking in xnormal or substance designer.
Otherwise it's pretty good. If you've used maya it's definitely worth a look.
Can you not bake your normal maps/AO directly in Maya LT?
Hmmm, I wonder if GoZ works with Maya LT...
yes you can bake normal maps in maya LT if you want.
http://youtu.be/SKMkgjK5fC0
GoZ does not work - but you can definitely export a fairly highpoly model which you can use as a base for a zbrush model.
You can import OBJ files, FBX, and open Maya files. You can export FBX and obj.
However you can't import or export OBJ or FBX that's larger than 65k polygons without doing special things. You can import a high polygon maya file.
The biggest issue I see is not being able to save as a native .ma file and instead having the .mlt. Basically makes it useless for me as I usually am required to submit scene files in either .ma or .max with a specific scene setup/layers.
I suppose you could export everything to .fbx, but that isn't always what's requested.
If not for that and the odd poly limitation I would probably try it out, as I really don't use the entire max feature set, just the modeling tools. Although I would miss the good ol' modifier stack.
You can bake normal maps/AO inside Maya LT, however cage baking is not supported. :poly127:
Trying to troubleshoot an issues so I thought I'd come here.
Is there a way to export animation control curves (NOT ANIMATION CURVES) using FBX?
I'm trying to get a model/animation/rig I did in Maya LT out into the full version of Maya as I'm not using LT anymore.
Not sure if there are any specific settings to get that to work with the FBX exporter. I've tried doing a google search with no results.
Thanks again,
B.