Using Maya

[Jackhamme]

Ever since I have started to use Maya and become pretty confident with it, I wanted to start to work on models for wc3 for the hell of it. When I started looking at the programs people are using, Maya isn't one of them due to it being hard to actually import it into wc3.

I have been looking around and I saw there was a plugin for Maya (Link) and 3ds Max 5 integration but the link leads to nothing.

I want to use Maya to model (and animate) but it seems like I must learn a different program.

Has anything recently been released to help with getting Maya models into wc3? I haven't been able to find anything.

 

[Tauer]

As far as I know, NeoDex plugins are not compatible with Maya..
So I don't really know how to help you there - but, I would suggest you try out 3DS Max. If you are comfortable using Maya, you shouldn't have any big difficulties transferring those skills to Max. It might take a little time to get used to the interface and stuff, but the programs are actually pretty similar in my experience.

But I may be speaking out of turn, since I actually don't have that much experience with Maya. Still, they are more similar than different.

Anyway, that's my advice. NeoDex for Max works pretty well.

 

[Jackhamme]

Awesome, I may as well have a look at 3DS if it is similar. Thanks.

 

[GhostWolf]

FBX is a natively supported in 3ds Max, it probably is in Maya too (note that the post you linked is from 2008).

From 3ds Max you can export to MDX either via Art Tools (3ds Max 4 or 5, if you can get your hands on them), or with NeoDex for more recent versions.

 

[Tauer]

Awesome, I may as well have a look at 3DS if it is similar. Thanks.

Cool. Also, just wanted to let you know (and anyone else who's wondering) that Autodesk actually has a free educational license of 3DS Max. You can get it from their website.

Looking forward to seeing what kind of models you come up with!

 

[Tarrasque]

well you can export in fbx then import the fbx into 3dsmax and use NeoDex to export from there. There would still be some work needed to be done but should be less and the main work of animation will be done in maya.

 

[Jackhamme]

That is convenient, my current university course requires Maya, so I can get 3ds max too.

Thanks to everyone for your input.

 

[Tauer]

well you can export in fbx then import the fbx into 3dsmax and use NeoDex to export from there. There would still be some work needed to be done but should be less and the main work of animation will be done in maya.

I guess this depends on whether you're gonna animate or not. I think exporting to fbx and then importing bakes the animations - which means a keyframe for every animation. That's my experience at least, I might be wrong. This results in an incredibly high filesize.
In my experience, exporting a model and importing it again is not a good idea - better to make the model in the right program and just export it once.

 

[Jackhamme]

After looking around some more there seems to be a lot of plugins I need to add that would help me out a lot. Most of these posts and links are dead/is not compatible with recent 3ds max. Does anyone have any idea where I can get the more updated versions of these plugins or if there are any new ones?

 

[Tauer]

After looking around some more there seems to be a lot of plugins I need to add that would help me out a lot. Most of these posts and links are dead/is not compatible with recent 3ds max. Does anyone have any idea where I can get the more updated versions of these plugins or if there are any new ones?

What plugins do you have in mind?

If you use the latest version of 3DS Max, you can use BlinkBoy's NeoDex tools to export models to MDX format.

 

[Jackhamme]

Well any plugins that could make my life easier when it comes to exporting and stuff . BlinkBoy's NeoDex thread I saw looked quite useful although it errors when I try to install it.

I am using 3DS Max 2015.

 

[Tauer]

2015? That's the newest version, NeoDex might not be compatible with it. You should try getting one of the earlier versions, Autodesk has them on their site. I think BlinkBoy uses 2011 (not sure though), I use 2013 myself. It works for me. I have one error where I have to uninstall and reinstall every time I restart 3DS Max, but it's nothing serious.
I don't know of any other plugins that are needed to be honest. NeoDex has almost everything you could need when making WC3 models in Max. Adding attachment points, particles, ribbons etc. Nothing else is really needed.

 

[Jackhamme]

I'll install 2013 then just to be safe. Thanks for your help Tauer

 

[Tauer]

You're welcome
Be sure to show us what you come up with!