Topic: How To Export Spore Creatures to Maya

[DaMuncha]

You'll need the latest Spore patch to export the Collada file. Here's how to use Spore to export a 3D Collada file of your creature:
http://www.spore.com/comm/tutorials/export_creatures

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6vcs7zCjaI" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6vcs7zCjaI</a>

Now you can load it up in any 3D application that supports Collada

People have got it into blender.

[Spore-addict]

Maya cost a ****load and trust me a lot of other programs cant be used to do this.
Has tried blender, poser, etc.

[Spore-addict]

okay, I can get maya.

How do you use maya , please explain further from the point where you load your creature with z-up?

The manual is just rough steps...could use a bit more step by step for newbies with maya.

[DaMuncha]

Ok, I did the cheat. Exported my creature. Loaded it in Maya 2009 and all I got was a skeleton structure, which was totally messed up.

"
Source with semantic 19not implemented!
Source with semantic 17not implemented!
Source with semantic 19not implemented!
Source with semantic 17not implemented!
No transform node for geometry mesh
"

Hmmmm

[Spore-addict]

has installed maya 2008

Tried to import but it failed....

Is there a special way to import in maya?

[DaMuncha]

This is what I get when I export to Maya:

If i want to use my Spore-Models in Blender:

I import the *.dae in XSI Mod Tool (Freeware) and export it as Wavefront OBJ.
Now i can import the OBJ in Blender.

Works.

MFG

Or you could just use the Blender exporter here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/colladablender/

[Spore-addict]

is very close thank to official forum to get it work.

Will post good guide later on today.

[DaMuncha]

Edit: Ok the silly fools at Maxis sent us to the wrong plugin. The correct instructions for Maya is:

MaxisEditorDan wrote:
There's a lot of confusion about how to load the creatures into Maya. Hopefully this will clear up some of it.

1. First, make sure you are using the correct plug-in. This plug-in is meant to work with Maya 2009. Download and install this plugin: http://sourceforge.net/projects/colladamaya/files/COLLADAMaya%201.4.1%20plug-ins/ColladaMaya_FREE_3.05C.exe/ColladaMaya_FREE_3.05C.exe/download
2. Now make sure the plug-in is LOADED. To load the plug-in go to Window -> Settings/Preferences -> Plug-in Manager – Check “Loaded” and “Auto Load” next to COLLADA.
3. When you go to import the .dae file, look at the "File type" drop-down list and make sure that you pick the plug-in, it should say "COLLADA import". NOTE: If you skip this step Maya will default to its native collada importer which is not as robust as this plugin.
4. Make the joint sizes smaller - Go to Display -> Animation -> Joint Size and make it something around 0.04
5. Use the 4, 5, and 6 keys to toggle between wireframe, textured, etc.
6. If you have a nice graphics card you can click on the "Render" menu inside the 3D window and select "High Quality Rendering"

Good luck everyone and please let me know if you get it working!

-MaxisEditorDan  (Dan Moskowitz)

Captain Smash in Maya 2009 Finally:

[Spore-addict]

How can you change the background?

I think your textures looks very nice, is there any way of replacing spores with some from maya like steel ones..?

Lighting is also very important how can you set it up?

And of course what are your rendering settings. What are the best...?

Is throwing a lot of questions out...

Sadly it does not work in the vehicle section. It is only creature creator and the outfitter it works in. Shame really.

[Hydromancerx]

Is there a way to convert the Maya files into 3D Studio Max?

[DaMuncha]

The screen shot I took of Captain Smash is using the default render settings. I have added no lights or extra camera settings. The model as the .dae file comes with the textures and normal maps included so there is no need to set those up again.

There is also a plugin for importing .dae files into Max but I havent tried that out because I dont have Max.

[Spore-addict]

There is a guy on the official forum thread that is trying to do exactly that.

Import .dae file into 3d studio max. I am sure that it will be possible soon.

[Luminar]

Blender and Maya are badly unreliable, I find. If you have 3ds Max, the best way is to take the .dae file that is imported, use the Autodesk FBX converter to convert it from dae to fbx to 3ds, then import the 3ds file into Max. It comes untextured, but applying the textures isn't too difficult.



I'm working on making it appear a bit more high-res and such...

[DaMuncha]

My latest render:

I'm curently setting it up for animation.

[DarkDragon]

This stuff looks much better than in-game, you guys should add some lighting, I'm currently without my PC so I can't do this stuff

Also, this should do it for 3DS Max:
http://update.multiverse.net/wiki/index.php/Installing_the_3ds_Max_COLLADA_Plugin