archi-viz working with 3d max and maya

[neyes_ice]

Hello everyone. I would just like to ask if there is a way for a 3d max scene with vray or mental ray shaders to be exported to Maya whilst retaining the said shaders to be used for final rendering and animation.

 

Its quite a bit confusing because one might say why not do everything in Maya. The thing is I am much more comfortable with 3d max when it comes to archi-viz projects. and a client would prefer a Maya scene.

 

Thank you for your time reading this.

[Devin Johnston]

I don't know but since they are both Autodesk products there might be a way.

[David Arbogast]

Use FBX format for import/export and Mental Ray materials/mapping should transfer over. Try it out and see if it works. Regarding Vray, that might be tougher. I know ChaosGroup (vlado) has stated on the Vray forums that they want Vray settings/materials to be cross-platform transferrable, but I don't know if they've worked that out yet. Since Autodesk products are standardized on Mental Ray, it's probably your best alternative.

[Scott Schroeder]

As David said, your best bet is with the FBX file format. However, I do know that Mental Ray is a little different in Maya than in Max so there may not always be a 100% perfect transfer of your shaders.

 

I've had scenes come in from Maya and I've had to tweak the materials to get them to match up, so I'm guessing the same is in reverse.

[neyes_ice]

Thanks for the help everyone...

[Mario De Achadinha]

use fbx and and autodesk material shaders, they are compatible with all autodesk products. Revit, maya ,3dmax ,inventor. But think its only new shader for 2012 releases.

[HamburgerTrain]

You can try and export the 3DS Max scene as .vrscene and also as an FBX file. Then inside Maya you can import materials from the .vrscene and mesh from the FBX.

 

You can then get this python script and attempt to replace the FBX files with the .vrscene materials.

 

A lot of work and often with flakey results but if it works, it is good.