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Work with Autodesk Toxik 2007
 
 
 

The Compositing Interoperability plug-in allows you to export information from your Maya scene to Autodesk Toxik 2007. The Compositing Interoperability plug-in includes Maya menu extensions for Autodesk Toxik 2007. When you load the plug-in, a Toxik-specific menu item appears in the Maya Render menu.

Using this plug-in, you can generate a preliminary Toxik composition from within Maya based on the render layers in your scene. The compositing graph includes the associated image sequence filenames, Maya blend modes and layer-specific render settings.You can export all the layers in your scene, or selected layers. This allows you the flexibility to export all the layers in your scene, and then make changes and export only the changed layers if necessary.

You can work in one of two output modes: Export Toxik IMSQ File, or Update Toxik. If you are not running Toxik on the same machine that Maya is running on, use the Export Toxik IMSQ File mode, which allows you to save the Toxik script and run it on the machine where Toxik resides. If you are running Toxik and Maya on the same machine, you can work in the Update Toxik mode, which automatically updates the Toxik database and makes the Toxik composition available immediately. To work in Update Toxik mode, Python 2.4 is required. For more information on Python, see www.python.org.

Note

Limitations

Update Toxik mode limitation

The first time you export a scene from Maya, one Toxik image sequence composition is created for each render layer. In addition, a master Toxik composition is created, which references the Toxik image sequence compositions.

When you export the scene from Maya again, the Toxik image sequence compositions are updated but the master Toxik composition is not. As a result, each image sequence composition contains a new published result, which is not reflected in the master Toxik composition.

You can use the following procedure to recreate the master Toxik composition. This is useful in some cases where:

To update an existing master Toxik composition

  1. Close the existing master Toxik composition in Toxik (if it is open).
  2. In Maya, select one of the following:

    The corresponding options dialog box appears.

  3. Enter one of the following in the Python Script Arguments field:
    • -r
    • --recreate
  4. Click Export.

    Your existing master Toxik composition is updated, as well as each Toxik image sequence composition.

  5. Remove the -r or --recreate argument from the Python Script Arguments field before exporting again.

To update Toxik

  1. Load the compositingInterop plug-in from the Maya Plug-in Manager (see, Load or unload Maya plug-ins).
  2. If you are exporting selected layers in your scene, select them from the Render Layer Editor (see Render Layer Editor).
  3. In Maya, select one of the following:

    The corresponding options dialog box appears.

  4. Adjust the Toxik User Settings and Toxik Scene Settings options as necessary. For information on these options see Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007.
  5. In the Output Settings > Output Mode, select Update Toxik.
  6. In the Python Location field, enter the path to the executable file for Python (python.exe), or click the Browse button to select it.
  7. Click Export.

    Your Toxik database is automatically updated with the exported information, and you can view the corresponding graph within Toxik.

    Important
    • To work in Update Toxik mode, Python 2.4 is required. For more information on Python, see www.python.org.
    • The Update Toxik mode is only available on platforms supported by Toxik. See the Toxik user documentation for more information on supported platforms.

To save a Toxik script

  1. Load the compositingInterop plug-in from the Maya Plug-in Manager (see, Load or unload Maya plug-ins).
  2. If you are exporting selected layers in your scene, select them from the Render Layer Editor (see Render Layer Editor).
  3. In Maya, select one of the following:

    The corresponding options dialog box appears.

  4. Adjust the Toxik User Settings, Toxik Scene Settings and Output Settings options as necessary. For information on these options see Render > Export All Layers to Toxik 2007.
  5. In the Output Settings > Output Mode, select Export Toxik IMSQ File.
  6. In the File Name field, type a name for the output. By default the output file is stored in your project directory; however, you can click the Browse button to specify an alternate location for the file.
  7. Click Export.

    The output file is created and placed in the specified directory (by default, this is your Maya - Project - Default directory).

  8. Run the saved script on the machine where Toxik is installed:

    On Windows, in the Autodesk Toxik 2007 DOS command shell, enter the following: 

    c:\python24\python "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2009\bin\ toxik-maya-import.py" path\toxikComp.imsq -toxikPath "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Toxik 2007" -tempPath %TEMP%

    On Linux, in Tcsh, enter the following: 

    source /opt/Autodesk/Autodesk_Toxik-2007/bin/toxik-env.csh

    then enter: 

    python_t /usr/autodesk/Maya2009/bin/toxik-maya-import.py path/toxikComp.imsq -toxikPath "/opt/Autodesk/ Autodesk Toxik 2007" -tempPath /var/tmp
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